SPLK-1004 Questions and Answers

The fieldsummary command provides statistical summaries of fields, including the count of events containing the field (count) and the distinct count of field values (dc). Standard deviation (stdev)and mean are not provided by fieldsummary, but can be calculated using commands like stats.

Wildcards can be used in the from clause of the tstats command in Splunk. This allows users to query across multiple datasets or data models that share a common naming pattern.

The xyseries command in Splunk transforms a stats-like output into a chart-like output, making it easier to visualize complex relationships between multiple data points.

The correct way to exclude entries from the lookup file baditems.csv is using NOT [inputlookup baditems.csv]. This syntax excludes all entries in the lookup from the main search results.

The values function in the stats command returns a sorted list of unique values from a specified field, making it helpful for summarizing and analyzing data.

To disable the inspect button on a dashboard panel, set the link.inspect.visible attribute to 0. This hides the button, preventing users from accessing the search inspector for that panel.

The coalesce function returns the first non-null value from a list of fields, and it can be used within an eval expression to create a new field in the results set. This is useful when handling missing or inconsistent data across multiple fields.

The four types of event actions in Splunk are eval, link, change, and clear. These actions are used in dashboards to interact with or manipulate event data based on user inputs.

The Search head (Option B) is responsible for initiating and coordinating search activities in a distributed environment. It sends search requests to the indexers (which store the data) and consolidates the results retrieved from them. The indexers store and retrieve the data, but the search head manages the user interaction and result aggregation.

The eventstats command in Splunk is used to compute and add summary statistics to all events in the search results, similar to stats, but without grouping the results into a single event.

Report acceleration pre-computes and stores results from searches, improving the performance of dashboards that display those reports by retrieving pre-computed data instead of running a full search each time.

Cascading inputs allow one input's selection to determine the options available in subsequent inputs. An event handler can reset the cascading sequence based on user interactions, ensuring the following inputs reflect appropriate options based on prior selections.

The _time field is required for event annotations in Splunk. This field specifies the time point or range where the annotation should be applied, helping correlate annotations with the correct temporal data.

One of the best practices in regex is to avoid backtracking, which can degrade performance by revisiting parts of the input multiple times. Optimizing regex patterns to prevent unnecessary backtracking improves efficiency, especially when dealing with large datasets.

To generate a field with a value of "hello", use the search | makeresults | eval field="hello". This creates a new field with the specified value in the search results.

In Splunk, a base search is defined using