Splunk join with different sourcetype8/25/2023 ![]() I will display this information in a table to make it easier to reference: AttributeĪ regex expression that represents all characters preceding the timestamp of an eventĬopy sample logs into regex101 (purge any sensitive info from the log prior) and write a regex Once you determine the configuration values, you can determine which data can share a sourcetype and which ones will need to be broken out into their own sourcetype. Now that you know what configurations make a sourcetype, you need to know how to determine what those configurations should be. The TRUNCATE attribute establishes what the maximum size of an event associated with this sourcetype should be so Splunk can disregard larger events (it assumes events larger than this number are not legitimate events and discards them to save licensing). ![]() By using this setting and setting SHOULD_LINEMERGE to false, Splunk removes a step from the indexing process and becomes much more efficient. Without this setting configured, Splunk breaks events at every new line and has to merge the individual lines back together into events later. LINE_BREAKER provides a regex pattern for Splunk to use to determine when to break the stream of events it receives into an individual event. The last three nf attributes mentioned above determine how individual events are formed. Timestamps are one of the few fields determined at index time and have a huge impact on Splunk’s ability to monitor events effectively which makes this data incredibly important. The first three attributes tell Splunk where to start looking within an event for a timestamp, what format the timestamp is in, and how many characters long the timestamp is. The backend nf configurations that Splunk uses to perform these actions are: TIME_PREFIX, TIME_FORMAT, MAX_TIMESTAMP_LOOKAHEAD, SHOULD_LINEMERGE, LINE_BREAKER, and TRUNCATE. The primary characteristics of the format of an event, and thereby a sourcetype, are timestamp extraction and line breaking of streams of events into individual events. In addition to specifying the sourcetype, you must also specify the configurations that define the structure of the data. Always assign a sourcetype to your data prior to onboarding it. This can cause non-descriptive sourcetype names, improper line breaking, improper timestamp extraction, and unnecessary processing load on the indexers as they iterate through the data trying a number of approaches to determine these configurations. When data comes into Splunk without a sourcetype explicitly assigned, Splunk tries to create one for it. It doesn’t matter which method is used so long as a sourcetype is explicitly set). ![]() The most important configuration for a sourcetype that should be implemented every single time data is ingested, is to specify a sourcetype value within the nf stanza for the data (sourcetype can also be set with props and transforms. Configurations associated with sourcetypes By the end of this article, you should be able to review a custom data source, assess the data, determine how many sourcetypes you will need to define, and create the configurations that make a sourcetype a sourcetype. Splunk’s definition provides good general guidelines, but I find it leaves too much room for interpretation. However, when you onboard a custom data source that doesn’t have these tools already built, you will have to make your own sourcetypes which requires a deeper understanding of what really makes a sourcetype a sourcetype. A source type determines how Splunk Enterprise formats the data during the indexing process.”īut what really makes a sourcetype a sourcetype? Most of the time, Splunk users don’t have to think about this as sourcetypes are already pre-defined by Technology Add-ons and Apps. The Splexicon definition of sourcetype is “a default field that identifies the data structure of an event. It is one of the core indexed metadata fields Splunk associates with data that it ingests. If you have any experience with Splunk, you’re probably familiar with the term sourcetype.
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