Splunk Add Monitor Command Error: Why is "Parameter name: Path is not readable"?

[rogue_carrot]

Hello Team Splunk,

I am trying to add a monitor to a log file. When I do this as either the 'splunk' user or the 'root' user I receive the following error: "Parameter name: Path is not readable." I noticed that as the 'splunk' user I cannot read the file with the vi program. However I can read the file as the root user. So why would I receive this error if the 'root' user can read the file and I am running the ./splunk program as 'root'. I also noticed that the log files I am trying to forward are on a network file system that is mounted on the operating system (OS). I am not sure if this mount makes a difference or not.

Also, I noticed I can add the entire directory but not the specific file I want to forward to the indexer. Also, when I monitor the entire directory the indexer only monitors some other out of date log file and not the log file I am after. 0_o I noticed that the files in this directory are executable except for the specific log file I am trying to monitor.

Regards,

rogue_carrot

[rogue_carrot · Accepted solution]

I found out the problem. The splunk user did not have read access to the file. I gave the file read/write access with the linux setfacl program. Then my remote indexer picked up the forwarded log file events. I followed this simple tutorial: https://www.webhostinghero.com/how-to-give-file-permissions-to-a-specific-user-in-linux/

[amiftah]

As Best Practice you should configure your systems to run the software as a non-root user
Try to change the ownership of the $SPLUNK_HOME directory to the user that you want Splunk software to run as.

https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/7.1.1/Installation/RunSplunkasadifferentornon-rootuser

[rogue_carrot]

Thank-you for the reply. 🙂 I stopped the running splunk process that was executing as root and restarted the splunk process as the splunk user.

[rogue_carrot]

I found out the problem. The splunk user did not have read access to the file. I gave the file read/write access with the linux setfacl program. Then my remote indexer picked up the forwarded log file events. I followed this simple tutorial: https://www.webhostinghero.com/how-to-give-file-permissions-to-a-specific-user-in-linux/