topic Re: Sourcetype alias in Getting Data In

Sourcetype alias

aknsun — Wed, 22 May 2019 06:56:22 GMT

Hi,

We have been using a custom method to get cloudtrail to Splunk by using log files on a server that has the Cloudtrail data. This custom method was setup sometime back and has been using a sourcetype that is different to the one that comes via the AWS Add On ("aws:cloudtrail"). As we are now planning to migrate off this method and move to AWS Add On, is there any way that we can still use the old sourcetype along with "aws:cloudtrail" by sourcetype aliasing, if that is an option?

Thanks.

AKN

Re: Sourcetype alias

koshyk — Wed, 22 May 2019 07:43:29 GMT

There are few options you can consider
1. sourcetype aliasing is NOT a good option. This is because it is an sourcetype is indextime field and fundamental data transforms work off the sourcetype. But you can have two sourcetypes alongside till time runs ahead and the old sourcetype data is deleted in say 1 or 2 years? There is no issue in using old sourcetype and new sourcetype , but users may need to put an OR condition.
2. Create an eventtype something like this in eventtypes.conf

[aws_cloudtrail]
search = (sourcetype=yourOldSourcetype OR sourcetype=aws:cloudtrail)

and in searches , just use eventtype=aws_cloudtrail. This makes it transparent to user

3) this is cumbersome option of reindexing the old sourcetype to new sourcetype. More licensing, more work etc.

Re: Sourcetype alias

chris_barrett — Wed, 22 May 2019 07:53:32 GMT

It's not clear if they are (and I suspect that that they aren't if they're coming out of log files), but if your old style events are in the same format as the aws:cloudtrail events then you should be able to use a rename=aws:cloudtrail in the props.conf on your Search Head(s).

[old_sourcetype]
rename = aws:cloudtrail

Ref: https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/latest/Data/Renamesourcetypes

Re: Sourcetype alias

aknsun — Wed, 22 May 2019 08:29:41 GMT

Thanks @koshyk. Let me try out this option.

Re: Sourcetype alias

aknsun — Wed, 22 May 2019 08:30:51 GMT

Hi @chris_barrett. Thanks for the suggestion.