Reporting

Internet usage report by Active Directory Group

ucteam
Engager

We are getting syslog data from our web proxy/firewall (Palo Alto) we would like to be able to generate internet usage reports based on users who are members of specific active directory groups or OUs.

For exmaple we would like our marketing manager to able to view an internet usage summary of the marketing department users.

Would this require an external lookup script to query AD for a list of all members of a group/OU and then load in as an array for a custom search? or is there some native syntax or plugin for Splunk which can achieve this?

Note. Username information is included in the syslog data recieved from the proxy/firewall we have no problems running general reports filtered on specific subnets or individual users.. its just generating reports which filter down to only inlcude the users of a specific AD group...

Any suggestions.. or pointers to the best/most efficient method would be appreciated.

ftk
Motivator

I would do this by leveraging lookups. Specifically I would create a script that on a certain interval queries AD and outputs a CSV file mapping usernames to OU and/or department. This could be quite easily achieved either with VB Script or PowerShell.

After you have that script ready, just make sure it outputs to the appropriate lookup directory in your Splunk directory tree. You can then test it with a search like this:

sourcetype=my_firewall | lookup mylookup.csv username OUTPUTNEW department | where department="Marketing" | top URI by username

or something similar; obviously you will have to tune this to your specific sourcetypes, fieldnames, etc.

If this looks pretty good, define the lookup in props.conf and transforms.conf as per the documentation. Now you should be able to do searches like this:

sourcetype=my_firewall department="Marketing"
Career Survey
First 500 qualified respondents will receive a $20 gift card! Tell us about your professional Splunk journey.

Can’t make it to .conf25? Join us online!

Get Updates on the Splunk Community!

Can’t Make It to Boston? Stream .conf25 and Learn with Haya Husain

Boston may be buzzing this September with Splunk University and .conf25, but you don’t have to pack a bag to ...

Splunk Lantern’s Guide to The Most Popular .conf25 Sessions

Splunk Lantern is a Splunk customer success center that provides advice from Splunk experts on valuable data ...

Unlock What’s Next: The Splunk Cloud Platform at .conf25

In just a few days, Boston will be buzzing as the Splunk team and thousands of community members come together ...