Course Outline
Introduction
- 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, and Beats
- Differences between Ingest nodes and Logstash
- Scalability and performance optimization for on-premise installations
- Best practices for administration
Module 2: Beats – Distributed Monitoring (2 hours)
- Configuration and application of Filebeat, Auditbeat, Winlogbeat, and Packetbeat
- Secure data transmission using SSL
- Comparing preconfigured modules with custom inputs
- Integration with Logstash and Ingest Pipelines
Module 3: Parsing and Ingesting Logs from Applications and Databases (4 hours)
- Ingesting custom application logs
- Leveraging Logstash for data parsing and transformation
- Utilizing filters: grok, dissect, kv, mutate, and date
- Establishing database connections (Oracle, PostgreSQL, SQL Server) via the JDBC input plugin
- Practical scenarios: handling 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)
- Constructing filters with OR/AND logic
- Navigating nested fields and arrays
- Saving reusable queries and filters
Module 5: Custom Dashboards and Visualizations in Kibana (3 hours)
- Exploring visualization types: bar, line, maps, and tables
- Implementing aggregations and metrics
- Utilizing dynamic filters, controls, and drill-down capabilities
- Strategies for dashboard sharing
- Practical exercises: building dashboards from database and system logs
Module 6: Alerts and Email Notifications (3 hours)
- Introduction to Watcher and alternatives such as ElastAlert and Kibana Alerts
- Defining custom conditions and triggers
- Configuring email output settings
- Exercise: configuring alerts for critical events in Windows or database logs
Module 7: User and Permission Management (2 hours)
- Overview of X-Pack and free-tier options
- Creating users and defining roles
- Implementing access control based on indices, dashboards, and queries
- Exercise: defining roles for audit and operational teams
Module 8: Elasticsearch REST API (3 hours)
- Foundational concepts of the Elasticsearch RESTful API
- Executing GET and POST queries
- Manual and automated indexing techniques
- Utilizing tools such as curl and Postman
- Exercises: searching, inserting, deleting, and updating documents
Summary and Next Steps
Requirements
- A solid grasp of ELK Stack architecture and its core components.
- Prior experience ingesting and visualizing logs using Kibana and Logstash.
- Competence in Linux command-line operations and basic scripting.
Audience
- System administrators
- Infrastructure engineers
- Technical teams aiming to implement advanced log centralization solutions
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
