Splunk SPLK-1003 Splunk Enterprise Certified Admin Exam Practice Test

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.

Splunk Enterprise supports multifactor authentication integrations with MFA providers such as Duo Security and RSA Security. These are commonly referenced options for MFA with Splunk Enterprise authentication.

Option A is incorrect because Google Authenticator and Okta Verify are not the listed Splunk Enterprise MFA options in this administration context.

Option B is incorrect because LastPass and Microsoft Entra ID are not the expected answer pair for Splunk Enterprise MFA in this question.

Option C is incorrect because Ping Identity is an identity provider and CrowdStrike Falcon is an endpoint security platform, not the expected Splunk Enterprise MFA answer pair.

Option D is correct because Duo Security and RSA Security are the MFA options associated with Splunk Enterprise administration documentation.

https://answers.splunk.com/answers/131127/scripted-authentication.html

Scripted Authentication: An option for Splunk Enterprise authentication. You can use an authentication system that you have in place (such as PAM or RADIUS) by configuring authentication.conf to use a script instead of using LDAP or Splunk Enterprise default authentication.

When a monitored file has already been indexed into the wrong index, simply changing the index setting does not cause Splunk to re-read the file. Splunk tracks monitored files in the fishbucket so it knows what has already been read.

To re-index the same file, the monitor tracking information must be reset on the forwarder that originally monitored the file. This is done with the btprobe command against the fishbucket database.

The correct process is:

Correct the configuration so future data goes to the right index, Index A.

Stop the forwarder.

Reset the file’s fishbucket entry using btprobe.

Restart the forwarder so the file can be read again.

Use the delete command only to make the incorrectly indexed events unsearchable from Index B.

The delete command does not physically remove events from disk. It marks matching events so they are no longer returned in searches. It also does not reclaim disk space and does not remove buckets.

Option A is incorrect because rebuilding the indexer is not the correct fix for re-indexing a monitored file.

Option B is incorrect because a rebuild command is not the correct method for making a forwarder re-read a monitored file.

Option C is incorrect because the fishbucket reset must be performed on the forwarder that monitored the file, not on the indexer.

Option D is correct because it combines the required configuration correction, fishbucket reset on the forwarder, re-ingestion, and use of the delete command to hide the incorrectly indexed events.

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.

According to the Splunk documentation1, to customize a configuration file, you need to create a new file with the same name in a local or app directory. Then, add the specific settings that you want to customize to the local configuration file. Never change or copy the configuration files in the default directory. The files in the default directory must remain intact and in their original location. The Splunk Enterprise upgrade process overwrites the default directory.

To deploy configuration files to deployment clients, you need to use the deployment server. The deployment server is a Splunk Enterprise instance that distributes content and updates to deployment clients2. The deployment server uses a directory called $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/deployment-apps to store the apps and configuration files that itdeploys to clients2. To update the configuration files in this directory, you need to edit them manually and then run the command $SPLUNK_HOME/bin/sp1unk reload deploy—server to make the changes take effect2.

Therefore, option A is incorrect because it does not include the reload command. Option B is incorrect because it makes the change on a deployment client instead of the deployment server. Option D is incorrect because it changes the default directory instead of the local directory.

The acceptFrom setting controls which remote hosts are allowed or denied for a network input. It supports IP addresses and CIDR notation. A deny rule is represented with an exclamation mark !.

To allow all hosts in the 10.0.0.0/8 network but deny hosts in the 10.1.0.0/16 network, the configuration must include both:

10.0.0.0/8 to allow the broader network

!10.1.0.0/16 to deny the excluded subnet

The best matching option is:

acceptFrom = !10.1.0.0/16, 10.0.0.0/8

Option A is incorrect because it only accepts the 10.1.0.0/16 network, which is the network that should be excluded.

Option B is incorrect because it accepts all 10.x.x.x hosts and does not exclude 10.1.x.x.

Option C is incorrect because it repeats the acceptFrom setting on separate lines. In Splunk configuration files, repeated attributes in the same stanza can override earlier values, so this is not the correct way to express the allow/deny list.

Option D is correct because it defines the exclusion and the allowed network in one acceptFrom list.

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

" A Splunk platform instance that responses to search requests from a search head. The term " Search peer " is usually synonymous with the indexer role in a distributed search topology... "

A Splunk Deployment Server is used to centrally manage and distribute apps, configurations, and updates to deployment clients. On the deployment server, the default location for deployment apps is:

$SPLUNK_HOME/etc/deployment-apps/

Apps placed in this directory can be assigned to server classes and deployed to deployment clients.

Important distinction:

$SPLUNK_HOME/etc/deployment-apps/

is used on the deployment server.

$SPLUNK_HOME/etc/apps/

is where apps are normally installed on a Splunk instance, including deployment clients after apps are received.

manager-apps and peer-apps are not the default Deployment Server app staging directory.

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

The fastest way to add data to your Splunk Cloud instance or Splunk Enterprise deployment is to use Splunk Web. After you access the Add Data page, choose one of three options for getting data into your Splunk platform deployment with Splunk Web: (1) Upload, (2) Monitor, (3) Forward The Upload option lets you upload a file or archive of files for indexing. When you choose Upload option, Splunk Web opens the upload process page. Monitor. For Splunk Enterprise installations, the Monitor option lets you monitor one or more files, directories, network streams, scripts, Event Logs (on Windows hosts only), performance metrics, or any other type of machine data that the Splunk Enterprise instance has access to.

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! " } '

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

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.

Hot/warm/cold/thawed bucket types are searchable. Frozen isn ' t searchable because its either deleted at that state or archived.

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

The correct answer is C. MonitorNoHandle.

MonitorNoHandle is a type of input stanza that allows a Splunk forwarder to read files on Windows systems as Windows writes to them. It does this by using a kernel-mode filter driver to capture raw data as it gets written to the file1. This input stanza is useful for files that get locked open for writing, such as the Windows DNS server log file2.

The other options are incorrect because:

A. Tail Reader is not a valid input stanza in Splunk. It is a component of the Tailing Processor, which is responsible for monitoring files and directories for new data3.

B. Upload is a type of input stanza that allows Splunk to index a single file from a local or network file system. It is not suitable for files that are constantly being updated, as it only indexes the file once and does not monitor it for changes4.

D. Monitor is a type of input stanza that allows Splunk to monitor files and directories for new data. However, it may not work for files that Windows prevents Splunk from reading while they are open. In such cases, MonitorNoHandle is a better option2.

A Splunk forwarder is a lightweight agent that can forward data to a Splunk deployment. There are two types of forwarders: universal and heavy. A universal forwarder can only forward data, while a heavy forwarder can also perform parsing, filtering, routing, and aggregation on the data before forwarding it5.

An input stanza is a section in the inputs.conf configuration file that defines the settings for a specific type of input, such as files, directories, network ports, scripts, or Windows event logs. An input stanza starts with a square bracket, followed by the input type and the input path or name. For example, [monitor:///var/log] is an input stanza for monitoring the /var/log directory.

https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/8.0.1/Forwarding/Aboutforwardingandreceivingdata

https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Forwarder/8.1.1/Forwarder/Configureforwardingwithoutputs.conf#:~:text=compressed%3Dtrue%20This%20tells%20the,the%20forwarder%20sends%20raw%20data.

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... "

" 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 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.

The Splunk Deployment Server is a centralized component used to distribute configurations and apps to multiple deployment clients , such as forwarders, indexers, or other Splunk instances.

By default, all deployment apps that the Deployment Server manages are stored in the directory:

$SPLUNK_HOME/etc/deployment-apps/

Each subdirectory under this path represents a deployment app that can be pushed to one or more clients based on rules defined in serverclass.conf.

The Deployment Server stages updates in /etc/deployment-apps/ and deploys them to clients based on matching server classes. This mechanism allows centralized management and configuration consistency across distributed Splunk environments.

Reference (Splunk Documentation):

Splunk® Enterprise Admin Manual → Use the deployment server to deploy configurations

serverclass.conf.spec and example → “Deployment server staging area is $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/deployment-apps/.”

Splunk Docs: “About deployment server”

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.

You can have a role inherit certain properties from one or more existing rolehttps://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/8.0.5/Security/Aboutusersandroles

The app local directories move to second in the priority list. This is explained in the Splunk documentation, which states:

In a clustered environment, the precedence of configuration files changes slightly from that of a standalone deployment. The app local directories move to second in the priority list, after the peer-apps local directory. This means that any configuration files in the app local directories on the individual peers are overridden by configuration files of the same name and type in the peer-apps local directory on the master node.

 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/8.2.2/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

https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/8.0.5/Admin/Aboutlicenseviolations

" Enterprise Trial license. If you get five or more warnings in a rolling 30 days period, you are in violation of your license. Dev/Test license. If you generate five or more warnings in a rolling 30-day period, you are in violation of your license. Developer license. If you generate five or more warnings in a rolling 30-day period, you are in violation of your license. BUT for Free license. If you get three or more warnings in a rolling 30 days period, you are in violation of your license. "

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 "

In Splunk Enterprise, license warnings occur when the daily indexing volume exceeds the licensed quota. These warnings are tracked from midnight to midnight based on the system clock of the license manager. If the number of warnings surpasses the allowed threshold within a specified period, a license violation ensues, potentially restricting search capabilities.

To prevent a license warning from escalating to a violation, administrators have until midnight to address the issue. The recommended action is toadd a new licenseto the license manager before midnight. This increases the daily indexing volume quota, ensuring that the current day ' s data ingestion falls within the permissible limits.

It ' s important to note that deleting data from indexers or the license manager does not retroactively reduce the recorded license usage for the day. Once data is indexed, it contributes to the day ' s license volume, and its removal does not negate that contribution.

" The forwarder/indexer relationship can be considered platform agnostic (within the sphere of supported platforms) because they exchange their data handshake (and the data, if you wish) over TCP.

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/latest/Admin/Howtoeditaconfigurationfile#Clear%20a%20setting

https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/8.0.5/Indexer/Howindexingworks

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

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. "

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

" The HTTP Event Collector (HEC) lets you send data and application events to a Splunk deployment over the HTTP and Secure HTTP (HTTPS) protocols. HEC uses a token-based authentication model. You can generate a token and then configure a logging library or HTTP client with the token to send data to HEC in a specific format. This process eliminates the need for a Splunk forwarder when you send application events. "

After an app is downloaded, it resides under $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/apps on the deployment clients. But it resided in the $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/deployment-apps location in the deployment server.

To remove a search peer from a search head in a distributed search environment using the CLI, Splunk provides the splunk remove search-server command. This command is executed on the search head and removes the specified search peer from its configuration.

The correct syntax for this command is:

splunk remove search-server -auth < user > : < password > < host > : < port >

Where:

< user > : < password > are the credentials for the search head.

< host > : < port > specifies the management port of the search peer to be removed.

For example:

bash

CopyEdit

splunk remove search-server -auth admin:password 123.45.67.89:8089

This command removes the search peer from the search head ' s configuration. It ' s important to note that this action does not affect the search peer itself; it merely removes the association from the search head.

" 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

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

- Section: About channels and sending data

Sending events to HEC with indexer acknowledgment active is similar to sending them with the setting off. There is one crucial difference: when you have indexer acknowledgment turned on, you must specify a channel when you send events. The concept of a channel was introduced in HEC primarily to prevent a fast client from impeding the performance of a slow client. When you assign one channel per client, because channels are treated equally on Splunk Enterprise, one client can ' t affect another. You must include a matching channel identifier both when sending data to HEC in an HTTP request and when requesting acknowledgment that events contained in the request have been indexed. If you don ' t, you will receive the error message, " Data channel is missing. " Each request that includes a token for which indexer acknowledgment has been enabled must include a channel identifier, as shown in the following example cURL statement, where < data > represents the event data portion of the request

The correct attribute is:

_TCP_ROUTING = < target_group >

In inputs.conf, _TCP_ROUTING is used to route data from a specific input to a specific TCP output group. The target group must be defined in outputs.conf.

Example:

# inputs.conf

[monitor:///var/log/app.log]

index = app_index

_TCP_ROUTING = indexer_group_1

The corresponding group is defined in outputs.conf:

[tcpout:indexer_group_1]

server = indexer1.example.com:9997,indexer2.example.com:9997

This allows specific inputs to be sent to particular indexer groups.

" You can group your search peers to facilitate searching on a subset of them. Groups of search peers are known as " distributed search groups. " You specify distributed search groups in the distsearch.conf file "

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

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

The Universal Forwarder (UF) handles data forwarding to indexers. When monitoring a continuous and high-volume syslog stream over TCP, the UF may not detect an end-of-file (EOF) condition, which is typicallyrequired to trigger load balancing between multiple indexers. This can result in the UF continuously sending data to a single indexer, potentially leading to uneven load distribution.

To address this, Splunk provides the forceTimebasedAutoLB setting in the outputs.conf configuration file. Enabling this setting allows the UF to switch between indexers at regular time intervals, regardless of EOF detection. This ensures a more balanced distribution of data across multiple indexers, even in scenarios with continuous data streams like syslog.

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.

The correct answer is C. On Deployment Server, $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/deployment-apps.

A deployment server is a Splunk Enterprise instance that acts as a centralized configuration manager for any number of other instances, called “deployment clients”. A deployment client can be a universal forwarder, a non-clustered indexer, or a search head1.

A deployment app is a directory that contains any content that you want to download to a set of deployment clients. The content can include a Splunk Enterprise app, a set of Splunk Enterprise configurations, or other content, such as scripts, images, and supporting files2.

You create a deployment app by creating a directory for it on the deployment server. The default location is $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/deployment-apps, but this is configurable through the repositoryLocation attribute in serverclass.conf. Underneath this location, each app must have its own subdirectory. The name of the subdirectory serves as the app name in the forwarder management interface2.

The other options are incorrect because:

A. On Universal Forwarder, $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/apps. This is the location where the deployment app resides after it is downloaded from the deployment server to the universal forwarder. It is not the location of the app before it is deployed2.

B. On Deployment Server, $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/apps. This is the location where the apps that are specific to the deployment server itself reside. It is not the location where the deployment apps for the clients are stored2.

D. On Universal Forwarder, $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/deployment-apps. This is not a valid location for any app on a universal forwarder. The universal forwarder does not act as a deployment server and does not store deployment apps3.