topic User level Concurrent search limits in Splunk Search

User level Concurrent search limits

maniu1609 — Wed, 30 Sep 2020 00:00:28 GMT

Hi Everyone,
On my system, I have 2 CPU cores
In $SPLUNKHOME/etc/system/local/limits.conf file I got below details,

max_searches_per_cpu = 1

the base number of concurrent searches

base_max_searches = 6

max real-time searches = max_rt_search_multiplier x max historical searches

max_rt_search_multiplier = 1

on search head, Access controls » Roles » demorole

User-level concurrent search jobs limit = 10

now, the demorole role will choose which option? 8 or 10?

Re: User level Concurrent search limits

harsmarvania57 — Thu, 11 Apr 2019 13:41:07 GMT

Hi,

As you have 2 CPU cores only, you can maximum run 8 searches concurrently based on default settings. Due to resource limitation splunk will not hit User-level concurrent search jobs limit which is 10 in your case.

Re: User level Concurrent search limits

maniu1609 — Thu, 11 Apr 2019 14:17:51 GMT

Thanks @harsmarvania57. So whatever role we create should have user-level concurrent search limit less than number of concurrent search defined in limits.conf. Correct me if my understanding is wrong. Also I have one more query here. Should we define limits.conf at search head or in indexer?

Re: User level Concurrent search limits

harsmarvania57 — Wed, 30 Sep 2020 00:04:46 GMT

Even if you provide higher user-level concurrent search limit then also it will not take into effect because before splunk will hit user-level concurrent search limit, it will hit CPU resource limitation so yes set user-level concurrent search limit less than or equal to your CPU core (Calculation is max_hist_searches = max_searches_per_cpu x number_of_cpus + base_max_searches )

Do you want to change any parameter value in limits.conf ? If yes then it should be on Search Heads but if you want to run on default settings then you do not need to set anything, splunk will automatically take default config from $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/system/default/limits.conf

Re: User level Concurrent search limits

maniu1609 — Thu, 11 Apr 2019 14:38:11 GMT

That's really great information. Thanks a lot @harsmarvania57

Re: User level Concurrent search limits

harsmarvania57 — Thu, 11 Apr 2019 14:42:22 GMT

You are welcome