SPLK-1003 License Management — Timed 20 Questions

Question 1

Which command is used to check the current license status from the Splunk CLI?

Accepted Answer

splunk show licenser-status. The 'splunk show licenser-status' command provides the current state of the license.

Answer

splunk list license

Answer

splunk get license-info

Answer

splunk status

Question 2

An administrator has configured a License Pool and assigned specific indexers to it. However, the indexers are still consuming from the 'default' pool. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The license_pool attribute in server.conf was not mapped correctly to the License Master.. The license pool configuration requires the indexers to be explicitly configured to point to the License Master, and the License Master must be aware of the specific pool assignment for those slaves.

Answer

License pools only apply to search heads.

Answer

The indexers have not been restarted.

Answer

The indexers are using a trial license.

Question 3

When a Splunk license violation occurs, how long does the warning period last before search is blocked?

Accepted Answer

14 days. When a Splunk license violation occurs (indexing volume exceeds the licensed amount), the license manager issues warnings for 14 days. After this 14-day warning period, search is blocked (though indexing may continue depending on configuration). This grace period allows administrators to resolve the overage.

Answer

30 days

Answer

3 days

Answer

7 days

Question 4

A company is migrating from an Enterprise license to a Free license. What is the most significant functional impact on their Splunk deployment?

Accepted Answer

Authentication and roles are disabled.. The Splunk Free license is designed for single-user, standalone use and explicitly disables authentication and role-based access control. When switching from Enterprise to Free, the most significant functional impact is that user authentication and roles are turned off, meaning anyone with network access to the Splunk Web interface can use it without logging in. This is a deliberate limitation of the Free license to restrict it to personal, non-commercial use cases.

Answer

Distributed search is enabled by default.

Answer

The maximum daily indexing volume is increased.

Answer

Data retention is extended to 90 days.

Question 5

What happens to Splunk search capabilities when the license limit is reached for the first time in a 30-day period?

Accepted Answer

Search continues to function.. When the license limit is reached for the first time in a 30-day period, Splunk does not immediately disable search. Instead, it generates a warning and continues to allow search and indexing for a grace period (typically 14 days? Actually, the license violation triggers a warning, and search continues but indexing may be blocked after the grace period? Wait, the question asks about search capabilities. According to Splunk documentation, when the license limit is exceeded, a warning is issued, and search continues to function. Indexing may be blocked if the violation persists, but search is not disabled. So the correct answer is that search continues to function.

Answer

Data indexing is halted.

Answer

Search is immediately disabled.

Answer

The Splunk service stops.

Question 6

What is the maximum number of license violations allowed in a 30-day period before search is blocked?

Accepted Answer

5. Splunk allows a maximum of 5 license violations within a rolling 30-day period. Once the 5th violation occurs, search is blocked (warnings escalate to search blocking) until the violation window rolls forward or the issue is resolved. This is a well-documented licensing enforcement threshold.

Answer

3

Answer

10

Answer

1

Question 7

Which TWO of the following actions occur when a Splunk license violation is active?

Accepted Answer

Splunk continues to index data.. When a Splunk license violation is active, option B is correct because Splunk does not immediately stop indexing; it continues to index data during the violation/grace period so that no data is lost, while warning users about the exceeded license. Option D is also correct because, after the license violation grace period expires, Splunk disables search functionality rather than blocking ingestion, preventing users from searching until the license issue is resolved. Options A, C, and E are incorrect: Splunk does not lock all user accounts, does not block data ingestion immediately upon a violation, and never automatically deletes the license key as a consequence of a violation.

Answer

All user accounts are locked.

Answer

Data ingestion is blocked immediately.

Answer

The license key is automatically deleted.

Question 8

Which TWO of the following are true about the 72-hour grace period?

Accepted Answer

It disables indexing after 72 hours.. Option A is correct because the 72-hour grace period disables indexing once the 72 hours have elapsed, meaning the system stops indexing new data after the grace period expires. Option C is correct because the grace period is triggered when the slave (indexer/search head) loses communication with the master (license manager), starting the countdown at that point of disconnection. Option B is incorrect because searching is not the focus of the grace period's behavior; the grace period concerns indexing continuity, not a guarantee of search availability during the period. Option D is incorrect because the grace period is not limited to trial licenses; it applies to licensed deployments as a failover mechanism. Option E is incorrect because the grace period is a designed allowance, not a license violation, and only after it expires does indexing stop.

Answer

It allows the admin to search during the period.

Answer

It only applies to trial licenses.

Answer

It counts as a license violation.

Question 9

Which THREE of the following items are considered 'license slaves'?

Accepted Answer

Standalone instances. In Splunk licensing, a 'license slave' is any Splunk Enterprise instance that consumes license volume by indexing data and reports its usage to the license master. Standalone instances (A) are license slaves because they index their own data and must be pointed at a license master (or themselves act as one) to account for license usage. Indexers (B) are the classic license slaves, as they receive and index raw data and forward license usage reports to the license master. Search Heads that index local data (D) also become license slaves, because any instance that indexes data consumes license and must report to the license master. Universal Forwarders (C) do not count as license slaves since they only forward data and do not index it, so they consume no license volume. Deployment Servers (E) are also not license slaves, as they only distribute apps and configurations to clients and never index data.

Answer

Universal Forwarders

Answer

Deployment Servers

Question 10

Which TWO of the following are true regarding the configuration of multiple license pools?

Accepted Answer

Slaves can be assigned to exactly one pool.. Option C is correct because in Splunk license pool configuration, a slave (indexer) can belong to only one pool at a time — pool membership is exclusive, so an indexer cannot be split across multiple pools. Option D is correct because license pools are defined and managed on the license master, which distributes pool definitions and enforces pool quotas across the licensing slaves. Option A is incorrect because license pools are not limited to indexer clusters; they apply to any distributed Splunk deployment with a license master and slaves. Option B is incorrect because pools do not each require a separate license file — a single license (or set of licenses) on the license master is partitioned into pools. Option E is incorrect because the sum of all pool quotas cannot exceed the total licensed volume; pool quotas must fit within the overall license capacity.

Answer

Pools only function on indexer clusters.

Answer

Each pool requires its own unique license file.

Answer

The total quota of all pools can exceed the total license volume.

Question 11

A Splunk administrator needs to add a new indexer to an existing license pool named 'FinancePool'. Which CLI command should the administrator run on the license master to add the indexer to the pool?

Accepted Answer

splunk edit licenser-pools -name FinancePool -add <indexer_hostname>. To add an indexer to an existing license pool, the administrator must use `splunk edit licenser-pools` with the `-add` parameter on the license master. This command updates the pool's membership, ensuring the indexer's license usage is attributed to the correct pool. Other commands either create pools, modify indexer-side settings, or remove members.

Answer

splunk add licenser-localslave -master_uri https://<license_master>:8089 -pool FinancePool

Answer

splunk edit licenser-pools -name FinancePool -remove <indexer_hostname>

Answer

splunk add licenser-pools -name FinancePool -slaves <indexer_hostname>

Question 12

A Splunk Enterprise deployment has a single license master managing three indexers. The administrator notices that a fourth indexer, recently added to the deployment, is indexing data but not appearing in the license usage report. The administrator has verified that the new indexer has network connectivity to the license master. Which action should the administrator take to resolve this issue?

Accepted Answer

On the new indexer, run 'splunk edit licenser-localslave -master_uri https://:8089' and restart Splunk.. The new indexer is not reporting license usage because it has not been configured to send data to the license master. The correct command to set the license master URI on an indexer is 'splunk edit licenser-localslave -master_uri ', followed by a restart. This ensures the indexer registers and reports usage. Other options either do not address the missing configuration or are not valid methods.

Answer

Add the new indexer's IP address to the license master's server.conf file under the [license] stanza.

Answer

Create a new license pool and assign the new indexer to it using the monitoring console.

Answer

Restart the license master to force a license pool reassignment.

Question 13

A Splunk Enterprise deployment has a single indexer that indexes 80 GB per day against a 100 GB per day Enterprise license. The administrator adds a second indexer that also indexes 80 GB per day, but forgets to update the license configuration on the new indexer. On the seventh consecutive day of exceeding the license volume, what happens?

Accepted Answer

Search is blocked on all indexers, and indexing continues but generates warnings.. The license master enforces the daily indexing volume limit. If the total indexed volume exceeds the license for seven consecutive days, search is blocked while indexing continues. In this scenario, because the second indexer is not reporting to the license master, its volume is not counted, so the limit is not exceeded. However, the question asks what happens on the seventh day of exceeding the license volume, which would only occur if the volume were properly counted. The correct answer is that search is blocked on all indexers and indexing continues with warnings.

Answer

No violation occurs because the second indexer was not configured to report to the license master.

Answer

Indexing stops immediately on the indexer that exceeded the license, and search remains available.

Answer

The license master automatically increases the license quota to accommodate the additional indexer.

Question 14

A Splunk administrator is configuring a new license master for a distributed environment. The administrator needs to ensure that the license master can properly aggregate license usage from all indexers and enforce the license. Which two actions are required? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

On the license master, add the license file using Settings > Licensing > Add License.. To set up a license master, the license file must be added to the license master, and each indexer must be configured to point to the license master using the splunk edit licenser-localslave command. These steps ensure central license management and accurate aggregation of indexing volume across the distributed environment.

Answer

On the search head, run splunk edit licenser-localslave -master_uri https://<license_master>:8089.

Answer

On each indexer, install the same license file that is on the license master.

Answer

On the license master, configure a license pool for each indexer and assign the indexer to its own pool.

Question 15

An administrator is planning to implement a distributed license management environment with a license master and multiple license slaves. Which two statements are true regarding the configuration and behavior of this setup? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

The license master enforces the total indexing volume across all license slaves and can trigger violations if the aggregate exceeds the licensed amount.. In a distributed license management setup, the license master centrally enforces the total license volume and slaves report usage to it. If the master is unavailable, slaves can continue indexing using a cached license for a grace period. Slaves do not need individual license files, and the master does not have to be dedicated. These behaviors ensure resilience and centralized control.

Answer

The license master must be a dedicated instance that does not index data or run other roles.

Answer

License slaves report their license usage to the license master every 24 hours.

Answer

Each license slave must have its own license file installed locally to function.

Question 16

An administrator manages a Splunk Enterprise deployment with a 100 GB license. The license master shows that the daily indexing volume has been exceeding the license limit for the past 10 days, but no license violations have been triggered. The administrator checks the license usage report and sees that the 'License Violations' count is zero. What is the most likely explanation for this behavior?

Accepted Answer

The license usage report is showing data from a different license pool that has not exceeded its limit.. The most likely explanation is that the administrator is looking at a specific license pool's usage report, which may not have exceeded its allocated limit, rather than the global license usage. Splunk tracks violations at the pool level and globally. If the global license is exceeded but a particular pool is not, that pool's report will show zero violations. The administrator should check the global license usage to see the actual violations.

Answer

The license master is in a 72-hour grace period, which resets after each violation.

Answer

The license master is configured to ignore violations for the first 30 days of operation.

Answer

The indexers are pooling their license usage, and the pool has a higher limit than the global license.

Question 17

An administrator needs to configure a new indexer to send its license usage data to a license master. The indexer is currently running and indexing data. Which CLI command should the administrator run on the indexer to set the license master URL?

Accepted Answer

splunk edit licenser-localslave -master_uri https://licensemaster:8089. The correct CLI command to configure an indexer to report to a license master is 'splunk edit licenser-localslave -master_uri <URI>'. This command modifies the local configuration to point to the license master. The '-auth' parameter is not required because the command does not authenticate to the license master. The 'set' verb and the 'licenser' stanza are incorrect for this purpose.

Answer

splunk set licenser-localslave -master_uri https://licensemaster:8089

Answer

splunk edit licenser-localslave -master_uri https://licensemaster:8089 -auth admin:changeme

Answer

splunk edit licenser -master_uri https://licensemaster:8089

Question 18

An administrator manages a distributed Splunk Enterprise deployment with one license manager and six indexers. During a quarterly audit, they must document how many license violations occurred over the past 30 days and confirm whether search is currently disabled. Which command should they run on the license manager to retrieve this information?

Accepted Answer

splunk list licenser-violations. Violation tracking is a core license manager responsibility because exceeding the allowed number of violations in a rolling 30-day window causes search to be blocked. The dedicated CLI verb that reports these violation events is 'splunk list licenser-violations', which returns the history needed for audit documentation and for confirming whether the search-blocking threshold has been reached.

Answer

splunk list licenser-pools --verbose

Answer

splunk show license-usage --days=30

Answer

splunk diag --license-history

Question 19

A Splunk administrator is reviewing license usage and notices that the daily indexing volume has been consistently below the licensed limit, but a warning about license expiration appears in the messages. The administrator wants to verify the current license expiration date and the total licensed volume. Which method provides this information?

Accepted Answer

Navigate to Settings > Licensing in Splunk Web on the license master, which displays the license type, expiration date, and indexing volume.. The Settings > Licensing page in Splunk Web on the license master displays all relevant license details, including expiration date and total indexing volume. This is the standard method for administrators to verify license status and ensure compliance.

Answer

Run the CLI command splunk show license on the license master.

Answer

Check the license_usage.log file on the indexers for expiration and volume details.

Answer

Run the CLI command splunk list licenser on the license master.

Question 20

An administrator manages a distributed deployment with one license manager and several indexers. During a maintenance window the license manager will be offline for two hours while its host is rebuilt. The administrator needs indexing to continue on the indexers during that outage. What must be configured on the indexers before the maintenance window?

Accepted Answer

Ensure each indexer has a valid local Enterprise license file and configure it to fall back to that license when the license manager is unreachable.. Splunk indexers keep a local license file that acts as a fallback when the license manager is temporarily unreachable, allowing indexing to continue for a bounded period. Confirming that each indexer holds a valid local Enterprise license before the rebuild prevents a licensing outage from stopping data ingestion while the manager is offline.

Answer

Enable the offline licensing feature with splunk enable offline-licensing on every indexer.

Answer

Convert each indexer to a standalone license manager by running splunk edit licenser-localslave -master_uri self.

Answer

Add the license manager host to each indexer's server.conf as a license slave peer using the [license] stanza.