As PAS for OpenEdge runs, it writes information to log files stored on local disks. You may want to centralize these log messages over the cloud using Elasticsearch, Filebeat, and Kibana, for the following reasons:
By centralizing log messages over the cloud, you are creating a backup of your logs that you can use if a problem occurs and your local logs are lost (for example, if your PAS for OpenEdge instance stalls, or if you have applied a software patch without backing up your log files first).
Large scale OpenEdge deployments include many other parts of the IT infrastructure, such as routers, firewalls, storage arrays, internal and external applications, etc. When a problem occurs, sorting through multiple differently-formatted log files that are stored in different locations can be a challenge. Instead, by centralizing all logs using Elasticsearch, Filebeat, and Kibana, you can view them easily over a browser in a standardized format.
You can leverage Elasticsearch and Kibana's features to perform various types of analytical operations on the log messages. This is especially useful when you are trying to improve the performance of your PAS for OpenEdge instances or when you are troubleshooting an issue.
Elasticsearch, Filebeat, and Kibana
Elasticsearch, Filebeat, and Kibana are part of the Elastic Stack of products. Elasticsearch provides data storage capabilities. To use Elasticsearch as the central repository for your PAS for OpenEdge logs, you need Filebeat. Filebeat must be installed on every host machine that is running a PAS for OpenEdge instance that you want to monitor. Once installed, configured, and started, Filebeat acts as an agent process that reads your PAS for OpenEdge log files and sends log messages from those files to an Elasticsearch server. In addition, you can use Kibana to view those logs from a browser and perform various types of analytical operations.
Note: Centralized logging using Elasticsearch, Filebeat, and Kibana is not supported on AIX. Visit https://www.elastic.co/support/matrix to learn more about supported platforms.
How to use
Perform the following steps to centralize your PAS for OpenEdge logs with Elasticsearch:
By centralizing log messages over the cloud, you are creating a backup of your logs that you can use if a problem occurs and your local logs are lost (for example, if your PAS for OpenEdge instance stalls, or if you have applied a software patch without backing up your log files first).
