What is a better option? Creating a Metric Set or Create a new beat

[nabeel_ahmed (Nabeel Shakeel)]

Hi,

The documentation regarding extending Metric beat is quite confusion. Both looks like the same:

• Extend Metricbeat directly
• Create your own Beat and use Metricbeat as a library

The situation is, I want to get metrics from openvpn, and i am using metric beat for system and network modules.

So what would be the better option for openvpn,

1. Creating a new metric set
2. Creating a new beat and use metricbeat as a libraray

Any suggestions and thoughts would be appreciated!

[ChrsMark (Chris Mark)]

Hey!

Commenting on each option:

1. Extend Metricbeat directly:
   Going this way you can contribute your module to the upstream project and have it officially maintained by project maintainers. This means that you will be able to use along with latest features etc while you will have contributed back to the community.
2. Create your own custom Beat:
   With this option you will be the only maintainer of the project. Of course this custom Beat could be mentioned in a list of custom Beats that are mentioned but not maintained by Elastic.

I have developed Beats in both ways and technically the process is quite similar. The only thing that you should have in mind is that making your Beat part of the upstream project could take ore time because of the reviews and the changes that it will may require so as to follow the project's guidelines, while on the custom Beat you will be the one to set the guidelines.

So it's up to you with which way you will go with.

Regards!

[nabeel_ahmed (Nabeel Shakeel)]

okay, Thanks for explaining in detail.