How to get data/logs from a Web or application server and do search and reporting from my machine?

[sathishsathiyam]

I wanted to index logs from Web/application server and do all the search, report, alert from my machine. How this can be done? Either i need to install a Splunk instance where the server is placed or how to get connected.

[renjith_nair]

You need a forwarder to forward the data from applicaion server, an indexer to store the data and a search head to search it. All can be in a single machine or in three different machines or in a cluster.

It's difficult to provide a short answer. You have to decide and design your splunk deployment based on what you want to ingest , how and how much

Start from here.
http://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/6.4.3/Capacity/ComponentsofaSplunkEnterprisedeployment
http://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/6.4.3/Capacity/DimensionsofaSplunkEnterprisedeployment
http://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/6.1.3/Installation/CapacityplanningforalargerSplunkdeplo...