SPLK-2002 Exam Dumps - Splunk Enterprise Certified Architect Questions and Answers

 The following artifacts are included in a Splunk diag file:

• Server specs. These are the specifications of the server that Splunk runs on, such as the CPU model, the memory size, the disk space, and the network interface. These specs can help understand the Splunk hardware requirements and performance.
• Current open connections. These are the connections that Splunk has established with other Splunk instances or external sources, such as forwarders, indexers, search heads, license masters, deployment servers, and data inputs. These connections can help understand the Splunk network topology and communication.
• Internal Splunk log files. These are the log files that Splunk generates to record its own activities, such as splunkd.log, metrics.log, audit.log, and others. These logs can help troubleshoot Splunk issues and monitor Splunk performance.
• Index listings. These are the listings of the indexes that Splunk has created and configured, such as the index name, the index location, the index size, and the index attributes. These listings can help understand the Splunk data management and retention. The following artifacts are not included in a Splunk diag file:
• Search history. This is the history of the searches that Splunk has executed, such as the search query, the search time, the search results, and the search user. This history is not part of the Splunk diag file, but it can be accessed from the Splunk Web interface or the audit.log file.
• Splunk users and their roles. These are the users that Splunk has created and assigned roles to, such as the user name, the user password, the user role, and the user capabilities. These users and roles are not part of the Splunk diag file, but they can be accessed from the Splunk Web interface or the authentication.conf and authorize.conf files.
• KV store listings. These are the listings of the KV store collections and documents that Splunk has created and stored, such as the collection name, the collection schema, the document ID, and the document fields. These listings are not part of the Splunk diag file, but they can be accessed from the Splunk Web interface or the mongod.log file.
• Indexed data. These are the data that Splunk indexes and makes searchable, such as the rawdata and the tsidx files. These data are not part of the Splunk diag file, as they may contain sensitive or confidential information. For more information, see Generate a diagnostic snapshot of your Splunk Enterprise deployment in the Splunk documentation.

According to the Splunk documentation1, in a search head cluster, the KV Store Primary is the same node as the search head cluster captain. The KV Store Primary is responsible for coordinating the replication of KV Store data across the cluster members. When any node receives a write request, the KV Store delegates the write to the KV Store Primary. The KV Store keeps the reads local, however. This ensures that the KV Store data is consistent and available across the cluster.

References:

• About the app key value store
• KV Store and search head clusters

 To reduce the captain’s work load in a search head cluster, the setting that will prevent scheduled searches from running on the captain is captain_is_adhoc_searchhead = true (on the current captain). This setting will designate the current captain as an ad hoc search head, which means that it will not run any scheduled searches, but only ad hoc searches initiated by users. This will reduce the captain’s work load and improve the search head cluster performance. The adhoc_searchhead = true (on all members) setting will designate all search head cluster members as ad hoc search heads, which means that none of them will run any scheduled searches, which is not desirable. The adhoc_searchhead = true (on the current captain) setting will have no effect, as this setting is ignored by the captain. The captain_is_adhoc_searchhead = true (on all members) setting will have no effect, as this setting is only applied to the current captain. For more information, see Configure the captain as an ad hoc search head in the Splunk documentation.

The best practice for ingesting syslog data from network devices on port 514 into Splunk is to configure syslog to write logs and use a Splunk forwarder to collect the logs. This practice will ensure that the data is reliably collected and forwarded to Splunk, without losing any data or overloading the Splunk indexer. Configuring syslog to send the data to multiple Splunk indexers will not guarantee data reliability, as syslog is a UDP protocol that does not provide acknowledgment or delivery confirmation. Using a Splunk indexer to collect a network input on port 514 directly will not provide data reliability or load balancing, as the indexer may not be able to handle the incoming data volume or distribute it to other indexers. Using a Splunk forwarder to collect the input on port 514 and forward the data will not provide data reliability, as the forwarder may not be able to receive the data from syslog or buffer it in case of network issues. For more information, see [Get data from TCP and UDP ports] and [Best practices for syslog data] in the Splunk documentation.

Three peers can fail. This is the maximum number of search peers that can fail before data becomes unsearchable in the indexer cluster with the given characteristics. The searchability of the data depends on the Search Factor, which is the number of searchable copies of each bucket that the cluster maintains across the set of peer nodes1. In this case, the Search Factor is 3, which means that each bucket has three searchable copies distributed among the 10 search peers. If three or fewer search peers fail, the cluster can still serve the data from the remaining searchable copies. However, if four or more search peers fail, the cluster may lose some searchable copies and the data may become unsearchable. The other options are not correct, as they either underestimate or overestimate the number of search peers that can fail before data becomes unsearchable. Therefore, option C is the correct answer, and options A, B, and D are incorrect.

1: Configure the search factor

The index=_internal component=DC* host= search will show all deployment client messages from the universal forwarder. The component field indicates the type of Splunk component that generated the message, and the host field indicates the host name of the machine that sent the message. The index=_audit component=DC* host= search will not return any results, because the deployment client messages are not stored in the _audit index. The index=_internal component=DS* host= search will show the deployment server messages from the deployment server, not the client. The index=_audit component=DS* host= search will also not return any results, for the same reason as above

The telnet and tcpdump tools can be leveraged to diagnose connection problems between an indexer and forwarder. The telnet tool can be used to test the connectivity and port availability between the indexer and forwarder. The tcpdump tool can be used to capture and analyze the network traffic between the indexer and forwarder. The splunk btool command can be used to check the configuration files of the indexer and forwarder, but it cannot diagnose the connection problems. The splunk btprobe command does not exist, and it is not a valid tool.

Splunk Enterprise licensing is based on the amount of data that is ingested and indexed by the Splunk platform per day1. The data that counts against the license is the data that is stored in the indexes that are visible to the users and searchable by the Splunk software2. The indexes that are visible and searchable by default are the main index and any custom indexes that are created by the users or the apps3. The main index is the default index where Splunk Enterprise stores all data, unless otherwise specified4.

Option B is the correct answer because the data for the main index will count against the ingest-based license, as it is a visible and searchable index by default. Option A is incorrect because the summary index is a special type of index that stores the results of scheduled reports or accelerated data models, which do not count against the license. Option C is incorrect because the _metrics index is an internal index that stores metrics data about the Splunk platform performance, which does not count against the license. Option D is incorrect because the _introspection index is another internal index that stores data about the impact of the Splunk software on the host system, such as CPU, memory, disk, and network usage, which does not count against the license.

References:

1: How Splunk Enterprise licensing works - Splunk Documentation 2: What data counts against my license? - Splunk Documentation 3: [About indexes and indexers - Splunk Documentation] 4: [The main index - Splunk Documentation] : [Summary indexing - Splunk Documentation] : [About metrics indexes - Splunk Documentation] : [About the Monitoring Console - Splunk Documentation]

The correct answer is C. Increase the parallellngestionPipelines attribute. This is an option in limits.conf that may provide performance benefits at the forwarding tier, as it allows the forwarder to process multiple data inputs in parallel1. The parallellngestionPipelines attribute specifies the number of pipelines that the forwarder can use to ingest data from different sources1. By increasing this value, the forwarder can improve its throughput and reduce the latency of data delivery1. The other options are not effective options to provide performance benefits at the forwarding tier. Option A, enabling the indexed_realtime_use_by_default attribute, is not recommended, as it enables the forwarder to send data to the indexer as soon as it is received, which may increase the network and CPU load and degrade the performance2. Option B, increasing the maxKBps attribute, is not a good option, as it increases the maximum bandwidth, in kilobytes per second, that the forwarder can use to send data to the indexer3. This may improve the data transfer speed, but it may also saturate the network and cause congestion and packet loss3. Option D, increasing the max_searches_per_cpu attribute, is not relevant, as it only affects the search performance on the indexer or search head, not the forwarding performance on the forwarder4. Therefore, option C is the correct answer, and options A, B, and D are incorrect.

1: Configure parallel ingestion pipelines 2: Configure real-time forwarding 3: Configure forwarder output 4: Configure search performance

 The following statements are true about Splunk indexer clustering:

• All peer nodes must run exactly the same Splunk version. This is a requirement for indexer clustering, as different Splunk versions may have different data formats or features that are incompatible with each other. All peer nodes must run the same Splunk version as the master node and the search heads that connect to the cluster.
• The search head must run the same or a later Splunk version than the peer nodes. This is a recommendation for indexer clustering, as a newer Splunk version may have new features or bug fixes that improve the search functionality or performance. The search head should not run an older Splunk version than the peer nodes, as this may cause search errors or failures. The following statements are false about Splunk indexer clustering:
• The master node must run the same or a later Splunk version than the search heads. This is not a requirement or a recommendation for indexer clustering, as the master node does not participate in the search process. The master node should run the same Splunk version as the peer nodes, as this ensures the cluster compatibility and functionality.
• The peer nodes must run the same or a later Splunk version than the master node. This is not a requirement or a recommendation for indexer clustering, as the peer nodes do not coordinate the cluster activities. The peer nodes should run the same Splunk version as the master node, as this ensures the cluster compatibility and functionality. For more information, see [About indexer clusters and index replication] and [Upgrade an indexer cluster] in the Splunk documentation.