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In order to enable Splunk boot-start, we need to use the following command: $SPLUNK_HOME/bin/splunk enable boot-start

In order to disable Splunk boot-start, we need to use the following command: $SPLUNK_HOME/bin/splunk disable boot-start

Are you looking for a new job or trying to build a career in Splunk? There is no doubt that implementing Splunk will transform your business and catapult it to new heights. Therefore, prepare yourself for the most intense job INTERVIEW because the competition is fierce.

Splunk consultants, Splunk developers, Splunk engineers, Splunk SPECIALISTS, Information security analysts, etc., are in DEMAND. A Splunk career requires knowledge of architectural and CONFIGURATION points, Splunk files, indexers, forwarders, and others. Hopefully, these Splunk interview questions will assist you in getting into the flow and preparing for your interview.

Useful RESOURCES:

• IoT Interview Questions
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• DevOps Engineer

In order to restart the Splunk WEB Server, we NEED to USE the following COMMAND: splunk start splunkweb.

In order to restart the Splunk Daemon, we need to use the following command: splunk start splunkd.

Essentially, Splunk Fishbucket is a subdirectory within Splunk that is USED to MONITOR and track the extent to which the content of a file has been indexed within Splunk. 

The default location of the fish bucket subdirectory is: /opt/splunk/var/lib/splunk

It generally INCLUDES SEEKING pointers and CRCs (cyclic redundancy checks) for the FILES we are indexing so that Splunk knows whether it has already read them. 

Depending on your Splunk version, you can RESET the Admin password.   In case you have Splunk 7.1 and higher version, then you need to follow these steps: 

• Splunk Enterprise must be stopped first.
• Find and rename ‘passwd’ file to ‘passwd.bk’.
• In the below directory, CREATE a file NAMED 'user-seed.conf':

• Enter the following command in the file. 'NEW_PASSWORD' will be replaced by our own NEW password here.

• Restart Splunk Enterprise and log in with the new password again.

If you're using a version prior to 7.1, you need to follow these steps: 

• Splunk Enterprise must be stopped first.
• Find and rename ‘passwd’ file to ‘passwd.bk’.
• Use the DEFAULT credentials of admin/changeme to log in to Splunk Enterprise.
• If you're asked to change your admin username and password, just follow the instructions.

The following FILE on the Splunk SERVER needs to be deleted in ORDER to CLEAR Splunk search history: $splunk_home/var/log/splunk/searches.log.

Using 'ui-prefs.conf' in Splunk 6, we can specify the default search TIME. If we set the value as follows, all users would see it as the default setting: $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/system/local

For example, if our $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/system/local/ui-prefs.conf FILE Includes 

The default time RANGE that will appear to all users in the search APP is today.

A bucket is a directory in which SPLUNK stores index data. Each bucket contains data events in a particular time frame. As data ages, buckets move through different stages as given below: 

• Hot bucket: NEWLY indexed data is present in a ​​hot bucket. Every index contains one or more hot buckets, and every index is open for writing.
• Warm bucket: This bucket contains data that has been rolled or pulled out of the hot bucket. The warm buckets are numerous.
• Cold bucket: This bucket contains data that has been rolled or pulled out of the warm bucket. The cold buckets are numerous.
• Frozen bucket: This bucket contains data that has been rolled or pulled out of the cold bucket. By default, the INDEXER removes frozen data, but we can archive it.

Buckets are by default located in:$SPLUNK_HOME/var/lib/splunk/defaultdb/db.

Essentially, Splunk Fishbucket is a subdirectory within Splunk that is used to monitor and track the EXTENT to which the content of a file has been INDEXED within Splunk. For this feature, there are two types of contents: SEEK POINTERS and CRCs (cyclic redundancy checks).  

The default location of the FISH bucket subdirectory is: /opt/splunk/var/lib/splunk.

You can find it through the GUI (Graphical User Interface) by searching for: index=_thefishbucket.

SF (Search Factor) & RF (Replication Factor) are TERMS associated with Clustering techniques i.e., Search head clustering & Indexer clustering. 

• Search Factor: It is only associated with indexer clustering. It determines how many searchable COPIES of data the indexing cluster maintains. By default, the value of the search factor is 2.
• Replication Factor: It is associated with both Search head clustering & Indexer clustering. In the case of the indexer cluster, replication factor determines the number of copies of the data that an indexer cluster maintains, while in the case of the search head cluster, replication factor determines the minimum number of copies of the search artefacts that a search head cluster maintains. For the replication factor, the default value is 3.

Splunk Enterprise instances, also called search heads, distribute search requests to other instances called search peers, that performs the actual data searching and indexing. Results are merged and returned to the user by the search HEAD. You can implement Distributed Search using Search head pooling or Search head clustering in your Splunk deployment. 

• Search head pooling: Pooling refers to sharing resources in this CONTEXT. It uses shared STORAGE for configuring multiple search heads to share user data and configuration. Quite simply, it allows you to have multiple search heads so they share user data and configuration. MULTIPLYING search heads facilitate horizontal scaling when a lot of users are searching the same data.
• Search head clustering: In Splunk Enterprise, a search head CLUSTER is a collection of search heads that are used as a centralized resource for searching. All members of the cluster can access and run the same searches, dashboards, and search results.

A directory is INCLUDED in the Dispatch Directory for each search that is running or has been completed. 

The Dispatch Directory is configured as follows: 

Take the example of a directory named 14333208943.348. This directory includes a CSV file of all search results, a search.log CONTAINING details/information about the search execution, as WELL as other pertinent information. You can delete this directory WITHIN 10 minutes after the search is completed using the default configuration. Search results are DELETED after seven days if you have saved them. 

IT Operations professionals are familiar with Splunk and ELK (ElasticSearch, LogStash, and Kibana), two of the most widely used tools in the area of Operational DATA Analytics. 

ELK vs Splunk -

A developer, administrator, and architect all have to consider file precedence when troubleshooting Splunk. All Splunk configurations are SAVED in plain text .conf files. Almost every aspect of Splunk's behaviour is determined by CONFIGURATION files. There can be multiple copies of the same configuration file in a Splunk platform deployment. In most cases, these file copies are layered in directories that might affect users, applications, or the overall system. If you WANT to modify configuration files, you must know how the Splunk software evaluates those files and which ones have precedence when the Splunk software runs or is restarted.

Splunk software considers the context of each configuration file when determining the order of directories to prioritize configuration files. Configuration files can either be operated in a global context or in the context of the current application/user. 

DIRECTORY PRIORITY descends as follows when the file context is global:   

• System local directory -- highest priority  ->
• Application local directories  ->
• Application default directories  ->
• System default directory -- lowest priority

Directory priority descends from user to application to system when file context is current application/user:

• User directories for the current user -- highest priority   ->
• Application directories for the currently running application (local, followed by default)  ->
• Application directories for all the other applications (local, followed by default) -- for exported settings only ->
• System directories (local, followed by default) -- lowest priority

The BTOOL command-line TOOL can be used to figure out what settings are set on a Splunk Enterprise instance, as well as to see where those settings are CONFIGURED. Using the Btool command, we can troubleshoot configuration file ISSUES. 

Conf files, also CALLED Splunk software configuration files, are loaded and merged together to create a functional set of configurations that can be used by Splunk software when executing tasks. Conf files can be placed/found in many different folders under the Splunk installation. Using the on-disk conf files, Btool simulates the merging process and creates a report displaying the merged settings.

Splunk lookup commands can be used to retrieve specific fields from an external file (e.g., Python script, CSV file, etc.) to get the value of an EVENT. 

• Inputlookup: Inputlookup can be used to search the CONTENTS of a lookup table (CSV lookup or a KV store lookup). It is used to take input. This command, for INSTANCE, could take the product price or product name as input and match it with an internal field like the product ID.
• Outputlookup: CONVERSELY, the outputlookup command outputs search results to a specified lookup table, i.e., it places a search result into a specific lookup table.

Below are the commands INCLUDED in the "filtering results" CATEGORY:

• Search: This command retrieves events from indexes or filters the results of the previous search command. Events can be retrieved from your indexes by using keywords, wildcards, QUOTED phrases, and key/value expressions.
• Sort: The search results are sorted based on the fields that are SPECIFIED. The results can be sorted in reverse, ascending, or descending order. When sorting, the results can also be limited.
• Where: The 'where' command, however, filters search results using 'eval' expressions. When the 'search' command is used, it retains only those search results for which an evaluation was successful, while the 'where' command enables a deeper investigation of those search results. By using a 'search' command, one can DETERMINE the number of active nodes, but the 'where' command will provide a matching condition of an active node that is running a specific application.
• Rex: You can extract specific fields or data from your events using the 'rex' command. For instance, when you want to determine specific fields in an email id, like scaler@interviewbit.co, you can use the 'rex' command. This will distinguish scaler as the user ID, interviewbit.co as the domain, and interviewbit as the company. Rex allows you to slice, split, and break down your events however you like.

• STATS: The Stats COMMAND in Splunk calculates statistics for EVERY field present in your events (search results) and STORES these values in newly created fields.
• Eventstats: Similar to the stats command, this calculates a statistical RESULT. While the Eventstats command is similar to the Stats command, it adds the aggregate results inline to each event (if only the aggregate is relevant to that event).

Splunk provides the FOLLOWING search commands: 

• Abstract: It provides a brief summary of the text of the search results. It replaces the original text with the summary.
• Addtotals: It sums up all the numerical fields for each result.  You can see the results under the Statistics tab. Rather than calculating every numeric field, you can SPECIFY a list of fields whose SUM you want to compute.
• Accum: It calculates a running total of a numeric field. This accumulated sum can be returned to the same field, or to a NEW field specified by you.
• Filldown: It will generally replace NULL values with the last non-NULL value for the field or set of fields. Filldown will be applied to all fields if there is no list of fields given.
• Typer: It basically calculates the eventtype field for search results matching a specific/known EVENT type.
• Rename: It renames the specified field. Multiple fields can be specified using wildcards.
• Anomalies: It computes the "unexpectedness" score for a given event. The anomalies command can be used to identify events or field values that are unusual or unexpected.

Many Splunk commands are AVAILABLE, including those related to searching, correlation, data or indexing, and identifying specific fields. Following are some of the basic Splunk commands: 

• Accum: Maintains a running total of a numeric FIELD.
• Bucketdir: Replaces a field value with a higher-level grouping, just like replacing filenames with directories.
• Chart: Provides results in a tabular format for charting.
• Timechart: Creates a time SERIES chart and the corresponding statistics table.
• Rare: Displays the values that are least common in a field.
• Cluster: Groups/clusters similar EVENTS together.
• Delta: Calculates the difference between two search results.
• Eval: Calculates the expression and stores the result in a field.
• GAUGE: Converts the output result into a format compatible with gauge chart types.
• K-means: Perform K-means clustering for selected fields.
• Top: Shows/displays the most common values of a field that are mostly used.