Splunk Search

Optimizing subquery with inputlookup

krbalaji77
Explorer

I have this query to find hosts from a lookup that have zero events. There are about a 100 hosts and I can see that the query performance is slow with the use of subquery this way. 

Any ideas to improve this?

| inputlookup lookup.csv
| join type=outer [search index=os sourcetype=ps "abc.pid" OR "abc.bin"
| stats count as heartbeat by host ]
| fillnull heartbeat value=0
| where heartbeat=0
| stats values(host) as failed_hosts

Labels (3)
0 Karma
1 Solution

gcusello
SplunkTrust
SplunkTrust

Hi @krbalaji77,

the error is to use the join command that must be used only when there isn't any other solution.

Splunk isn't a database!

In addition you used the search as subquery and you have the limit of 50,000 results.

You should use a different approach using your lookup:

index=os sourcetype=ps "abc.pid" OR "abc.bin"
| eval host=lower(host)
| stats count BY host
| append [ | inputlookup lookup.csv | eval host=lower(host), count=0 | fields host count ]
| join type=outer [search  ]
| stats sum(count) AS total BY host
| where total=0

This is a more performant search.

Ciao.

Giuseppe

View solution in original post

gcusello
SplunkTrust
SplunkTrust

Hi @krbalaji77,

the error is to use the join command that must be used only when there isn't any other solution.

Splunk isn't a database!

In addition you used the search as subquery and you have the limit of 50,000 results.

You should use a different approach using your lookup:

index=os sourcetype=ps "abc.pid" OR "abc.bin"
| eval host=lower(host)
| stats count BY host
| append [ | inputlookup lookup.csv | eval host=lower(host), count=0 | fields host count ]
| join type=outer [search  ]
| stats sum(count) AS total BY host
| where total=0

This is a more performant search.

Ciao.

Giuseppe

krbalaji77
Explorer

Thank you for the quick response @gcusello 

so, we do still need to do a join in this case right meaning the append itself wouldnt do it?

also - what does this do ?

| join type=outer [search  ]

 

Tags (2)
0 Karma

gcusello
SplunkTrust
SplunkTrust

Hi @krbalaji77,

sorry! it was a typo:

index=os sourcetype=ps "abc.pid" OR "abc.bin"
| eval host=lower(host)
| stats count BY host
| append [ | inputlookup lookup.csv | eval host=lower(host), count=0 | fields host count ]
| stats sum(count) AS total BY host
| where total=0

Ciao.

Giuseppe

0 Karma
Career Survey
First 500 qualified respondents will receive a $20 gift card! Tell us about your professional Splunk journey.
Get Updates on the Splunk Community!

Observe and Secure All Apps with Splunk

 Join Us for Our Next Tech Talk: Observe and Secure All Apps with SplunkAs organizations continue to innovate ...

What's New in Splunk Observability - August 2025

What's New We are excited to announce the latest enhancements to Splunk Observability Cloud as well as what is ...

Introduction to Splunk AI

How are you using AI in Splunk? Whether you see AI as a threat or opportunity, AI is here to stay. Lucky for ...