SPLK-1003 Splunk Enterprise Certified Admin Questions and Answers

https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/latest/Indexer/Setaretirementandarchivingpolicy

The CLI command "Splunk add forward-server indexer:" is used to define the indexer and the listening port on forwards. The command creates this kind of entry "[tcpout-server://:]" in the outputs.conf file.

https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Forwarder/8.2.2/Forwarder/Configureforwardingwithoutputs.conf

The correct answer is C. Distributed search is the feature that allows search heads in a company’s European offices to search data in their New York offices. Distributed search also enables restricting access to certain indexers by using the splunk_server field or the server.conf file1.

Distributed search is a way to scale your Splunk deployment by separating the search management and presentation layer from the indexing and search retrieval layer. With distributed search, a Splunk instance called a search head sends search requests to a group of indexers, or search peers, which perform the actual searches on their indexes. The search head then merges the results back to the user2.

Distributed search has several use cases, such as horizontal scaling, access control, and managing geo-dispersed data. For example, users in different offices can search data across the enterprise or only in their local area, depending on their needs and permissions2.

The other options are incorrect because:

A. Indexer clustering is a feature that replicates data across a group of indexers to ensure data availability and recovery. Indexer clustering does not directly affect distributed search, although search heads can be configured to search across an indexer cluster3.

B. LDAP control is a feature that allows Splunk to integrate with an external LDAP directory service for user authentication and role mapping. LDAP control does not affect distributed search, although it can be used to manage user access to data and searches.

D. Search head clustering is a feature that distributes the search workload across a group of search heads that share resources, configurations, and jobs. Search head clustering does not affect distributed search, although the search heads in a cluster can search across the same set of indexers.

The Data Preview feature should be used when validating the parsing of data. The Data Preview feature allows you to preview how Splunk software will index your data before you commit the data to an index. You can use the Data Preview feature to check the following aspects of data parsing1:

Timestamp recognition: You can verify that Splunk software correctly identifies the timestamps of your events and assigns them to the _time field.

Event breaking: You can verify that Splunk software correctly breaks your data stream into individual events based on the line breaker and should linemerge settings.

Source type assignment: You can verify that Splunk software correctly assigns a source type to your data based on the props.conf file settings. You can also manually override the source type if needed.

Field extraction: You can verify that Splunk software correctly extracts fields from your events based on the transforms.conf file settings. You can also use the Interactive Field Extractor (IFX) to create custom field extractions.

The Data Preview feature is available in Splunk Web under Settings > Data inputs > Data preview. You can access the Data Preview feature when you add a new input or edit an existing input1.

The other options are incorrect because:

A. When extracting fields for ingested data. The Data Preview feature can be used to verify the field extraction for data that has not been ingested yet, but not for data that has already been indexed. To extract fields from ingested data, you can use the IFX or the rex command in the Search app2.

B. When previewing the data before searching. The Data Preview feature does not allow you to search the data, but only to view how it will be indexed. To preview the data before searching, you can use the Search app and specify a time range or a sample ratio.

C. When reviewing data on the source host. The Data Preview feature does not access the data on the source host, but only the data that has been uploaded or monitored by Splunk software. To review data on the source host, you can use the Splunk Universal Forwarder or the Splunk Add-on for Unix and Linux.

https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/8.1.0/Data/ConsiderationsfordecidinghowtomonitorWindowsdata

"The Splunk platform collects remote Windows data for indexing in one of two ways: From Splunk forwarders, Using Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI). For Splunk Cloud deployments, you must use the Splunk Universal Forwarder on a Windows machines to montior remote Windows data."

https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/8.0.4/Admin/Propsconf#props.conf.spec

https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/8.1.1/Admin/Propsconf

"* Reuse of the same field-extracting regular expression across multiple sources, source types, or hosts."https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/8.0.4/Admin/Propsconf#props.conf.spec

https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/8.2.1/Updating/Filterclients

https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/8.0.6/Security/ManageSplunkuserroleswithLDAP

https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/8.2.2/Admin/Inputsconf

-Scroll down to source =

*Default: the input file path

When a user is assignedmultiple rolesin Splunk and each has a defined srchFilter, Splunk combines these filters using alogical ANDoperation. This ensures that the user can only search within the intersection of constraints imposed by each role.

From Splunk Docs:

"If a user has multiple roles assigned and multiple roles specify srchFilter, Splunk softwareANDs the filters together."

— Source: Splunk Documentation – authorize.conf

Let’s break it down:

role_A specifies: sourcetype!=json AND index=main

role_B specifies: sourcetype=csv

To evaluate the effective search filter for the user, Splunk willANDthe two conditions:

(sourcetype=csv) AND (sourcetype!=json AND index=main)

This means the user's search is limited to events where:

sourcetype=csv (from role_B)

sourcetype!=json AND index=main (from role_A)

Combining them together logically:

srchFilter = ((sourcetype=csv) AND (sourcetype!=json AND index=main))

This is exactly what is shown inOption A.

The correct answer is C and D. A heavy forwarder and an indexer are the Splunk components that can break a stream of syslog inputs into individual events.

A universal forwarder is a lightweight agent that can forward data to a Splunk deployment, but it does not perform any parsing or indexing on the data. A search head is a Splunk component that handles search requests and distributes them to indexers, but it does not process incoming data.

A heavy forwarder is a Splunk component that can perform parsing, filtering, routing, and aggregation on the data before forwarding it to indexers or other destinations. A heavy forwarder can break a stream of syslog inputs into individual events based on the line breaker and should linemerge settings in the inputs.conf file1.

An indexer is a Splunk component that stores and indexes data, making it searchable. An indexer can also break a stream of syslog inputs into individual events based on the props.conf file settings, such as TIME_FORMAT, MAX_TIMESTAMP_LOOKAHEAD, and line_breaker2.

A Splunk component is a software process that performs a specific function in a Splunk deployment, such as data collection, data processing, data storage, data search, or data visualization.

Syslog is a standard protocol for logging messages from network devices, such as routers, switches, firewalls, or servers. Syslog messages are typically sent over UDP or TCP to a central syslog server or a Splunk instance.

Breaking a stream of syslog inputs into individual events means separating the data into discrete records that can be indexed and searched by Splunk. Each event should have a timestamp, a host, a source, and a sourcetype, which are the default fields that Splunk assigns to the data.

https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/8.0.4/Data/Whitelistorblacklistspecificincomingdata

"It is not necessary to define both an allow list and a deny list in a configuration stanza. The settings are independent. If you do define both filters and a file matches them both, Splunk Enterprise does not index that file, as the blacklist filter overrides the whitelist filter." Source:https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/8.1.0/Data/Whitelistorblacklistspecificincomingdata

The HTTP Event Collector (HEC) supports indexer acknowledgment to confirm event delivery. Each acknowledgment is associated with a uniqueGUID(Globally Unique Identifier).

GUID ensures events are not re-indexed in the case of retries.

Incorrect Options:

B, C, D:These are not valid channel values in HEC acknowledgments.

Per the provided Splunk reference URL

https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/8.0.5/Data/AboutHECIDXAck

"While HEC has precautions in place to prevent data loss, it's impossible to completely prevent such an occurrence, especially in the event of a network failure or hardware crash. This is where indexer acknolwedgment comes in."

Reference https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/8.0.5/Data/AboutHECIDXAck

 The setting that allows the configuration of Splunk to allow events to span over more than one line is SHOULD_LINEMERGE. This setting determines whether consecutive lines from a single source should be concatenated into a single event. If SHOULD_LINEMERGE is set to true, Splunk will attempt to merge multiple lines into one event based on certain criteria, such as timestamps or regular expressions. Therefore, option A is the correct answer. References: Splunk Enterprise Certified Admin | Splunk, [Configure event line merging - Splunk Documentation]

https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/8.0.5/Forwarding/Forwarddatatothird-partysystemsd

"You can specify a SEDCMD configuration in props.conf to address data that contains characters that the third-party server cannot process. "

https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/8.2.2/Admin/Distdeploylicenses#:~:text=License%20requirements,do%20not%20index%20external%20data.

"All Splunk Enterprise instances functioning as management components needs access to an Enterprise license. Management components include the deployment server, the indexer cluster manager node, the search head cluster deployer, and the monitoring console."

https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/8.2.2/Updating/Aboutdeploymentserver

"The deployment server is the tool for distributing configurations, apps, and content updates to groups of Splunk Enterprise instances."

Data integrity controls in Splunk ensure that indexed data has not been tampered with.

When enabled, Splunk calculates hashes for each bucket and stores these hash files in the rawdata directory of the corresponding bucket.

Incorrect Options:

A, C, D:These directories do not store hash files.

The correct answer is D. Place both props . conf and transforms . conf on the Heavy Forwarder for source A, and place both props . conf and transforms . conf on the indexer for source B.

According to the Splunk documentation1, to mask sensitive data from raw events, you need to use the SEDCMD attribute in the props.conf file and the REGEX attribute in the transforms.conf file. The SEDCMD attribute applies a sed expression to the raw data before indexing, while the REGEX attribute defines a regular expression to match the data to bemasked.You need to place these files on the Splunk instance that parses the data, which isusually the indexer or the heavy forwarder2. The universal forwarder does not parse the data, so it does not need these files.

For source A, the data is routed through a heavy forwarder, which can parse the data before sending it to the indexer. Therefore, you need to place both props.conf and transforms.conf on the heavy forwarder for source A, so that the masking takes place before indexing.

For source B, the data is routed directly to the indexer, which parses and indexes the data. Therefore, you need to place both props.conf and transforms.conf on the indexer for source B, so that the masking takes place before indexing.

"The search head replicates the knowledge bundle periodically in the background or when initiating a search. " "As part of the distributed search process, the search head replicates and distributes its knowledge objects to its search peers, or indexers. Knowledge objects include saved searches, event types, and other entities used in searching accorss indexes. The search head needs to distribute this material to its search peers so that they can properly execute queries on its behalf."

The correct answer is B. in props.conf:

[identity]

SEDCMD-redact_pw = s/password=([^,|/s]+)/ ####REACTED####/g

According to the Splunk documentation1, to redact sensitive data from raw events, you need to use the SEDCMD attribute in the props.conf file. The SEDCMD attribute applies a sed expression to the raw data before indexing. The sed expression can use the s command to replace a pattern with a substitution string. For example, the following sed expression replaces any occurrence of password= followed by any characters until a comma, whitespace, or slash with ####REACTED####:

s/password=([^,|/s]+)/ ####REACTED####/g

The g flag at the end means that the replacement is applied globally, not just to the first match.

Option A is incorrect because it uses the REGEX attribute instead of the SEDCMD attribute. The REGEX attribute is used to extract fields from events, not to modify them.

Option C is incorrect because it uses the transforms.conf file instead of the props.conf file. The transforms.conf file is used to define transformations that can be applied to fields or events, such as lookups, evaluations, or replacements. However, these transformations are applied after indexing, not before.

Option D is incorrect because it uses both the wrong attribute and the wrong file. There is no REGEX-redact_pw attribute in the transforms.conf file.

"When ingesting event data, the measured data volume is based on the new raw data that is placed into the indexing pipeline. Because the data is measured at the indexing pipeline, data that is filetered and dropped prior to indexing does not count against the license volume qota."

https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/8.0.6/Admin/HowSplunklicensingworks

A Splunk deployment server is a system that distributes apps, configurations, and other assets to groups of Splunk Enterprise instances. You can use it to distribute updates to most types of Splunk Enterprise components: forwarders, non-clustered indexers, and search heads2.

A Splunk deployment server is available on every full Splunk Enterprise instance. To use it, you must activate it by placing at least one app into %SPLUNK_HOME%\etc\deployment-apps on the host you want to act as deployment server3.

A Splunk deployment server maintains the list of server classes and uses those server classes to determine what content to distribute to each client. A server class is a group of deployment clients that share one or more defined characteristics1.

A Splunk deployment client is a Splunk instance remotely configured by a deployment server. Deployment clients can be universal forwarders, heavy forwarders, indexers, or search heads. Each deployment client belongs to one or more server classes1.

A Splunk deployment app is a set of content (including configuration files) maintained on the deployment server and deployed as a unit to clients of a server class. A deployment app can be an existing Splunk Enterprise app or one developed solely to group some content for deployment purposes1.

Therefore, option C is correct, and the other options are incorrect.

 [monitor::/opt/log/crashlog/Jan27crash.txt]. This stanza means that Splunk is monitoring a single local file named Jan27crash.txt in the /opt/log/crashlog/ directory1. The monitor input type is used to monitor files and directories for changes and index any new data that is added2.

https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/latest/Admin/Howtoeditaconfigurationfile#Clear%20a%20setting

Set the stanza to have a server value equal to a comma-separated list of IP addresses and indexer ports for each of the indexers in the environment. This is explained in the Splunk documentation1, which states:

To enable automatic load balancing, set the stanza to have a server value equal to a comma-separated list of IP addresses and indexer ports for each of the indexers in the environment. For example:

[tcpout] server=10.1.1.1:9997,10.1.1.2:9997,10.1.1.3:9997

The forwarder then distributes data across all of the indexers in the list.

https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/8.1.1/Indexer/HowSplunkstoresindexes

Once further conditions are met (for example, the index reaches some maximum number of warm buckets), the indexer begins to roll the warm buckets to cold, based on their age. It always selects the oldest warm bucket to roll to cold. Buckets continue to roll to cold as they age in this manner. Cold buckets reside in a different location from hot and warm buckets. You can configure the location so that cold buckets reside on cheaper storage.

A bucket is the object that stores events inside of an index. According to the Splunk documentation1, “An index is a collection of directories, also called buckets, that contain index files. Each bucket represents a specific time range.” A bucket can be in one of several states, such as hot, warm, cold, frozen, or thawed1. Buckets are managed by indexers or clusters of indexers1.

According to the Splunk documentation1, a heavy forwarder is a Splunk Enterprise instance that can parse and filter data before forwarding it to an indexer. A heavy forwarder can perform line breaking,which is the process of splitting incoming data into individual events based on a set of rules2. A heavy forwarder can also apply other transformations to the data, such as field extractions, event type matching, or masking sensitive data3.

This is the endpoint URI used to collect data using the HTTP Event Collector (HEC), which is a token-based API that allows you to send data to Splunk Enterprise from any application that can make an HTTP request. The endpoint URI consists of the protocol (http or https), the hostname or IP address of the Splunk server, the port number (default is 8088), and the service name (services/collector). For example:

https://mysplunkserver.example.com:8088/services/collector

https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/7.3.0/Data/Specifyinputpathswithwildcards

The ellipsis wildcard searches recursively through directories and any number of levels of subdirectories to find matches.

If you specify a folder separator (for example, //var/log/.../file), it does not match the first folder level, only subfolders.

* The asterisk wildcard matches anything in that specific folder path segment.

Unlike ..., * does not recurse through subfolders.

Referencehttps://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/8.2.3/Admin/Configurationparametersandthedatapipeline

 The parsing phase is the process of extracting fields and values from raw data. The parsing phase respects LINE_BREAKER, SHOULD_LINEMERGE, BREAK_ONLY_BEFORE_DATE, and all other line merging settings in props.conf. These settings determine how Splunk breaks the data into events based on certain criteria, such as timestamps or regular expressions. The event boundaries are defined by the props.conf file, which can be modified by the administrator. Therefore, the parsing phase is the last opportunity for defining event boundaries.

In Splunk Enterprise, when knowledge bundles (which include lookup files, configurations, and other knowledge objects) are replicated between search heads and indexers, administrators can control the maximum size of lookup files that are eligible for replication.

The correct parameter to use is excludeReplicatedLookupSize, defined in distsearch.conf. This parameter specifies a maximum file size (in megabytes) beyond which lookup files are excluded from bundle replication. By setting this to 500, any lookup file larger than 500 MB will not be replicated to search peers.

This is especially important for performance optimization and preventing unnecessary network load during search head to indexer communication.

Example configuration (distsearch.conf):

[replicationSettings]

excludeReplicatedLookupSize = 500

Reference (Splunk Documentation):

distsearch.conf.spec and example → excludeReplicatedLookupSize

Splunk® Enterprise Distributed Search Manual → “Control knowledge bundle replication between search heads and indexers”

Splunk Admin Manual → “Prevent large lookup files from being replicated”

https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/8.0.3/DistSearch/Distributedsearchgroups

The correct answer is D. No, because the event time is greater than the retention time.

According to the Splunk documentation1, the frozenTimePeriodInSecs setting in indexes.conf determines how long Splunk software retains indexed data before deleting it or archiving it to a remote storage. The default value is 188697600 seconds, which is equivalent to six years. The setting can be overridden on a per-index basis.

In this case, the cat_facts index has a frozenTimePeriodInSecs setting of 2630000 seconds, which is equivalent to about 30 days. This means that any event that is older than 30 days from the current time will be removed from the index and will not be searchable.

The event timestamp was 3739283 seconds ago, which is equivalent to about 43 days. This means that the event is older than the retention time of the cat_facts index and will not be searchable.

The other settings in the stanza, such as maxHotSpanSecs and maxTota1DataSizeMB, do not affect the retention time of the events. They only affect the size and duration of the buckets that store the events.

https://docs.splunk.com/Splexicon:Serverclass

The correct methods to connect a deployment client to a deployment server are A and C. You can either run the command splunk set deploy-poll : from the command line of the deployment client1 or create and edit a deploymentclient.conf file in $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/system/local on the deployment client2. Both methods require you to specify the IP address, hostname, and management port of the deployment server that you want the client to connect to.

curl “https://mysplunkserver.example.com:8088/services/collector” \ -H “Authorization: Splunk DF4S7ZE4-3GS1-8SFS-E777-0284GG91PF67” \ -d ‘{“event”: “Hello World”}, {“event”: “Hola Mundo”}, {“event”: “Hallo Welt”}’. This is the correct curl command to send multiple events through HTTP Event Collector (HEC), which is a token-based API that allows you to send data to Splunk Enterprise from any application that can make an HTTP request. The command has the following components:

The URL of the HEC endpoint, which consists of the protocol (https), the hostname or IP address of the Splunk server (mysplunkserver.example.com), the port number (8088), and the service name (services/collector).

The header that contains the authorization token, which is a unique identifier that grants access to the HEC endpoint. The token is prefixed with Splunk and enclosed in quotation marks. The token value (DF4S7ZE4-3GS1-8SFS-E777-0284GG91PF67) is an example and should be replaced with your own token value.

The data payload that contains the events to be sent, which are JSON objects enclosed in curly braces and separated by commas. Each event object has a mandatory field called event, which contains the raw data to be indexed. The event value can be a string, a number, a boolean, an array, or another JSON object. In this case, the event values are strings that say hello in different languages.

SAML is an open standard for exchanging authentication and authorization data between parties, especially between an identity provider and a service provider1. SAML supports multi-factor authentication by allowing the identity provider to require the user to present two or more factors of evidence to prove their identity2. For example, the user may need to enter a password and a one-time code sent to their phone, or scan their fingerprint and face.

- etc/system/local/ has better precedence at index time - for identical settings in the same file, the last one overwrite others, see :https://community.splunk.com/t5/Getting-Data-In/What-is-the-precedence-for-identical-stanzas-within-a-single/m-p/283566

https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/latest/Data/Whitelistorblacklistspecificincomingdata#Include_or_exclude_specific_incoming_data

The answer to your question is C. services/data/collector. This is the endpoint URI used to collect data in a customer managed Splunk Enterprise environment.According to the Splunk documentation1, “The HTTP Event Collector REST API endpoint is /services/data/collector.You can use this endpoint to send events to HTTP Event Collector on a Splunk Enterprise or Splunk Cloud Platform deployment.” You can also use this endpoint to send events to a specific token or index1. For example, you can use the following curl command to send an event with the token 578254cc-05f5-46b5-957b-910d1400341a and the index main:

curl -k https://localhost:8088/services/data/collector -H 'Authorization: Splunk 578254cc-05f5-46b5-957b-910d1400341a'-d'{"index":"main","event":"Hello, world!"}'

https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/8.2.2/Knowledge/Usedefaultfields splunk_server

The splunk server field contains the name of the Splunk server containing the event. Useful in a distributed Splunk environment. Example: Restrict a search to the main index on a server named remote. splunk_server=remote index=main 404

To verify the integrity of a local bucket. The command ./splunk check-integrity -bucketPath [bucket path] [-verbose] is used to verify the integrity of a local bucket by comparing the hashes stored in the l1Hashes and l2Hash files with the actual data in the bucket1. This command can help detect any tampering or corruption of the data.

https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/8.0.3/Data/Monitornetworkports

https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Forwarder/8.2.1/Forwarder/HowtoforwarddatatoSplunkEnterprise

"You can collect data on the universal forwarder using several methods. Define inputs on the universal forwarder with the CLI. You can use the CLI to define inputs on the universal forwarder. After you define the inputs, the universal forwarder collects data based on those definitions as long as it has access to the data that you want to monitor. Define inputs on the universal forwarder with configuration files. If the input you want to configure does not have a CLI argument for it, you can configure inputs with configuration files. Create an inputs.conf file in the directory, $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/system/local

https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/SplunkCloud/8.2.2106/Admin/ConcurrentLimits

"Set limits for concurrent scheduled searches. You must have the edit_search_concurrency_all and edit_search_concurrency_scheduled capabilities to configure these settings."

According to the Splunk documentation1, event processing occurs at the parsing phase of the data pipeline. The parsing phase is where Splunk software processes incoming data into individual events, extracts timestamp information, assigns source types, and performs other tasks to make the data searchable1. The parsing phase can also apply field extractions, event type matching, and other transformations to the events2.