Introducing the universal forwarder
A UF is another software package from Splunk Inc. that is different from the Splunk Enterprise binary. A UF is installed and configured on the source systems where data originated and can collect the data from a range of sources and forward it to Splunk indexers for indexing. For example, to forward web access logs generated by a web server stored in a file to Splunk indexers, the UF is installed on the web server host with read permissions to the log files. The UF actively monitors the logs, securely transmitting the data to the designated Splunk indexers for indexing.
In the context of UFs and Splunk indexers, the data receivers that the UF connects to are essentially the indexers themselves. Indexers are configured to listen on a designated port (typically 9997 by default). Once the UF has been installed, it is directed to the IP/DNS address of the Splunk indexers and the corresponding receiving port to establish a connection. This allows the...
