Splunk Dev

Why am I getting error "Cannot parse time argument 'earliest_time': '2015-08-08'" trying to perform backfill on my summary index?

leonheart78
Explorer

I was trying to perform backfill on my summary index to fill the gaps in between. Below is the command which I have executed:

 ./splunk cmd python fill_summary_index.py -app search -name AutomatedSummary -index temp1 -et 2015-08-08 -lt 2015-08-08 -dedup true -auth admin:changeme,

*** For saved search 'AutomatedSummary' ***

Failed to get list of scheduled times for saved search 'AutomatedSummary' (app = 'search', error = '[HTTP 400] Bad Request; [{'text': "In handler 'savedsearch': Cannot parse time argument 'earliest_time': '2015-08-08'", 'code': None, 'type': 'ERROR'}]'

No searches to run

May I know what's wrong with this command? I'm trying to backfill from 8th Aug to current time.
Thank you.

Leon

0 Karma
1 Solution

somesoni2
Revered Legend

The safest way to do the backfill is to use the epoch timestamp (no format compatibility issue). So instead use something like this (assuming you want to consider data for whole day of 2015-08-08)

  ./splunk cmd python fill_summary_index.py -app search -name AutomatedSummary -index temp1 -et 1439006400 -lt 1439092800 -dedup true -auth admin:changeme

You can following site to convert your timestamp to epoch
http://www.epochconverter.com/

Additional***

You can also use this generic Splunk search to get the same. (may need adjustment on the format, relative time for latest time)

| gentimes start=-1 | eval Date="2015-08-08" | eval et=round(strptime(Date,"%Y-%m-%d")) | eval lt=round(relative_time(strptime(Date,"%Y-%m-%d"),"+1d")) | table et, lt

View solution in original post

0 Karma

somesoni2
Revered Legend

The safest way to do the backfill is to use the epoch timestamp (no format compatibility issue). So instead use something like this (assuming you want to consider data for whole day of 2015-08-08)

  ./splunk cmd python fill_summary_index.py -app search -name AutomatedSummary -index temp1 -et 1439006400 -lt 1439092800 -dedup true -auth admin:changeme

You can following site to convert your timestamp to epoch
http://www.epochconverter.com/

Additional***

You can also use this generic Splunk search to get the same. (may need adjustment on the format, relative time for latest time)

| gentimes start=-1 | eval Date="2015-08-08" | eval et=round(strptime(Date,"%Y-%m-%d")) | eval lt=round(relative_time(strptime(Date,"%Y-%m-%d"),"+1d")) | table et, lt
0 Karma

leonheart78
Explorer

Thank you for your help. I have managed to run the backfill, however, in my summary index temp1, I'm not seeing the data. May I know what went wrong?

0 Karma
Got questions? Get answers!

Join the Splunk Community Slack to learn, troubleshoot, and make connections with fellow Splunk practitioners in real time!

Meet up IRL or virtually!

Join Splunk User Groups to connect and learn in-person by region or remotely by topic or industry.

Get Updates on the Splunk Community!

Meet the .conf26 AI Agent Buildathon Winners

At the .conf26 AI Agent Buildathon, Splunk users turned their operational expertise into working AI agents ...

Trusted Autonomy in the SOC: A Maturity Journey

AI is compressing attacker timelines and pushing SOC teams beyond human capacity thresholds. The next SOC ...

Supercharging Windows Security Detection Performance: Introducing Hybrid Field ...

Windows event logs—from Security auditing and Sysmon to PowerShell script blocks—form the operational backbone ...