Reload logstash config files even the file hasn't changed - logstash

Question

I am using logstash to put messages to AWS Kinesis stream and the output plugin requires authentication, this authentication will be refer to environment variable or from a file. We don't have to set the user and access key in the logstash config, by default it will refer to the env variable or a file. Now this credential will change and i have to reload the logstash pipeline. With hot reload or auto reload I think the logstash will look for any change in the config but in my case the logstash config will not change, the environment variable or the file will change. How can we force the logstash to reload the config file in this case.
# Sample Logstash configuration for creating a simple
# Beats -> Logstash -> Elasticsearch pipeline.
input {
file {
path => "\xx\\elk.log"
}
}
output {
kinesis {
stream_name => "acars-stream"
region => "us-east-2"
}
}
The plugin used - https://github.com/samcday/logstash-output-kinesis

Answer 1

Since you mentioned that credentials may be passed using environment variables, then you can use environment variables in output plugin with auto reload of config enabled for logstash. Something along these lines:
output {
kinesis {
stream_name => "acars-stream"
region => "us-east-2"
access_key => "${AWS_ACCESS_KEY}"
secret_key => "${AWS_SECRET_KEY}"
}
}
If that is not the option then you can extend the process which updates the credentials file, when they credentials need to be updated, to also reload Logstash config.
Refer to reload docs: https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/logstash/6.4/reloading-config.html
You would do something like:
kill -1 PID_OF_YOUR_LOGSTASH_PROCESS