Knowledge Management

How does summary indexing handle time?

araitz
Splunk Employee
Splunk Employee

I have noticed that when summarizing some events that do not have a timestamp (tabular reports, data from lookups), the _time value is not set as I would expect. How does summary indexing decide what time to use?

Tags (2)
1 Solution

araitz
Splunk Employee
Splunk Employee

To set the time for summary index events, Splunk uses the following information, in this order of precedence:

  1. The _time value of the event being summarized
  2. The earliest (or minimum) time of the search
  3. The current system time (in the case of an "all time" search, where no "earliest" value is specified)

http://www.splunk.com/base/Documentation/latest/Knowledge/Usesummaryindexing#Summary_indexing_of_dat...

View solution in original post

araitz
Splunk Employee
Splunk Employee

To set the time for summary index events, Splunk uses the following information, in this order of precedence:

  1. The _time value of the event being summarized
  2. The earliest (or minimum) time of the search
  3. The current system time (in the case of an "all time" search, where no "earliest" value is specified)

http://www.splunk.com/base/Documentation/latest/Knowledge/Usesummaryindexing#Summary_indexing_of_dat...

AnilPujar
Path Finder

But when I try simple below query its taking the current system time instead of _time of event.

index=indexname | collect index=si

I want the events in the summary index to retain the _time as it is in the primary index. But it's storing the current system time.

AnilPujar
Path Finder

@araitz , please check n help...

0 Karma

cblanton
Communicator

I'm having the same issue. My events have a _time value, but it is not maintained in the summary index. It also stores the current system time which seems to contradict the precedence outlined above. Did you ever find a solution @AnilPujar?

Get Updates on the Splunk Community!

Index This | What is broken 80% of the time by February?

December 2025 Edition   Hayyy Splunk Education Enthusiasts and the Eternally Curious!    We’re back with this ...

Unlock Faster Time-to-Value on Edge and Ingest Processor with New SPL2 Pipeline ...

Hello Splunk Community,   We're thrilled to share an exciting update that will help you manage your data more ...

Splunk MCP & Agentic AI: Machine Data Without Limits

Discover how the Splunk Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server can revolutionize the way your organization uses ...