SPLK-1003 Splunk Enterprise Certified Admin Free Practice Exam Questions (2025 Updated)

The Data Preview feature should be used when validating the parsing of data. The Data Preview feature allows you to preview how Splunk software will index your data before you commit the data to an index. You can use the Data Preview feature to check the following aspects of data parsing1:

Timestamp recognition: You can verify that Splunk software correctly identifies the timestamps of your events and assigns them to the _time field.

Event breaking: You can verify that Splunk software correctly breaks your data stream into individual events based on the line breaker and should linemerge settings.

Source type assignment: You can verify that Splunk software correctly assigns a source type to your data based on the props.conf file settings. You can also manually override the source type if needed.

Field extraction: You can verify that Splunk software correctly extracts fields from your events based on the transforms.conf file settings. You can also use the Interactive Field Extractor (IFX) to create custom field extractions.

The Data Preview feature is available in Splunk Web under Settings > Data inputs > Data preview. You can access the Data Preview feature when you add a new input or edit an existing input1.

The other options are incorrect because:

A. When extracting fields for ingested data. The Data Preview feature can be used to verify the field extraction for data that has not been ingested yet, but not for data that has already been indexed. To extract fields from ingested data, you can use the IFX or the rex command in the Search app2.

B. When previewing the data before searching. The Data Preview feature does not allow you to search the data, but only to view how it will be indexed. To preview the data before searching, you can use the Search app and specify a time range or a sample ratio.

C. When reviewing data on the source host. The Data Preview feature does not access the data on the source host, but only the data that has been uploaded or monitored by Splunk software. To review data on the source host, you can use the Splunk Universal Forwarder or the Splunk Add-on for Unix and Linux.

A Splunk Enterprise trial license gives you access to all the features of Splunk Enterprise for a limited period of time, usually 60 days1. After the trial period expires, you can either purchase a Splunk Enterprise license or switch to a Free license1.

A Splunk Enterprise Free license allows you to index up to 500 MB of data per day, but some features are disabled, such as authentication, distributed search, and alerting2. You can switch to a Free license at any time during the trial period or after the trial period expires1.

A Splunk Enterprise Forwarder license is used with forwarders, which are Splunk instances that forward data to other Splunk instances. A Forwarder license does not allow indexing or searching of data3. You can install a Forwarder license on any Splunk instance that you want to use as a forwarder4.

A Splunk Enterprise commercial end-user license is a license that you purchase from Splunk based on either data volume or infrastructure. This license gives you access to all the features of Splunk Enterprise within a defined limit of indexed data per day (volume-based license) or vCPU count (infrastructure license). You can purchase and install this license after the trial period expires or at any time during the trial period1.

https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/7.3.1/DistSearch/Howuserscancontroldistributedsearches

"From the user standpoint, specifying and running a distributed search is essentially the same as running any other search. Behind the scenes, the search head distributes the query to its search peers, and consolidates the results when presenting them to the user."

https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/8.0.5/Data/Usingforwardingagents

Scroll down to the section Titled, How to configure forwarder inputs, and subsection Here are the main ways that you can configure data inputs on a forwarder Install the app or add-on that contains the inputs you wants

https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/8.2.2/Data/Anonymizedata

Scrolling down to the section titled "Define the sed script in props.conf shows the correct syntax of an example which validates that the number/character /1 immediately preceded the /g

"You can group your search peers to facilitate searching on a subset of them. Groups of search peers are known as "distributed search groups." You specify distributed search groups in the distsearch.conf file"

Users log on to the search head and run reports: – The search head dispatches searches to the peers – Peers run searches in parallel and return their portion of results – The search head consolidates the individual results and prepares reports

The correct answer is D. Place both props . conf and transforms . conf on the Heavy Forwarder for source A, and place both props . conf and transforms . conf on the indexer for source B.

According to the Splunk documentation1, to mask sensitive data from raw events, you need to use the SEDCMD attribute in the props.conf file and the REGEX attribute in the transforms.conf file. The SEDCMD attribute applies a sed expression to the raw data before indexing, while the REGEX attribute defines a regular expression to match the data to bemasked.You need to place these files on the Splunk instance that parses the data, which isusually the indexer or the heavy forwarder2. The universal forwarder does not parse the data, so it does not need these files.

For source A, the data is routed through a heavy forwarder, which can parse the data before sending it to the indexer. Therefore, you need to place both props.conf and transforms.conf on the heavy forwarder for source A, so that the masking takes place before indexing.

For source B, the data is routed directly to the indexer, which parses and indexes the data. Therefore, you need to place both props.conf and transforms.conf on the indexer for source B, so that the masking takes place before indexing.

When Splunk is integrated with LDAP, most of the user attributes are managed by the LDAP server and cannot be changed in the Splunk UI. However, one exception is the default app attribute, which specifies which app a user sees when they log in to Splunk. This attribute can be changed in the Splunk UI by editing the user settings. Therefore, option A is the correct answer. References: Splunk Enterprise Certified Admin | Splunk, [Configure Splunk to use LDAP and map groups - Splunk Documentation]

https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/latest/Data/Configureeventlinebreaking

Attribute : SHOULD_LINEMERGE = [true|false]

Description : When set to true, the Splunk platform combines several input lines into a single event, with configuration based on the settings described in the next section.

Using the Splunk reference URLhttps://docs.splunk.com/Splexicon:Searchpeer

"search peer is a splunk platform instance that responds to search requests from a search head. The term "search peer" is usally synonymous with the indexer role in a distributed search topology. However, other instance types also have access to indexed data, particularly internal diagnostic data, and thus function as search peers when they respond to search requests for that data."

https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/8.1.1/Updating/Definedeploymentclasses#Ways_to_define_server_classes "When you use forwarder management to create a new server class, it saves the server class definition in a copy of serverclass.conf under $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/system/local. If, instead of using forwarder management, you decide to directly edit serverclass.conf, it is recommended that you create the serverclass.conf file in that same directory, $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/system/local."

https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/8.2.2/Admin/Inputsconf

-Scroll down to source =

*Default: the input file path

When creating new user roles in Splunk, it's recommended to define roles that incorporate the necessary capabilities and index access permissions. This approach allows for granular control over user access and aligns with best practices for role-based access control.

"You can create custom roles and assign those roles to your users. Custom roles let you make granular adjustments to user access, including... Role inheritance... Capabilities... Allowed and default indexes..."

— About configuring role-based user access -

By creating roles that incorporate both capabilities and index access, administrators can efficiently manage user permissions and maintain a secure Splunk environment.

A Splunk deployment server is a system that distributes apps, configurations, and other assets to groups of Splunk Enterprise instances. You can use it to distribute updates to most types of Splunk Enterprise components: forwarders, non-clustered indexers, and search heads2.

A Splunk deployment server is available on every full Splunk Enterprise instance. To use it, you must activate it by placing at least one app into %SPLUNK_HOME%\etc\deployment-apps on the host you want to act as deployment server3.

A Splunk deployment server maintains the list of server classes and uses those server classes to determine what content to distribute to each client. A server class is a group of deployment clients that share one or more defined characteristics1.

A Splunk deployment client is a Splunk instance remotely configured by a deployment server. Deployment clients can be universal forwarders, heavy forwarders, indexers, or search heads. Each deployment client belongs to one or more server classes1.

A Splunk deployment app is a set of content (including configuration files) maintained on the deployment server and deployed as a unit to clients of a server class. A deployment app can be an existing Splunk Enterprise app or one developed solely to group some content for deployment purposes1.

Therefore, option C is correct, and the other options are incorrect.

https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/8.1.1/Indexer/HowSplunkstoresindexes

Once further conditions are met (for example, the index reaches some maximum number of warm buckets), the indexer begins to roll the warm buckets to cold, based on their age. It always selects the oldest warm bucket to roll to cold. Buckets continue to roll to cold as they age in this manner. Cold buckets reside in a different location from hot and warm buckets. You can configure the location so that cold buckets reside on cheaper storage.