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

The splunk rebuild command is used for thawing the archive bucket. Thawing is the process of restoring frozen data back to Splunk for searching. Frozen data is data that has been archived or deleted from Splunk after reaching the end of its retention period. To thaw a bucket, the user needs to copy the bucket from the archive location to the thaweddb directory under SPLUNK_HOME/var/lib/splunk and run the splunk rebuild command to rebuild the .tsidx files for the bucket. The splunk collect command is used for collecting diagnostic data from a Splunk instance. The splunk convert command is used for converting configuration files from one format to another. The splunk dbinspect command is used for inspecting the status and properties of the buckets in an index.

When designing the number and size of indexes, the following considerations should be applied:

Expected daily ingest volumes: This is the amount of data that will be ingested and indexed by the Splunk platform per day. This affects the storage capacity, the indexing performance, and the license usage of the Splunk deployment. The number and size of indexes should be planned according to the expected daily ingest volumes, as well as the peak ingest volumes, to ensure that the Splunk deployment can handle the data load and meet the business requirements12.

Data retention time policies: This is the duration for which the data will be stored and searchable by the Splunk platform. This affects the storage capacity, the data availability, and the data compliance of the Splunk deployment. The number and size of indexes should be planned according to the data retention time policies, as well as the data lifecycle, to ensure that the Splunk deployment can retain the data for the desired period and meet the legal or regulatory obligations13.

Access controls: This is the mechanism for granting or restricting access to the data by the Splunk users or roles. This affects the data security, the data privacy, and the data governance of the Splunk deployment. The number and size of indexes should be planned according to the access controls, as well as the data sensitivity, to ensure that the Splunk deployment can protect the data from unauthorized or inappropriate access and meet the ethical or organizational standards14.

Option D is the correct answer because it reflects the most relevant and important considerations for designing the number and size of indexes. Option A is incorrect because the number of concurrent users is not a direct factor for designing the number and size of indexes, but rather a factor for designing the search head capacity and the search head clustering configuration5. Option B is incorrect because the number of installed apps is not a direct factor for designing the number and size of indexes, but rather a factor for designing the app compatibility and the app performance. Option C is incorrect because it omits the expected daily ingest volumes, which is a crucial factor for designing the number and size of indexes.

A single-site indexer cluster is a group of Splunk Enterprise instances that index and replicate data across the cluster1. A bucket is a directory that contains indexed data, along with metadata and other information2. A replication factor is the number of copies of each bucket that the cluster maintains1. A search factor is the number of searchable copies of each bucket that the cluster maintains1. A searchable copy is a copy that contains both the raw data and the index files3. A search head is a Splunk Enterprise instance that coordinates the search activities across the peer nodes1.

Option D is the correct answer because it reflects the definitions of replication factor and search factor. The cluster will ensure that there are at least three copies of each bucket, one on each peer node, to satisfy the replication factor of 3. The cluster will also ensure that there are at least two searchable copies of each bucket, one primary and one searchable, to satisfy the search factor of 2. The primary copy is the one that the search head uses to run searches, and the searchable copy is the one that can be promoted to primary if the original primary copy becomes unavailable3.

Option A is incorrect because it confuses the replication factor and the search factor. The cluster will ensure there are at least three copies of each bucket, not two, to meet the replication factor of 3. The cluster will ensure there are at least two copies of searchable metadata, not three, to meet the search factor of 2.

Option B is incorrect because it uses the wrong terms. The cluster will ensure there are at least, not at most, three copies of each bucket, to meet the replication factor of 3. The cluster will ensure there are at least, not at most, two copies of searchable metadata, to meet the search factor of 2.

Option C is incorrect because it has nothing to do with the replication factor or the search factor. The cluster does not limit the number of search heads that can access the bucket at the same time. The search head can search across multiple clusters, and the cluster can serve multiple search heads1.

1: The basics of indexer cluster architecture - Splunk Documentation 2: About buckets - Splunk Documentation 3: Search factor - Splunk Documentation

The replication factor and the search factor are two important settings for a Splunk indexer cluster. The replication factor determines how many copies of each bucket are maintained across the set of peer nodes. The search factor determines how many searchable copies of each bucket are maintained. The default values for both settings are 3, which means that each bucket has three copies, and at least one of them is searchable

All of the options are possible causes of a crash in Splunk. According to the Splunk documentation1, incorrect ulimit settings can lead to file descriptor exhaustion, which can cause Splunk to crash or hang. Insufficient disk IOPS can also cause Splunk to crash or become unresponsive, as Splunk relies heavily on disk performance2. Insufficient memory can cause Splunk to run out of memory and crash, especially when running complex searches or handling large volumes of data3. Running out of disk space can cause Splunk to stop indexing data and crash, as Splunk needs enough disk space to store its data and logs4.

1: Configure ulimit settings for Splunk Enterprise 2: Troubleshoot Splunk performance issues 3: Troubleshoot memory usage 4: Troubleshoot disk space issues

 In a four site indexer cluster, the configuration that stores two searchable copies at the origin site, one searchable copy at site2, and a total of four searchable copies is site_search_factor = origin:2, site2:1, total:4. This configuration tells the cluster to maintain two copies of searchable data at the site where the data originates, one copy of searchable data at site2, and a total of four copies of searchable data across all sites. The site_search_factor determines how many copies of searchable data are maintained by the cluster for each site. The site_replication_factor determines how many copies of raw data are maintained by the cluster for each site. For more information, see Configure multisite indexer clusters with server.conf in the Splunk documentation.

Search is not locked out when a customer has installed a 500GB Enterprise license and a 300GB, no enforcement license on the same license master. The no enforcement license allows the customer to exceed the license quota without locking search, but violations are still recorded. The customer can ingest up to 800GB of data per day without violating the license, but if they ingest more than that, they will incur a violation. However, the violation will not lock search, as the no enforcement license overrides the enforcement policy of the Enterprise license. For more information, see [No enforcement licenses] and [License violations] in the Splunk documentation.

 Syslog is a standard protocol for sending log messages from various devices and applications to a central server. Syslog can use either UDP or TCP as the transport layer protocol. UDP is faster but less reliable, as it does not guarantee delivery or order of the messages. TCP is slower but more reliable, as it ensures delivery and order of the messages. Therefore, to improve the reliability of syslog delivery to Splunk, it is recommended to use TCP syslog.

Another option to improve the reliability of syslog delivery to Splunk is to use one or more syslog servers to persist data with a Universal Forwarder to send the data to Splunk indexers. This way, the syslog servers can act as a buffer and store the data in case of network or Splunk outages. The Universal Forwarder can then forward the data to Splunk indexers when they are available.

Using a network load balancer to direct syslog traffic to active backend syslog listeners is not a reliable option, as it does not address the possibility of data loss or duplication due to network failures or Splunk outages. Configuring UDP inputs on each Splunk indexer to receive data directly is also not a reliable option, as it exposes the indexers to the network and increases the risk of data loss or duplication due to UDP limitations.

The minimum reference server specification for a Splunk indexer is 12 CPU cores, 12GB RAM, and 800 IOPS. This specification is based on the assumption that the indexer will handle an average indexing volume of 100GB per day, with a peak of 300GB per day, and a typical search load of 1 concurrent search per 1GB of indexing volume. The other specifications are either higher or lower than the minimum requirement. For more information, see [Reference hardware] in the Splunk documentation.

The correct action to take first if a deployment client is not updating apps is to choose a corrective action based on the splunkd.log of the deployment client. This log file contains information about the communication between the deployment server and the deployment client, and it can help identify the root cause of the problem1. The other actions may or may not help, depending on the situation, but they are not the first steps to take. Choosing a longer phone home interval may reduce the load on the deployment server, but it will also delay the updates for the deployment clients2. Increasing the number of CPU cores or the amount of memory for the deployment server may improve its performance, but it will not fix the issue if the problem is on the deployment client side3. Therefore, option C is the correct answer, and options A, B, and D are incorrect.

1: Troubleshoot deployment server issues 2: Configure deployment clients 3: Hardware and software requirements for the deployment server