topic unable to break multi line events in splunk in Getting Data In

unable to break multi line events in splunk

luv — Thu, 14 Nov 2013 20:20:39 GMT

10:32:21,453 INFO [2212] abcdxyz <-|
10:32:21,112 INFO [2212] abcdxyz |
10:32:22,409 INFO [1121] abcdxyz |

10:32:23,003 INFO [1121] abcdxyz |
10:32:23,453 INFO [2212] abcdxyz |
|
............ |
............ |
............ | <---this whole block is taken as the 1st event by splunk
some HTML codes |
............ |
............ |
............ |
<-|
11:09:30,103 INFO [1008] abcdxyz <-|
11:09:30,409 INFO [4560] abcdxyz |
11:10:31,092 INFO [2212] abcdxyz |
11:10:31,470 INFO [2212] abcdxyz | <- this whole block is taken as the 2nd event by splunk

|
............ |
............ |
............ |
Some HTML codes |
............ |
............ |
............ |
<-|
12:09:20,125.....and so on <-|
| <- 4th event
.
.
<-.
. <- 5th event
.
<-.

I don't know why splunk is not breaking the lines when it finds the timestamp instead of that it is combining few lines as if they are single event though they have different timestamps
Is there any way i can split these lines according to the timestamp?

FYI- I am using splunk universal forwarder(Windows) and splunk indexer(Linux)

Thanks 🙂

Re: unable to break multi line events in splunk

lukejadamec — Thu, 14 Nov 2013 20:30:47 GMT

How do you have this sourcetype configured in props.conf?

Re: unable to break multi line events in splunk

luv — Thu, 14 Nov 2013 20:35:36 GMT

no i don't have props.conf configured for this in the indexer.
splunk is supposed to split it automatically right? as there is no need to tell splunk explicitly where to split the events because many lines have timestamps

Re: unable to break multi line events in splunk

lukejadamec — Thu, 14 Nov 2013 20:43:14 GMT

This log looks like one of those logs that Splunk needs a little help with.
What program is generating this log?

Re: unable to break multi line events in splunk

luv — Thu, 14 Nov 2013 20:49:46 GMT

It is a java code used to perform banking transactions
Is there anyway i can split it?
this "10:32:21,453" time stamp doesn't count as a valid time by splunk?

Re: unable to break multi line events in splunk

mloven_splunk — Thu, 14 Nov 2013 20:51:45 GMT

plop this in a props.conf file

[sourcetypenamehere]
LINE_BREAKER = ([\r\n]+)(?\d{1,2}:\d{2}:\d{2},\d{3}

Re: unable to break multi line events in splunk

somesoni2 — Mon, 28 Sep 2020 15:16:54 GMT

By default Splunk looks for timestamp with date (your just have time) to automatically split the events based on timestamp. Since, your file shows just the time part, splunk need an extra option to break the events on just time. you would have to add "BREAK_ONLY_BEFORE=\d{2}:\d{2}:\d{2},\d{3}" in props.conf to enable splunk to do eventbreak per your requirement.

Re: unable to break multi line events in splunk

lukejadamec — Thu, 14 Nov 2013 20:55:43 GMT

Can you post your configuration for this input from inputs.conf?
See if mloven's line breaker works, and then we'll know if you need help with the timestamp.

Re: unable to break multi line events in splunk

lguinn2 — Mon, 28 Sep 2020 15:16:56 GMT

I like @mloven_splunk's answer, but I always prefer BREAK_ONLY_BEFORE = <regular expression> to LINE_BREAKER. LINE_BREAKER has potentially nasty side-effects.

[sourcetypenamehere] BREAK_ONLY_BEFORE =\d{1,2}:\d{2}:\d{2},\d{3}

You may also want to specify the TIME_FORMAT. Here are some links to the documentation:

How timestamp assignment works

Configure timestamp recognition

Finally, if you get the timestamp recognition right, you might not need to specify the linebreaking. Splunk generally breaks on timestamp by default...

Re: unable to break multi line events in splunk

lukejadamec — Thu, 14 Nov 2013 21:13:00 GMT

I'm still learning regex, is the regex you posted missing \ before the d's?

Re: unable to break multi line events in splunk

mataharry — Thu, 14 Nov 2013 21:47:50 GMT

yes they were removed by the html formating

"d" shoud be "backslashd"

Re: unable to break multi line events in splunk

lguinn2 — Fri, 15 Nov 2013 17:55:31 GMT

Sorry about the typo - I made the correction in my answer. Thanks for the catch.

Re: unable to break multi line events in splunk

luv — Fri, 15 Nov 2013 19:20:32 GMT

Thanks Iguinn that worked 🙂