November 2022
Observability Cloud
End Of Support Extension for SignalFx Smart Agent
Splunk is extending the End of Support (EOS) date for the deprecated SignalFx Smart Agent to June 30th, 2023 (previously set for December 17th, 2022). If you are still using the SignalFx Smart Agent, you should migrate to the Splunk Distribution of OpenTelemetry Collector. Here’s a dedicated runbook that covers a set of recommended steps such as collecting logs, viewing OOTB dashboards, and using the configuration translation tool to help with the migration.
Application Performance Monitoring
Database Correlations in Splunk Observability
Splunk Observability makes it easier to troubleshoot latency bottlenecks through database correlations. This feature helps you quickly navigate server-side database performance from hosts and instance metrics found in Splunk Infrastructure Monitoring, to database query performance from Splunk APM. Splunk Observability’s related content framework makes it possible to navigate server-side database performance and their database queries seamlessly, without losing context. For further details, please refer to the documentation link here.
Redis Command Performance in Splunk APM
Redis Command Performance in APM helps you identify slow or frequently executed commands that affect application performance with no DB instrumentation required. You can compare aggregate trends in commands against historical time windows and correlate them against application components, such as incoming service or endpoint. You can also leverage our OOTB database correlations and be informed of server performance ensuring a holistic redis troubleshooting experience. Learn more here.
Service Map in Splunk APM
We are planning to deprecate the External Client node from the service map in an effort to improve performance with minimal user facing impact.
Currently, when viewing a business workflow on the service map, you see a node representing an external client (see screenshot below). We’re planning to deprecate that node. Note that this will not have any impact on the metrics generated for Business Workflows, or the behavior of Business Workflows, as it will just remove the node from the service map.
APM Usage & System Limits Dashboards in Splunk Observability
APM Usage and System Limits Dashboards in Splunk Observability make it easier to troubleshoot span drops in APM. These dashboards give users complete visibility into subscription usage patterns, ingest limit breaches or instrumentation gaps that might result in dropped spans. Users can also set up detectors to be alerted when they get throttled or exceeding subscription limits. Learn more about this here.
Infrastructure Monitoring
Support for Oracle Database monitoring with the OpenTelemetry Collector
The Splunk Distribution of the OpenTelemetry Collector now supports Oracle Database monitoring with an OpenTelemetry receiver that captures instance, session and query level metrics. Splunk Observability Cloud complements this capability with built-in dashboards as well. For information on configuring this integration, please refer to the documentation link here.
ITSI
Splunk ITSI Custom threshold windows
With the upcoming holiday season in the next few months - Thanksgiving in the United States, Christmas, New Years, and Lunar New Year in Asia - you need to ensure your severity levels are adjusted accordingly for all your services and KPIs. While the current thresholds you set are appropriate for business as usual days, these upcoming holidays can result in an increase in traffic to your website, an increase in message rates, or an increase in server usage.
Today, we’re introducing Custom threshold windows (CTW), which is the ability to adjust your thresholds for special moments during the year where the regular severity levels don’t apply. Check out Custom threshold windows (CTW) in Splunk ITSI 4.15 by navigating to Configuration → Custom threshold windows and clicking “create custom threshold windows.” We look forward to hearing more about what CTWs you set up in the future!
Real User Monitoring
Improved RUM Session Details Page
We have made it easier to explore waterfall in the Splunk RUM session details page. “Session Segments” chart on the top has been replaced with “Session Timeline” which indicates the hot spots of errors and requests in a user session. Additionally, RUM users can now move the slider to explore the timeline of sessions with longer durations.
Alert on pages and network requests in RUM
Splunk RUM users can now set up detectors to get notified whenever their critical pages or network calls are slow or experiencing issues. Users can do this by setting up custom rules for their critical pages which are then available for alerting. For more information, refer to the documentation here.
Signup for RUM Session Replay Beta
Splunk RUM is looking for customers who are interested in being of part of Session Replay preview. Session Replay will allow your team to get visibility into end-user impact by showing you a video-like representation of the user session (with PII & text redacted) and removing the guesswork in the troubleshooting journey.
By being part of this preview program will you get early access to the Session Replay functionality and provide feedback for future improvements. Please fill out this Google form to be considered to be part of the beta program here.
Synthetics
Now Available in Synthetics in Observability - Advanced Settings for Browser Tests
Advanced settings for browser tests are now available for users of Splunk Synthetic Monitoring within Splunk Observability Cloud. Synthetic Monitoring users often have specific requirements for browser instrumentation during testing to accurately replicate the user experience and business-critical workflows they hope to measure. These advanced settings allow users to customize the user workflow for their browser tests in the new UI by adding cookies, custom headers, SSL/TLS validation, authentication, user agents, and DNS overrides and host rewrites. You can find more information here.
Education Corner
Over 20 FREE eLearning Courses Help You Up-Skill with Splunk
Splunk can give you the superpowers you need to save the day. Our latest survey shows that the strongest superheroes up-skill with Splunk Education. That’s why we are making Splunk training easier and more accessible than ever with more than 20 self-paced, free eLearning courses. Start with foundational courses like Intro to Splunk or dive into more advanced courses like Search Under the Hood, Visualizations, and many more. Enroll today so you have the skills to detect the good, the bad, and the unproductive.
Oh, and you can stand out as a data superhero with Splunk swag! If you are one of the first 500 learners to complete three or more unique FREE eLearning Courses between 11/14/22 - 1/31/23, you’ll be entered into a drawing for a chance to win $100 to spend on Splunk t-shirts, socks, water bottles, and so much more! Terms and Conditions apply.
Community
Ongoing Blog Series on OpenTelemetry: Use OpenTelemetry to Auto Instrument WordPress
OpenTelemetry is often associated with modern microservices and cloud-native applications. What happens if we apply OpenTelemetry and modern observability techniques to something completely different? WordPress is the world's most popular weblog software. And it's also an almost 20 years old monolith. What happens if we use OpenTelemetry auto tracing and the Splunk Observability cloud?
Imagine you are responsible for running WordPress sites. What insights can we bring with modern tools to a popular monolith? Just by instrumenting the environment, without any changes to the WordPress code.
Read the blog post to learn about this process step-by-step!
Do More with Lantern
The Lantern team are excited to announce that we have partnered with Splunk’s OnDemand Services team on a live chat feature to help you solve problems in real-time. The chat system connects you instantly to one of our OnDemand experts, who can help with the specifics of articles, as well as connect you to other ways you can get help.
This initial trial of our chat feature is only available until Friday, November 18, so hop onto Lantern today and test it out with your most urgent Splunk implementation questions.
Read about this and see all our latest articles in our monthly blog.
Find an App with Splunkbase
It’s been over a month since the new Splunkbase released as the default experience. Thanks for the supportive feedback you have given! We hope that in addition to using the improved search engine you are also following the Trending Apps on Splunkbase and the New Splunk Built and Supported Apps sections just down the home page.
Currently trending are the popular Splunk Add-on for Microsoft Windows and the Splunk Add-on for Unix and Linux. And with the new month comes a new update of the Splunk ES Content Update with lots of new and updated security insights.
