topic Re: Getting windows logs into splunk in Getting Data In

Getting windows logs into splunk

gwcon — Sun, 08 Mar 2020 08:43:42 GMT

Hi,

I am very new to Splunk. I am looking for a way to get windows logs into Splunk.
I downloaded the Splunk forwarder but the issue is that this gives me gibberish logs.
Example: "--splunk-cooked-mode-v3--\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\"

I understood this is due to it being TCP but not being recognized as such and it needing to be configured in splunk itself as receiving from a Splunk fowarder ?
But this is not allowed with a free license ?

If anyone has a link explaining this, that would be a massive help, i would love to understand it way better.
I apologize up front if this is a really silly question and the answer is obvious.

Re: Getting windows logs into splunk

natalielam — Mon, 09 Mar 2020 02:45:14 GMT

Windows raw logs are binary files. Seems that your Splunk forwarder are not reading the logs properly. If you already installed the forwarder on your windows server, you can consider using the universal forwarder to forward the logs to your indexer: https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/8.0.2/Data/MonitorWindowseventlogdata#Use_a_universal_forwarder

It is also more convenient to use the add-on to set up log collection: https://splunkbase.splunk.com/app/742/

Re: Getting windows logs into splunk

gwcon — Mon, 09 Mar 2020 06:23:16 GMT

Thanks for your reply, is this possible using the free edition of Splunk though ?
( i was convinced i got the cooked logs due to license, not due to config of forwarder in windows )

Re: Getting windows logs into splunk

natalielam — Mon, 09 Mar 2020 06:34:01 GMT

Yes definitely! I used the trial version for my testing and it works.

Re: Getting windows logs into splunk

natalielam — Mon, 09 Mar 2020 06:35:12 GMT

Noticed I put the wrong link to the windows add-on. Edited now. Cheers