SPLK-1003 Splunk Enterprise Certified Admin Questions and Answers

Search-time field extractions are the process of extracting fields from events after they are indexed. Search-time field extractions are specified on the search head, which is the Splunk component that handles searching and reporting. Search-time field extractions are configured in props.conf and transforms.conf files, which are located in the etc/system/local directory on the search head. Therefore, option D is the correct answer. References: Splunk Enterprise Certified Admin | Splunk, [About fields - Splunk Documentation]

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

The inputs.conf file is used to configure inputs, distributed inputs such as forwarders, and file system monitoring in Splunk1.

The [script://myscript.sh] stanza specifies a script input, which means that Splunk runs the script and indexes its output1.

The interval setting determines how often Splunk runs the script. If the interval is set to 0, the script runs only once when Splunk starts up1. If the interval is omitted, the script runs at the default interval of 60 seconds2.

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

https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/8.0.5/Updating/Updateconfigurations First line says it all: "The deployment server distributes deployment apps to clients."

URL https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/8.2.2/DistSearch/Configuredistributedsearch

"To activate distributed search, you add search peers, or indexers, to a Splunk Enterprise instance that you desingate as a search head. You do this by specifying each search peer manually."

because transforms.conf is the right configuration file to state the regex expression. https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/8.1.0/Admin/Transformsconf

"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."

https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/8.0.5/Deploy/Datapipeline

"In the input segment, Splunk software consumes data. It acquires the raw data stream from its source, breaks in into 64K blocks, and annotates each block with some metadata keys."

https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/8.1.2/Admin/Aboutlicenseviolations

"An Enterprise license stack with a license volume of 100 GB of data per day or more does not currently violate."

Per the provided reference URL https://d ocs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/7.3.1/Admin/User-seedconf

"To set the default username and password, place user-seed.conf in $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/system/local. You must restart Splunk to enable configurations. If the $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/passwd file is present, the settings in this file (user-seed.conf) are not used."

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

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.

References: 1: Redact data from events - Splunk Documentation

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."

A Heavy Forwarder is a Splunk instance that can parse and filter data before forwarding it to another Splunk instance, such as an indexer1. A Heavy Forwarder can also perform index-time field extractions using the TRANSFORMS setting2.

The TRANSFORMS setting is used to configure data transformations in the transforms.conf file3. The transforms.conf file contains settings and values that you can use to configure host and source type overrides, anonymize sensitive data, route events to different indexes, create index-time and search-time field extractions, and set up lookup tables3.

The TRANSFORMS setting can be deployed to the Heavy Forwarder where the syslog files are being monitored, so that the logs can be rerouted based on the event message before they are forwarded to the indexer2. This can improve the performance and efficiency of data processing and indexing2.

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.

References:

Splunk Docs: Configure data integrity controls

In Splunk Enterprise, when you configure the server.conf file with strict pool quota=false, it means that license pools are allowed to share the total available license quota rather than being restricted to their individually allocated quotas. However, this does not prevent pools from issuing warnings if they exceed their allocated limits.

Given the environment with a 1000 GB/day license split into three pools:

Pool X: 500 GB/day license, 100 GB used

Pool Y: 350 GB/day license, 400 GB used

Pool Z: 150 GB/day license, 300 GB used

Let's analyze the usage:

Pool X is allocated 500 GB/day but has only used 100 GB, well within its limit.

Pool Y is allocated 350 GB/day but has used 400 GB, which exceeds its limit by 50 GB.

Pool Z is allocated 150 GB/day but has used 300 GB, which exceeds its limit by 150 GB.

Even with strict pool quota=false, pools Y and Z have exceeded their individual allocated quotas and will issue warnings. Pool X has not exceeded its quota and thus will not issue any warnings. Therefore, the pools that are issued warnings are Y and Z.

The indexing pipeline and the parsing pipeline are the two pipelines that are responsible for transforming the raw data into events and preparing them for indexing. The indexing pipeline applies index-time settings, such as timestamp extraction, line breaking, host extraction, and source type recognition. The parsing pipeline applies parsing settings, such as field extraction, event segmentation, and event annotation.

A role in Splunk is a classification that determines what capabilities and indexes a user has. A capability is a permission to perform a specific action or access a specific feature on the Splunk platform1. An index is a collection of data that Splunk software processes and stores2. By assigning roles to users, you can control what they can do and what data they can access on the Splunk platform.

Therefore, the correct answers are A and D. A role in Splunk determines what capabilities and indexes a user has. Option B is incorrect because Splunk servers do not use roles to remotely control each other. Option C is incorrect because Splunk servers use instances and components to determine what functions they control3.

References: 1: Define roles on the Splunk platform with capabilities - Splunk Documentation 2: About indexes and indexers - Splunk Documentation 3: Splunk Enterprise components - Splunk Documentation

Users log on to the search head and run reports: – The search head dispatches searches to the peers – Peers run searches in parallel and return their portion of results – The search head consolidates the individual results and prepares reports

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.

https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/7.3.0/Admin/Wheretofindtheconfigurationfiles

"To determine the order of directories for evaluating configuration file precendence, Splunk software considers each file's context. Configuration files operate in either a global context or in the context of the current app and user"

The coldPath parameter defines the path for the cold buckets, which are the oldest and least frequently accessed data in an index1. By setting the coldPath to point to the NAS mount point, the Splunk administrator can achieve the retention strategy of having older data on slower NAS storage.

https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/7.0.3/Forwarding/Routeandfilterdatad#Perform_selective_indexing_and_forwarding

Specifies a comma-separated list of tcpout group names. Use this setting to selectively forward your data to specific indexers by specifying the tcpout groups that the forwarder should use when forwarding the data. Define the tcpout group names in the outputs.conf file in [tcpout:] stanzas. The groups present in defaultGroup in [tcpout] stanza in the outputs.conf file.

A Splunk Enterprise trial license gives you access to all the features of Splunk Enterprise for a limited period of time, usually 60 days1. After the trial period expires, you can either purchase a Splunk Enterprise license or switch to a Free license1.

A Splunk Enterprise Free license allows you to index up to 500 MB of data per day, but some features are disabled, such as authentication, distributed search, and alerting2. You can switch to a Free license at any time during the trial period or after the trial period expires1.

A Splunk Enterprise Forwarder license is used with forwarders, which are Splunk instances that forward data to other Splunk instances. A Forwarder license does not allow indexing or searching of data3. You can install a Forwarder license on any Splunk instance that you want to use as a forwarder4.

A Splunk Enterprise commercial end-user license is a license that you purchase from Splunk based on either data volume or infrastructure. This license gives you access to all the features of Splunk Enterprise within a defined limit of indexed data per day (volume-based license) or vCPU count (infrastructure license). You can purchase and install this license after the trial period expires or at any time during the trial period1.

https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/8.2.2/Data/Configureyourinputs

Add your data to Splunk Enterprise. With Splunk Enterprise, you can add data using Splunk Web or Splunk Apps. In addition to these methods, you also can use the following methods. -The Splunk Command Line Interface (CLI) -The inputs.conf configuration file. When you specify your inputs with Splunk Web or the CLI, the details are saved in a configuartion file on Splunk Enterprise indexer and heavy forwarder instances.

According to the Splunk documentation1, to manually specify a character set for an input, you need to set the CHARSET key in the props.conf file. You can specify the character set by host, source, or sourcetype, but not by index.

https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/latest/Data/Configurecharactersetencoding

https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/8.2.2/Data/Anonymizedata

Scrolling down to the section titled "Define the sed script in props.conf shows the correct syntax of an example which validates that the number/character /1 immediately preceded the /g

https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/9.0.0/DistSearch/Distributedsearchgroups

REGEX =

* Enter a regular expression to operate on your data.

FORMAT =

* NOTE: This option is valid for both index-time and search-time field extraction. Index-time field extraction configuration require the FORMAT settings. The FORMAT settings is optional for search-time field extraction configurations.

* This setting specifies the format of the event, including any field names or values you want to add.

DEST_KEY =

* NOTE: This setting is only valid for index-time field extractions.

* Specifies where SPLUNK software stores the expanded FORMAT results in accordance with the REGEX match.

Splunk checks role-to-group mapping only during user login for external authentication (e.g., LDAP, SAML). Users already logged in will continue using their previously assigned roles until they log out and log back in.

The changes to role mapping do not disrupt ongoing sessions.

Incorrect Options:

B: Search is not disabled upon role updates.

C: This is incorrect since existing users are also updated upon the next login.

D: Role updates do not terminate ongoing sessions.

References:

Splunk Docs: Configure user authentication

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.

References: 1: Set a retirement and archiving policy - Splunk Documentation

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

https://www.splunk.com/en_u s/blog/tips-and-tricks/what-is-this-fishbucket-thing.html

"Every Splunk instance has a fishbucket index, except the lightest of hand-tuned lightweight forwarders, and if you index a lot of files it can get quite large. As any other index, you can change the retention policy to control the size via indexes.conf"

Reference https://community.splunk.com/t5/Archive/How-to-reindex-data-from-a-forwarder/td-p/93310

https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/7.3.1/Admin/Configurationfiledirectories

Section titled, Configuration file directories, states "A detailed list of settings for each configuration file is provided in the .spec file names for that configuration file. You can find the latest version of the .spec and .example files in the $SPLUNK_HOME/etc system/README folder of your Splunk Enterprise installation..."

https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/7.3.1/Data/Configurecharactersetencoding

"Configure character set encoding. Splunk software attempts to apply UTF-8 encoding to your scources by default. If a source foesn't use UTF-8 encoding or is a non-ASCII file, Splunk software tries to convert data from the source to UTF-8 encoding unless you specify a character set to use by setting the CHARSET key in the props.conf file."

Setting: ignoreOlderThan = Description: "Causes the input to stop checking files for updates if the file modification time has passed the threshold." Default: 0 (disabled)

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."

When Splunk is integrated with LDAP, most of the user attributes are managed by the LDAP server and cannot be changed in the Splunk UI. However, one exception is the default app attribute, which specifies which app a user sees when they log in to Splunk. This attribute can be changed in the Splunk UI by editing the user settings. Therefore, option A is the correct answer. References: Splunk Enterprise Certified Admin | Splunk, [Configure Splunk to use LDAP and map groups - Splunk Documentation]

The correct answer is A. splunk add one shot / opt/ incident [data . log —index incident

According to the Splunk documentation1, the splunk add one shot command adds a single file or directory to the Splunk index and then stops monitoring it. This is useful for ingesting static files that do not change or update. The command takes the following syntax:

splunk add one shot -index

The file parameter specifies the path to the file or directory to be indexed. The index parameter specifies the name of the index where the data will be stored. If the index does not exist, Splunk will create it automatically.

Option B is incorrect because the splunk edit monitor command modifies an existing monitor input, which is used for ingesting files or directories that change or update over time. This command does not create a new monitor input, nor does it stop monitoring after indexing.

Option C is incorrect because the splunk add monitor command creates a new monitor input, which is also used for ingesting files or directories that change or update over time. This command does not stop monitoring after indexing.

Option D is incorrect because the splunk edit oneshot command does not exist. There is no such command in the Splunk CLI.

References: 1: Monitor files and directories with inputs.conf - Splunk Documentation