only keep enabled winlogbeat configuration parameters for readability - as discussed.

winlogbeat/winlogbeat.yml

@@ -1,22 +1,8 @@
-###################### Winlogbeat Configuration Example ##########################
-
-# This file is an example configuration file highlighting only the most common
-# options. The winlogbeat.reference.yml file from the same directory contains all the
-# supported options with more comments. You can use it as a reference.
-#
-# You can find the full configuration reference here:
-# https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/beats/winlogbeat/index.html
+# For simplicity/brevity we have only included the enabled options necessary for sending windows logs to HELK
+# Please visit the Elastic documentation for the complete details of each option and full reference config
+# https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/beats/winlogbeat/current/winlogbeat-reference-yml.html
 
 #======================= Winlogbeat specific options ==========================
-
-# event_logs specifies a list of event logs to monitor as well as any
-# accompanying options. The YAML data type of event_logs is a list of
-# dictionaries.
-#
-# The supported keys are name (required), tags, fields, fields_under_root,
-# forwarded, ignore_older, level, event_id, provider, and include_xml. Please
-# visit the documentation for the complete details of each option.
-# https://go.es.io/WinlogbeatConfig
 winlogbeat.event_logs:
   - name: Application
     ignore_older: 30m
@@ -35,111 +21,13 @@ winlogbeat.event_logs:
   - name: Microsoft-Windows-WMI-Activity/Operational
     event_id: 5857,5858,5859,5860,5861
 
-#==================== Elasticsearch template setting ==========================
-
-#setup.template.settings:
-#  index.number_of_shards: 3
-  #index.codec: best_compression
-  #_source.enabled: false
-
-#================================ General =====================================
-
-# The name of the shipper that publishes the network data. It can be used to group
-# all the transactions sent by a single shipper in the web interface.
-#name:
-
-# The tags of the shipper are included in their own field with each
-# transaction published.
-#tags: ["service-X", "web-tier"]
-
-# Optional fields that you can specify to add additional information to the
-# output.
-#fields:
-#  env: staging
-
-
-#============================== Dashboards =====================================
-# These settings control loading the sample dashboards to the Kibana index. Loading
-# the dashboards is disabled by default and can be enabled either by setting the
-# options here, or by using the `-setup` CLI flag or the `setup` command.
-#setup.dashboards.enabled: false
-
-# The URL from where to download the dashboards archive. By default this URL
-# has a value which is computed based on the Beat name and version. For released
-# versions, this URL points to the dashboard archive on the artifacts.elastic.co
-# website.
-#setup.dashboards.url:
-
-#============================== Kibana =====================================
-
-# Starting with Beats version 6.0.0, the dashboards are loaded via the Kibana API.
-# This requires a Kibana endpoint configuration.
-#setup.kibana:
-
-  # Kibana Host
-  # Scheme and port can be left out and will be set to the default (http and 5601)
-  # In case you specify and additional path, the scheme is required: http://localhost:5601/path
-  # IPv6 addresses should always be defined as: https://[2001:db8::1]:5601
-  #host: "localhost:5601"
-
-#============================= Elastic Cloud ==================================
-
-# These settings simplify using winlogbeat with the Elastic Cloud (https://cloud.elastic.co/).
-
-# The cloud.id setting overwrites the `output.elasticsearch.hosts` and
-# `setup.kibana.host` options.
-# You can find the `cloud.id` in the Elastic Cloud web UI.
-#cloud.id:
-
-# The cloud.auth setting overwrites the `output.elasticsearch.username` and
-# `output.elasticsearch.password` settings. The format is `<user>:<pass>`.
-#cloud.auth:
-
-#================================ Outputs =====================================
-
-# Configure what output to use when sending the data collected by the beat.
-
-#-------------------------- Elasticsearch output ------------------------------
-#output.elasticsearch:
-  # Array of hosts to connect to.
-#  hosts: ["localhost:9200"]
-
-  # Optional protocol and basic auth credentials.
-  #protocol: "https"
-  #username: "elastic"
-  #password: "changeme"
-
-#----------------------------- Logstash output --------------------------------
-#output.logstash:
-  # The Logstash hosts
-  #hosts: ["localhost:5044"]
-
-  # Optional SSL. By default is off.
-  # List of root certificates for HTTPS server verifications
-  #ssl.certificate_authorities: ["/etc/pki/root/ca.pem"]
-
-  # Certificate for SSL client authentication
-  #ssl.certificate: "/etc/pki/client/cert.pem"
-
-  # Client Certificate Key
-  #ssl.key: "/etc/pki/client/cert.key"
-
 #----------------------------- Kafka output --------------------------------
 output.kafka:
   # initial brokers for reading cluster metadata
+  # Place your HELK IP(s) here (keep the port).
+  # If you only have one Kafka instance (default for HELK) then remove the 2nd IP that has port 9093
   hosts: ["<HELK-IP>:9092","<HELK-IP>:9093"]
   topic: "winlogbeat"
   ############################# HELK Optimizing Latency ######################
   max_retries: 2
   max_message_bytes: 1000000
-
-#================================ Logging =====================================
-
-# Sets log level. The default log level is info.
-# Available log levels are: critical, error, warning, info, debug
-#logging.level: debug
-
-# At debug level, you can selectively enable logging only for some components.
-# To enable all selectors use ["*"]. Examples of other selectors are "beat",
-# "publish", "service".
-#logging.selectors: ["*"]