Splunk Search

Syslog forwarding and load balancing

jwillaime
Explorer

Hello,

I would like to know if it is possible to have load balancing for the syslog forwarding feature of Splunk. For exemple, is it possible to have something like the following in outputs.conf:

[syslog:syslog_fwd]
server = server1:514, server2:514
type = udp

Thank you in advance.

Tags (1)
0 Karma

nickhills
Ultra Champion

According to the documentation you should be able to do this, using the following syntax

[syslog]
defaultGroup = syslog:syslog_fwd_svr1, syslog:syslog_fwd_svr2

[syslog:syslog_fwd_svr1]
server = server1:514

[syslog:syslog_fwd_svr2]
server = server2:514

However, I have not tested this, nor can I guess how (or if) it will load balance messages.
Since its UDP, you should probably expect some level of duplication & inconsistency.

Side note: this feature is not available on Universal Forwarders

https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/7.2.3/admin/Outputsconf#Syslog_output----

If my comment helps, please give it a thumbs up!
0 Karma

BainM
Communicator

No, it is not possible to do that with a single port. You will need to designate a different port for server2.

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!

Quantify Your Splunk Investment Impact: Introducing Savings Metrics to Value Insights

Building on the foundation established in our initial Value Insights releases, we are introducing the Savings ...

Event Series: Telemetry Pipeline Management

Balancing Scale and Spend: Gaining Control Over High-Volume Metrics in Splunk Observability Cloud As ...

Kick the Tires Before You Commit: A Hands-On Tour of the Splunk Observability Cloud ...

Evaluating an enterprise observability platform usually goes like this: fill out a form, get a free trial with ...