setting destination index for win light forwarder

[rgonzale6]

We have a number of win machines to push splunk onto...basically, doing this:

msiexec.exe /i Splunk.msi SPLUNK_APP="SplunkLightForwarder" FORWARD_SERVER="IP:PORT" /quiet

The issue is, as I understand it if you don't tell a forwarding splunk instance the destination index, it defaults to main. We don't want the data in main. I know you can specify this in inputs.conf, but you can't seem to pass a 'index=__' argument to the msiexec install path above...and I'd like for this to be one step without changing any config files afterwards. Is this possible?

[gkanapathy · Accepted solution]

In general we don't recommend using MSI install flags to set configuration. Instead, install a passive Splunk forwarder using the flags, then copy over the relevant configuration files to set its behavior. Managing configuration this way is much more reliable and robust than relying on successful execution of a series of steps (e.g., what if the install succeeds, or partially completes, etc.)

Please see: http://www.splunk.com/wiki/Deploying_Splunk_Light_Forwarders