Build the system as a pipeline: Suricata inspects traffic and writes EVE JSON, Elastic Agent (the maintained collection path) reads that file, Elasticsearch stores normalized events, Kibana provides search and dashboards, and Elastic Security evaluates detection rules. The design works for a home lab or a small business, but the useful result depends on three things: Suricata must see the right traffic, the agent must be able to read the log, and you must control which event families and retention policies you enable.
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What this SIEM does
Suricata is the network sensor. It can operate as an intrusion-detection or intrusion-prevention engine and as a network-security-monitoring sensor. Its EVE output facility writes alerts, anomalies, metadata, file information and protocol-specific records as JSON. That file is the hand-off point between packet inspection and the rest of the SIEM.
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Elastic Agent’s Suricata integration reads EVE JSON, applies Elastic’s ingest processing, and sends the resulting documents to an Elastic deployment. Elasticsearch indexes and stores those documents. Kibana gives you Discover, dashboards and administration. Elastic Security places Suricata data in the same security workspace as other alerts and runs its detection engine against the normalized fields.
Data flow
- Traffic access: Suricata receives packets from a monitored interface, a switch mirror/SPAN session or another appropriate feed.
- Inspection: Suricata applies its rules and protocol parsers.
- Local records: Suricata writes selected event families to EVE JSON.
- Collection: Elastic Agent tails the file and sends records through the Suricata integration. Filebeat is a documented alternative.
- Storage and search: Elasticsearch stores the parsed documents in the integration’s data stream, while Kibana queries them.
- Detection and response: Elastic Security rules evaluate the data and create alerts for triage.
Requirements and compatibility
The current Elastic Suricata integration page lists compatibility with Suricata 5.x, 6.x and 7.x, and with Elastic Stack 8.11.0 or later. The same package lists Kibana 9.0.0 as its minimum Kibana version. Treat those as package requirements for the version you install; verify the exact integration package against your deployment before enrolling an agent.
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| Component | Role | Requirement or decision |
|---|---|---|
| Suricata | Network IDS/IPS and NSM sensor | Running instance with visibility of the intended traffic and rules appropriate to the environment |
| EVE JSON | Telemetry format | Enabled in suricata.yaml; regular file output must be readable by the collector |
| Elastic Agent | Recommended collector | Installed on the Suricata host or able to access the EVE file; managed through an agent policy |
| Filebeat | Alternative collector | Its Suricata module parses EVE JSON, uses an Elasticsearch ingest pipeline and deploys Kibana dashboards |
| Elasticsearch | Storage and search | Reachable from the collector with credentials and an appropriate data-stream/index policy |
| Kibana | Integration management, Discover, dashboards and Elastic Security | Use a version supported by the integration package; the current listing states 9.0.0 minimum |
No universal CPU, disk or event-rate figure should be used to size this build. Volume changes with link speed, traffic mix, enabled event types, rule activity and retention. Measure your own sensor and storage behavior before committing to a long retention period.
Give Suricata the right traffic
A sensor that cannot see the relevant conversations cannot produce a useful SIEM. On a home lab, that may mean monitoring the host’s network interface or a virtual switch feed. In a small business, a switch mirror or a passive network TAP can provide traffic without placing the sensor inline. A TAP is topology-dependent and optional; it is not a requirement for every deployment.
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- Host or gateway interface: simple to start with, but visibility is limited to traffic that reaches that interface.
- Mirror/SPAN feed: broad visibility without making Suricata a forwarding device; configure the switch so the mirror actually includes the VLANs and directions you need.
- Passive TAP: can provide a dedicated copy of traffic where the network design supports it, but adds hardware and cabling considerations.
- Inline IPS: enables blocking decisions and introduces availability and change-control concerns. Begin in IDS/monitoring mode while validating the pipeline.
Confirm the interface or feed before troubleshooting Elasticsearch. If Suricata is healthy but sees no packets, EVE will remain empty and the collector has nothing to send.
Enable and shape EVE JSON
Open suricata.yaml and enable the eve-log output. Use regular file output, set the filename to eve.json, and select only the event families that support your investigations. A practical baseline is alert, anomaly, flow, DNS, HTTP, TLS, SSH, fileinfo and stats. Add SMB, SMTP, DHCP, NFS or Kerberos when those protocols matter in your environment.
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eve-log:
enabled: yes
filetype: regular
filename: eve.json
types:
- alert
- anomaly
- flow
- dns
- http
- tls
- ssh
- fileinfo
- statsThe exact YAML indentation and surrounding keys must match the Suricata version and configuration file you use. Keep the standard EVE field names: the integration expects normal EVE JSON and maps it into searchable fields. Custom wrappers or altered structures can leave records in error.message instead of parsed fields.
Restart and inspect the sensor
- Save the configuration and restart the Suricata service using your operating system’s service manager.
- Confirm the service is running and that the monitored interface or mirror feed is active.
- Check that the EVE file is being appended to. A command such as
tail -f /var/log/suricata/eve.jsonshould show one JSON object per record when traffic is present. - Verify file permissions. The Elastic Agent account needs read access to the file and execute/traverse permission on every parent directory.
Generate only benign traffic while testing. Do not interpret an empty file as an Elastic problem until you have established that Suricata is receiving packets and writing records locally.
Choose Elastic Agent or Filebeat
Use Elastic Agent for a new build unless an existing Filebeat deployment, operational standard or version constraint gives you a reason to keep the older module path. The maintained Suricata integration is configured from Kibana and attaches to an agent policy. Filebeat remains useful where its module is already managed: it parses EVE JSON, sends through an Elasticsearch ingest pipeline and installs Kibana dashboards.
| Question | Elastic Agent integration | Filebeat Suricata module |
|---|---|---|
| Primary setup | Kibana Management → Integrations → Suricata | Enable the Suricata module and at least one fileset |
| Path configuration | Absolute path to EVE JSON in the integration policy | Fileset path, for example /var/log/suricata/eve.json |
| Processing | Elastic integration ingest processing and normalized fields | Elasticsearch ingest pipeline and module processors |
| Dashboards | Integration assets, including a Logs Suricata dashboard | Module-provided Kibana dashboards |
| Best fit | New deployments and centrally managed agent policies | Existing Filebeat estates or a deliberate module-based design |
Do not run both collectors against the same file unless you have a specific deduplication and ownership plan. Two readers can create duplicate events, conflicting pipelines and confusing alert counts.
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Install the Suricata integration with Elastic Agent
- Install and enroll Elastic Agent on the Suricata host, or on a host that can securely read the EVE file. Confirm the agent is healthy before adding integrations.
- In Kibana, open Management → Integrations.
- Search for Suricata and choose Add Suricata.
- Enter the absolute EVE JSON log path. It must exactly match the file Suricata is writing; relative paths and guessed filenames are common causes of silent collection failures.
- Attach the integration to the agent policy that contains the Suricata host, then save and deploy the policy.
- Wait for the policy to arrive at the agent. Check the agent’s health and integration status before changing Suricata again.
The integration reads the file and applies its ingest processing. You do not need to hand-build an Elasticsearch mapping for each EVE key. Keep the standard EVE structure so the package can map protocol fields into the fields used by Discover and Elastic Security.
Validate the pipeline end to end
Validation should move from the sensor outward. Testing only in Kibana can hide a local permission or configuration problem.
- Local write check: create benign traffic and confirm new JSON lines appear in the EVE file.
- Agent read check: inspect the agent’s integration status and logs for file-access or output errors.
- Ingest check: in Kibana Discover, select the data view used by the Suricata integration and search with KQL
event.dataset : "suricata.eve". - Parsing check: open a recent document. Protocol, source, destination and alert fields should be individual searchable fields, not a complete JSON blob under
error.message. - Dashboard check: open the prebuilt Logs Suricata dashboard and confirm that its visualizations populate.
- Security check: in Elastic Security, verify that the Suricata events are available to the unified security view and can be selected by a rule.
Use benign test traffic described by the official integration documentation. A successful test produces a local EVE record, an indexed document and a visible dashboard event; if one link is missing, troubleshoot that boundary before proceeding.
Control coverage, cost and retention
Every EVE family adds context, but high-volume protocol records increase CPU use, disk consumption, indexing work and query cost. Start with alert and flow records for baseline visibility. Add protocol-specific families when an investigation or detection requires them, then measure the resulting ingest rate and storage use.
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| Event family | What it contributes | Typical reason to enable it |
|---|---|---|
| alert | Suricata rule matches and severity context | Immediate triage and alert-driven detections |
| anomaly | Protocol or traffic anomalies reported by Suricata | Investigating malformed or unusual behavior |
| flow | Connection lifecycle and byte/packet context | Baseline visibility and session reconstruction |
| dns | DNS request and response details | Domain investigations and resolver behavior |
| http | HTTP transaction metadata | Web request investigation and threat hunting |
| tls | TLS handshake and certificate metadata | Encrypted-session context and certificate review |
| ssh | SSH protocol metadata | Remote-administration monitoring |
| smb | SMB protocol records | Windows file-share investigations |
| smtp | Mail protocol metadata | Mail-flow investigations |
| dhcp | Address-assignment records | Mapping addresses to hosts over time |
| nfs | NFS protocol metadata | Unix file-service monitoring |
| kerberos | Kerberos authentication metadata | Directory-service and authentication investigations |
| fileinfo | Observed file metadata | File-transfer and payload context |
| stats | Suricata operational statistics | Sensor health and throughput monitoring |
Set retention and index or data-stream policies according to the event families you enable and the investigations you must support. Keep operational statistics long enough to establish sensor health, but do not retain every high-volume protocol record indefinitely without a defined investigative purpose.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Turn Suricata events into Elastic Security detections
Elastic Security’s detection engine evaluates your data against detection rules and generates alerts. Suricata alerts can also appear with alerts from other third-party tools in the unified security view. The integration’s normalized fields let you write rules against structured data rather than parsing raw JSON in every query.
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Begin with a hypothesis that has a clear response. For example, select Suricata alert events with a known severity or signature category, constrain the data view to the Suricata data stream, and include only the fields your analyst will use. Verify the query in Discover first, then create a rule with a schedule that matches the urgency of the behavior.
Keep the initial search window short enough to run reliably. A broad query across every index and every event family is harder to validate and more likely to generate irrelevant matches.
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Use threshold rules when repetition matters
A single connection may be normal while repeated connections from one source, destination or signature are meaningful. Threshold rules can count matches and group them by a field. Choose group-by fields carefully: Elastic warns that high-cardinality grouping can cause rule timeouts or circuit-breaker errors. If the grouping field has near-unique values, narrow the time range, reduce the index scope or remove the grouping.
Add exceptions deliberately
Known vulnerability scanners, monitoring systems and scheduled administrative traffic can create legitimate Suricata alerts. Add exceptions for documented sources or signatures only after confirming the traffic and recording who owns the exception. Prefer the narrowest exception that removes the false positive without suppressing unrelated activity.
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Test before enabling actions
- Run the proposed query in Discover and inspect several matching documents.
- Confirm that the fields used by the rule are populated consistently by the integration.
- Create the rule without external alert actions and observe its matches through at least one normal operating cycle.
- Adjust severity, schedule, suppression or threshold settings based on observed noise.
- Add alert actions only after the rule produces useful, explainable matches.
- Document the response procedure: who triages, what evidence is collected, and when Suricata rules or network controls are changed.
Operate the SIEM after deployment
A working dashboard is not an operating process. Assign ownership for triage and define severity meanings before alerts arrive. Review false positives, update Suricata rules, and periodically test that the sensor still receives the intended traffic.
- Sensor health: monitor Suricata service status, event production and the
statsfamily. - Agent health: watch enrollment, policy state, file-read errors and output connectivity.
- Ingest health: track parsing errors, rejected documents and event latency from file write to index.
- Capacity: monitor disk usage, indexing pressure and retention against the event families you enabled.
- Detection quality: review alert volume, exception lists, timeouts and analyst outcomes.
- Change control: record changes to Suricata rules, EVE event types, agent policies and Elastic Security rules.
Troubleshoot by pipeline boundary
| Symptom | Likely causes | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| No events in Kibana | Suricata is stopped, EVE logging is disabled, the path is wrong, or the agent cannot read the file | Confirm service and traffic visibility, enable eve-log, compare the configured absolute path character for character, and fix file and parent-directory permissions |
| EVE file stays empty | The monitored interface or mirror feed carries no traffic, or Suricata is not writing the selected event type | Generate benign traffic, verify the feed, and check the enabled event list |
Documents contain raw data under error.message |
Nonstandard EVE structure or a parser mismatch | Restore standard EVE JSON fields, compare a raw line with the integration’s expected format, and retest with a new event |
| Dashboard is blank but documents exist | Wrong data view, time range, or dataset filter | Search Discover with event.dataset : "suricata.eve", expand the time range, and use the dashboard’s intended data view |
| Detection rules time out | Search window or index scope is too broad, or group-by fields are high-cardinality | Narrow the time range and indices, simplify filters, and remove unnecessary grouping |
| Important protocol context is missing | The corresponding EVE family is disabled or not mapped | Enable the relevant event type, generate a new record, and confirm that its fields map into searchable fields |
| Too many false positives | Broad Suricata signatures, expected scanners or maintenance traffic | Tune Suricata rules, add narrow Elastic rule exceptions, and document expected activity |
A practical home-lab or small-business rollout
Use a staged deployment rather than enabling every protocol and every response action on day one.
- Stage 1 — sensor: place Suricata where it can see representative traffic, enable alert, flow and stats, and confirm local EVE writes.
- Stage 2 — collection: enroll Elastic Agent, add the Suricata integration, and verify the dataset in Discover.
- Stage 3 — context: enable DNS, HTTP, TLS, SSH and any environment-specific protocol families; measure the added volume.
- Stage 4 — detections: create a small set of focused KQL or threshold rules, validate matches and add exceptions for known benign sources.
- Stage 5 — operations: set retention, assign triage ownership, monitor agent and sensor health, and schedule reviews of rules and storage.
This sequence separates packet visibility, log collection, parsing, storage and detection. When something fails, you can identify the boundary instead of changing several components at once.
Quick Recap
Deployment checklist
- Suricata sees the intended interface, mirror feed or TAP output.
- EVE JSON is enabled with a deliberate event list.
- The agent can read the file and traverse its parent directories.
- The integration path exactly matches the file Suricata writes.
- Discover returns
event.dataset : "suricata.eve"records with parsed fields. - Retention and data-stream policies reflect actual event volume.
- Rules are tested before alert actions are enabled.
- Exceptions, triage ownership and response steps are documented.
- Sensor health, agent health, ingest errors, disk use and event latency are monitored.
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