Logstash stuck when starting up - elasticsearch

Question

What's wrong with the following logstash configuration?
input {
file {
type => "access_log"
# Wildcards work, here :)
path => [ "/root/isaac/my_logs/access_logs/gw_access_log*"]
start_position => "beginning"
}
}
output {
stdout { debug => true }
elasticsearch { embedded => true }
}
When running the above configuration, logstash is stuck on startup as follows:
[root#myvm logstash]# java -jar logstash-1.3.3-flatjar.jar agent -f logstash-complex.conf
Using milestone 2 input plugin 'file'. This plugin should be stable, but if you see strange behavior, please let us know! For more information on plugin milestones, see http://logstash.net/docs/1.3.3/plugin-milestones {:level=>:warn}
More importantly what are the ways to debug the issue?
I already checked that the file i am putting in the path do exist.

Answer 1

That isn't stuck, that's running.
you get this:
Using milestone 2 input plugin 'file'. This plugin should be stable, but if you see strange behavior, please let us know! For more information on plugin milestones, see http://logstash.net/docs/1.3.3/plugin-milestones {:level=>:warn}
Once logstash has started successfully
If you add -- web onto the end of your command then you should be able to see some output in Kibana web interface

Answer 2

If you aren't seeing messages appear in the console, first I would check that new entries are definitely being written to the file(s) that you're trying to tail. Since you're using the stdout output you should see the messages written to the console at the same time as they're going into the embedded Elasticsearch.
What I would suggest is you simplify your config by removing the elasticsearch output - this should speed up the startup time (it can take a minute or two for the embedded elasticsearch instance to start up) and focus on getting messages onto the console output first.
If you do want more verbose debug output from Logstash you can start the program with -v, -vv or -vvv for progressively more detailed debug information. E.g.:
java -jar logstash-1.3.3-flatjar.jar agent -f logstash-complex.conf -vvv
Fair warning that -vvv does produce a LOT of debug information, so start with -v and work your way up.