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Splunk

Splunk Interview Questions and Answer Part – 3

January 16, 2020 comments off

Of the following, which is the best description of Splunk?

  • Splunk is a log collector.
  • Splunk is a business intelligence tool.
  • Splunk is operational intelligence that consumes and makes machine data useable and valuable. (Ans)
  • Splunk is an alerting tool.

What are the building blocks of a Splunk App?

  • Configuration files (Ans)
  • Data sources
  • Reports
  • Pivots

Where is the best place to get help for Splunk?

  • reddit.com
  • answers.splunk.com (Ans)
  • stackoverflow.com
  • blogs

What is the primary way in which the timechart command differs from the chart command?

  • There is no difference. timechart is just a shortcut for chart with a specified x-axis of _time .
  • timechart does not take a span argument. chart does.
  • chart forces the x-axis to be _time. timechart does not.
  • timechart forces the x-axis to be _time. chart does not. (Ans)

Another way to say | is

  • “take the output of the commands before it, then do this with the input.”
  • “take the input of the commands before it, then do this with the output.”
  • “take the output of the commands before it, then do this with the output.” (Ans)
  • “take the output of the commands after it, then do this with the output.”

What is one of the differences between a heavy forwarder and a universal forwarder?

  • A universal forwarder is a complete installation of Splunk; a heavy forwarder is a light agent.
  • A heavy forwarder is a complete installation of Splunk; a universal forwarder is a light agent. (Ans)
  • Heavy forwards are limited in their functionality, but universal forwarders can do advanced things like route data.
  • The only difference is the type of machine you install the forwarder on.

Which search mode will Splunk default to if your search specifies fields?

  • Fast (Ans)
  • Smart
  • Verbose
  • Heavy

What is “the language of Splunk” known as?

  • SSL: Splunk Search Language
  • SQL: Splunk Query Language
  • SPL: Splunk Processing Language (Ans)
  • SEL: Splunk Execution Language

The default Splunk forwarding and management ports are, respectively

  • 8088, 9998
  • 9997, 8089 (Ans)
  • 9997, 8087
  • 443, 9797

Splunk assigns which three fields as default metadata?

  • host, source, source type (Ans)
  • host, ip, port
  • host, hostname, source
  • host, sourcetype, ip

What is the purpose of a lookup?

  • Allows you to add custom fields to events from external sources, like csv files. (Ans)
  • Allows Splunk to examine semantic knowledge objects.
  • Allows users to build custom reports based on data models.
  • Keeps a record of all previous searches, so that Splunk can look them up later.

Searches in the search pipeline go from

  • general to specific. (Ans)
  • specific to general.
  • middle out.
  • bottom up.

What’s wrong with this search?
host=homework user=* status=failed stats count(status) BY user | rename count(status) as “Number of Failed Logins”

  • count is not a stats function.
  • You need to have a | before the stats command. (Ans)
  • The rename command is invalid because you cannot rename a field to a phrase.
  • This search is valid.

Which type of authentication method does Splunk recommend for anything other than a small deployment?

  • Local
  • SAML
  • LDAP/AD (Ans)
  • Scripted

The rare function returns , while the top function returns .

  • a visualization with _time on the x axis; a visualization with a specified field on the x axis
  • limits; thresholds
  • least common values; most common values (Ans)
  • top ten common values; top ten uncommon values

The Enterprise Trial license is valid for , after which point it will convert to a license.

  • 60 days; free (Ans)
  • 30 days; limited functionality
  • 30 days; free
  • 60 days; limited functionality

Heavy forwards

  • require a universal license.
  • require an enterprise license.
  • do not require a license.
  • require a forwarder license. (Ans)

Of the following, which best describes the difference between a tag and an event type?

  • There is no difference.
  • Tags are more complex knowledge objects than event types.
  • Tags are much more powerful than event types, because they can contain multiple fields.
  • Event types can contain multiple fields, while tags can only contain one. (Ans)

Which of the following is not one of the four major functions of Splunk?

  • Parsing
  • Input
  • Compressing (Ans)
  • Indexing
  • Searching

The structure of Splunk configuration files is:

  • key=value [stanza]
  • [stanza] [sub-stanza]
  • [stanza] attribute=value (Ans)
  • savedsearch=value [stanza]
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