topic Why do the indexed files still have the wrong timestamp after editing the props.conf file? in Getting Data In

Why do the indexed files still have the wrong timestamp after editing the props.conf file?

sara_papa — Thu, 03 Mar 2022 00:13:23 GMT

Hi,
I can't get Splunk to use the content of timestamp_start as _time.

This is an example of log:
canale=<value>;an=<value>;num_fattura=<value>;data_emissione=2022-01-01;timestamp_start=2022-03-02 11:22:00;timestamp_end=2022-03-02 11:22:02;total_time=1.56035;http_code=200;purl=<value>

and this is what I get as _time 2022-01-01 11:22:00

I found a configuration that should work so I edited the props.conf file on the deployment server but even if I can see the "new" props.conf on the forwarder and on the deployment server, new indexed files still have the wrong timestamp.

[my_sourcetype]
SHOULD_LINEMERGE=false
NO_BINARY_CHECK=true
TIME_FORMAT=%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S
TIME_PREFIX=.*\d*-\d*-\d*\;timestamp_start=
MAX_TIMESTAMP_LOOKAHEAD=19

After editing the props.conf, I reloaded the deployment server (splunk reload deploy-server) and then I restarted Splunk on the deployment server and on the forwarder.

My Splunk version is 6.5.1.

Thanks for any help you may be able to give me!

Re: Edit props.conf

aasabatini — Wed, 02 Mar 2022 14:52:46 GMT

Hi @sara_papa

I hope you are well,

try to set your props.conf on the indexer, I think the best way is build a small app to deploy on your indexer.

Regards

Alessandro

Re: Edit props.conf

gcusello — Wed, 02 Mar 2022 14:54:55 GMT

Hi @sara_papa,

probably you well know that 6.5.1 isn't a supported version of Splunk!

Anyway, the timestamp parsing is done on the Indexers or, when present, on Heavy Forwarders, not on Universal Forwarder.

So you should put the props.conf to parse your logs in a TA to install on Indexers.

Anyway, try only a simple update to your props.conf, escaping "=" because it's a special char.:

TIME_PREFIX = timestamp_start\=

Anyway, as I said, I think that the problem is in the location of your props.conf.

You have to put props on Forwarders only if you have an INDEXED_EXTRACTION.

Ciao.

Giuseppe