There are many ways of integrating Java applications with ELK Stack via Logstash. One of the methods involves using Filebeat, which is a log data shipper for local files. This approach requires a beats (logstash-input-beats) input configured for the instance of Logstash, which is, in fact, the default option. You should also install and launch a Filebeat daemon on the server machine. It is responsible for the delivery of the logs to Logstash.
Personally, I prefer a configuration based on Logback and dedicated appenders. It seems to be simpler than using a Filebeat agent. Besides having to deploy an additional service, Filebeat requires us to play with a parsing expression, such as the Grok filter. ...