Splunk SPLK-3003 - Splunk Core Certified Consultant

 The Monitoring Console (MC) uses a REST endpoint to query the server and determine its role(s) based on the configuration files and processes running on the server. The MC does not rely on manual assignment, distsearch.conf, or default roles to identify the server role(s). References:

: Splunk Documentation: Monitoring Console: Identify roles of Splunk Enterprise instances

: Splunk Documentation: Monitoring Console: How the Monitoring Console identifies instance roles

The pass4SymmKey is a security key that lets various components of Splunk Enterprise authenticate securely with one another. The pass4SymmKey for an indexer cluster is configured in the server.conf file under the [clustering] stanza. To find the pass4SymmKey of an indexer cluster, the most efficient command is C, $SPLUNK_HOME/bin/splunk btool server list clustering | grep pass4SymmKey. This command uses btool to list the effective settings for the clustering service from the server.conf file and filters the output by grep to show only the pass4SymmKey value. The other commands are either incorrect or less efficient. References :=

Secure Splunk Enterprise services with pass4SymmKey

Use btool to troubleshoot configurations

 This is the minimum and least disruptive change necessary to protect the searchability of the indexer cluster in case of indexer failure, because it ensures that there are always at least two copies of each bucket in the cluster, one of which is searchable. This way, if one indexer fails, the cluster can still serve search requests from the remaining copy. Increasing the replication factor and search factor also improves the cluster’s resiliency and availability.

The other options are incorrect because they either do not protect the searchability of the cluster, or they require more changes and disruptions to the cluster. Option A is incorrect because enabling maintenance mode on the CM does not prevent excessive fix-up, but rather delays it until maintenance mode is disabled. Maintenance mode also prevents searches from running on the cluster, which defeats the purpose of protecting searchability. Option B is incorrect because leaving replication_factor=2 means that there is only one searchable copy of each bucket in the cluster, which is not enough to protect searchability in case of indexer failure. Enabling summary_replication does not help with this issue, as it only applies to summary indexes, not all indexes. Option C is incorrect because converting the cluster to multi-site requires a lot of changes and disruptions to the cluster, such as reassigning site attributes to all nodes, reconfiguring network settings, and rebalancing buckets across sites. It also does not guarantee that there will always be a searchable copy of each bucket in each site, unless the site replication factor and site search factor are set accordingly. References:

Splunk Core Consultant knowledge source documents or study guide: https://www.splunk.com/en_us/resources/splunk-certification-exam-study-guide.html

Splunk Test Blueprint Consultant: https://www.splunk.com/en_us/pdfs/training/splunk-test-blueprint-consultant.pdf

Splunk Data Model Acceleration (DMA) summaries are stored in summaryHomePath, which is an attribute in the indexes.conf file that specifies the location of the summary files for data model acceleration. By default, the summaryHomePath is set to $SPLUNK_DB//summary, where $SPLUNK_DB is the root directory for all index data. The summary files are CSV files that contain precomputed summary data relevant to the data model. Therefore, the correct answer is C, in summaryHomePath. References :=

Accelerate data models

Indexes.conf.spec

 The updated dashboard will not be available to the power user; they will see their modified version. This is because the Splunk App for AWS is a prebuilt app that is installed on the deployer and pushed to the search head cluster members. When a power user modifies a dashboard in the app on one of the search head cluster members, the changes are stored in the local directory of that member. When the app is upgraded to the latest version by following the instructions via the deployer, the changes in the default directory of the app are overwritten, but the changes in the local directory are preserved. Therefore, the power user will still see their modified version of the dashboard, while other users will see the updated version of the dashboard.

The other options are incorrect because they do not reflect what happens when a prebuilt app is upgraded in a search head cluster. Option A is incorrect because the updated dashboard will be deployed globally to all users, except for the power user who modified it. Option B is incorrect because applying the search head cluster bundle will not fail due to the conflict, as the local changes are not pushed back to the deployer. Option C is incorrect because the updated dashboard will not be available to the power user, as their local changes will take precedence over the default changes. References:

Splunk Core Consultant knowledge source documents or study guide: https://www.splunk.com/en_us/resources/splunk-certification-exam-study-guide.html

Splunk Test Blueprint Consultant: https://www.splunk.com/en_us/pdfs/training/splunk-test-blueprint-consultant.pdf

Install a prebuilt app on a search head cluster1

How configuration file precedence works2