Turning Data Challenges into Solutions: How Splunk Acts as the Ultimate Cure

We are aware of the exponential growth of data over the past decade.
This was mainly because of growing number of devices.
And analyzing the data is necessary because the solution to different problems is hidden in the data.
However, analyzing machine data is not a simple task.
So, how do we do that?

Machine data is: Complex to understand and in an unstructured format and
Not suitable for making analysis/visualization.
So, what do you think, how can this be solved?
In this case, we need a tool that understands machine data and helps us in identifying where the hardware or software has failed.

So, here comes our wizard "Splunk".

What is Splunk?

Splunk is a data platform that helps businesses collect, manage, and analyze large amounts of data.
It can also be called as software or a tool that is used to analyze/visualize the machine data.

Components of Splunk:

Forwarders, Indexers and Search Heads.

Forwarders: Responsible for collecting data and forwarding it to other instances/components.

Indexers: Responsible for storing data.

Search Heads: Analyze, visualize  and report the data.

Here are some other ways Splunk helps us handle unstructured data: 

Collects data from remote devices.
Splunk uses forwarders to collect data from remote devices and send it to indexers.

Processes data in real time.
The indexer processes the data in real time and stores and indexes it on the disk. 

Provides real-time insights.
Splunk can provide real-time insights from data, regardless of where the data comes from. 

Helps with compliance and risk management.
Splunk can help you analyze large data to identify potential compliance issues and assess risks. 

Key features of Splunk:

  • Search Processing Language (SPL):SPL is Splunk’s own query language, designed for searching, filtering, and analyzing data. It's similar to SQL but designed for machine data. SPL allows users perform a wide range of actions, from basic searches to complex, without the need to structure the data beforehand as in SQL. 
  • Real-Time Data Monitoring: Splunk can ingest and process data in real-time, enabling continuous monitoring of applications. With real-time data, you can identify issues as they happen, which is crucial for maintaining system health, detecting breaches, or ensuring application performance.
  • SQL Query Integration: Splunk allows you to connect directly to relational databases and run SQL queries on structured data along with the unstructured log data. You can store SQL queries within Splunk and reuse them for real-time monitoring and analysis.
  • Data Indexing and Search:  Splunk indexes all ingested data, making it searchable and ensuring quick retrieval of relevant information across large datasets. Users can search data within any defined time : it can be specific hours, days, weeks, or even years. Knowing exactly when an event occurred.
  • Security:  Splunk functions as a Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) tool, providing security professionals with the ability to detect, investigate, and respond to security incidents. You can set up alerts for suspicious activities, unauthorized access. This real-time detection helps prevent breaches. 

Magic works of our Wizard:

Quick String Searches:

Refers to the basic yet powerful expertise to search for specific keywords. Whether you're looking for a specific log entry, an error code, or any textual data from machine logs, Splunk makes it easy to perform quick searches across unstructured and structured data.

1) Search bar in Splunk allows you to input simple string. By typing a keyword, phrase, or even part of a word, you can search across all data in Splunk.

For instance, searching for "error" would return all events where the word "error" appears.

2) Splunk is case-insensitive, means while searching for ERROR, Error, or error will get the same results.

3) You can use wildcards (*) to perform partial string searches. Useful when you don't know the exact string.

For instance: warn* would return results containing "warning", "warnings", or "warned."

4) Splunk allows you to use Boolean operators like AND, OR, and NOT to refine quick string searches.
For instance: error AND timeout would return events where both "error" and "timeout" are present.

5) You can also search for specific fields by specifying field name.
For instance: field_name="string" gives that specific event. status="200" finds logs where the status field equals 200.

6) Splunk allows you to search for any specific time window. As in any time window hours, minutes, days etc.

7)Splunk highlights the searched string in the results, making it easy to spot the occurrences. Making it easy to reviewing the search results.

Dashboards in Splunk:

Dashboards in Splunk are a powerful feature that allows users to visualize and monitor key metrics, and real-time data from logs. They provide various visual formats such as charts, graphs, and tables to allow user to understand data easily. Dashboards are necessary for tracking system performance, security events, and much more. 

 Steps to Create a simple Dashboard in Splunk:

· Click on the "Dashboards" tab located on the top navigation bar.

· Click on "Create New Dashboard".

· Give a name for the dashboard, and you can also give it a description(optional).

· Choose whether the dashboard is private (visible only to you) or shared with other users (with view or edit rights).

· You can begin adding panels to it. Each panel represents a search query.
· Click on "Add Panel" in your new dashboard.

· You can either create a new search(query) for the panel or use a previously saved report.
· After running the search, you can choose how the results to be appeared (e.g., line chart, bar chart, table).

· You can add more panels to create a mix of tables, charts to display different things on the same dashboard.

· You can add inputs like time pickers, dropdown menus, text fields, or checkboxes to your dashboard. These inputs lets you to filter the dashboard data dynamically.

· You can share your dashboard with other in the organization. Making them as viewers (read-only access) or editors (can modify the dashboard).

Use Cases of Dashboards: 

 1. Application Monitoring: Create a dashboard to track application performance metrics, error rates, response times.
 2. Security Monitoring: A security dashboard that shows failed login attempts, unauthorized access events, and real-time breach detection.
 3. System Health Monitoring: Memory usage, disk space, and network performance for server and health checks.

Alerts in Splunk:

Alerts in Splunk enables users to automate the monitoring of key metrics, system events, and security incidents. Alerts notify users when certain conditions are met, helping them to respond proactively to issues such as system failures, or security threats. By scheduling alerts, you can have Splunk continuously monitor your data and trigger notifications when specific conditions are met or patterns are detected.

Steps to Schedule Alerts in Splunk: To schedule an alert, you need to create a search that returns the data on which you want to base the alert.

· In the Splunk UI, navigate to the Search & Reporting app.

· In the search bar, input a query that returns the data you want to monitor for your alert. For example, to monitor for failed login attempts, you might run a query like: index=security "failed login"

· Test the Search: Run the search and review the results to make sure the data you want to monitor is being returned.

· After running the search, click on the "Save As" button and select "Alert" from the dropdown menu.

· Provide a meaningful name for the alert, such as "Failed Login Attempts Alert."

· Next you need to specify when the alert to be triggered. Splunk allows you to define that must be met for the alert to be triggered, that can be when the number of search results meets a threshold (e.g., when there are more than 100 failed logins within an hour) etc.

· Now you have to set the schedule when alert to run. It can run at regular intervals and triggers when conditions are met. You can schedule alert to run every minute, hour, day, or at any time intervals.

· Now you can configure what to happen when alert is triggered. You can send an email to specific recipients. You can customize the email to include:
  • The search results.
  • A link to view the search in Splunk.
  • Custom message and subject lines.
· You can specify an expiration time for the alert action, such as dismissing the alert after 24 hours. So, older alerts which are no longer needed are dismissed.

· You can also assign severity to alerts. So, you can prioritize issues based on importance to take care.

· You can check all the active, triggered, and previous alerts in "Alerts" section. You can check when the alert was triggered, what action was taken, and view the search results of that specific alert.


Examples of Common Alerts:

Security Alerts: Monitor unauthorized access attempts, or malware detection.
Performance Alerts: Track CPU, memory, or disk usage and send notifications if thresholds are exceeded.

Error Alerts: Notify you when application errors or failed transactions occur.

Use cases for alerts:

 1. Detecting abnormal behavior (e.g., failed login attempts).

 2. Monitoring performance issues (e.g., CPU usage exceeding 90%).

 3. Proactively identifying security threats (e.g., unauthorized access attempts).

Reports in Splunk:

Reports in Splunk are saved search results that allow users to extract, analyze, and present data from their logs and machine data. It is a predefined search query that is saved and can be run at any time to retrieve data. And they can display results in different forms, such as tables, charts, or visualizations. These reports are crucial for generating insights from data, helping in decision-making, and system monitoring.

Steps to create a Report in Splunk: To create a report, you need to create a search that returns the data you want in the report.

· In the Splunk UI, navigate to the Search & Reporting app.

· In the search bar, input a query that returns the data you want to generate as a report. For example, to monitor for login events, you should run a query like: index=auth sourcetype="login" action="success" | stats count by user.

· Click the "Save As" button on the top right of the search results page and select "Report".

· Provide a name for your report that reflects its purpose, such as "Successful Logins by User."

· Set the visibility of the report by choosing whether it is private or shared within your organization. You can also configure specific permissions for users and groups (view or edit access).

· You can add a time range picker to the report, allowing users to adjust the timeframe over which the data is displayed (e.g., past hour, past 7 days, custom date range). This makes reports more interactive and customizable based on specific needs.

· You can configure Splunk reports to run automatically on a regular schedule and deliver the results via email, or save the results. After saving your report, go to the "Reports" section in the Splunk UI, and find the report you want to schedule. Open the report and click on "Edit Schedule". You can set the report to run at intervals like Every hour, on a specific day of the week, monthly etc.

· You can email the report results to specific recipients once the report has been generated. You can configure the email addresses in scheduling options for which reports should be sent. You can customize the subject line, body content, and even attach the report as a PDF/CSV file.

· You can share a direct link to the report with other users. Recipients who have the necessary permissions can open the report and view the results.

Use Cases for Reports in Splunk:

 1. Security Monitoring: Generate reports to track login attempts, failed logins, unauthorized access events, or suspicious activity.
 2. System Health Reports: Monitor CPU, memory, disk space, and other system metrics over time.


Summary: 

Splunk is a huge help to the IT industry by making it easier to manage and understand large amount of data. It helps IT teams quickly find problems, monitor systems, and keep everything running smoothly. With automated alerts, reports, and dashboards, Splunk reduces the need for manual work, allowing teams to react faster and focus on important tasks. Whether it’s catching security issues or improving system performance, Splunk simplifies the job, making IT management more efficient and stress-free.

Data