# Can you only search streams?

**URL:** <https://community.graylog.org/t/can-you-only-search-streams/7411>\
**Category:** Graylog Central (peer support)\
**Created:** [October 26, 2018, 3:08pm UTC](https://community.graylog.org/t/can-you-only-search-streams/7411 "2018-10-26T15:08:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![LinuxNoob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4da419/32.png) [@LinuxNoob](https://community.graylog.org/u/LinuxNoob)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2018, 3:08pm UTC](https://community.graylog.org/t/can-you-only-search-streams/7411/1 "2018-10-26T15:08:26Z")

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Are we only able to search a stream? So if I want to search for a user’s activity do I already need to have a stream set up for that? Sorry for asking simple questions but I’m new to IT in general, new to log analysis and new to Graylog.

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**Author:** ![jan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/community.graylog.org/jan/32/11_2.png) [@jan](https://community.graylog.org/u/jan)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2018, 3:59pm UTC](https://community.graylog.org/t/can-you-only-search-streams/7411/2 "2018-10-26T15:59:49Z")

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if you are admin user you have the ability to search over “all messages” without a stream.

Streams give you the ability to seperate data.

Maybe you read the Getting Started Guide of the Docs [http://docs.graylog.org/en/2.4/pages/getting\_started.html](http://docs.graylog.org/en/2.4/pages/getting_started.html)

That should answer some questions.

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**Author:** ![LinuxNoob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4da419/32.png) [@LinuxNoob](https://community.graylog.org/u/LinuxNoob)\
**Post date:** [October 29, 2018, 5:59pm UTC](https://community.graylog.org/t/can-you-only-search-streams/7411/3 "2018-10-29T17:59:59Z")

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I’m being asked to check for malicious behavior from a user. If there wasn’t a stream set up will I be unable to search for it?

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**Author:** ![jan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/community.graylog.org/jan/32/11_2.png) [@jan](https://community.graylog.org/u/jan)\
**Post date:** [October 30, 2018, 8:08am UTC](https://community.graylog.org/t/can-you-only-search-streams/7411/4 "2018-10-30T08:08:59Z")

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no - if you have the ability to access the data you can search for it.

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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/uploads/graylog/original/3X/c/7/c7c09c6b5099570133d6502b83f50ba4430de5b6.png) [@system](https://community.graylog.org/u/system)\
**Post date:** [November 13, 2018, 8:20am UTC](https://community.graylog.org/t/can-you-only-search-streams/7411/5 "2018-11-13T08:20:07Z")

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