---
title: SSL client fails to connect to Logstash
description: The host running Logstash might be unreachable or the certificate may not be valid. To resolve your issue: Make sure that Logstash is running and you...
url: https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/2341/reference/beats/winlogbeat/ssl-client-fails
---

# SSL client fails to connect to Logstash
The host running Logstash might be unreachable or the certificate may not be valid. To resolve your issue:
- Make sure that Logstash is running and you can connect to it. First, try to ping the Logstash host to verify that you can reach it from the host running Winlogbeat. Then use either `nc` or `telnet` to make sure that the port is available. For example:
  ```shell
  ping <hostname or IP>
  telnet <hostname or IP> 5044
  ```
- Verify that the certificate is valid and that the hostname and IP match.
  <tip>
  For testing purposes only, you can set `verification_mode: none` to disable hostname checking.
  </tip>
- Use OpenSSL to test connectivity to the Logstash server and diagnose problems. See the [OpenSSL documentation](https://www.openssl.org/docs/manmaster/man1/openssl-s_client.md) for more info.
- Make sure that you have enabled SSL (set `ssl => true`) when configuring the [Beats input plugin for Logstash](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-builder/docs/2341/lsr/plugins-inputs-beats).


## Common SSL-Related Errors and Resolutions

Here are some common errors and ways to fix them:
- [tls: failed to parse private key](#failed-to-parse-private-key)
- [x509: cannot validate certificate](#cannot-validate-certificate)
- [getsockopt: no route to host](#getsockopt-no-route-to-host)
- [getsockopt: connection refused](#getsockopt-connection-refused)
- [No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it](#target-machine-refused-connection)


### tls: failed to parse private key

This might occur for a few reasons:
- The encrypted file is not recognized as an encrypted PEM block. Winlogbeat tries to use the encrypted content as the final key, which fails.
- The file is correctly encrypted in a PEM block, but the decrypted content is not a key in a format that Winlogbeat recognizes. The key must be encoded as PEM format.
- The passphrase is missing or has an error.


### x509: cannot validate certificate for <IP address> because it doesn’t contain any IP SANs

This happens because your certificate is only valid for the hostname present in the Subject field.
To resolve this problem, try one of these solutions:
- Create a DNS entry for the hostname mapping it to the server’s IP.
- Create an entry in `/etc/hosts` for the hostname. Or on Windows add an entry to `C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts`.
- Re-create the server certificate and add a SubjectAltName (SAN) for the IP address of the server. This makes the server’s certificate valid for both the hostname and the IP address.


### getsockopt: no route to host

This is not a SSL problem. It’s a networking problem. Make sure the two hosts can communicate.

### getsockopt: connection refused

This is not a SSL problem. Make sure that Logstash is running and that there is no firewall blocking the traffic.

### No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it

A firewall is refusing the connection. Check if a firewall is blocking the traffic on the client, the network, or the destination host.