What is the manifest file and is there an issue if it is missing?

[vanderaj2]

Sounds like I have a manifest file/hashing issue that appears whenever I restart splunkd on an endpoint, like the following:

./splunk stop

Stopping splunkd...
Shutting down. Please wait, as this may take a few minutes.

Stopping splunk helpers...

Done.

./splunk start

Splunk> 4TW

Checking prerequisites...
Checking mgmt port [8089]: open
Checking conf files for problems...
Done
Checking default conf files for edits...
Cannot find any source of hashes. Manifest file '(null)' not present?
Problems were found, please review your files and move customizations to local
All preliminary checks passed.

Starting splunk server daemon (splunkd)...
Done

Is this just an annoying error or are there real problems when the manifest is missing? Our UNIX operations team tells me that they install the UF via a package manager, and claim that there is no manifest present on the systems.

Thanks!

[gcusello]

Hi vanderaj2,
manifest file is an integrity check of default Splunk file.
Splunk continues to run also without it, there only the message you mentioned in startup.
If you want to solve the problem, you can take this file from another installation of the same Splunk version you're using or upgrade Splunk.
Bye.
Giuseppe

[lfedak_splunk]

Hey @vanderaj2, If @amahoski solved your problem please remember to "√Accept" an answer to award karma points 🙂

[vanderaj2]

Ah gotcha - thanks and will do! 🙂

[amahoski · Accepted solution]

The manifest file is actually just used to validate that all of the splunk installation files are intact upon startup. It isn't necessarily harmful to have it missing. It is more of an integrity check of the installation itself. You can find out more about this here:

https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/6.6.3/Admin/ChecktheintegrityofyourSplunksoftwarefiles