SPLK-1001 Splunk Basics and Interface Navigation — Timed 20 Questions

Question 1

What is the purpose of this search?

Accepted Answer

To find the top 10 most accessed web pages that returned a 404 status.. The search filters for status=404 and then uses top to find the most accessed URI paths, returning the top 10. Option B is incorrect because it focuses on IP addresses, not URI paths. Option C is incorrect because it simply lists all 404 errors without using top to limit to the top 10. Option D is incorrect because it counts unique URLs, which would give a different result than top accessed (most frequent).

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To show the top 10 IP addresses causing 404 errors.

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To list all 404 errors from the web index.

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To count the number of unique URLs with 404 errors.

Question 2

An administrator wants to group all events from a single web session identified by session_id, where the session starts with a 'login' event and ends with a 'logout' event. Which search is correct?

Accepted Answer

index=web | transaction session_id startswith="login" endswith="logout". The `transaction` command with `startswith` and `endswith` arguments explicitly defines the boundaries of a session: it groups events that share the same `session_id` field, starting from a 'login' event and ending with a 'logout' event. This ensures that only complete sessions are returned, matching the requirement exactly.

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index=web | transaction session_id

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index=web | transaction session_id keepevicted=true

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index=web | transaction session_id maxevents=2

Question 3

A user runs a search in Splunk Web that returns no results. The user believes data should exist for the current time. Which action most quickly verifies whether the time range is the issue?

Accepted Answer

Check the time range picker above the search bar.. The time range picker is the most direct and immediate way to verify the selected time range in Splunk Web. If a user runs a search and gets no results, the first thing to check is whether the time range is set to a period that does not include the current time (e.g., 'Last 15 minutes' when data is older). Simply looking at the picker confirms the range without running a new search or opening additional tools.

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Change the time range to 'All time' and rerun the search.

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Open the Job Inspector to see the search time range.

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Look at the earliest and latest timestamps in the search bar.

Question 4

Refer to the exhibit. A user runs this search but receives an error. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The 'convert' command requires the field specification before the time format.. The 'convert' command requires the field specification (the field to convert) before the time format. In the exhibit, the syntax 'convert timeformat="%m/%d/%Y %H:%M:%S" ctime(_time)' is incorrect because the field '_time' should come immediately after 'convert', before the timeformat argument. The correct syntax is 'convert ctime(__time) timeformat="%m/%d/%Y %H:%M:%S"'.

Answer

The 'rename' command cannot be used before 'convert'.

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The 'timeformat' argument is only valid for the 'strftime' function.

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The 'ctime' function can only be used with the 'eval' command.

Question 5

A new Splunk user wants to view the raw event data for the last hour. Which interface should they use?

Accepted Answer

Search & Reporting. The Search & Reporting interface (D) is the primary Splunk app for running searches and viewing raw event data. By default, it shows events from the last 24 hours, but the user can easily set the time range picker to 'Last hour' to see raw events for that period. This interface provides the search bar, timeline, and event listing necessary to inspect raw data.

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Search History

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Settings

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Data Summary

Question 6

An analyst notices that searches take long to complete. They want to understand how many events are indexed per second. Which tab in the Monitoring Console provides this information?

Accepted Answer

Indexing Performance. The Monitoring Console's 'Indexing Performance' tab provides real-time metrics on indexing throughput, including events per second (EPS) and indexing latency. This directly answers the analyst's need to understand how many events are indexed per second, as it displays the rate at which data is being processed and written to indexes.

Answer

License Usage

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Search Performance

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Forwarder Management

Question 7

A search returns no results. The user has verified that data is being indexed. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The time range picker is set incorrectly. The most likely cause is that the time range picker is set incorrectly. Even if data is being indexed and the search terms are correct, Splunk restricts search results to the selected time range. If the time range does not cover the period when the data was indexed, the search will return no results. This is a common issue because the default time range is often set to "Last 24 hours" or "All time" depending on the user's last selection.

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The search term is misspelled

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The search is using incorrect index name

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The user lacks search permissions

Question 8

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 9

A user wants to see a visual representation of search results over time. Which tab should they use?

Accepted Answer

Visualizations. The Visualizations tab is the correct choice because it provides a graphical representation of search results, such as charts, graphs, and time-series plots, which are essential for visualizing trends over time. In Splunk, after running a search, the user can switch to the Visualizations tab to select from various chart types (e.g., line, column, area) that automatically map the _time field to the x-axis, enabling temporal analysis. This tab is specifically designed for transforming tabular search results into visual formats, making it the appropriate tool for seeing data over time.

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Patterns

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Events

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Statistics

Question 10

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 11

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.

Answer

Last 24 hours

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Last 7 days

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Real-time

Question 12

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.

Answer

Field picker

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Selected fields

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Interesting fields

Question 13

Which TWO of the following are valid ways to share a Splunk dashboard?

Accepted Answer

Share via URL. Splunk dashboards can be shared via a direct URL, which allows other users with appropriate permissions to access the dashboard in their own Splunk instance. This method leverages Splunk's role-based access control to ensure only authorized users can view the shared content.

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Send via email

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Export as PDF

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Clone dashboard

Question 14

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

Accepted Answer

Indexes. The Splunk Settings menu provides administrative controls for configuring core system components. Indexes (B) are correct because this menu allows you to create, edit, and manage index definitions, including setting retention policies and storage locations. Data inputs (C) is correct as the menu provides access to configure all input types (e.g., monitor, script, syslog, HTTP Event Collector). Roles (E) is correct because the Settings menu includes the Access Controls section where you can define role-based permissions and capabilities.

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Data summary

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Search history

Question 15

Which THREE of the following are default Splunk roles?

Accepted Answer

admin. The default Splunk roles are 'admin', 'power', and 'user'. These are created automatically during Splunk installation and cannot be deleted. The 'admin' role provides full administrative access, 'power' role offers elevated capabilities for power users, and 'user' role grants basic search and data access. Therefore, options A, B, and E are correct.

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manager

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operator

Question 16

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

Accepted Answer

180 MB of license capacity is available. The pool has a max size of 500 MB and used size of 320 MB, meaning 180 MB is available. The pool is not full. The stack ID indicates it's for enterprise license, but not necessarily all used for search. The pool is not over-allocated.

Answer

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 17

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 18

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.

Answer

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 19

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.

Answer

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 20

A security analyst wants to investigate a suspicious IP address that appeared in multiple log sources. Which Splunk feature is best suited to quickly find all events containing that IP across all indexed data?

Accepted Answer

Search bar in the Search & Reporting app. The Search bar in the Search & Reporting app is the primary interface for running ad-hoc searches across all indexed data. By entering the suspicious IP address directly into the search bar, the analyst can quickly retrieve all events containing that IP from any log source, leveraging Splunk's search-time field extraction and index-time data ingestion.

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Data Summary

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Dashboard panel

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Alert action