Among the most significant tasks for a Splunk, admin is to guarantee that the data stored in the Splunk index is complete plus accurate. To guarantee the completeness and accuracy of the data stored in Splunk, admins enable data integrity checks while generating an index. In this blog, we will discuss scenarios in which a Splunk admin would want to allow data integrity checks when creating an index.
Scenario
There are numerous scenarios in which a Splunk admin may need to enable a data integrity check as they create an index. These includes:
Data needed for compliance
In other cases, the data kept in the index may be needed for compliance purposes. For instance, if the data is associated with personal details, it needs to comply with data privacy guidelines such as GDPR. In such cases, it’s significant to guarantee that the data is complete plus accurate to avoid any regulatory or legal issues. By allowing data integrity check, the Splunk admin can ensure that the data kept in the index is complete and accurate decreasing the danger of non-compliance.
When the data size is large
When the data being collected by Splunk is huge, there is a higher possibility of data corruption or loss. Enabling a data integrity check helps in ensuring that the data stored in the index is accurate and complete, even when some data is lost through the ingestion process.
When data is critical
When the data collected by Splunk is very important to an organization’s operations, the admin may need to enable a data integrity check to help in ensuring the accuracy and completeness of the data. Furthermore, this is more significant in scenarios where choices are made dependent on the data stored in Splunk, plus errors in the data can lead to incorrect decisions. For instance, if the data kept in the index is associated with customer data or financial transactions, it’s significant to ensure that the data is complete plus accurate. Incomplete and inaccurate data in these scenarios can lead to legal issues or incorrect business decisions. By allowing data integrity check, Splunk admin can ensure that the data kept in the index is complete and accurate which decreases the risk of having incorrect business decisions.
When the data source is unreliable
If the data source where Splunk is collecting data is prone to errors or unreliable, the admin may need to enable a data integrity check. This helps in preventing the ingestion of invalid or corrupted data. By doing so, the admin can ensure that just valid plus accurate data is kept in the index.
Data from numerous sources
If the data stored in the index is from several sources, the Splunk admin would need to enable a data integrity check. The reason being data from various sources may have different structures, encoding, and data types. If the data isn’t validated, it can lead to incorrect data or incorrect analysis being stored in the index. For instance, if one source offers data in a CSV format, and a different source offers data in JSON format, there could be problems with encoding or data type mismatches. With data integrity check, it ensures that the data is validated before it’s stored in the index, guaranteeing that the data is complete and accurate.
Data utilized for real-time analysis
If the data stored in the index is used for real-time analysis, then Splunk admin needs to enable a data integrity check. This reason being real-time analysis needs accurate plus complete data to guarantee that its results are correct. For instance, if the data kept in the index is utilized for network monitoring, it’s significant to ensure that the data is complete and accurate to avoid having any false positive alerts. Enabling data integrity checks ensures that the data stored in the index is complete and accurate decreasing the danger of incorrect analysis.
Enabling Data Integrity Check in Splunk
Access the Splunk web interface
The initial step in enabling data integrity check in Splunk is to get access to the Splunk web interface. This is done by navigating to the URL for the Splunk instance & logging in with an account that has admin privileges.
Move to the index creation page
When logged in, the admin should navigate to the page where they can make a new index. This is usually be found in the “Settings” or “Indexes” section of the Splunk web interface.
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Configure data integrity check
When making the new index, the admin should look for a checkbox or options to allow a data integrity check. Depending on the version of Splunk used. This is located in the “Advanced” or “Data Integrity” section of the index creation page.
Saving the changes
After the enabling data integrity check, the admin should save the changes to the index configuration. This ensures that the data integrity check is active and Splunk will verify the completeness and accuracy of the data before keeping it in the index.
Conclusion
In Splunk, enabling a data integrity check is an important step for guaranteeing the accuracy plus completeness of the data kept in the platform. By doing so, the admin can prevent the ingestion of invalid or corrupted data, which leads to wasted time or incorrect decisions. In cases where we have an unreliable data source, large data size, or the data is of importance to the organization’s operations, allowing a data integrity check is very important. With a data integrity check, the admin is sure that the data stored in the index is complete plus accurate. This helps in decreasing the risk of incorrect analysis, legal or regulatory problems, incorrect business decisions, or false positive alerts.
Terry White is a professional technical writer, WordPress developer, Web Designer, Software Engineer, and Blogger. He strives for pixel-perfect design, clean robust code, and a user-friendly interface. If you have a project in mind and like his work, feel free to contact him
