[role="xpack"]
[[xpack-logs-configuring]]

:ecs-base-link: {ecs-ref}/ecs-base.html[base]

== Configuring the Logs data

The default source configuration for logs is specified in the {kibana-ref}/logs-ui-settings-kb.html[Logs app settings] in the {kibana-ref}/settings.html[Kibana configuration file].
The default configuration uses the `filebeat-*` index pattern to query the data.
The default configuration also defines field settings for things like timestamps and container names, and the default columns to show in the logs stream.

If your logs have custom index patterns, use non-default field settings, or contain parsed fields which you want to expose as individual columns, you can override the default configuration settings.

To change the configuration settings, click the *Settings* tab.

NOTE: These settings are shared with metrics. Changes you make here may also affect the settings used by the *Metrics* app.

In the *Settings* tab, you can change the values in these sections:

* *Name*: the name of the source configuration
* *Indices*: the index pattern or patterns in the Elasticsearch indices to read metrics data and log data from
* *Fields*: the names of specific fields in the indices that are used to query and interpret the data correctly
* *Log columns*: the columns that are shown in the logs stream

By default the logs stream shows following columns:

* *Timestamp*: The timestamp of the log entry from the `timestamp` field.
* *Message*: The message extracted from the document.
The content of this field depends on the type of log message.
If no special log message type is detected, the Elastic Common Schema (ECS) {ecs-base-link} field, `message`, is used.

To add a new column to the logs stream, in the *Settings* tab, click *Add column*.
In the list of available fields, select the field you want to add.
You can start typing a field name in the search box to filter the field list by that name.

To remove an existing column, click the *Remove this column* icon
image:logs/images/logs-configure-source-dialog-remove-column-button.png[Remove column].

When you have completed your changes, click *Apply*.

If the fields are greyed out and cannot be edited, you may not have sufficient privileges to change the source configuration.
For more information see <<xpack-security-authorization>>.

TIP: If <<xpack-spaces>> are enabled in your Kibana instance, any configuration changes you make here are specific to the current space.
You can make different subsets of data available by creating multiple spaces with different data source configurations.

