---
title: Add cloud metadata
description: The add_cloud_metadata processor enriches each event with instance metadata from the machine’s hosting provider. At startup the processor queries a list...
url: https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-content/pull/4627/reference/fleet/add-cloud-metadata-processor
products:
  - Elastic Agent
  - Fleet
applies_to:
  - Elastic Cloud Serverless: Generally available
  - Elastic Stack: Generally available in 9.0+
---

# Add cloud metadata
<tip>
  Inputs that collect logs and metrics use this processor by default, so you do not need to configure it explicitly.
</tip>

The `add_cloud_metadata` processor enriches each event with instance metadata from the machine’s hosting provider. At startup the processor queries a list of hosting providers and caches the instance metadata.
The following providers are supported:
- Amazon Web Services (AWS)
- Digital Ocean
- Google Compute Engine (GCE)
- [Tencent Cloud](https://www.qcloud.com/?lang=en) (QCloud)
- Alibaba Cloud (ECS)
- Huawei Cloud (ECS)
- Azure Virtual Machine
- Openstack Nova

The Alibaba Cloud and Tencent providers are disabled by default, because they require to access a remote host. Use the `providers` setting to select a list of default providers to query.

## Example

This configuration enables the processor:
```yaml
  - add_cloud_metadata: ~
```

The metadata that is added to events varies by hosting provider. For examples, refer to [Provider-specific metadata examples](#provider-specific-examples).

## Configuration settings

<note>
  Elastic Agent processors execute *before* ingest pipelines, which means that they process the raw event data rather than the final event sent to Elasticsearch. For related limitations, refer to [What are some limitations of using processors?](/elastic/docs-content/pull/4627/reference/fleet/agent-processors#limitations)
</note>


| Name        | Required | Default | Description                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                |
|-------------|----------|---------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| `timeout`   | No       | `3s`    | Maximum amount of time to wait for a successful response when detecting the hosting provider. If a timeout occurs, no instance metadata is added to the events. This makes it possible to enable this processor for all your deployments (in the cloud or on-premise).                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     |
| `providers` | No       |         | List of provider names to use. If `providers` is not configured, all providers that do not access a remote endpoint are enabled by default. The list of providers may alternatively be configured with the environment variable `BEATS_ADD_CLOUD_METADATA_PROVIDERS`, by setting it to a comma-separated list of provider names.The list of supported provider names includes:* `alibaba` or `ecs` for the Alibaba Cloud provider (disabled by default).* `azure` for Azure Virtual Machine (enabled by default).* `digitalocean` for Digital Ocean (enabled by default).* `aws` or `ec2` for Amazon Web Services (enabled by default).* `gcp` for Google Compute Engine (enabled by default).* `openstack` or `nova` for Openstack Nova (enabled by default).* `openstack-ssl` or `nova-ssl` for Openstack Nova when SSL metadata APIs are enabled (enabled by default).* `tencent` or `qcloud` for Tencent Cloud (disabled by default).* `huawei` for Huawei Cloud (enabled by default). |
| `overwrite` | No       | `false` | Whether to overwrite existing cloud fields. If `true`, the processor overwrites existing `cloud.*` fields.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 |

The `add_cloud_metadata` processor supports SSL options to configure the http client used to query cloud metadata.
For more information, refer to [SSL/TLS](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-content/pull/4627/reference/fleet/elastic-agent-ssl-configuration), specifically the settings under [Table 7, Common configuration options](/elastic/docs-content/pull/4627/reference/fleet/elastic-agent-ssl-configuration#common-ssl-options) and [Table 8, Client configuration options](/elastic/docs-content/pull/4627/reference/fleet/elastic-agent-ssl-configuration#client-ssl-options).

## Provider-specific metadata examples

The following sections show examples for each of the supported providers.

### AWS

```json
{
  "cloud": {
    "account.id": "123456789012",
    "availability_zone": "us-east-1c",
    "instance.id": "i-4e123456",
    "machine.type": "t2.medium",
    "image.id": "ami-abcd1234",
    "provider": "aws",
    "region": "us-east-1"
  }
}
```


### Digital Ocean

```json
{
  "cloud": {
    "instance.id": "1234567",
    "provider": "digitalocean",
    "region": "nyc2"
  }
}
```


### GCP

```json
{
  "cloud": {
    "availability_zone": "us-east1-b",
    "instance.id": "1234556778987654321",
    "machine.type": "f1-micro",
    "project.id": "my-dev",
    "provider": "gcp"
  }
}
```


### Tencent Cloud

```json
{
  "cloud": {
    "availability_zone": "gz-azone2",
    "instance.id": "ins-qcloudv5",
    "provider": "qcloud",
    "region": "china-south-gz"
  }
}
```


### Huawei Cloud

```json
{
  "cloud": {
    "availability_zone": "cn-east-2b",
    "instance.id": "37da9890-8289-4c58-ba34-a8271c4a8216",
    "provider": "huawei",
    "region": "cn-east-2"
  }
}
```


### Alibaba Cloud

This metadata is only available when VPC is selected as the network type of the ECS instance.
```json
{
  "cloud": {
    "availability_zone": "cn-shenzhen",
    "instance.id": "i-wz9g2hqiikg0aliyun2b",
    "provider": "ecs",
    "region": "cn-shenzhen-a"
  }
}
```


### Azure Virtual Machine

```json
{
  "cloud": {
    "provider": "azure",
    "instance.id": "04ab04c3-63de-4709-a9f9-9ab8c0411d5e",
    "instance.name": "test-az-vm",
    "machine.type": "Standard_D3_v2",
    "region": "eastus2"
  }
}
```


### Openstack Nova

```json
{
  "cloud": {
    "instance.name": "test-998d932195.mycloud.tld",
    "instance.id": "i-00011a84",
    "availability_zone": "xxxx-az-c",
    "provider": "openstack",
    "machine.type": "m2.large"
  }
}
```