Course Outline
Introduction
- General overview of the Elastic Stack (ELK)
Module 1: ELK Stack Architecture and Review of Existing Environment
- Review of Altor CB's current architecture
- ELK architecture components: Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana, Beats
- Comparison: Ingest node vs. Logstash
- Scalability and performance considerations for on-premise installations
- Administration best practices
Module 2: Beats – Distributed Monitoring (2 hours)
- Configuration and application of Filebeat, Auditbeat, Winlogbeat, and Packetbeat
- Secure data shipping using SSL
- Differentiating between preconfigured modules and custom inputs
- Integration with Logstash and Ingest Pipelines
Module 3: Parsing and Ingesting Logs from Applications and Databases (4 hours)
- Ingesting custom application logs
- Utilizing Logstash for data parsing and transformation
- Application of filters: grok, dissect, kv, mutate, date
- Establishing database connections (Oracle, PostgreSQL, SQL Server) via the JDBC input plugin
- Practical scenarios: error logs, audit trails, traces, and slow queries
Module 4: Advanced Search and Regular Expressions (2 hours)
- Advanced search syntax within Kibana
- Effective use of regular expressions (regex)
- Combining filters using OR/AND logic
- Nested fields and arrays
- Saving reusable queries and filters
Module 5: Custom Dashboards and Visualizations in Kibana (3 hours)
- Visualization types: bar charts, line graphs, maps, tables
- Aggregations and metrics
- Dynamic filters, controls, and drill-down capabilities
- Dashboard sharing functionalities
- Exercise: constructing dashboards from database and system logs
Module 6: Alerts and Email Notifications (3 hours)
- Overview of Watcher and alternatives such as ElastAlert and Kibana Alerts
- Developing custom conditions and triggers
- Configuring email output
- Exercise: setting up alerts for critical events detected in Windows or database logs
Module 7: User and Permission Management (2 hours)
- Introduction to X-Pack and available free options
- Creating users and defining roles
- Access control mechanisms for indices, dashboards, and queries
- Exercise: defining roles for audit and operations teams
Module 8: Elasticsearch REST API (3 hours)
- Foundations of the Elasticsearch RESTful API
- Utilizing GET and POST queries
- Manual and automated indexing procedures
- Employing tools such as curl and Postman
- Exercises: performing search, insert, delete, and update operations on documents
Summary and Next Steps
Requirements
- A solid understanding of the fundamental ELK Stack architecture and its components.
- Practical experience with log ingestion and visualization using Kibana and Logstash.
- Familiarity with the Linux command line interface and basic scripting.
Audience
- System administrators.
- Infrastructure engineers.
- Technical teams aiming to enhance their log centralization capabilities.
Testimonials (2)
The content is very helpful, and the trainer makes it more easier to understand
Ibrahim Al mayahi - Vastech SA
Course - Advanced Elasticsearch and Kibana Administration
the profesionalism of the trainer; the way he tried to respond to all the questions; the review questions we had to ask: engaging us in conversations
