Work with APM Server

When self-managing the Elastic Stack, APM Server receives performance data from APM agents, validates and processes it, and transforms the data into Elasticsearch documents.

This section contains information on working with APM Server including:

Learning how to set up APM Server
Browsing all available APM Server configuration options
Monitoring the real-time health and performance of your APM Server

Tip

If you're using Elastic Cloud Serverless, there is no APM Server running. Instead the managed intake service receives and transforms data. Read more in Get started with traces and APM.

Note

For new users, Elastic recommends using the OpenTelemetry path through the EDOT Collector or Managed OTLP rather than sending data directly to the APM Server.