Scenario Based Splunk Admin Interview Questions

Scenario based Splunk Admin Interview Questions (Part-1 & 2) Splunk Mania
Table of Contents
Prerequisites 6
Q1: What happens, If Cluster Master down 6
Q2: What happens, If one of the Indexers down in 3-member cluster 6
Q3: What happens, If two of the Indexers down in 3-member cluster 6
Q4: What happens, If all of the Indexers down in 3-member cluster 7
Q5: What happens, If one of the Search Heads down in 3-member cluster 7
Q6: What happens, If two of the Search Heads down in 3-member cluster 7
Q7: What happens, If all of the Search Heads down in 3-member cluster 7
Q8: What happens, If Deployer is down 7
Q9: What happens, If Monitoring Console down 8
Q10: What happens, If Deployment Server is down 8
Q11: What happens, If Universal Forwarder is down 8
Q12: What happens, If License Master/Server is down 8
Q13: How to Decide number of Search Heads & Indexers 8
Q14: How to Choose a Forwarder? (UF or HF) 8
Q15: Why do we need an Intermediate Forwarder? (IF) 9
Q16: Do we need License for Forwarders? 9
Q17: Why can’t we use a single Splunk instance with huge size, instead of Search
Head, Indexer, Universal Forwarder separately? 9
Q18: How Splunk Stores Indexes? 9
Q19: Is it possible to open the flat files in notepad++? 9
Q20: Is it possible to rename the Index? If yes, how? If not, why? 10
Q21: How to clean the Index in a Standalone Splunk instance & Indexer Cluster? 10
Q22: How to migrate index from one Splunk server to another Splunk server? 10
@splunkmania #splunkmania
2
Q23: How to take backup of Splunk configuration/data? Why should we do that? 11

Q24: How to Upgrade the Splunk Enterprise? 11
Q25: How to Upgrade the Splunk Enterprise, which is Clustered? 11
Q26: How to Upgrade the Splunk Universal Forwarder? 12
Q27: How to Deploy Apps to Search Head Clusters? 12
Q28: How to Deploy Apps to Indexer Cluster? 12
Q29: How to connect Forwarders to an Indexer Cluster? 13
Q30: Difference between Heavy Forwarders & HTTP Event Collector (HEC)? 13
Q31: Does the Indexer Cluster work, If Cluster Master is down? If yes, then why do we
need a Cluster Master? 14
Q32: What is meant by Colocation of Splunk Components? Why & when should we
do that? 14
Q33: Is it possible to use Deployment Server to distribute apps to Search Head Cluster
& Indexer Cluster? 15
Q34: How to reduce license usage in Splunk? How & where the license usage is being
calculated? 15
Q35: Why do we need a License Master/Server? Why can’t we install licenses on each
Splunk Server directly? 16
Q36: Can the Replication Factor be lower than the Search factor? why? 16
Q37: How to create Index in indexer Cluster? 16
Q38: What is meant by Retention Policy? and where it’s been used in Splunk? 17
Q39: What happens, if the network connectivity between the Forwarder & Indexer is
lost? 17
Q40: How to make sure if all data forwarded by Forwarder is received by the Indexer?
17
Q41: How to avoid overloading of Indexers, while sending the data from Forwarders?
18
Q42: What is the Indexer Discovery Method? 18
3
Q43: What happens when you remove the stanza from indexes.conf & restart the
Splunk? 18
Q44: What happens when the Disk is full? Index is full? 18
Q45: What is SmartStore in Splunk? 19
Q46: Does Splunk Support SSO/SAML? How to configure them? 19
Q47: How to enable SSL in Splunk? Is it possible to use custom SSL Certificates? 20
Q48: How to restrict users to specific index/data? 20
Q49: How to collect logs from AWS? or how to integrate Splunk with AWS? 20
Q50: How to connect/integrate Databases with Splunk? 20
Q51: How to integrate ServiceNow with Splunk? 21
Q52: How to get logs from Windows (or) Linux? 21
Q53: How to Anonymize/ Normalize/ Mask data in Splunk? 22
Q54: How to index the same data into 2 different indexers? 23
Q55: Other than Forwarders, what are all the ways the data can be onboarded to
Splunk? 24
Q56: How to upgrade Splunk Apps? 24
Q57: How to install Apps from Splunk base? 24
Q58: How to index log files into Splunk? 25
Q59: How to index custom CSV files into Splunk? 25
Q60: How index Json files into Splunk? 26
Q61: How to connect UF with Indexer? 26
Q62: How to connect Search Head with Indexer? 27
Q63: What happens in a distributed environment, under the hood/behind the screen,
when a user runs a query in Search Head? 28
Q64: Can Search Head store/index the data? 28
Q65: Can Forwarders store/index the data? 28
4
Q66: What is the location of Splunk index? 29

Q67: How Forwarders avoid duplicates? up to what level? 29
Q68: How to re-index data in Splunk? 29
Q69: How does fishbucket work? 30
Q70: Difference between Modular & Scripted Inputs? 30
Q71: How to Integrate Jenkins with Splunk? 31
Q72: How to create a Search Head Cluster? 32
Q73: How to create an Indexer Cluster? 32
Q74: How to connect Search Head cluster with Indexer Cluster? 32
Q75: How to Configure Monitoring Console? 32
Q76: Difference between Deployment Server & Deployer 33
References 34
Contact: 34
5
Prerequisites
● Basic understanding of Splunk Components & their functions
Notice: This Document provides a few examples of scenario-based questions one can expect in
an interview, but not limited to.
Q1: What happens, If Cluster Master down

If a master goes down, the cluster can continue to run as usual, as long as there are no other failures.
Peers can continue to ingest data, stream copies to other peers, replicate buckets, and respond to
search requests from the search head, at least for a while. Nevertheless, you should treat a downed
master as a serious failure. Cluster master is responsible for bucket replication & maintaining the
availability of Cluster, so as soon as possible, the cluster master has to be up.
To deal with the possibility of a downed master, you can configure a stand-by master that can take
over if needed.
Q2: What happens, If one of the Indexers down in 3-member

cluster
Assumption: The cluster has Search factor-2 & Replication Factor-3
● When a peer goes down, the master can therefore instruct the remaining peers to fix the
cluster's set of buckets, with the aim of returning to the state where the cluster has:
1) Exactly one primary copy of each bucket.
2) A full set of searchable copies for each bucket, matching the search factor.
3) A full set of copies (searchable and non-searchable combined) for each bucket, matching
the replication factor (the complete state).
● Searches can continue across the cluster after a node goes down; however, searches will
provide only partial results until the cluster regains its valid state
Q3: What happens, If two of the Indexers down in 3-member

cluster
● When two of the indexer peers go down, (if the cluster has Search factor-2 & Replication
Factor-3). The Cluster master will instruct the last remaining peer to make the copies of all
available buckets as searchable ones, also make them as primary copy (This includes creating
the index files from the raw data).
● During this activity some of the searches will give incomplete results. once all the bucket
copies are made searchable, then the searches can give complete results
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Q4: What happens, If all of the Indexers down in 3-member

cluster
● The Cluster master will show all members status as down. Forwarders will hold the data
which can significantly increase the waiting queue on the forwarders.
● This means the complete data is inaccessible.
● Search head will not show any data for queries, as there are no indexers to take the request.
Q5: What happens, If one of the Search Heads down in 3-member

cluster
● If a search head cluster member fails for any reason and leaves the cluster unexpectedly, the
cluster can usually continue to function without interruption.
● All search artifacts resident on the failed member remains available through other search
heads
● If the failed member was serving as captain, the remaining nodes elect another member as
captain. Since members share configurations, the new captain is immediately fully functional.
But here the election requires a minimum of 3 nodes, unfortunately we have only 2. So, we
have to go with configuring anyone of the available member as a Static captain & the other
one as member
Q6: What happens, If two of the Search Heads down in 3-member

cluster
● If a majority of members fail, the cluster cannot successfully elect a new captain, which
results in failure of the entire cluster.
● In this case you may have to go ahead with configuring the remaining member as static
captain
Q7: What happens, If all of the Search Heads down in 3-member

cluster
● This will show nothing to users, probably user will get “The site can’t be reached” or “502 Bad
Gateway” error when they try to access the Instances URL or the Load balancer URL
Q8: What happens, If Deployer is down

● You cannot push new configurations to the members.
● A member that joins or rejoins the cluster, or restarts, cannot pull the latest set of apps tar
balls.
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Q9: What happens, If Monitoring Console down

● No major issues to the environment's data flow. searches will work normally; indexing will
happen as usual.
● Only issue is the admin or whoever was using the Monitoring Console to track & monitor the
health of Splunk Environment, will lose the visibility
Q10: What happens, If Deployment Server is down

● Deployment client (say Forwarders) periodically polls the deployment server, to get the
checksum of the apps assigned to them. If the Deployment server is down, Deployment
Clients will not receive the details, which doesn’t interrupt the Forwarders functionality.
● The issue here is you can’t deploy the latest apps/configurations to deployment clients (say
forwarders)
Q11: What happens, If Universal Forwarder is down

● The Data from the source will not be forwarded to the indexer.
● As soon as the forwarder comes up, it will continue the streaming of data
Q12: What happens, If License Master/Server is down

● A license slave communicates their license volume usage to the license master every minute. If
a license slave cannot reach the license master for 72 hours or more, the slave is in violation
and search is blocked. A violation still allows indexing to continue. Users can not search the
slave in violation until the it reconnects with the license master.
Q13: How to Decide number of Search Heads & Indexers

● The table available in Splunk Docs shows the number of reference machines that you need to
index and search data in Splunk Enterprise, depending on the number of concurrent users and
the amounts of data that the instance indexes.
● Link:https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/8.0.10/Capacity/Summaryofperformanc
erecommendations
Q14: How to Choose a Forwarder? (UF or HF)

● Universal Forwarder: When the use case requires light weight agent which just collects &
forward the data, no additional changes to the data is needed, such as masking, filtering, at
the source level
● Heavy Forwarder: When the use case includes normalizing data (masking, filtering,
event-based routing, etc.) at the source level (e.g., sensitive data such as IP’s need to me
masked before sending to Indexer)
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Q15: Why do we need an Intermediate Forwarder? (IF)

● Intermediate forwarder, will act as a consolidation point from multiple forwarders and send
data to Indexer as a single stream. However, it can also do parsing, if the data is coming from
Universal forwarder, which can reduce the workload of Indexer.
Q16: Do we need License for Forwarders?

● The universal forwarder package includes its own license. The license is enabled or applied
automatically. This license allows forwarding but not indexing of unlimited data, and also
enables security on the forwarder so that users must supply a username and password to
access it.
● The heavy forwarder should have access to an Enterprise license stack if you plan to perform
indexing on the forwarder or to enable authentication on the forwarder.
Q17: Why can’t we use a single Splunk instance with huge size,
instead of Search Head, Indexer, Universal Forwarder
separately?
● For POC or Small deployment, Single Splunk Instance will be a good choice
● But for large scale of data and the greatest number of users,
o It will be a single point of failure
o When it comes to scaling, the 3 functions of Splunk (Input, Index, Search) can’t be
scaled separately as needed.
● In the real scenario, the Splunk dashboards can’t be created & managed, in the data source
itself.
Q18: How Splunk Stores Indexes?

In Simple words, Splunk Stores indexes as “Flat Files”
● Indexer creates a number of files to index data:
1. The raw data in compressed form (the rawdata journal)
2. Indexes that point to the raw data (tsidx files)
3. Some other metadata files
● Together, these files constitute the Splunk Enterprise index. Reside in sets of directories, or
buckets, organized by age.
● The data in each bucket is bounded by a limited time range.
Q19: Is it possible to open the flat files in notepad++?

● No, they are stored in some encoded format, and only readable by Splunk
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Q20: Is it possible to rename the Index? If yes, how? If not, why?

● Yes, it’s possible to rename the index
● Steps to rename the index:
o Rename the corresponding stanza in indexes.conf file
o Restart the Splunk
Note: This procedure works only on the standalone instance of Splunk, not in the Indexer Cluster
Q21: How to clean the Index in a Standalone Splunk instance &

Indexer Cluster?
● In Standalone instance use below command to clean the index
/opt/splunk/bin/splunk clean eventdata -index “indexname” -f
● In Indexer cluster,
o Add lower retention policy (say 10 seconds) to the respective index stanza
o Deploy the bundle to Indexer Cluster
o Wait for a few mins for the changes to take effect, after a few mins the data will be
cleaned. (You can verify the same from the Splunk Web/UI)
Note: This way of cleaning data is preferred only in dev environments. Please try to avoid this in
production environment
Q22: How to migrate index from one Splunk server to another

Splunk server?
● Migrate the respective stanza of indexes.conf file from the old server to new server
● Migrate the index directory from old server to new server. (Zip it and transfer)
● e.g: the directory for index named “test_index” will look like below
/opt/splunk/var/lib/splunk/test_index/
Note: Make sure the Splunk service is stopped & all the hot buckets are rolled to warm, to avoid any
data loss.
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Q23: How to take backup of Splunk configuration/data? Why

should we do that?
● Take the backup of below directories (In Splunk Enterprise installation)
/opt/splunk/etc/
/opt/splunk/var/lib/
● Take the backup of below directories (In Splunk Universal Forwarder installation)
/opt/splunkforwarder/etc/
/opt/splunkforwarder/var/lib/
● The reason behind taking the backup is to have a plan for failure scenarios. This backup will
help in restoring the configurations & data stored in Splunk
Note: Taking backup will differ based on the Splunk component, depending upon the purpose it’s
being used. (Detailed discussion will be needed during the architecture planning to come up with the
requirement for backup)
Q24: How to Upgrade the Splunk Enterprise?

● The same way we install Splunk for the first time, when you install the Splunk on top of an
existing installation, it identifies it as an upgrade and performs the same. Follow below steps:
o Step-1: Stop the Splunk Enterprise
o Step-2: Take a backup of the files
o Step-3: Download latest Splunk Enterprise package
o Step-4: Extract the package on top of the existing installation
o Step-5: Start the Splunk Enterprise
Note: Make sure you read the prompts in between & understand the impact, before you proceed with
the upgrade.
Q25: How to Upgrade the Splunk Enterprise, which is Clustered?

● Stop the manager node.
● Stop all the peers and search heads.
● Upgrade the manager node
● Start the manager node
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● Enable maintenance mode in manager node

● Upgrade the search heads, followed by the peer nodes.
● Start the peer nodes and search heads
● Disable maintenance mode in manager node
Note: The above-mentioned procedure is when you choose to upgrade all tier at once, this is not the
only way to upgrade Splunk Clustered environment. There are other ways, which you can try by
referring the Splunk Docs
Q26: How to Upgrade the Splunk Universal Forwarder?

● The same way we install Splunk Universal Forwarder for the first time, when you install the
Splunk Universal Forwarder on top of an existing installation, it identifies it as an upgrade and
performs the same. Follow below steps:
o Step-1: Stop the Splunk Universal Forwarder
o Step-2: Take a backup of the files
o Step-3: Download latest Splunk Universal Forwarder package
o Step-4: Extract the package on top of the existing installation
o Step-5: Start the Splunk Universal Forwarder
Note: Make sure you read the prompts in between & understand the impact, before you proceed with
the upgrade.
Q27: How to Deploy Apps to Search Head Clusters?

● Place the apps in below directory of Deployer
/opt/splunk/etc/shcluster/apps/
● Push the configuration bundle to Search Heads using below command
/opt/splunk apply shcluster-bundle -target <URI>:<management_port> -auth

<username>:<password>
Note: shcluster-bundle command has various parameters, based on your use case you can select the
parameters, such as preserving lookups, merging local to default, etc,.
Q28: How to Deploy Apps to Indexer Cluster?

● Place the apps in below directory of Cluster Manager/master
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/opt/splunk/etc/master-apps/
● Validate the bundle and check whether a restart is necessary using below command in Cluster
Master
/opt/splunk/bin splunk validate cluster-bundle --check-restart
● Push the configuration bundle to Indexers using below command in cluster master
/opt/splunk/bin splunk apply cluster-bundle --answer-yes
Q29: How to connect Forwarders to an Indexer Cluster?

● Create outputs.conf with the indexer IP as the target instances as shown below
[tcpout]
defaultGroup=my_indexers
[tcpout:my_indexers]
server=mysplunk_indexer1:9997, mysplunk_indexer2:9996
[tcpout-server://mysplunk_indexer1:9997]
(or)
● If it’s a Heavy Forwarder you can also try Splunk web/UI, go to settings >> Forwarding &
Receiving >> Configure receiving >> Add New >> Enter the details of Indexer and save it.
Q30: Difference between Heavy Forwarders & HTTP Event

Collector (HEC)?
HEAVY FORWARDER HTTP EVENT COLLECTOR
Pull Approach Push Approach

Pulls data when new files or updates to Listens on a port and you push data to it
existing files are made.
Good for monitoring files or directories and Good for receiving data directly from an
transforming data application.
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A Full Splunk instance that handles inputs HEC is a one way (among many) in
and sends data to a Splunk Indexer which you can bring data to Splunk
In other words, HF is a machine / tool and HEC is a function of this machine / tool
Q31: Does the Indexer Cluster work, If Cluster Master is down? If

yes, then why do we need a Cluster Master?
● Yes, Indexer Cluster works, even if the Cluster Master is down.
● However, Cluster master is responsible for bucket replication & maintaining the availability of
Cluster, so as soon as possible, the cluster master has to be up.
● If the cluster master is down, the newly created hot buckets will not get the target peers from
the cluster master, it will use the previous target peers, which can unbalance the cluster in
terms of buckets
Q32: What is meant by Colocation of Splunk Components? Why

& when should we do that?
● Configuring more than one management component in a single Splunk instance is called
colocation of Splunk components. (e.g License Master & Monitoring Console can be
configured in Single Splunk Instance)
● You might be able to combine two management components on a single Splunk Enterprise
instance. In some cases, you can locate a management component on an instance with a
processing component.
● In some low-use situations, you might be able to combine more than two management
components in a single instance, although it is not generally recommended that you do so. If
you intend to do so, monitor the performance impacts closely to ensure that you are not
overloading the instance.
Note: Refer the table below (from Splunk Docs)
Colocate with
Management component
LM
MC? DS? CM? Deployer? Indexer? Search head?
?
License master - yes yes yes yes yes yes
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Monitoring console yes - yes yes yes no yes
Deployment server yes yes - no yes yes yes
Indexer cluster manager node yes yes no - yes no no
Search head cluster deployer yes yes yes yes - no no

Key: "LM" = license master; "MC" = monitoring console; "DS" = deployment server; "CM" = cluster
manager.
Q33: Is it possible to use Deployment Server to distribute apps

to Search Head Cluster & Indexer Cluster?
● You cannot use the deployment server to update indexer cluster peer nodes or search head
cluster members directly.
● Indexer Cluster:
o Do not use deployment server or forwarder management to manage configuration files
across peer nodes (indexers) in an indexer cluster. Instead, use the configuration
bundle method.
o You can, however, use the deployment server to distribute updates to the master node,
which then uses the configuration bundle method to distribute them to the peer
nodes.
● Search head clusters:
o Do not use deployment servers to update search head cluster members.
o The deployment server is not supported as a means to distribute configurations or
apps to cluster members. To distribute configurations across the set of members, you
must use the search head cluster deployer.
Q34: How to reduce license usage in Splunk? How & where the
license usage is being calculated?
● To reduce license usage, filter the unwanted data in the Input phase itself & index only
required data.
● The measured data volume is based on the raw data that is placed into the indexing pipeline.
It is not based on the amount of compressed data that is written to disk. Because the data is
measured at the indexing pipeline, data that is filtered and dropped prior to indexing does
not count against the license volume quota.
15
Q35: Why do we need a License Master/Server? Why can’t we

install licenses on each Splunk Server directly?
● If you have multiple Splunk Enterprise instances, you'll want to manage their license access
from a central location.
● Installing license on each Splunk Server directly, will require manual effort by login in to each
server/uploading it to each server. (Every time when license expires you will have to update all
the servers)
Q36: Can the Replication Factor be lower than the Search factor?
why?
● No. Replication Factor can’t be lower than Search Factor
● Search Factor talks about how many searchable copies out of the replicated copies (which is
decided by Replication factor). So, it can’t be like 4 searchable copies out of 3 replicated
copies. (This is not realistic)
Q37: How to create Index in indexer Cluster?

● Step-1: Create a stanza in indexes.conf file of your app
● Step-2: Place the app in the below location of Cluster Master
● Step-2: Place the app in the below location of Cluster Master
● Step-3: Validate the bundle and check whether a restart is necessary using below command in
Cluster Master
/opt/splunk/bin splunk validate cluster-bundle --check-restart
● Step-4: Push the configuration bundle to Indexers using below command in cluster master
/opt/splunk/bin splunk apply cluster-bundle --answer-yes
● Step-5: Login to any one of Indexer & check the indexes list. Settings>>Indexes
16
Q38: What is meant by Retention Policy? and where it’s been

used in Splunk?
● Data retention policies are sets of rules that determine how long data remains available for
consumption from a message queue.
● Typically, streamed data is retained in an available state until a specified interval of time has
passed or a maximum amount of retained data is exceeded.
● It is defined in indexes.conf as shown below
[default]
maxWarmDBCount = 200
frozenTimePeriodInSecs = 432000
rotatePeriodInSecs = 30
Q39: What happens, if the network connectivity between the

Forwarder & Indexer is lost?
● Universal Forwarder will not be able to connect to the indexer, due to which the data flow will
be stopped/will be on hold. (Some of the data blocks will be stored in wait queue, once the
wait queue is full forwarder stops reading the data)
Q40: How to make sure if all data forwarded by Forwarder is

received by the Indexer?
● Enable Load Balancing in outputs.conf of the forwarder
● Enable Indexer Acknowledgement (useACK=true) in outputs.conf of the forwarder
o The forwarder sends data continuously to the indexer, in blocks of approximately 64kB.
The forwarder maintains a copy of each block in memory, in its wait queue, until it gets
an acknowledgment from the indexer. While waiting, it continues to send more data
blocks.
o If all goes well, the indexer:
1. Receives the block of data.
2. Parses the data.
3. Writes the data to the file system as events (raw data and index data).
4. Send an acknowledgment to the forwarder.
o The acknowledgment tells the forwarder that the indexer received the data and
successfully wrote it to the file system. Upon receiving the acknowledgment, the
forwarder releases the block from memory.
17
Q41: How to avoid overloading of Indexers, while sending the

data from Forwarders?
● With load balancing configuration, a forwarder distributes data across several receiving
instances. Each receiver gets a portion of the total data, and together the receivers hold all the
data.
Q42: What is the Indexer Discovery Method?
Q43: What happens when you remove the stanza from

indexes.conf & restart the Splunk?
● Index name will disappear from the list (in UI, Settings>>Indexes)
● The indexed data will still reside in the directory where it was indexed. But the data will not
be searchable.
● If we create stanza again, for the same index & restart the Splunk, then the data will become
searchable.
Q44: What happens when the Disk is full? Index is full?

● If the Disk is full, indexing pipeline will be stopped/hold
● If the Index is full, the oldest/earliest event will be removed, as per the retention policy
mentioned in indexes.conf.
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Q45: What is SmartStore in Splunk?

● SmartStore is an indexer capability that provides a way to use remote object stores, such as
Amazon S3 or Google GCS, to store indexed data.
● As a deployment's data volume increases, demand for storage typically outpaces demand for
compute resources. SmartStore allows you to manage your indexer storage and compute
resources in a cost-effective manner by scaling those resources separately.
Q46: Does Splunk Support SSO/SAML? How to configure them?

● Yes. Splunk Does supports SSO/SAML
● Detailed steps given in Splunk Docs
o https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/8.2.6/Security/SAMLSHC
o https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/8.2.6/Security/SAMLSSObestpractice
s
o https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/8.2.6/Security/ConfigureSAMLSSO
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Q47: How to enable SSL in Splunk? Is it possible to use custom

SSL Certificates?
● You can turn on default encryption in Splunk Web using the default certificates that come
with the installation, but this does not represent a high level of security, since every
installation provides those certificates.
o In Splunk Web, select Settings > System > Server settings, and then click General
Settings.
o Under Splunk Web, for Enable SSL (HTTPS) in Splunk Web? select the Yes radio button.
o Restart Splunk Web.
o After Splunk Web restarts, to access Splunk Web on that instance, use "https://<your
site name>:<port>" for the URL.
● To use a custom SSL certificate, follow the step-by-step procedure mentioned in Splunk
Document.
● Link:
https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/8.2.6/Security/SecureSplunkWebusingasigne
dcertificate
Q48: How to restrict users to specific index/data?

● Create a role with restricted access and only assign this role to user
o Step-1: Create a role which has access to the specific index. e.g: “role_alpha” has
access to only the “alpha_idx” index.
o Step-2: Assign only this role to the respective user (remove any other roles from the
user)
Q49: How to collect logs from AWS? or how to integrate Splunk

with AWS?
● Use the Splunk Add-on for Amazon Web Services (AWS) to collect data on Amazon Web
Services. The Splunk Add-on for AWS offers pretested add-on inputs for four main use cases
(CloudTrail log, performance, billing, and IT and security data), but you can create an input
manually for a miscellaneous Amazon Web Service.
● App Link: https://splunkbase.splunk.com/app/1876/
● Procedure Document Link:
http://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/AddOns/latest/AWS/Description
Q50: How to connect/integrate Databases with Splunk?

● Splunk DB Connect enables you to combine your structured data from databases with your
unstructured machine data, and then use Splunk Enterprise to provide insights into all of that
combined data.
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● When you use Splunk DB Connect, you are creating additional data inputs for Splunk
Enterprise. That is, you're giving Splunk Enterprise more sources of data to consume. Splunk
DB Connect is what connects your relational database data to Splunk Enterprise and makes
that data consumable by Splunk Enterprise.
● In addition, Splunk DB Connect can do the reverse—write Splunk Enterprise data back to
your relational database
https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/DBX/3.8.0/DeployDBX/AboutSplunkDBConnect
Q51: How to integrate ServiceNow with Splunk?

● The Splunk Add-on for ServiceNow allows a Splunk software administrator to use ServiceNow
REST APIs to collect the following types of data:
o Incident data
o Event data
o Change data
o User data
o User group data
o Location data
o Configuration management database (CMDB) configuration item (CI) data
● After you install and configure this add-on, you can use workflow actions that link directly
from events in the Splunk platform search results to relevant ServiceNow incidents, events,
and knowledge base articles. You can also use the custom commands, alert actions, and scripts
to create new incidents and events in your ServiceNow instance, and update the incidents
created from the Splunk platform.
https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/AddOns/released/ServiceNow/About
Q52: How to get logs from Windows (or) Linux?

● The Splunk Add-on for Unix and Linux collects *nix data from *nix hosts. You can install the
Splunk Add-on for Unix and Linux on a forwarder to send data from any number of *nix hosts a
Splunk Enterprise indexer or group of indexers. You can also use the add-on to provide data for
other apps, such as Splunk IT Service Intelligence or Splunk Enterprise Security.
● The Splunk Add-on for Unix and Linux collects the following data using file inputs:
o Changes to files in the /etc directory and subdirectories.
o Changes to files in the /var/log directory and subdirectories.
● App Link: https://splunkbase.splunk.com/app/833
21

https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/UnixAddOn/6.0.0/User/AbouttheSplunkAdd-onforU
nixandLinux
● The Splunk Add-on for Windows allows a Splunk software administrator to collect:
o CPU, disk, I/O, memory, log, configuration, and user data with data inputs.
o Active Directory and Domain Name Server debug logs from Windows hosts that act as
domain controllers for a supported version of a Windows Server. You must configure
Active Directory audit policy since Active Directory does not log certain events by
default.
o Domain Name Server debug logs from Windows hosts that run a Windows DNS Server.
Windows DNS Server does not log certain events by default, and you must enable
debug logging.
https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/WindowsAddOn/8.1.2/User/AbouttheSplunkAdd-on
forWindows
Q53: How to Anonymize/ Normalize/ Mask data in Splunk?

There are two ways to anonymize data with a heavy forwarder:
● Use the SEDCMD setting. This setting exists in the props.conf configuration file, which you
configure on the heavy forwarder. It acts like a sed *nix script to do replacements and
substitutions. This method is more straightforward, takes less time to configure, and is slightly
faster than a regular expression transform. But there are limits to how many times you can
invoke the SEDCMD setting and what it can do.
● Use a regular expression (regex) transform. This method takes longer to configure, but less
complex to modify after the initial configuration. You can also assign this method to multiple
data inputs more flexibly.
Both of these options are also available in Splunk Enterprise, where you can complete the
configuration on either a heavy forwarder or an indexer.
For more details:

https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/8.2.6/Data/Anonymizedata#Anonymize_data
22
Q54: How to index the same data into 2 different indexers?

On the instance that is to do the routing, open a command or shell prompt.
Edit $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/system/local/props.conf to set two TRANSFORMS-routing settings: one for
syslog data and a default for all other data.
[default]
TRANSFORMS-routing=errorRouting
[syslog]
TRANSFORMS-routing=syslogRouting
Edit $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/system/local/transforms.conf to set the routing rules for each routing

transform.
[errorRouting]
REGEX=error
DEST_KEY=_TCP_ROUTING
FORMAT=errorGroup
[syslogRouting]
REGEX=.
DEST_KEY=_TCP_ROUTING
FORMAT=syslogGroup
In this example, if a syslog event contains the word "error", it routes to syslogGroup, not errorGroup.
This is due to the settings you previously specified in props.conf. Those settings dictated that all syslog
events should be filtered through the syslogRouting transform, while all non-syslog (default) events
should be filtered through the errorRouting transform. Therefore, only non-syslog events get
inspected for errors. Edit $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/system/local/outputs.conf to define the target
groups.
[tcpout]
defaultGroup=everythingElseGroup
[tcpout:syslogGroup]
server=10.1.1.197:9996, 10.1.1.198:9997
23
[tcpout:errorGroup]
server=10.1.1.200:9999
[tcpout:everythingElseGroup]
server=10.1.1.250:6666
syslogGroup and errorGroup receive events according to the rules specified in transforms.conf. All
other events get routed to the default group, everythingElseGroup.
Q55: Other than Forwarders, what are all the ways the data can
be onboarded to Splunk?
● HTTP Event Collector
● Manual Upload through “Add Data” option from UI
● Custom streaming commands
● Summary indexing
● Splunk DB Connect, etc.
Q56: How to upgrade Splunk Apps?

● Stop the Splunk
● Take the backup of the respective Splunk App
● Extract/Place the latest App on top of the existing installation
● Restart the Splunk
Note: These steps are meant for Standalone Splunk instance, not for the clustered deployments
Q57: How to install Apps from Splunk base?

● Method-1
o Step-1: In Splunk UI/Web, Go to Manage Apps, click on “Find more apps”
o Step-2: Find out required app, with help of filters
o Step-3: click on “Install” button, (This will ask splunk.com credentials)
o Step-4: Once the app is installed, restart the Splunk (If applicable)
● Method-2
o Step-1: Download the required app from Splunkbase to your laptop
o Step-2: In Splunk UI/Web, Go to Manage Apps, click on “Install app from file” & upload
the app (if the app already present, select the checkbox which says “upgrade this app,
if already exists”)
o Step-3: click on “Install” button
o Step-4: Once the app is installed, restart the Splunk (If applicable).
24
Q58: How to index log files into Splunk?

● Method-1: Upload from Splunk UI using “Settings >> Add Data” option.
● Method-2: Create stanza in inputs.conf file as shown below (e.g., to index /var/log/messages
log file)
[monitor:///var/log/messages]
disabled = 0
index = test_index
● Method-3: Execute CLI command as shown below (e.g., to index /var/log/messages log file)
/opt/splunk/bin/splunk add monitor /var/log/messages
Q59: How to index custom CSV files into Splunk?

● Method-2: Use inputs.conf & props.conf file
o Step-1: Define a new sourcetype in props.conf, by creating a stanza which tells Splunk
how to extract the file header and structured file data. e.g.
[structuredCSVDataProps]
FIELD_DELIMITER=,
HEADER_FIELD_DELIMITER=\s
FIELD_QUOTE="
o Step-2: Create stanza in inputs.conf, as shown below (e.g., to index sample_data.csv

file)
[monitor:///opt/test/data/StructuredData/sample_data.csv]
sourcetype=structuredCSVDataProps
● Method-3: Execute CLI command as shown below (e.g., to index sample_data.csv file)
(Assuming the sourcetype “structuredCSVDataProps” is already created)
/opt/splunk/bin/splunk add monitor /

opt/test/data/StructuredData/sample_data.csv -sourcetype
structuredCSVDataProps
25
Q60: How index Json files into Splunk?

● Method-2: Create stanza in inputs.conf file as shown below (e.g., to index
/tmp/sample_data.json log file)
[monitor:///tmp/sample_data.json]
disabled = 0
index = test_index
sourcetype = _json
● Method-3: Execute CLI command as shown below (e.g., to index /tmp/sample_data.json log
file)
/opt/splunk/bin/splunk add monitor /tmp/sample_data.json -sourcetype

_json
Q61: How to connect UF with Indexer?

● Method-1: Create outputs.conf file as shown below (e.g., to connect to the indexers with IP –
10.128.72.25 & 10.128.72.26)
[tcpout]
defaultGroup=myIndexerGroup
[tcpout:myIndexerGroup]
server=10.128.72.25:9997, 10.128.72.26:9997
[tcpout-server://10.128.72.25:9997]
[tcpout-server://10.128.72.26:9997]
● Method-3: Execute CLI command as shown below (e.g., to connect to the indexers with IP –
10.128.72.25 & 10.128.72.26)
/opt/splunkforwarder/bin/splunk add forward-server 10.128.72.25:9997
26
Q62: How to connect Search Head with Indexer?

● Login to Splunk Head node
● Under Settings, select “Distributed search”, as shown below
● Then, under “Distributed search”>> “Search peers” >> Click “+ Add new”
● On the next screen, enter the details such as Peer URI (this refers to Indexer URI), and the
authentication details (Service account created in Step-2), then click on “Save” button as
shown below
● Once the details are added, it will be listed under “Search Peers” page
27
● After completing all above steps, go to Search head, open “Search & Reporting” app, then run
below query to see the results from all 3 Splunk nodes (Heavy Forwarder, indexer & Search
Head) 🡪 with Time Range of “Last 15 minutes”
Index=_internal
● The results of the above query will have data from 3 hosts. This shows the connection
between all 3 Splunk nodes (Heavy Forwarder, indexer & Search Head) are live.
Q63: What happens in a distributed environment, under the

hood/behind the screen, when a user runs a query in Search
Head?
Q64: Can Search Head store/index the data?

● By default, yes. But as a best practice, forwarding the data from Search Head to Indexer is
preferred, this will make sure the data is available in index tier alone, thus improving the
Search Head performance.
Q65: Can Forwarders store/index the data?

● By default, No. as the forwarders need not to have the data stored locally. But if it’s needed
(storing data locally on Forwarders, it can be enabled using the property in outputs.conf as
shown below)
28
[tcpout]
defaultGroup=myIndexerGroup
indexAndForward = true
● “indexAndForward = true” means, the data will be stored in Forwarder also, while the same
being sent to indexer
Q66: What is the location of Splunk index?
/opt/splunk/var/lib/splunk/
(or)
$SPLUNK_HOME/var/lib/splunk/
Q67: How Forwarders avoid duplicates? up to what level?

● Using “fishbucket”, forwarders are avoiding duplicates. The fishbucket keeps track of the files
being monitored, like a checkpoint. if the file’s older content is not modified & it has
additional content at the end of the file, then forwarder will take only the additional content,
with reference to fishbucket
Q68: How to re-index data in Splunk?

● Method-1: Delete the fishbucket directory of Forwarder
/opt/splunkforwarder/var/lib/splunk/fishbucket/
o This method will re-index whole data which forwarder indexed earlier, this method is
not preferred in production
● Method-2: Reset the fishbucket for the specific file in the Forwarder
<Answer here> $SPLUNK_HOME/bin/splunk cmd $SPLUNK_HOME/bin/btprobe -d

$SPLUNK_HOME/var/lib/splunk/fishbucket/splunk_private_db --file
/path/to/file.log --reset
● Method-3: Adding crcSalt to indexes.conf as shown below
29
[monitor:///var/log/messages]
disabled = 0
index = test_index
crcSalt = sometext
Q69: How does fishbucket work?

● When the file monitor processor looks at a file, it searches the fishbucket to see if the CRC
from the beginning of the file is already there.
● If not, the file is indexed as new.
● If yes, then we check the CRC of where we were reading against the saved value in seekcrc.
● If it matches and the file is longer than the saved seek pointer, then there is new stuff at the
end to read.
● If the top of the file matches but the seekcrc doesn’t, or the seek pointer is beyond the current
end of the file, then something in the part we have already read has changed. Since we don’t
know what might have changed, we just index the whole thing.
Q70: Difference between Modular & Scripted Inputs?

FEATURE MODULAR INPUTS SCRIPTED INPUTS
Checkpointing Supported Supported, but requires manual
implementation
Configuration Parameters defined in inputs.conf. Inline arguments
Users can configure inputs using
Splunk Web input Settings fields. Separate configuration outside
Validation support of the Splunk platform
REST management API Supported. Not supported
Access modular inputs using REST
Event boundaries Supported. Available, but requires
XML streaming simplifies specifying additional script complexity
event boundaries.
FEATURE MODULAR INPUTS SCRIPTED INPUTS
Multi-platform support Supported. Developers can package Not supported
a modular input script to include
versions for separate platforms.
30
REST endpoint Supported. n/a

authorization Use capabilities to control access.
Run as user Not supported. Supported.

All modular input scripts are run as You can specify which user can
the user using the Splunk instance. run the script
Single instance mode Supported Supported, but requires manual
implementation
Q71: How to Integrate Jenkins with Splunk?

● The Splunk App for Jenkins makes it possible to use Splunk solutions to collect, monitor and
analyze the wealth of Jenkins data.
● Since the engineering teams started using the Splunk App for Jenkins to gain insight into
Jenkins health, builds and test data, they were able to develop and test at greater velocity
while ensuring the high quality of Splunk software. They were able to reduce build
certification times from weeks to just a few minutes.
● Procedure:
Step 1. Splunk App Installation
o Install on a single instance
1. Download the add-on from Splunkbase.
2. From the Splunk Web home screen, click the gear icon next to Apps.
3. Click Install app from file.
4. Locate the downloaded file and click Upload.
5. Restart Splunk
o Install on a search head cluster
Use Splunk Web to deploy it on search headers or use deployer to install it in a search
header cluster.
http://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/AddOns/latest/Overview/Distributedinstall
o Install on an indexer cluster
copy indexes.conf and props.conf from this App's default folder to
$SPLUNK_HOME/etc/master-apps/_cluster/local/ on cluster master, then run
/opt/splunk/bin splunk apply cluster-bundle
Link:
http://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/6.5.3/Indexer/Updatepeerconfiguratio
ns
31
Step 2. Splunk Jenkins Plugin Installation and Configuration

o Splunk App gets all its data from Splunk's plugin for Jenkins.
o The Jenkins plugin can be downloaded directly in the Jenkins update center.
o Detailed plugin configuration guide can be found here
https://wiki.jenkins-ci.org/display/JENKINS/Splunk+Plugin+for+Jenkins
Q72: How to create a Search Head Cluster?

● Step-1: Enable the deployer with pass4symmkey
● Step-2: initiate the search head cluster configuration in all search head members
● Step-3: Bootstrap the captain election (execute the CLI command to trigger captain election)
Once the captain election is elected, the search head cluster is formed perfectly
● Step-4: Connect search head cluster with Indexer Cluster
Q73: How to create an Indexer Cluster?

● Step-1: Enable Cluster master node
● Step-2: Add all the search peers (indexers) to the cluster
● Step-3: Once the cluster gets the replication factor number of peers, up and running, the
indexer cluster will become valid & complete state
Q74: How to connect Search Head cluster with Indexer Cluster?

● To integrate a search head cluster with an indexer cluster, configure each member of the
search head cluster as a search head on the indexer cluster. Once you do that, the search
heads get their list of search peers from the manager node of the indexer cluster.
● Configure each search head cluster member as a search head on the indexer cluster. Use the
CLI splunk edit cluster-config command. Also restart the Search head, for example:
/opt/splunk/bin/splunk edit cluster-config -mode searchhead -master_uri

https://10.152.31.202:8089 -secret newsecret123 -auth login:password
/opt/splunk/bin/splunk restart
Q75: How to Configure Monitoring Console?

● In Standalone Deployment:
o Leave the default configuration as it is, by default the monitoring is enabled for
standalone deployments
● In Distributed Environment:
32
o Log into the instance on which you want to configure the monitoring console. The instance
by default is in standalone mode, unconfigured.
o In Splunk Web, select Monitoring Console > Settings > General Setup.
o Click Distributed mode.
o Confirm the following:
✔ The columns labeled instance and machine are populated correctly and show unique
values within each column.
✔ The server roles are correct. For example, a search head that is also a license master
must have both server roles listed. If not, click Edit > Edit Server Roles and select the
correct server roles for the instance.
✔ If you are using indexer clustering, make sure the cluster master instance is set to the
cluster master server role. If not, click Edit > Edit Server Roles and select the correct
server role.
● Click Apply Changes.
Q76: Difference between Deployment Server & Deployer

DEPLOYMENT SERVER DEPLOYER
Distributing configurations, apps, and content

Distribute apps and certain other configuration
updates to groups of Splunk Enterprise
updates to search head cluster members
instances
The set of updates that the deployment server The set of updates that the deployer
distributes is called the configuration files and distributes is called the configuration bundle,
apps, to deployment clients. to search head cluster members
Mainly used for Forwarder Mainly used for Search Head Cluster Members
You cannot use the deployment server to update indexer cluster peer nodes or search head cluster
members.
Happy Splunking…!!
Any help/support required on the Splunk, please contact the Splunk Mania Team using any one of the
methods mentioned at the end of this document.
33
References
https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk
Contact:
WhatsApp : +919345372209
Email : [email protected]
LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/company/splunk-mania
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/SplunkMania
Instagram : Splunk Mania (@splunkmania) • Instagram photos and videos
Slack : https://splunkmania.slack.com/
YouTube : Splunk Mania - YouTube
Website : Splunk Mania
34

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Scenario based Splunk Admin Interview Questions (Part-1 & 2) Splunk Mania

Q23: How to take backup of Splunk configuration/data? Why should we do that? 11

Q66: What is the location of Splunk index? 29

Q1: What happens, If Cluster Master down

Q2: What happens, If one of the Indexers down in 3-member

Q3: What happens, If two of the Indexers down in 3-member

Q4: What happens, If all of the Indexers down in 3-member

Q5: What happens, If one of the Search Heads down in 3-member

Q6: What happens, If two of the Search Heads down in 3-member

Q7: What happens, If all of the Search Heads down in 3-member

Q8: What happens, If Deployer is down

Q9: What happens, If Monitoring Console down

Q10: What happens, If Deployment Server is down

Q11: What happens, If Universal Forwarder is down

Q12: What happens, If License Master/Server is down

Q13: How to Decide number of Search Heads & Indexers

Q14: How to Choose a Forwarder? (UF or HF)

Q15: Why do we need an Intermediate Forwarder? (IF)

Q16: Do we need License for Forwarders?

Q18: How Splunk Stores Indexes?

Q19: Is it possible to open the flat files in notepad++?

Q20: Is it possible to rename the Index? If yes, how? If not, why?

Q21: How to clean the Index in a Standalone Splunk instance &

/opt/splunk/bin/splunk clean eventdata -index “indexname” -f

Q22: How to migrate index from one Splunk server to another

Q23: How to take backup of Splunk configuration/data? Why

Q24: How to Upgrade the Splunk Enterprise?

Q25: How to Upgrade the Splunk Enterprise, which is Clustered?

● Enable maintenance mode in manager node

Q26: How to Upgrade the Splunk Universal Forwarder?

Q27: How to Deploy Apps to Search Head Clusters?

● Push the configuration bundle to Search Heads using below command

/opt/splunk apply shcluster-bundle -target <URI>:<management_port> -auth

Q28: How to Deploy Apps to Indexer Cluster?

/opt/splunk/bin splunk validate cluster-bundle --check-restart

/opt/splunk/bin splunk apply cluster-bundle --answer-yes

Q29: How to connect Forwarders to an Indexer Cluster?

Q30: Difference between Heavy Forwarders & HTTP Event

Pull Approach Push Approach

Q31: Does the Indexer Cluster work, If Cluster Master is down? If

Q32: What is meant by Colocation of Splunk Components? Why

Note: Refer the table below (from Splunk Docs)

License master - yes yes yes yes yes yes

Monitoring console yes - yes yes yes no yes

Deployment server yes yes - no yes yes yes

Indexer cluster manager node yes yes no - yes no no

Search head cluster deployer yes yes yes yes - no no

Q33: Is it possible to use Deployment Server to distribute apps

Q35: Why do we need a License Master/Server? Why can’t we

Q37: How to create Index in indexer Cluster?

● Step-2: Place the app in the below location of Cluster Master

/opt/splunk/bin splunk validate cluster-bundle --check-restart

/opt/splunk/bin splunk apply cluster-bundle --answer-yes

Q38: What is meant by Retention Policy? and where it’s been

Q39: What happens, if the network connectivity between the

Q40: How to make sure if all data forwarded by Forwarder is

Q41: How to avoid overloading of Indexers, while sending the

Q42: What is the Indexer Discovery Method?