Is there a way to skip the authentication requirement when a universal forwarder is installed?

[pdantuuri0411]

Whenever a new universal forwarder is installed, authentication is required which by default are admin/changeme.

Is there a way to skip this authentication process every time a new forwarder is installed?

Regards,
Pradeep

[woodcock · Accepted solution]

Yes, you can pass it the GENRANDOMPASSWORD=1 argument (Windows) OR --gen-and-print-passwd argument (*nix) to the installer and it will generate a random password which you do not need to capture/remember (it is easy enough to reset/override if you need to later).
Also, you can supply the credentials (either in the clear or hashed) using $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/system/local/user-seed.conf and using the --no-prompt command line option when running the first time:

[user_info]
USERNAME = admin
PASSWORD =
HASHED_PASSWORD =

Or use --seed-passwd OR --gen-and-print-passwd (mentioned earlier) as part of the arguments. Either way the documentation is found here:
https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/latest/Security/Secureyouradminaccount#Create_admin_cre...

[pdantuuri0411]

Thank you @woodcock for the reply.

Where should the argument be passed? We usually just unzip the tar file to install the forwarder.

Regards

[woodcock]

See my updated answer, @pdantuuri0411 and come back and click Accept to close the question.