Getting Data In

Lightweight Forwarder to Universal Forwarder Migration?

the_wolverine
Champion

I just got off the phone with Support and was told that I needed to use Universal Forwarder (mode) in order to forward data from 4.2 forwarders to 4.1 legacy indexers. It sounds like the Universal Forwarder is the "new" even lighter than LightWeight forwarder?

If a full version of Splunk was installed, what are the steps to reconfigure it as a Universal Forwarder?

matt
Splunk Employee
Splunk Employee

enabling the app does not make an instance a universal forwarder. You must install the new universal binaries

0 Karma

Steve_G_
Splunk Employee
Splunk Employee

The Universal Forwarder is its own, separate executable. Unlike the light/heavy forwarders of yore, you do not enable it from a full Splunk instance.

To download the Universal Forwarder, go here:

http://www.splunk.com/download/universalforwarder

ftk
Motivator

The universal forwarder is indeed an even more lightweight forwarder than the previous lightweight forwarder configuration. The documentation has articles on migrating both Windows forwarders to the UF as well as Unix forwarders. I recommend reading the Intro to Universal Forwarder chapter as well.

the_wolverine
Champion

Currently I don't see a lot of documentation on how to manually configure this. I was able to figure out by running ./splunk list apps which apps are enabled. Then I deduced that I could enable the universal forwarder by running ./splunk enable apps UniversalForwarder.

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!

Automating Threat Operations and Threat Hunting with Recorded Future

    Automating Threat Operations and Threat Hunting with Recorded Future June 29, 2026 | Register   Is your ...

Keep the Learning Going with the New Best of .conf Hub

Hello Splunkers, With .conf26 getting closer, there’s already a lot of excitement building around this year’s ...

Splunk Community Badges!

  Hey everyone! Ready to earn some serious bragging rights in the community? Along with our existing badges ...