Auto LoadBalancing possible with DNS-Alias entry?

[tpaulsen]

Can we use a DNS-Alias name to use the Auto Load Balancing feature of 4.1.1. for the Forwarders? E.g.:

Name:   splunk-A
Address: 10.10.10.1
Aliases:  splunk-index

Name:   splunk-B
Address: 10.10.10.2
Aliases:  splunk-index

Name:   splunk-C
Address: 10.10.10.3
Aliases:  splunk-index

Will this work?

[oestreicher]

You can use A records in DNS as much as you want, no point of using aliases. Aliases might work, but A records are cleaner.

[tpaulsen]

We implemented it, and it works like a charm.

Name:   splunk-indexers.puc.ov.otto.de
Address: 10.111.128.76
Name:   splunk-indexers.puc.ov.otto.de
Address: 10.111.128.151
Name:   splunk-indexers.puc.ov.otto.de
Address: 10.111.128.75

splunk-e.ov.otto.de     canonical name = blade798.ov.otto.de.
Name:   blade798.ov.otto.de
Address: 10.111.128.151
splunk-d.puc.ov.otto.de canonical name = blade702.puc.ov.otto.de.
Name:   blade702.puc.ov.otto.de
Address: 10.111.128.76
splunk-b.puc.ov.otto.de canonical name = blade803.puc.ov.otto.de.
Name:   blade803.puc.ov.otto.de
Address: 10.111.128.75

The data gets distributed to all three indexer. Search is done via a searh head with distributed search. I will shortly add a fourth indexer, that is behind a firewall and not part of the splunk-indexers.

[ftk]

According to the Splunk 4.1 admin training I took recently, you can use a "DNS list based on a series of A records for a single host name" to configure auto load balancing.

[jrodman]

Yeah, documented is A records. This is a CNAME example. I suspect it won't work, but am uncertain.

[ampledata]

this was tested prior to the release of 4.0

[jrodman]

This has been asked before, and I thought it would Just Work but a more sysadminny person in QA said it depended. Someone was asked to test. I'll ping the appropriate parties. If the difference between A and CNAME matters to you, let us know.