Difference between Splunk Header and Splunk Indexer

[hemant1989]

I have two server in my environment, i need to configure one server as indexer and another one as Search Head. Can anyone tell me how can i do it.

I have installed splunk enterprise on both the server but now how can i differentiate the role.

[asimagu]

http://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/6.5.3/DistSearch/Configuredistributedsearch

also, take a look at this other answer: https://answers.splunk.com/answers/496043/splunk-configuration-for-search-head-indexer-and-f.html

[hemant1989]

Thanks for your response.
So what i understood now is, an indexer is used for storing the logs and all logs from the forwarder will be pushed to indexer.
And Search Head is used only for making use cases but it will not save the logs. So these are just the name given to two servers.

Since i am new here, this bring me another question that why we need two separate server ( one for search head and one for indexer) instead we can have one server doing both the function. any which ways indexer will have the logs all the time and we can also build usecases in indexer itself. why we need separate server as search head ?