# Understanding the role of elastic agent processes running in my local system

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/understanding-the-role-of-elastic-agent-processes-running-in-my-local-system/284961>\
**Category:** Beats\
**Tags:** fleet, beats-module, auditbeat, metricbeat, filebeat\
**Created:** [September 23, 2021, 5:48am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/understanding-the-role-of-elastic-agent-processes-running-in-my-local-system/284961 "2021-09-23T05:48:02Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Mann\_Mehta](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/mann_mehta/32/84916_2.png) [@Mann\_Mehta](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Mann_Mehta)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2021, 5:48am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/understanding-the-role-of-elastic-agent-processes-running-in-my-local-system/284961/1 "2021-09-23T05:48:02Z")

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After enrolling the elastic agent into my local machine, I see several processes running like elastic\_agent.exe, filebeat.exe, metricbeat.exe etc.

I want to know the role of this process in much more detail?  
Which communication method was used and why?  
How exactly authentication works in such communication between local processes and fleet server/Elasticsearch?

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**Author:** ![warkolm](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/warkolm/32/39224_2.png) [@warkolm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/warkolm)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2021, 6:00am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/understanding-the-role-of-elastic-agent-processes-running-in-my-local-system/284961/2 "2021-09-23T06:00:00Z")

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Please don't start multiple topics on the same question 🙂

Let's continue at [Elastic Agent and Fleet Server Communication](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elastic-agent-and-fleet-server-communication/284823)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![warkolm](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/warkolm/32/39224_2.png) [@warkolm](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/warkolm)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2021, 6:00am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/understanding-the-role-of-elastic-agent-processes-running-in-my-local-system/284961/3 "2021-09-23T06:00:02Z")

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