Splunk SPLK-2002 - Splunk Enterprise Certified Architect

This is the index that records changes to .conf files as of Splunk 9.0. According to the Splunk documentation1, the _configtracker index tracks the changes made to the configuration files on the Splunk platform, such as the files in the etc directory. The _configtracker index can help monitor and troubleshoot the configuration changes, and identify the source and time of the changes1. The other options are not indexes that record changes to .conf files. Option B, _introspection, is an index that records the performance metrics of the Splunk platform, such as CPU, memory, disk, and network usage2. Option C, _internal, is an index that records the internal logs and events of the Splunk platform, such as splunkd, metrics, and audit logs3. Option D, _audit, is an index that records the audit events of the Splunk platform, such as user authentication, authorization, and activity4. Therefore, option A is the correct answer, and options B, C, and D are incorrect.

1: About the _configtracker index 2: About the _introspection index 3: About the _internal index 4: About the _audit index

According to Splunk’s Search Scheduler and Job Management documentation, the scheduler.log file, located within the _internal index, records the execution of scheduled and saved searches. This log provides a detailed record of when each search is triggered, how long it runs, and its success or failure status.

Each time a scheduled search runs (for example, alerts, reports, or summary index searches), an entry is written to scheduler.log with fields such as:

sid (search job ID)

app (application context)

savedsearch_name (name of the saved search)

user (owner)

status (success, skipped, or failed)

run_time and result_count

By searching the _internal index for sourcetype=scheduler (or directly viewing scheduler.log), administrators can confirm whether a specific saved search executed as expected and diagnose skipped or delayed runs due to resource contention or concurrency limits.

Other internal logs serve different purposes:

metrics.log records performance metrics.

kvstore.log tracks KV Store operations.

btool.log does not exist — btool outputs configuration data to the console, not a log file.

Hence, scheduler.log is the definitive and Splunk-documented source for validating scheduled search activity.

References (Splunk Enterprise Documentation):

• Saved Searches and Alerts – Scheduler Operation Details

• scheduler.log Reference – Monitoring Scheduled Search Execution

• Monitoring Console: Search Scheduler Health Dashboard

• Troubleshooting Skipped or Delayed Scheduled Searches

To resync a stale KV Store member in a search head cluster, you need to stop the search head that has the stale KV Store member, run the command splunk clean kvstore --local, and then restart the search head. This triggers the initial synchronization from other KV Store members12.

The command splunk resync kvstore [-source sourceId] is used to resync the entire KV Store cluster from one of the members, not a single member. This command can only be invoked from the node that is operating as search head cluster captain2.

The command splunk clean eventdata -local is used to delete all indexed data from a standalone indexer or a cluster peer node, not to resync the KV Store3.

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.

When Splunk indexes data in a non-clustered environment, it creates index and .tsidx files by default. The index files contain the raw data that Splunk has ingested, compressed and encrypted. The .tsidx files contain the time-series index that maps the timestamps and event IDs of the raw data. The rawdata and index files are not the correct terms for the files that Splunk creates. The compressed and .tsidx files are partially correct, but compressed is not the proper name for the index files. The compressed and meta data files are also partially correct, but meta data is not the proper name for the .tsidx files.

The client filters available in serverclass.conf are DNS name, IP address, and platform (machine type). These filters allow the administrator to specify which forwarders belong to a server class and receive the apps and configurations from the deployment server. The Splunk server role is not a valid client filter in serverclass.conf, as it is not a property of the forwarder. For more information, see [Use forwarder management filters] in the Splunk documentation.

 Changing the limits.conf value for max_searches_per_cpu to a higher value is the best option to increase scheduled search capacity on the search head cluster when a large number of searches are skipped across time. This value determines how many concurrent scheduled searches can run on each CPU core of the search head. Increasing this value will allow more scheduled searches to run at the same time, which will reduce the number of skipped searches. Creating a job server on the cluster, running the server.conf captain_is_adhoc_searchhead = true command, or adding another search head to the cluster are not the best options to increase scheduled search capacity on the search head cluster. For more information, see [Configure limits.conf] in the Splunk documentation.

 When planning a search head cluster, the following statement is true: All indexers must belong to the underlying indexer cluster (no standalone indexers). A search head cluster is a group of search heads that share configurations, apps, and search jobs. A search head cluster requires an indexer cluster as its data source, meaning that all indexers that provide data to the search head cluster must be members of the same indexer cluster. Standalone indexers, or indexers that are not part of an indexer cluster, cannot be used as data sources for a search head cluster. All search heads do not have to use the same operating system, as long as they are compatible with the Splunk version and the indexer cluster. All search heads do not have to be members of the cluster, as standalone search heads can also search the indexer cluster, but they will not have the benefits of configuration replication and load balancing. The search head captain does not have to be assigned to the largest search head in the cluster, as the captain is dynamically elected from among the cluster members based on various criteria, such as CPU load, network latency, and search load.

According to the indexes.conf reference in Splunk Enterprise, the parameter maxDataSize controls the maximum size (in GB or MB) of a single hot bucket before Splunk rolls it to a warm bucket. When the value is set to auto_high_volume on a 64-bit system, Splunk automatically sets the maximum hot bucket size to 10 GB.

The “auto” settings allow Splunk to choose optimized values based on the system architecture:

auto: Default hot bucket size of 750 MB (32-bit) or 10 GB (64-bit).

auto_high_volume: Specifically tuned for high-ingest indexes; on 64-bit systems, this equals 10 GB per hot bucket.

auto_low_volume: Uses smaller bucket sizes for lightweight indexes.

The purpose of larger hot bucket sizes on 64-bit systems is to improve indexing performance and reduce the overhead of frequent bucket rolling during heavy data ingestion. The documentation explicitly warns that these sizes differ on 32-bit systems due to memory addressing limitations.

Thus, for high-throughput environments running 64-bit operating systems, auto_high_volume = 10 GB is the correct and Splunk-documented configuration.

References (Splunk Enterprise Documentation):

• indexes.conf – maxDataSize Attribute Reference

• Managing Index Buckets and Data Retention

• Splunk Enterprise Admin Manual – Indexer Storage Configuration

• Splunk Performance Tuning: Bucket Management and Hot/Warm Transitions