Load external configuration files [metricbeat-configuration-reloading]

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 modules.d directory. For example:

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`](/reference/metricbeat/command-line-options.md#modules-command) 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:

yaml

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

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

::::{note} On systems with POSIX file permissions, all Beats configuration files are subject to ownership and file permission checks. For more information, see Config File Ownership and Permissions. ::::