SPLK-1002 Advanced Visualization and Lookups Practice Question
You are a Splunk administrator for a multi-site deployment with two data centers: primary and remote. Users on the remote site report that a lookup used in a dashboard returns no results for data from their site, but the same lookup works perfectly on the primary site. The lookup is defined with 'local=true' in the transforms.conf. The lookup file is stored on the primary search head. The remote site has its own search head that queries data from both sites. The dashboard search is: index=main | lookup site_mapping.csv site_id OUTPUT location | stats count by location. Users on the remote site see rows with location=null for their data. What is the most likely cause?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
The lookup file is not replicated to the remote search head, so it cannot be accessed when local=true.
When 'local=true' is set in transforms.conf, the lookup is only available on the search head where the lookup file resides. Since the remote search head does not have the file, the lookup fails for data processed there, resulting in null values. Option A is incorrect because the lookup is not tied to indexers but to the search head that executes the search. Option B is incorrect because while 'local=false' would make the lookup available across search heads, the issue is that the current setting prevents access from the remote search head. Option D is incorrect because a firewall blocking access would likely cause a timeout or error, not null values, and would not be specific to a single lookup.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
The lookup is configured to only run on the search head that indexes the data, which is the primary site.
Why it's wrong here
local=true does not tie to indexer.
- ✗
The lookup definition needs 'local=false' to be available to remote search heads for distributed searches.
Why it's wrong here
local=false distributes to indexers, not necessarily solve the file location.
- ✓
The lookup file is not replicated to the remote search head, so it cannot be accessed when local=true.
Why this is correct
local=true means file must be on the search head running the search.
- ✗
The remote site has a firewall blocking access to the lookup file on the primary search head.
Why it's wrong here
Less likely; no errors indicated.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This SPLK-1002 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Splunk certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the SPLK-1002 exam.