Installation

Remotely run .spl file

Kat7
Explorer

I'm working on building a remote deployment for the Splunk Universal Forwarder with PDQ Deploy on our Windows 10 computers.  I can run the initial splunk forwarder .msi installation without issue, but when I try to run the .spl file to sync the computer to our Splunk cloud environment, it errors out every time.

The command I'm using works fine when I run it locally, but I get "login failed" when I run it through PDQ.

cd "C:\Program Files\SplunkUniversalForwarder\bin"
splunk install app \splunkclouduf.spl -auth username:password

Is there a tweak I can make to the command or another way to accomplish the sync to our cloud environment?

Thanks in advance!

Labels (3)
0 Karma

Cliff-M
Engager

I am having this same issue were you able to resolve it? If so, what steps did you take?

0 Karma

Kat7
Explorer

What I ended up doing was copying the .spl file here (after creating the Desktop folder) C:\Program Files\SplunkUniversalForwarder\bin\Desktop.

Then I copy the applicable Forwarder Management app folders are here: C:\Program Files\SplunkUniversalForwarder\etc\apps.  The best way I found was to compare the folders on your test machine to a computer that you previously set up "correctly," and then copy over any missing folders.  These will generally be the same folders every time. 

Then I open an administrator command prompt and run these commands:
        cd "C:\Program Files\SplunkUniversalForwarder\bin"
        splunk restart
Once the last command finishes, you should be good to go.

My PDQ deployment looks like this:
Step 1: Install Universal Forwarder
Step 2: Powershell script
      New-Item -ItemType "directory" -Path "c:\\program Files\SplunkUniversalForwarder\bin\Desktop"
Step 3: File Copy- Copy .spl file into the folder created in step 2.
Step4: File Copy- Copy any needed app folders into here (if multiple app folders need to be copied over, each folder will be its own step in PDQ): 
                c:\\Program Files\SplunkUniversalForwarder\etc\apps
Step 5: Command Prompt- 
               cd "C:\Program Files\SplunkUniversalForwarder\bin"
                splunk restart

Hope this is helpful!

danielcj
Communicator

Hello,

Could you try to unpack the splunkclouduf.spl package and move it to the C:\Program Files\SplunkUniversalForwarder\etc\apps\ folder and then restart the UF instance?

Something like that:

 

tar xvf splunkclouduf.spl

mv <extracted_folder> C:\Program Files\SplunkUniversalForwarder\etc\apps\

splunk restart

 

0 Karma

Kat7
Explorer

I gave that a try but the computer still doesn't show up in the cloud.  

0 Karma
Get Updates on the Splunk Community!

Splunk Observability Cloud’s AI Assistant in Action Series: Analyzing and ...

This is the second post in our Splunk Observability Cloud’s AI Assistant in Action series, in which we look at ...

Elevate Your Organization with Splunk’s Next Platform Evolution

 Thursday, July 10, 2025  |  11AM PDT / 2PM EDT Whether you're managing complex deployments or looking to ...

Splunk Answers Content Calendar, June Edition

Get ready for this week’s post dedicated to Splunk Dashboards! We're celebrating the power of community by ...