topic Re: How to configure search-time fields in Splunk Search

How to configure search-time fields

mburbidg — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 08:57:15 GMT

I cannot find in the manual how to configure search-time field extraction. I would like to define some fields that apply across all sourcetype. I was told by a splunk trainer that you can't do that using the interactive field extraction tool but can do it in the configuration files.

Anyway I've search through the documentation and can't find either an example of description of how to do this.

Re: How to configure search-time fields

mburbidg — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 10:04:40 GMT

I found the documentation in the knowledge worker manual. I put the following in etc/system/local/props.conf

[log4j*]
EXTRACT-magazineTitle = (?i) magazineTitle:(?P.+?)\s+\w+:

The extractions shows up in the fields manager, but when I do searches it does not show up in the field picker. Is that normal?

Re: How to configure search-time fields

mburbidg — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 10:13:41 GMT

I discovered that if the sourcetype is log4j-100, which is a single instances of a set of rolling logs then the field shows up in the field picker and works. Can't I wildcard the sourcetype?

Re: How to configure search-time fields

southeringtonp — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 23:57:32 GMT

Looks like you already figured out the first part, but just in case, here's a good reference:
http://www.splunk.com/base/Documentation/latest/Knowledge/Createandmaintainsearch-timefieldextractionsthroughconfigurationfiles#First.2C_define_a_field_transform

If you want the extraction to apply to all sourcetypes, then just create your entry in props.conf at the top of the file, outside of any stanza heading. Entries in the file that are not beneath a [stanza] header are considered to be global.

There's no way to do a wildcard like [log4j-*], at least as of Splunk 4.1. There are three main options:

Define the extraction globally, putting your EXTRACT-xxx or REPORT-xxx line at the top of props.conf.
Define the extraction multiple times, with a separate stanza for each sourcetype
Define the extraction for sourcetype [log4j], and rename each log4j-xxx sourcetype. Going forward, manually assign the sourcetype so that you don't get the variations.

Option 3 is usually preferable.