Getting Data In

What kind of forwarder do I have?

robert_vincent
Engager

I've inherited a distributed Splunk installation with no internal documentation and no access to the tech who originally installed it.

How can I tell, from examination of config files, whether a given forwarder is "Light", "Heavy", or "Universal" ?

0 Karma

linu1988
Champion

check the inputs.conf/outputs.conf files. They will give you a hint

0 Karma

rroberts
Splunk Employee
Splunk Employee

One way to do it:

Check your metrics.log for the value of a field called fwdType. You'll see:

UF (universal), LWF (Light Weight Fowarder, HWF (Heavy Weight Fowarder), FULL (splunk forwarding) for values.

Search: index=_internal source=*metrics.log fwdType= *

Example event:

INFO Metrics - group=tcpin_connections, 76.89.103.115:63150:9998, connectionType=cooked, sourcePort=63150, sourceHost=76.89.103.115, sourceIp=76.89.103.115, destPort=9998, _tcp_Bps=28427.55, _tcp_KBps=27.76, _tcp_avg_thruput=27.76, kb=415.15, tcpKprocessed=415.15, _tcp_eps=17.19, build=143156, version=5.0.1, os=Windows, arch=x64, hostname=Rick-Dualcore, guid=22A95A43-68AE-4052-9864-8B771F34A8F0, fwdType=full, ssl=false, lastIndexer=None, ack=false

varad_joshi
Communicator

Thank you for this. If my Splunk is listening on UDP as well then will to show here?
I searched in my environment with 'index=_internal source=*metrics.log | top fwdType' and I got only uf and full. How do I get UDP as well?

0 Karma

varad_joshi
Communicator

I typed that too early..

Little search and I was able to find it.

index=_internal source=*metrics.log group=udpin_connections | dedup sourcePort

0 Karma

rroberts
Splunk Employee
Splunk Employee

Great thanks!

0 Karma

robert_vincent
Engager

Thanks; I modified your suggested search as follows:

index=_internal source=*metrics.log | top fwdType

Looks like all our forwarders are "uf"

0 Karma

linu1988
Champion

And for Heavy/Light you will have a full splunk instance i.e. splunkd, splunkweb will be available but not in universal forwarder..

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!

Announcing Modern Navigation: A New Era of Splunk User Experience

We are excited to introduce the Modern Navigation feature in the Splunk Platform, available to both cloud and ...

Modernize your Splunk Apps – Introducing Python 3.13 in Splunk

We are excited to announce that the upcoming releases of Splunk Enterprise 10.2.x and Splunk Cloud Platform ...

Step into “Hunt the Insider: An Splunk ES Premier Mystery” to catch a cybercriminal ...

After a whole week of being on call, you fell asleep on your keyboard, and you hit a sequence of buttons that ...