# Why install Metricbeat as a Windows Service?

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/why-install-metricbeat-as-a-windows-service/85486>\
**Category:** Beats\
**Tags:** metricbeat\
**Created:** [May 11, 2017, 9:39pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/why-install-metricbeat-as-a-windows-service/85486 "2017-05-11T21:39:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Bobby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/df788c/32.png) [@Bobby](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Bobby)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2017, 9:39pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/why-install-metricbeat-as-a-windows-service/85486/1 "2017-05-11T21:39:55Z")

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The installation instructions on [the main Metricbeat download page](https://www.elastic.co/downloads/beats/metricbeat) are straight forward:

1. Download and unzip Metricbeat
2. Edit the metricbeat.yml configuration file
3. Start the daemon by running ./metricbeat -e -c metricbeat.yml (with admin privileges)

[The Getting Started Guide's installation instructions](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/beats/metricbeat/current/metricbeat-installation.html) are a little more complicated. It has you run a powershell script that sets up Metricbeat as a Window's service.

Could someone explain the pros and cons of both methods?

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**Author:** ![andrewkroh](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/andrewkroh/32/3784_2.png) [@andrewkroh](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/andrewkroh)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2017, 11:10pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/why-install-metricbeat-as-a-windows-service/85486/2 "2017-05-11T23:10:43Z")

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The benefit to running it as a service is that Metricbeat will automatically start when the OS boots and will run in the background.

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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [June 8, 2017, 11:20pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/why-install-metricbeat-as-a-windows-service/85486/3 "2017-06-08T23:20:14Z")

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