Is it possible to give "splunk" users the capability to edit some config files directly on a Splunk instance (not Splunk Web)?

[gabriel_vasseur]

It's pretty easy to manage access control in Splunk Web. Users can be given roles (such as admin) and the abilities that come with it.

However, not everything can be done with Splunk Web and sometimes it's necessary to ssh to the Splunk instance (be it a search head or an indexer) and edit config files directly. Does this always have to be done as the "splunk" user? Is it possible to give some admin ability to some users without giving them free rein on the whole config?

[ddrillic · Accepted solution]

In Linux, you can "simply" open write access to certain config files for a certain Linux group.

[gabriel_vasseur]

Sounds good but let's explore the "simply"... 🙂

Splunk config files are typically:

-rw-r--r--. 1 splunk splunk ...

I could selectively change some to

-rw-rw-r--. 1 splunk splunk ...

And then I can do:

usermod -a -G splunk some_user_name

Is that what you had in mind?

[ddrillic]

Ok ; -) the splunk user linux id which should have write access should belong to the group which owns the config file.