Getting Data In

Can I block a sourcetype from being indexed?

dhaffner
Path Finder

We have a huge sudden input of a specific sourcetype and it is overloading the license. Can we somehow block it or set it to drop so they do not get indexed and make us go over our license? Any ideas welcome, but we do not use iptables and are not able to block it at the network level, so it would have to be something in Splunk.

Thanks

Tags (1)
1 Solution

Lowell
Super Champion

A simple configuration like this should work. Depending on if you have forwarders (and if there are lightweight or not) may change where you need to deploy these settings to.

props.conf

[my_out_of_control_sourcetype]
TRANFORMS-dropall = drop_events

transforms.conf

[drop_events]
DEST_KEY = queue
REGEX   = .
FORMAT   = nullQueue

Simply replace "my_out_of_control_sourcetype" with the name of the sourectype you want to silence.

View solution in original post

dhaffner
Path Finder

For some reason, this seems to have stopped working. Any other ideas? Thank you!

0 Karma

Lowell
Super Champion

A simple configuration like this should work. Depending on if you have forwarders (and if there are lightweight or not) may change where you need to deploy these settings to.

props.conf

[my_out_of_control_sourcetype]
TRANFORMS-dropall = drop_events

transforms.conf

[drop_events]
DEST_KEY = queue
REGEX   = .
FORMAT   = nullQueue

Simply replace "my_out_of_control_sourcetype" with the name of the sourectype you want to silence.

Lowell
Super Champion

That's weird. It shouldn't have worked and then stopped working. Have you confirmed that no other part of your configuration changed? Are you blocking based on sourcetype or based on a host entry? Posting your exact config may be helpful too.

0 Karma

dhaffner
Path Finder

For some reason, this seems to have stopped working. Any other ideas?
Thank you!

0 Karma

dhaffner
Path Finder

excellent! Thank you! seems to be working great.

0 Karma
Got questions? Get answers!

Join the Splunk Community Slack to learn, troubleshoot, and make connections with fellow Splunk practitioners in real time!

Meet up IRL or virtually!

Join Splunk User Groups to connect and learn in-person by region or remotely by topic or industry.

Get Updates on the Splunk Community!

Index This | What travels the world but is also stuck in place?

April 2026 Edition  Hayyy Splunk Education Enthusiasts and the Eternally Curious!   We’re back with this ...

Discover New Use Cases: Unlock Greater Value from Your Existing Splunk Data

Realizing the full potential of your Splunk investment requires more than just understanding current usage; it ...

Continue Your Journey: Join Session 2 of the Data Management and Federation Bootcamp ...

As data volumes continue to grow and environments become more distributed, managing and optimizing data ...