SPLK-1001 Splunk Basics and Interface Navigation — 25 Questions

Question 1

After running a search, a user wants to save the search for later use. Which button should they click?

Accepted Answer

Save As. The 'Save As' button in Splunk allows a user to save a completed search as a report, alert, or dashboard panel for later use. This is the standard method for persisting a search definition without executing it immediately, enabling reuse in the future.

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Export

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Share

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Schedule

Question 2

During onboarding, a new user can't find any data in Splunk. They see 'No results found' for all searches. The data is being forwarded from a universal forwarder. What should they check first?

Accepted Answer

Check if the forwarder is configured to send to the correct indexer. The most common reason a universal forwarder sends data that never appears in Splunk is misconfiguration of the outputs.conf file. The forwarder must specify the correct indexer IP address or hostname and the receiving port (default 9997) using the TCP output stanza; if this is wrong, data is sent to the wrong destination or nowhere at all. Checking the forwarder's configuration first isolates whether data is even reaching the indexer tier before investigating other potential issues.

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Check if the user has admin role

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Check if the firewall is blocking ports

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Check if the search is using the correct time range

Question 3

Which of the following is the default time range in a new Splunk search?

Accepted Answer

All time. When you open a new search in Splunk, the default time range is set to 'All time' (no time filter), meaning the search will scan all indexed data unless you explicitly specify a time range. This is because Splunk defaults to showing all available events to avoid inadvertently excluding data, and it is the user's responsibility to narrow the search scope.

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Last 24 hours

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Last 7 days

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Real-time

Question 4

A user wants to view only the fields that appear in the current search results, without seeing all extracted fields. Which option should they use?

Accepted Answer

All fields. The 'All fields' option in Splunk displays all fields that appear in the current search results, allowing users to see the complete list of extracted fields without filtering. This is distinct from 'Selected fields', which shows only the fields the user has manually selected, and 'Interesting fields', which shows a heuristic-based subset that may not include all fields present in the results.

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Field picker

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Selected fields

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Interesting fields

Question 5

Which THREE of the following are features available in the Splunk Settings menu?

Accepted Answer

Indexes. In the Splunk Settings menu, Indexes (B) is correct because administrators use Settings > Indexes to create, edit, and configure index storage, retention, and permissions. Data inputs (C) is correct because Settings > Data inputs is where you manage and configure input types such as files, directories, TCP/UDP ports, and scripts. Roles (E) is correct because Settings > Roles lets administrators define and modify role-based access controls, including capabilities and index permissions. Data summary (A) is not a Settings menu feature; it is accessed from the Search & Reporting app's navigation or search bar area. Search history (D) is also not in Settings; it is available through the Search app's History menu or search bar interface.

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Data summary

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Search history

Question 6

Refer to the exhibit. What can be determined about the license usage?

Accepted Answer

180 MB of license capacity is available. The exhibit shows a license pool with a total capacity and a used amount; subtracting used from total yields 180 MB of remaining capacity. Splunk license usage is reported in MB/GB per day, and the pool's available capacity is simply total minus peak usage. Therefore 180 MB is the correct available license capacity.

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320 MB of license is used for search

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The pool is over-allocated

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The license is expired

Question 7

Refer to the exhibit. What is the most likely cause of the error?

Accepted Answer

The KV Store is not running. The error message in the exhibit indicates that the KV Store is not running. The KV Store is a Splunk component that stores knowledge objects (such as lookups, data models, and saved searches) in a MongoDB-based key-value store. When the KV Store is down, Splunk cannot access these objects, leading to the displayed error. Restarting the KV Store or ensuring it is enabled in the server.conf file resolves the issue.

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The firewall is blocking port 8191

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The search head is overloaded

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The indexer is out of disk space

Question 8

A medium-sized enterprise uses Splunk Enterprise with a single indexer and one search head. They have 50 universal forwarders sending data from web servers, application servers, and database logs. Recently, the indexer crashed during peak hours. The administrator restarted the indexer and it came back up. After analyzing the crash log, they found that the indexer ran out of memory. The indexer has 16 GB RAM and the default memory settings. The daily indexing volume is about 20 GB. The administrator is concerned about stability. They want to prevent future crashes without adding hardware. What should they do?

Accepted Answer

Reduce the max memory for the indexer process in limits.conf. The indexer crashed due to running out of memory with 16 GB RAM and default settings. Reducing the max memory for the indexer process in limits.conf (specifically the maxMemMB parameter) limits the heap size used by Splunk, preventing out-of-memory (OOM) kills during peak indexing loads. This is a software-level tuning that avoids hardware upgrades by capping memory consumption to a safe level below the physical RAM.

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Reduce the number of forwarders sending data

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Switch universal forwarders to heavy forwarders

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Increase the max memory for the indexer process in limits.conf

Question 9

A user at a large organization runs a search that returns 50,000 events. They need to export these events to a CSV file for further analysis in Excel. However, when they click the Export button and select CSV, only 10,000 events are exported. What is the most likely reason and how should they export all 50,000 events?

Accepted Answer

The export function has a default limit of 10,000 events; use the 'Export Results' feature with output_mode=csv. The Splunk export function has a default limit of 10,000 events when exporting via the UI. To export all 50,000 events, the user must use the 'Export Results' feature with the `output_mode=csv` parameter, which bypasses the UI limit and allows exporting the full result set.

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The user does not have permissions to export more than 10,000 events

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The report view limits export to 10,000 events; create a dashboard panel instead

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The search itself is limited to 10,000 events by default

Question 10

Which TWO of the following are valid ways to add data to Splunk?

Accepted Answer

Deploying a universal forwarder to monitor a log file.. Option A is correct because a universal forwarder is Splunk's lightweight agent that can be deployed on a host and configured with inputs.conf to monitor a log file and forward that data to an indexer, making it a standard method of ingesting data. Option B is correct because the HTTP Event Collector (HEC) provides a token-based HTTP/HTTPS endpoint that applications and scripts can send events to, which is a valid and common way to add data to Splunk. Option C is not a data ingestion method; writing alert results to a summary index is a reporting/acceleration technique that stores already-indexed search output, not a way to bring new external data in. Option D is not a valid ingestion mechanism by itself; the 'Add Data' button in Splunk Web is a UI wizard that guides you through configuring existing methods such as uploads, monitors, or forwarders, but it is not itself a distinct way to add data. Option E is incorrect because the search bar is used to query and analyze indexed data, not to ingest or index new events.

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Creating an alert that writes results to a summary index.

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Using the 'Add Data' button in Splunk Web.

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Typing data directly into the search bar.

Question 11

Refer to the exhibit. After running the search, the user wants to see only events where the HTTP status is 404. Which change to the search is correct?

Accepted Answer

Change the search to: index=main sourcetype=access_combined status=404 | stats count. Adding `status=404` directly in the base search filters events at the index level before any processing, which is the most efficient approach. The `stats count` command then aggregates the filtered results, ensuring only events with HTTP status 404 are included. This leverages Splunk's index-time filtering to reduce data volume early in the pipeline.

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Add | where status=404 after the sort command.

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Add | rename status as status_code and search for status_code=404.

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Replace stats with top limit=1 status.

Question 12

You are a Splunk administrator at a mid-sized company that uses Splunk Enterprise to monitor application logs from a web server cluster. The cluster has five servers, each sending logs via a universal forwarder to a single indexer. The indexer has ample resources. Recently, users have complained that searches for the last 24 hours are slow, but searches for the last hour are fast. The data volume is about 50 GB per day. You suspect the issue is related to how data is stored or indexed. Which action should you take first to improve search performance for the 24-hour time range?

Accepted Answer

Exclude internal Splunk logs (splunkd.log) from being indexed by setting up appropriate input configurations on forwarders.. Internal Splunk logs (splunkd.log) can generate significant volume and are indexed by default, consuming resources and slowing searches over longer time ranges. Excluding them on the forwarders reduces the total indexed data, improving search performance for the 24-hour window without affecting application log searches.

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Increase the number of parallel search processes in the indexes.conf settings.

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Add a second indexer and distribute incoming data using load balancing.

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Reduce the retention period for the index from 90 days to 30 days.

Question 13

A new Splunk user wants to see all events from the last 30 minutes, but the search returns no results. The user knows data is being indexed. Which is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The time range picker is set to 'All time' but the user expects 'Last 30 minutes'.. The most common reason a search returns no results when data is known to be indexed is an incorrect time range picker setting. If the picker is set to 'All time', it will only show events from the beginning of the index, but if the user expects events from the last 30 minutes, they must select 'Last 30 minutes' or a custom relative time. The time range picker overrides any time modifiers in the search string, so even a correct search string will fail if the picker is set to a non-overlapping range.

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Data is not yet indexed.

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The search is restricted to index=_internal.

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The search string has a typo in the time modifier.

Question 14

A user runs a search and sees the results in the Statistics tab, but the events are not appearing. What is the most likely reason?

Accepted Answer

The search includes a transforming command like stats.. When a search includes a transforming command like `stats`, `chart`, or `timechart`, Splunk automatically converts the search results into a statistical table. This means the raw events are no longer displayed in the Statistics tab; instead, aggregated data is shown. The Events tab will be empty because the transforming command consumes the raw events to produce the statistical output.

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The search is a scheduled search.

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The user does not have permission to view raw events.

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The time range is too narrow.

Question 15

An administrator notices that a user's search is timing out after 60 seconds. The search needs up to 5 minutes to complete. What should the administrator do?

Accepted Answer

Increase the 'Search Timeout' setting in system settings.. The 'Search Timeout' setting under Settings > System settings controls the maximum time a search job can run before being terminated. By default it is 60 seconds; increasing it to 5 minutes allows the search to complete. Option B is incorrect because 'Search Results Retention' in account preferences controls how long completed results are saved, not the timeout for running searches.

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Reduce the time range of the search to run faster.

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Adjust the 'Search Results Retention' in the user's account preferences.

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Change the search to a real-time search to avoid timeout.

Question 16

Which three of the following are valid ways to navigate and interact with data in the Splunk Web interface? (Choose three.)

Accepted Answer

Configuring data inputs through the Settings menu to bring data into Splunk. The Search & Reporting app is the primary interface for running searches and viewing results, making it a valid way to interact with data. Configuring data inputs via the Settings menu is a standard method for bringing data into Splunk. The Dashboards feature allows users to create visualizations from saved searches, which is a core navigation and interaction capability in the Splunk Web interface.

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Creating a new indexer via the Settings menu to store incoming data

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Editing Splunk configuration files directly from the web interface without command line access

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Installing new Splunk licenses through the Splunk Home page

Question 17

Which three options describe features or components of the Splunk default interface that are available to a Core Certified User? (Choose three.)

Accepted Answer

The Search bar allows users to enter SPL queries and use time range pickers to filter results. The Search bar, Data Summary button, and Jobs page are all core features of the Splunk default interface available to any user, including a Core Certified User. The Search bar allows entering SPL queries and selecting time ranges to filter results. The Data Summary button provides a list of all sourcetypes, hosts, and indexes accessible to the user. The Jobs page displays all currently running and completed searches initiated by the user, enabling monitoring and management of search jobs.

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The Alerts menu allows direct modification of alert actions without saving a search

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The Distributed Management Console (DMC) is accessible from the Splunk Home page for all users

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The Settings menu includes options to manage users, roles, and authentication methods

Question 18

Which of the following are components of the Splunk interface that can be used to refine and focus search results? (Choose all that apply. There are four correct answers.)

Accepted Answer

Search History. The Time Range Picker, Search bar, Fields sidebar, and Search History are all interface components in Splunk that directly allow users to refine and focus search results. The Time Range Picker restricts results to a specific time window, the Search bar is where queries are entered and modified, the Fields sidebar enables selection and filtering of specific fields, and Search History allows reusing or refining past searches. These four tools are integral to iterative search refinement in Splunk's Search & Reporting app.

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Job Inspector

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Data Summary tab

Question 19

Match each Splunk search command to its primary function.

Accepted Answer

stats: Produces summary statistics on fields. The correct matches are: stats for summary statistics, chart for table with columns, timechart for time-based chart, top for most common values. Common confusions include mixing up stats and timechart, or top with stats.

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stats: Creates a time-based chart

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top: Produces summary statistics

Question 20

Match each search command to its category.

Accepted Answer

search: Filtering commands limit results based on conditions.. This question tests knowledge of Splunk search command categories. search and where are filtering commands; stats and chart are reporting commands; eval and fields are transforming commands.

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search: Reporting commands compute statistics.

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eval: Filtering commands limit results based on conditions.