Getting Data In

How to establish secure connection between Universal Forwarders and Heavy Forwarders in a distributed environment?

hartley
Explorer

Hi,

Good day!

We have distributed Splunk Enterprise setup, we are trying to establish secure SSL communication between UF-> HF-> Indexer.
We do have certificates configured for Search heads, Indexers and Heavy Forwarders. We have also opened required receiving ports on both Indexer and HF.
On the other hand, we have around 200 UF's, can someone please tell me, if we need to generate 200 client certificates or we can use general certificate which we can deploy on all 200 UF's for establishing communication between UF and HF.

Thanks,
D Vijaya

0 Karma
1 Solution

nickhills
Ultra Champion

Take a look at this excellent presentation from .conf15 which walks you through creating and applying certificates across all of your Splunk infrastructure:

Slide 18+ covers Forwarders.
https://conf.splunk.com/session/2015/conf2015_DWaddle_DefensePointSecurity_deploying_SplunkSSLBestPr...

You can create one certificate which all your UFs will use, you don't need 200 certs!

If my comment helps, please give it a thumbs up!

View solution in original post

0 Karma

hartley
Explorer

Thanks guys.. your response would help 🙂

0 Karma

nickhills
Ultra Champion

Take a look at this excellent presentation from .conf15 which walks you through creating and applying certificates across all of your Splunk infrastructure:

Slide 18+ covers Forwarders.
https://conf.splunk.com/session/2015/conf2015_DWaddle_DefensePointSecurity_deploying_SplunkSSLBestPr...

You can create one certificate which all your UFs will use, you don't need 200 certs!

If my comment helps, please give it a thumbs up!
0 Karma

harsmarvania57
Ultra Champion

Hi,

You can use common certificate on all 200 UF which will connect with HF/IDX.

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!

Casting Call: Compete in Cyber Games

Lights, Camera, SecOps: Apply to Compete in Cyber Games     Think you have what it takes to beat the clock? ...

Data Management Digest – June 2026

Welcome to the June 2026 edition of Data Management Digest! This month’s update is short and sweet, with a ...

Think Like an Architect: Introducing the Splunk Certified Cybersecurity Defense ...

In cybersecurity, defenders respond to threats. Architects design the systems that stop them.    As ...