Splunk Search

How does this search from Splunk documentation work to calculate the percentage of outliers?

Shisa
Explorer

I'd like to understand the mathematical meaning of the below search on documentation. Is this my understanding right that it calculates the outliers of 4.6% up or down based on the normal distribution?

sourcetype=access_* | eval URILen = len(useragent) | eventstats avg(URILen) as AvgURILen, stdev(URILen) as StdDevURILen| where URILen > AvgURILen+(2*StdDevURILen) 

Use the stats command and functions: http://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/6.2.0/Search/Usethestatscommandandfunctions

If I want to get the 0.3% outliers, can I do this by just changing the condition like this?

... | where URILen > AvgURILen+(3*StdDevURILen)
Tags (3)
0 Karma

ngatchasandra
Builder

Hi Shisa,
This search returns events that macth URILen's average and URILen's sample standard deviation where URILen > AvgURILen+(2*StdDevURILen) .

If i understand your problems, you want to return events where URILen > AvgURILen+(3*StdDevURILen) , this can be possible but, in your case, when i run sourcetype=access_* | eval URILen = len(useragent) | eventstats avg(URILen) as AvgURILen, stdev(URILen) as StdDevURILen| where URILen > AvgURILen+(3*StdDevURILen)| table AvgURILen StdDevURILen| table AvgURILen StdDevURILen ,

i get results not found . This explain that in the first part of query, that is sourcetype=access_* | eval URILen = len(useragent) | eventstats avg(URILen) as AvgURILen, stdev(URILen) as StdDevURILen| table AvgURILen StdDevURILen URILen

which displays like follow, there is no values of URILen where we can have URILen > AvgURILen+(3*StdDevURILen). Thus, can't get results.

alt text

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!

Best Practices: Splunk auto adjust pipeline queue

When you enable autoAdjustQueue in Splunk, maxSize should be understood as the queue size Splunk starts with ...

Introducing the 2026 - 2027 SplunkTrust cohort!

The goal of the SplunkTrust™ membership has historically been to acknowledge and recognize those who go above ...

Splunk Auto Ingestion Parallel Pipeline Scaling

Why this feature matters Many Splunk environments experience ingestion pressure long before the host is fully ...