Splunk Search

Indexing salt on ID value

arthurf
Explorer

Hello,

I'm looking for a way to not index an event if the ID is already in the index.

The log will have this format :
Unique ID;data;data2;etc..
Unique ID2;data3;data4;etc..

but two different log files may contain the same event. Is there a way to use the Unique ID as a salt ?

Tags (1)
0 Karma
1 Solution

DMohn
Motivator

As the field extraction will take place after the event is indexed there is no way of checking if the ID has already been captured. At least not with standard Splunk methods. "Salting" in Splunk can only be done with complete files, not with parts of an event inside this file.

The only way I could think of would be an external script which processes the input files, runs a search against Splunk to see if the ID can be found, and only if not will forward the log line to another file, which then can be indexed by Splunk.

If anyone else knows better ways of doing this, I would be very interested as well.

View solution in original post

DMohn
Motivator

As the field extraction will take place after the event is indexed there is no way of checking if the ID has already been captured. At least not with standard Splunk methods. "Salting" in Splunk can only be done with complete files, not with parts of an event inside this file.

The only way I could think of would be an external script which processes the input files, runs a search against Splunk to see if the ID can be found, and only if not will forward the log line to another file, which then can be indexed by Splunk.

If anyone else knows better ways of doing this, I would be very interested as well.

arthurf
Explorer

That's what I thought.
Thanks anyway for your answer.

Update : Another workaroud would be to generate one file by event with the ID in the filename in order to salt the filename.
But can Splunk delete files which it didn't index ? Since the 'correct' files are deleted after indexing, I don't want to have the 'incorrect' one to stack on the folder.

0 Karma

DMohn
Motivator

If you are using a sinkhole policy, Splunk will delete the indexed files, but not the "incorrect" ones. These however could be moved with a cronjob...

0 Karma

arthurf
Explorer

Thanks for the confirmation !

0 Karma

DMohn
Motivator

If you could mark the answer as "accepted" I would highly appreciate it. This will also show others that there's a valid solution.

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!

Defend at Machine Speed: Your Guide to Security Sessions at .conf26

Splunk .conf26   With threats moving at machine speed and attack surfaces expanding across hybrid ...

Where Innovation Takes Flight: The Splunk4Aviation Flight Sim Lands at .conf26

If you hear someone at .conf26 shouting "gear down, GEAR DOWN" across the show floor, you have found us.  The ...

Turn Cisco Telemetry Into Action with Cisco Data Fabric, powered by the Splunk ...

The surge in machine data is already hitting enterprise budgets, and the agentic era will only intensify it. ...