Course Outline
Introduction
- Overview of the Elastic Stack (ELK) for government environments.
Module 1: ELK Stack Architecture and Assessment of Current Infrastructure
- Evaluation of the existing Altor CB infrastructure.
- Core components of the ELK ecosystem: Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana, and Beats.
- Comparison of Ingest nodes versus Logstash for data processing.
- Scalability and performance optimization for on-premises deployments relevant to government operations.
- Administrative best practices for secure management.
Module 2: Distributed Monitoring with Beats (2 hours)
- Deployment and configuration of Filebeat, Auditbeat, Winlogbeat, and Packetbeat.
- Implementation of SSL encryption for secure data transmission.
- Differentiation between preconfigured modules and custom input configurations.
- Integration protocols with Logstash and Ingest Pipelines.
Module 3: Log Parsing and Ingestion from Applications and Databases (4 hours)
- Methods for ingesting custom application logs into government systems.
- Leveraging Logstash for data parsing and transformation.
- Application of filters: grok, dissect, kv, mutate, and date.
- Establishing database connections (Oracle, PostgreSQL, SQL Server) via the JDBC input plugin.
- Practical applications: processing error logs, audit trails, traces, and slow queries for compliance.
Module 4: Advanced Search Techniques and Regular Expressions (2 hours)
- Advanced search syntax capabilities within Kibana.
- Effective use of regular expressions (regex) for data pattern matching.
- Utilization of logical operators (OR/AND) in filters.
- Navigation of nested fields and arrays.
- Strategies for saving and reusing queries and filters to support government workflows.
Module 5: Custom Dashboards and Data Visualizations in Kibana (3 hours)
- Visualization options: bar charts, line graphs, maps, and tables for public sector reporting.
- Application of aggregations and metrics.
- Implementation of dynamic filters, controls, and drill-down features.
- Protocols for dashboard sharing among authorized personnel.
- Exercises: constructing dashboards from database and system logs.
Module 6: Alerting Mechanisms and Email Notifications (3 hours)
- Overview of Watcher and alternative solutions such as ElastAlert and Kibana Alerts for government use cases.
- Development of custom conditions and trigger mechanisms.
- Configuration of email output channels.
- Exercise: configuring alerts for critical events detected in Windows or database logs.
Module 7: User Access and Permission Management (2 hours)
- Introduction to X-Pack capabilities and free-tier options.
- Procedures for creating users and assigning roles.
- Granular access control by index, dashboard, and query to ensure accountability.
- Exercise: defining distinct roles for audit and operational teams.
Module 8: Elasticsearch REST API Utilization (3 hours)
- Fundamentals of the Elasticsearch RESTful API for government integration.
- Execution of GET and POST queries.
- Techniques for manual and automated indexing.
- Utilization of command-line and graphical tools such as curl and Postman.
- Exercises: performing search, insert, delete, and update operations on documents.
Summary and Next Steps
Requirements
- Knowledge of fundamental ELK Stack framework and constituent elements
- Proficiency in collecting and visualizing log data utilizing Kibana and Logstash
- Competence in Linux command-line operations and elementary scripting procedures
Audience
- System administrators
- Infrastructure engineers
- Technical personnel pursuing enhanced log centralization solutions for government operations
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
