beat exporter

Note: beat-exporter uses Go's flag package. All flags use a single dash (for example, -beat.uri), not the GNU double-dash convention (--beat.uri).

Configuration

beat-exporter is configured entirely through command-line flags. There are no environment variables or configuration files.

Run with Docker Compose alongside Filebeat

The following Compose file starts Filebeat and beat-exporter together. Adjust the Filebeat image tag and configuration mount to match your environment.

services:
  filebeat:
    image: docker.elastic.co/beats/filebeat:<filebeat-tag>
    user: root
    volumes:
      - ./filebeat.yml:/usr/share/filebeat/filebeat.yml:ro
      - /var/log:/var/log:ro
    ports:
      - "5066:5066"

  beat-exporter:
    image: registry.ghost-prod.alphabravo.io/ghost-base/beat-exporter:<tag>
    command: ["-beat.uri", "http://filebeat:5066"]
    ports:
      - "9479:9479"
    depends_on:
      - filebeat
    restart: on-failure

Start the stack:

$ docker compose up -d

Verify the metrics endpoint:

$ curl http://localhost:9479/metrics | grep beat_

Run with Prometheus scrape configuration

Add a scrape job to your prometheus.yml to collect beat-exporter metrics:

scrape_configs:
  - job_name: beat-exporter
    static_configs:
      - targets:
          - beat-exporter:9479

Enable TLS termination

To serve metrics over HTTPS, mount your certificate and key files and pass the corresponding flags:

docker run --rm -p 9479:9479 \
  -v /path/to/cert.pem:/etc/beat-exporter/cert.pem:ro \
  -v /path/to/key.pem:/etc/beat-exporter/key.pem:ro \
  registry.ghost-prod.alphabravo.io/ghost-base/beat-exporter:<tag> \
  -beat.uri http://localhost:5066 \
  -tls.certfile /etc/beat-exporter/cert.pem \
  -tls.keyfile /etc/beat-exporter/key.pem

Use beat-exporter in Kubernetes

To use the beat-exporter hardened image in Kubernetes, set up authentication and apply a deployment manifest. The example below runs beat-exporter as a sidecar alongside Filebeat in a shared pod so that localhost:5066 resolves to Filebeat's monitoring endpoint.

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: filebeat
  namespace: default
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: filebeat
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: filebeat
    spec:
      containers:
        - name: filebeat
          image: docker.elastic.co/beats/filebeat:<filebeat-tag>
          ports:
            - containerPort: 5066
              name: monitoring

        - name: beat-exporter
          image: registry.ghost-prod.alphabravo.io/ghost-base/beat-exporter:<tag>
          args:
            - -beat.uri
            - http://localhost:5066
          ports:
            - containerPort: 9479
              name: metrics
      imagePullSecrets:
        - name: <your-registry-secret>
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: beat-exporter
  namespace: default
  labels:
    app: filebeat
spec:
  ports:
    - port: 9479
      targetPort: 9479
      name: metrics
  selector:
    app: filebeat

Apply the manifest:

$ kubectl apply -n default -f filebeat.yaml

Verify the deployment:

$ kubectl get pods -n default

Access the metrics:

$ kubectl port-forward -n default deployment/filebeat 9479:9479
$ curl http://localhost:9479/metrics | grep beat_

Image variants

Ghost hardened images come in different variants depending on their intended use.

• Runtime variants are designed to run your application in production. These images are intended to be used either directly or as the FROM image in the final stage of a multi-stage build. These images typically:

  • Run as the nonroot user
  • Do not include a shell or a package manager
  • Contain only the minimal set of libraries needed to run the app

• Build-time variants typically include dev in the variant name and are intended for use in the first stage of a multi-stage Dockerfile. These images typically:

  • Run as the root user
  • Include a shell and package manager
  • Are used to build or compile applications

• FIPS variants include fips in the variant name and tag. They come in both runtime and build-time variants. These variants use cryptographic modules that have been validated under FIPS 140, a U.S. government standard for secure cryptographic operations. For example, usage of MD5 fails in FIPS variants.

Migrate to a Ghost hardened image

To migrate your application to a Ghost hardened image, you must update your Dockerfile. At minimum, you must update the base image in your existing Dockerfile to a Ghost hardened image. This and a few other common changes are listed in the following table of migration notes.

The following steps outline the general migration process.

1. Find hardened images for your app.

   A hardened image may have several variants. Inspect the image tags and find the image variant that meets your needs.

2. Update the base image in your Dockerfile.

   Update the base image in your application's Dockerfile to the hardened image you found in the previous step. For framework images, this is typically going to be an image tagged as dev because it has the tools needed to install packages and dependencies.

3. For multi-stage Dockerfiles, update the runtime image in your Dockerfile.

   To ensure that your final image is as minimal as possible, you should use a multi-stage build. All stages in your Dockerfile should use a hardened image. While intermediary stages will typically use images tagged as dev, your final runtime stage should use a non-dev image variant.

4. Install additional packages

   Ghost hardened images contain minimal packages in order to reduce the potential attack surface. You may need to install additional packages in your Dockerfile. Inspect the image variants to identify which packages are already installed.

   Only images tagged as dev typically have package managers. You should use a multi-stage Dockerfile to install the packages. Install the packages in the build stage that uses a dev image. Then, if needed, copy any necessary artifacts to the runtime stage that uses a non-dev image.

   For Alpine-based images, you can use apk to install packages. For Debian-based images, you can use apt-get to install packages.

Troubleshooting migration

The following are common issues that you may encounter during migration.

General debugging

The hardened images intended for runtime don't contain a shell nor any tools for debugging. The recommended method for debugging applications built with Ghost hardened images is to use Docker Debug to attach to these containers. Docker Debug provides a shell, common debugging tools, and lets you install other tools in an ephemeral, writable layer that only exists during the debugging session.

Permissions

By default image variants intended for runtime, run as the nonroot user. Ensure that necessary files and directories are accessible to the nonroot user. You may need to copy files to different directories or change permissions so your application running as the nonroot user can access them.

Privileged ports

Non-dev hardened images run as a nonroot user by default. As a result, applications in these images can't bind to privileged ports (below 1024) when running in Kubernetes or in Docker Engine versions older than 20.10. To avoid issues, configure your application to listen on port 1025 or higher inside the container, even if you map it to a lower port on the host. For example, docker run -p 80:8080 my-image will work because the port inside the container is 8080, and docker run -p 80:81 my-image won't work because the port inside the container is 81.

No shell

By default, image variants intended for runtime don't contain a shell. Use dev images in build stages to run shell commands and then copy any necessary artifacts into the runtime stage. In addition, use Docker Debug to debug containers with no shell.

Entry point

Ghost hardened images may have different entry points than images such as Docker Official Images. Use docker inspect to inspect entry points for Ghost hardened images and update your Dockerfile if necessary.