---
title: Configure Linux file system monitoring
description: By default, Elastic Defend monitors specific Linux file system types that Elastic has tested for compatibility. If your network includes nonstandard,...
url: https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-content/pull/4236/solutions/security/configure-elastic-defend/configure-linux-file-system-monitoring
products:
  - Elastic Cloud Serverless
  - Elastic Security
---

# Configure Linux file system monitoring
By default, Elastic Defend monitors specific Linux file system types that Elastic has tested for compatibility. If your network includes nonstandard, proprietary, or otherwise unrecognized Linux file systems, you can configure the integration policy to extend monitoring and protections to those additional file systems. You can also have Elastic Defend ignore unrecognized file system types if they don’t require monitoring or cause unexpected problems.
<warning>
  Ignoring file systems can create gaps in your security coverage. Use additional security layers for any file systems ignored by Elastic Defend.
</warning>

To monitor or ignore additional file systems, configure the following advanced settings related to **fanotify**, a Linux feature that monitors file system events. Find **Policies** in the navigation menu or by using the [global search field](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-content/pull/4236/explore-analyze/find-and-organize/find-apps-and-objects), click a policy’s name, then scroll down and select **Show advanced settings**.
<note>
  Even when configured to monitor all file systems (`ignore_unknown_filesystems` is `false`), Elastic Defend will still ignore specific file systems that Elastic has internally identified as incompatible. The following settings apply to any *other* file systems.
</note>


<definitions>
  <definition term="linux.advanced.fanotify.ignore_unknown_filesystems">
    Determines whether to ignore unrecognized file systems. Enter one of the following:
    - `true`: (Default) Monitor only Elastic-tested file systems, and ignore all others. You can still monitor or ignore specific file systems with `monitored_filesystems` and `ignored_filesystems`, respectively.
    - `false`: Monitor all file systems. You can still ignore specific file systems with `ignored_filesystems`.
    <note>
      In Elastic Stack, if you’ve upgraded from 8.3 or earlier, this value will be `false` for backwards compatibility. If you don’t need to monitor additional file systems, it’s recommended to change `ignore_unknown_filesystems` to `true` after upgrading.
    </note>
  </definition>
</definitions>


<definitions>
  <definition term="linux.advanced.fanotify.monitored_filesystems">
    Specifies additional file systems to monitor. Enter a comma-separated list of [file system names](#find-file-system-names) as they appear in `/proc/filesystems` (for example: `jfs,ufs,ramfs`).
    <note>
      It’s recommended to avoid monitoring network-backed file systems.
    </note>
    This setting isn’t recognized if `ignore_unknown_filesystems` is `false`, since that would mean you’re already monitoring *all* file systems.
    Entries in this setting are overridden by entries in `ignored_filesystems`.
  </definition>
</definitions>


<definitions>
  <definition term="linux.advanced.fanotify.ignored_filesystems">
    Specifies additional file systems to ignore. Enter a comma-separated list of [file system names](#find-file-system-names) as they appear in `/proc/filesystems` (for example: `ext4,tmpfs`).
    Entries in this setting override entries in `monitored_filesystems`.
  </definition>
</definitions>


## Find file system names

This section provides a few ways to determine the file system names needed for `linux.advanced.fanotify.monitored_filesystems` and `linux.advanced.fanotify.ignored_filesystems`.
In a typical setup, when you install Elastic Agent, Filebeat is installed alongside Elastic Endpoint and will automatically ship Elastic Endpoint logs to Elasticsearch. Elastic Endpoint will generate a log message about the file that was scanned when an event occurs.
To find the system file name:
1. Find **Hosts** in the navigation menu, or search for `Security/Explore/Hosts` by using the [global search field](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-content/pull/4236/explore-analyze/find-and-organize/find-apps-and-objects).
2. From the Hosts page, search for `message: "Current sync path"` to reveal the file path.
3. If you have access to the endpoint, run `findmnt -o FSTYPE -T <file path>` to return the file system. For example:
   ```shell
   > findmnt -o FSTYPE -T /etc/passwd
   FSTYPE
   ext4
   ```
   This returns the file system name as `ext4`.

Alternatively, you can also find the file system name by correlating data from two other log messages:
1. Search the logs for `message: "Current fdinfo"` to reveal the `mnt_id` value of the file path. In this example, the `mnt_id` value is `29`:
   ```shell
   pos:	12288
   flags:	02500002
   mnt_id:	29
   ino:	2367737
   ```
2. Search the logs for `message: "Current mountinfo"` to reveal the file system that corresponds to the `mnt_id` value you found in the previous step:
   ```shell
   <snip>
   29 1 8:2 / / rw,relatime shared:1 - ext4 /dev/sda2 rw,errors=remount-ro
   <snip>
   ```
   The first number, `29`, is the `mnt_id`, and the first field after the hyphen (`-`) is the file system name, `ext4`.