Filebeat vs Metricbeat: What are the differences?

Filebeat and Metricbeat are two data shippers in the Elastic Stack that serve different purposes and have distinct functionalities. The key differences between Filebeat and Metricbeat are as follows:

1. Data Collection: Filebeat is primarily used for harvesting log files, allowing you to collect, parse, and send log file data to Elasticsearch or Logstash for further analysis. On the other hand, Metricbeat focuses on collecting and shipping system and application-level metrics to Elasticsearch, making it suitable for monitoring infrastructure and services.

2. Data Types: Filebeat is designed to handle text-based log files, extracting structured information from various sources such as log messages or standard output streams. It parses logs into discrete events and forwards them to the output for indexing. In contrast, Metricbeat is specifically built for capturing numeric metrics and statistical data from various applications or services in real-time, providing insights into system performance, CPU usage, memory utilization, network statistics, and more.

3. Parsing and Formatting: While Filebeat emphasizes parsing, collecting, and shipping log events, Metricbeat comes with built-in metric modules for various platforms that simplify metric collection. It automatically collects and formats metrics from different sources, reducing the need for complex parsing or data extraction configurations.

4. Flexibility: Filebeat offers more customization options when it comes to log parsing and filtering. It allows you to define patterns and rules to extract relevant information and filter out noise from log files. On the other hand, Metricbeat is designed for metric collection and provides predefined modules for a wide range of popular monitoring targets, making it easier to configure and collect metrics without extensive customization.

5. Use Cases: Filebeat is commonly used in scenarios where log files are the primary source of data, such as analyzing application logs, security logs, or system logs for troubleshooting and monitoring purposes. In contrast, Metricbeat is suitable for monitoring and analyzing infrastructure and services by collecting metrics related to system performance, application usage, or network traffic.

6. Visualizations: Filebeat mainly focuses on collecting and forwarding log events to Elasticsearch, where you can visualize and analyze the log data using Kibana. Metricbeat, on the other hand, targets metric collection for monitoring and analysis, providing prebuilt metric dashboards in Kibana. These dashboards allow you to visualize and gain insights into system performance, network metrics, or application health.

In summary, Filebeat primarily deals with collecting and parsing log files, while Metricbeat is focused on collecting system and application-level metrics. Filebeat offers more flexibility for log parsing and customization, whereas Metricbeat provides predefined metric modules for easier metric collection and visualization.