Forwarders to Intermediate Forwarders Compatibility

[PramodhKumar]

Hi Chaps,

I have a confusion in selecting forwarder version to install.

Current Environment: I have 6 HF's(v6.5.1) forwarding the logs to Intermediate forwarders(v7.2.4) then to Indexers(v7.2.4).

Now I want to upgrade the HF's to latest version, so please suggest me on selecting the forwarder version to upgrade, I'm thinking to go with same version as Intermediate forwarder has(v7.2.4) but also thought why can't I go for v8.x.

If you provide the compatibility matrix(not this - https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/VersionCompatibility/current/Matrix/Compatibilitybetweenforwar... ) would be appriciated.

Thanks,
Pramodh B

[gcusello · Accepted solution]

Hi @PramodhKumar,
forwarders' version should be the same or lower than Indexers, in the past sometimes (Support hint to solve a bug) I used an higher version, but if possible it isn't a good practice (especially if we're speaking of 8 version)!
So if you're thinking to upgrade Indexers to 8.x.x, wait for completing the Indexers' upgrade then upgrade Forwarders to the same version.
If instead the upgrade to 8 of indexers is far from now, you could upgrade to the same Indexers' version 7.2.4.
My hint is waiting for a moment and upgrading all the infrastructure to the same latest version when possible.

Ciao.
Giuseppe

[PramodhKumar]

Thank you, really helps