[[filebeat-modules-overview]]
== Modules overview

{beatname_uc} modules simplify the collection, parsing, and visualization of common
log formats.

A typical module (say, for the Nginx logs) is composed of one or
more filesets (in the case of Nginx, `access` and `error`). A fileset contains
the following:

* {beatname_uc} input configurations, which contain the default paths where to
  look for the log files. These default paths depend on the operating system.
  The {beatname_uc} configuration is also responsible with stitching together
  multiline events when needed.

* {es} {ref}/ingest.html[ingest pipeline] definition,
  which is used to parse the log lines.

* Fields definitions, which are used to configure {es} with the
  correct types for each field. They also contain short descriptions for each
  of the fields.

* Sample {kib} dashboards, when available, that can be used to visualize the
log files.

{beatname_uc} automatically adjusts these configurations based on your environment
and loads them to the respective {stack} components.

If a module configuration is updated, the {es} ingest pipeline
definition is not reloaded automatically. To reload the ingest
pipeline, set `filebeat.overwrite_pipelines: true` and manually
<<load-ingest-pipelines, load the ingest pipelines>>.

[float]
=== Get started

To learn how to configure and run {beatname_uc} modules:

* Get started by reading <<{beatname_lc}-installation-configuration>>.
* Dive into the documentation for each <<filebeat-modules,module>>.
