topic Re: Noob question about btool and conf file precedence in Splunk Enterprise

Noob question about btool and conf file precedence

Nicolas2203 — Thu, 15 Feb 2024 14:51:56 GMT

Hi, first question here !

I'm new on Splunk and I have a basic question on btool.

With this command line :

/splunk btool outputs list --debug

the result is that the first element in the (long) list is the one which is applied in case if there is no outputs.conf in a deployed app on the Heavy Forwarder ?

Am I right ?

Thanks

Nico

Re: Noob question about btool and conf file precedence

richgalloway — Thu, 15 Feb 2024 14:58:55 GMT

The btool command shows *all* of the settings that will be applied the next time Splunk restarts. It takes file precedence into account when generating the output. The first column produced by the --debug option is the name of the file from which the setting was read.

Re: Noob question about btool and conf file precedence

Nicolas2203 — Thu, 15 Feb 2024 15:08:30 GMT

Hi richgalloway, thanks for your time,

OK I see, and in case of an app which has no outputs.conf init, how can I know which output will be used by this app ?

Re: Noob question about btool and conf file precedence

isoutamo — Thu, 15 Feb 2024 15:26:54 GMT

#----TCP Output Global Configuration -----
# You can overwrite the global configurations specified here in the
# [tcpout] stanza in stanzas for specific target groups, as described later.
# You can only set the 'defaultGroup' and 'indexAndForward' settings
# here, at the global level.
#
# Starting with version 4.2, the [tcpout] stanza is no longer required.

[tcpout]

defaultGroup = <comma-separated list>
* A comma-separated list of one or more target group names, specified later
  in [tcpout:<target_group>] stanzas.
* The forwarder sends all data to the specified groups.
* If you don't want to forward data automatically, don't configure this setting.
* Can be overridden by the '_TCP_ROUTING' setting in the inputs.conf file, 
  which in turn can be overridden by a props.conf or transforms.conf modifier.
* Starting with version 4.2, this setting is no longer required.

Unless you haven’t set defaultGroup to anything, which you have defined separately, node don’t sent events anywhere. Of course you could define something special ininputs.conf too.

r. Ismo

Re: Noob question about btool and conf file precedence

richgalloway — Thu, 15 Feb 2024 15:32:17 GMT

Apps don't use configs. Splunk uses configs specified by apps. If an app doesn't provide a config file then another file will be used by order of precedence. This is what btool shows us.

IOW, what you see in the btool output is what Splunk will use.

Re: Noob question about btool and conf file precedence

Nicolas2203 — Thu, 15 Feb 2024 15:39:52 GMT

OK thanks richgalloway and isoutamo for the help

So if I understand correctly, if no outputs.conf is defined in the app conf then :
- Splunk will used the first outputs file in the btool list, unless a default group is set ?

Re: Noob question about btool and conf file precedence

richgalloway — Thu, 15 Feb 2024 18:08:39 GMT

As I said earlier, the output from btool is *everything* Splunk will use. Btool has already selected the appropriate files based on what is available in apps and defaults after applying file precedence rules.

IOW, Splunk will use *all* of the outputs.conf files listed by btool, not just the first.