Elasticsearch, Fluentd, and Kibana (EFK) allow you to collect, index, search and visualize log data. The EFK stack is an open source alternative to paid log management, log search and log visualization services like Splunk, SumoLogic. These services are used to search large amounts of log data for better insights, tracking, visualization and analytical purposes.

The EFK stack i.e. Elasticsearch, Fluentd, and Kibana are separate open source projects that together make an amazing open source centralized log management stack that is not only free to use and easy to setup/install but also scalable and can handle really large amounts of log data in real-time. This article documents how to setup Elasticsearch, Fluentd and Kibana and putting it all together to get the best out of your boring log data. So Without further ado, Let’s jump right into the setup/installation process.

Take a note that, Elasticsearch requires JAVA and it consumes a considerable amount of RAM. So your EFK server will be set up on a separate EC2 server. After EFK installation and setup, the client will have full control over the server and Kibana panel.