Mismatch between documentation and filebeat.full.yml and missing settings

[astefan]

There could possibly be more inconsistencies in default valuess but these are the ones I spotted for Logstash output:

• #loadbalance: true inside filebeat.full.yml while the documentation mentions a default value of false
• missing defaults from filebeat.full.yml: port, timeout, max_retries, bulk_max_size

[dedemorton]

@monicasarbu This issue has been open for awhile. I'm concerned that it's being overlooked because it's labeled as doc.

The default for loadbalance in the referece.yml in master is false, which matches the docs, so it looks like the first problem is fixed (https://github.com/elastic/beats/blob/master/filebeat/filebeat.reference.yml#L784)

The following fields are still missing from the Logstash output in the reference.yml:

• port - has been deprecated, so maybe that's OK.
• timeout
• max_retries
• bulk_max_size

[dedemorton]

@urso This issue has been open for awhile. I'd like to get it closed, but TBH, I'm not sure how to proceed. The docs are correct now wrt the default values for these fields.

Do we want to update the reference.yml file to include:

• port - not sure since it was deprecated in 5.0. It is still in the docs (marked as deprecated in 5.0) and code. I assume we need to keep it in the docs until it's removed completely?
• timeout - any reason not to add this to the reference.yml?
• max_retries - not sure since Filebeat ignores this setting...maybe it's better not to include it in the reference.yml?
• bulk_max_size - I seem to recall something about how this setting is different depending on the Beat. Do we want to add this to the reference.yml?

If we aren't going to update the reference files, then we should close this since the defaults are now correct.

[urso]

+1 on adding missing settings with defaults to the reference.yml. Deprecates settings should be marked as deprecated, but included. reference.yml is supposed to be the reference containing all settings.

• port: how come it's deprecated? In code it is not deprecated and we don't print a warning. The port setting in the LS output configures the default port. It's used if no port is put in the hosts list..
• timeout: must be added
• bulk_max_size: should be added. Size does not depend on the beat. Default is 2048
• max_retries is ignored by filebeat and winlogbeat. For all other beats the default value is 3. The effective max_retries value for filebeat/winlogbeat is -1 (infinite retry). It should be added to the reference configs. The other outputs list max_retries.

Comparing reference configs with the code, I couldn't find any other settings missing in the output.logstash section.

[dedemorton]

@urso port was marked as deprecated in the docs here: f241d74

[urso]

ohhhh.... it was even me who marked at as deprectaded 🤔 Setting was deprecated in 5.0. We might remove it for 7.0, or undeprecate it. Will need to discuss the future of the port setting. I will create followup issue (for code and docs). But for now (6.x release cycle), we should have it included in our reference docs and reference.yml files.

[urso]

@dedemorton ports followup issue: #7881