[[metricbeat-configuration-reloading]]
== Load external configuration files

Metricbeat can load external configuration files for modules, which allows you
to separate your configuration into multiple smaller configuration files. To use
this, you specify the `path` option under `metricbeat.config.modules` in the
main `metricbeat.yml` configuration file. By default, Metricbeat loads the
module configurations enabled in the <<enable-modules-d-configs,`modules.d`>>
directory. For example:

[source,yaml]
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
metricbeat.config.modules:
  path: ${path.config}/modules.d/*.yml
------------------------------------------------------------------------------


`path`:: A Glob that defines the files to check for changes.
+
This setting must point to the `modules.d` directory if you want to use the
<<modules-command,`modules`>> command to enable and disable module
configurations.

Each file found by the Glob must contain a list of one or more module
definitions. For example:

[source,yaml]
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- module: system
  metricsets: ["cpu"]
  enabled: false
  period: 1s

- module: system
  metricsets: ["network"]
  enabled: true
  period: 10s
------------------------------------------------------------------------------


include::../../libbeat/docs/shared-note-file-permissions.asciidoc[]

=== Live reloading

You can configure Metricbeat to dynamically reload configuration files when
there are changes. To do this, you specify a path
(https://golang.org/pkg/path/filepath/#Glob[Glob]) to watch for module
configuration changes. When the files found by the Glob change, new modules are
started/stopped according to changes in the configuration files.

This feature is especially useful in container environments where one container
is used to monitor all services running in other containers on the same host.
Because new containers appear and disappear dynamically, you may need to change
the Metricbeat configuration frequently to specify which modules are needed and
which hosts must be monitored.

To enable dynamic config reloading, you specify the `path` and `reload` options
under `metricbeat.config.modules` in the main `metricbeat.yml` config file. For
example:

[source,yaml]
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
metricbeat.config.modules:
  path: ${path.config}/modules.d/*.yml
  reload.enabled: true
  reload.period: 10s
------------------------------------------------------------------------------


`path`:: A Glob that defines the files to check for changes.
+
This setting must point to the `modules.d` directory if you want to use the
<<modules-command,`modules`>> command to enable and disable module
configurations.

`reload.enabled`:: When set to `true`, enables dynamic config reload.

`reload.period`:: Specifies how often the files are checked for changes. Do not
set the `period` to less than 1s because the modification time of files is often
stored in seconds. Setting the `period` to less than 1s will result in
unnecessary overhead.

include::../../libbeat/docs/shared-note-file-permissions.asciidoc[]