What this book covers
Chapter 1, Getting Started with the Splunk Enterprise Certified Admin Exam, serves as an introduction to the Splunk Enterprise Certified Admin Exam and provides an overview of the key concepts and skills that the exam covers. It prepares you for the subsequent chapters by setting the context for the various administrative tasks discussed throughout the book.
Chapter 2, Splunk License Management, explains Splunk licensing, including different license types and how to manage and monitor license usage. It covers the importance of proper license management to ensure optimal usage of Splunk’s features and capabilities.
Chapter 3, Users, Roles, and Authentication in Splunk, focuses on user management, roles, and authentication mechanisms within Splunk. It covers creating and managing user accounts, assigning appropriate roles and permissions, and configuring authentication methods to ensure secure access to the Splunk environment.
Chapter 4, Splunk Forwarder Management, delves into the management of Splunk forwarders, which are used to collect and forward data to the Splunk indexer. It discusses the installation, configuration, and management of forwarders using the deployment server.
Chapter 5, Splunk Index Management, introduces the concept of indexes in Splunk, which are used to store and manage data. This chapter covers creating and managing indexes, configuring data retention policies, and optimizing index settings for efficient data storage and retrieval.
Chapter 6, Splunk Configuration Files, provides valuable insights into Splunk’s configuration files, which play a pivotal role in customizing and fine-tuning the Splunk environment. This chapter delves into various configuration files, explores search-time and index-time precedence, and provides guidance on troubleshooting using the btool command.
Chapter 7, Exploring Distributed Search, is the final chapter of Part 1. It delves into Splunk’s distributed search abilities, which entails searching and analyzing data across various Splunk instances, including an introduction to clustering. This chapter addresses configuring distributed search, examining the knowledge bundle, and making adjustments to minimize its size.
Chapter 8, Getting Data In, serves as an introduction to ingesting data into Splunk. It explores various methods and sources for data input, helping you understand how to collect and prepare data for effective analysis.
Chapter 9, Configuring Splunk Data Inputs, guides you through the process of setting up data inputs in Splunk. You’ll learn how to configure methods such as monitoring files and directories, network inputs, scripted inputs, HTTP Event Collector (HEC), and Windows inputs. These steps ensure a seamless data flow from various sources into your Splunk instance.
Chapter 10, Data Parsing and Transformation, shifts the focus to data manipulation. You’ll discover techniques for parsing raw data and transforming it into a structured format, enabling meaningful analysis and insights.
Chapter 11, Field Extractions and Lookups, explores advanced data processing, focusing on search-time and index-time field extractions to uncover valuable information from raw data. It also delves into the use of lookups to enrich your data with additional context.
Chapter 12, Self-Assessment Mock Exam, reinforces your learning with a self-assessment mock exam. It provides practice questions and scenarios to gauge your comprehension of the concepts covered in Part 1 and Part 2 of the book.
