The Splunk Enterprise Certified Admin (SPLK-1003)

https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Forwarder/8.0.5/Forwarder/Configuretheuniversalforwarder

--Key configuration files are: inputs.conf controls how the forwarder collects data. outputs.conf controls how the forwarder sends data to an indexer or other forwarder server.conf for connection and performance tuning deploymentclient.conf for connecting to a deployment server

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/8.1.1/Knowledge/Configureadvancedextractionswithfieldtransforms

use transformations with props.conf and transforms.conf to:

– Mask or delete raw data as it is being indexed

–Override sourcetype or host based upon event values

– Route events to specific indexes based on event content

– Prevent unwanted events from being indexed

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)

In Splunk Enterprise, when collecting data from remote Windows machines using Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI), the configurations are defined in the wmi.conf file. This file specifies the parameters for connecting to WMI providers and defines the data inputs.

The wmi.conf file is located in the $SPLUNK_HOME\etc\system\local\ directory. It contains stanzas that define global settings and input-specific configurations for WMI data collection. This setup allows Splunk to collect various types of data from remote Windows systems, such as event logs and performance metrics, without requiring a forwarder on the remote machine.

https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/8.1.1/DistSearch/Forwardsearchheaddata

Per the provided Splunk reference URL by @hwangho, scroll to section Forward search head data, subsection titled, 2. Configure the search head as a forwarder. " Create an outputs.conf file on the search head that configures the search head for load-balanced forwarding across the set of search peers (indexers). "