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Intermittent log data ingestion with Packetbeat JSON file

s_s
Observer

Hello, 

I am experiencing intermittent log ingestion issues on some servers and have observed potential queue saturation in the process. Below are the details of the issue and the related observations:

  1. Setup Overview:
    I am using Packetbeat to capture DNS queries across multiple servers.
    Packetbeat generates JSON log files, rotating logs into 10 files, each with a maximum size of 50 MB. Packetbeat generates 3-4 JSON files every minute
    Setup -> Splunk Cloud 9.2.2 , On-Prem Heavy Forwarder 9.1.2 , and Universal Forwarder 9.1.2

    Example list of Packetbeat log files (rotated by Packetbeat):
    packetbeat.json
    packetbeat.1.json
    packetbeat.2.json
    packetbeat.3.json
    ...
    packetbeat.9.json

  2. Issue Observed:
    On some servers, the logs are ingested and monitored consistently by the Splunk agent, functioning as expected.
    However, on other servers:
    Logs are ingested for a few minutes, followed by a 5–6-minute gap.
    This cycle repeats,  resulting in missing data in between, while other data collected from the same server ingesting correctly. 
    Intermittent_data_ingestion.png
  3. Additional Observations:
    While investigating the issue, I observed the following log entry in the Splunk Universal Forwarder _internal index:

 

 

 

11-15-2024 17:27:35.615 -0600 INFO HealthChangeReporter - feature="Real-time Reader-0" indicator="data_out_rate" previous_color=yellow color=red due_to_threshold_value=2 measured_value=2 reason="The monitor input cannot produce data because splunkd's processing queues are full. This will be caused by inadequate indexing or forwarding rate, or a sudden burst of incoming data."
host = EAA-DC
index = _internal
source = C:\Program Files\SplunkUniversalForwarder\var\log\splunk\health.log
sourcetype = splunkd​

 

 

 

  • The following conf applied to all DNS servers:

limits.conf

 

 

 

[thruput]
maxKBps = 0

 

 

 

server.conf

 

 

 

[queue]
maxSize = 512MB

 

 

 

inputs.conf

 

 

 

[monitor://C:\packetbeat.json]
disabled = false
index = dns
sourcetype = packetbeat

 

 

 

 

 

 

Any direction to resolve this is appreciated! Thank you!

Tags (2)
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sainag_splunk
Splunk Employee
Splunk Employee

@s_s Hello, checkout the queues on the hwf pipleine, and also see if you can apply  async forwarding.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/splunk-asynchronous-forwarding-lightning-fast-data-ingestor-rawat









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