Implementing best practices for workload management

Understand your workload types

A thorough understanding of workload types is essential for efficient resource allocation and TCO reduction. By identifying interactive searches, background searches, data ingestion, and data replication workloads, organizations can align their resource allocation strategies to prioritize critical operations while optimizing resource usage for less time-sensitive tasks.

Use systemd

Enabling the Splunk platform to run as a service using systemd is a crucial step for effective workload management on Linux.

Define resource pools

Creating well-defined resource pools is crucial in achieving optimal resource allocation and reducing TCO. Consider the following steps:

1. Prioritize Workloads: Assess workload priorities and allocate resources accordingly. Assign higher resource allocations to critical workloads such as real-time searches or vital data ingestion processes.
2. Allocate Resources Intelligently: Define resource pools based on workload characteristics and importance. By allocating CPU, memory, and disk resources appropriately, organizations can ensure efficient resource utilization while avoiding overspending on unnecessary hardware resources.
3. Set Limits and Quotas: Establish limits and quotas within each resource pool to prevent resource monopolization. By setting boundaries, organizations ensure fair resource allocation, prevent single workloads from consuming excessive resources, and optimize hardware usage, ultimately reducing TCO.
4. Education: Identify users who struggle to write or revise searches to be efficient, and place them in a separate group to prevent impacting critical workloads. Provide training to these users, and after their skills reach an acceptable level, reintroduce them into their original group.

Utilize workload management policies

Implementing effective workload management policies is crucial in resource optimization and TCO reduction. Consider the following guidelines:

1. Optimize Dispatch Throttling: Configure dispatch throttling settings to limit the number of concurrent searches, preventing system overload. By fine-tuning throttling parameters, organizations can ensure optimal system performance while avoiding resource waste and unnecessary hardware investments.
2. Prioritize and Limit Workloads: Assign workload priorities and limits to control resource allocation. Higher-priority workloads should receive more resources, ensuring critical operations are adequately supported. Lower-priority workloads should operate within defined limits to prevent resource starvation and unnecessary resource consumption.
3. Set Query Timeout: Implement query timeout settings to avoid long-running queries that can strain system resources. By defining appropriate query timeout values, organizations can strike a balance between performance and resource utilization, ultimately reducing infrastructure costs and TCO.

Monitor and fine-tune your practices

Continuous monitoring and fine-tuning of workload management practices contribute to TCO reduction. Consider the following practices:

1. Monitor Resource Usage: Regularly monitor CPU, memory, and disk utilization to identify potential bottlenecks and resource-intensive workloads. By promptly addressing resource challenges, organizations can optimize infrastructure usage and reduce the need for unnecessary hardware investments.
2. Analyze Workload Performance: Analyze workload performance metrics, such as search response times and data ingestion rates, to identify areas for improvement and resource optimization. By optimizing resource allocation based on performance analysis, organizations can achieve better efficiency and cost savings.
3. Iterate for Optimization: Workload management is an iterative process. Regularly review and fine-tune workload management policies based on changing workload characteristics, system capacity, and business requirements. Continuously optimizing resource allocation ensures efficient system performance, reduces resource waste, and contributes to TCO reduction.

Efficient workload management ensures that critical workloads receive adequate resources while preventing resource monopolization. By implementing these best practices, organizations can reduce infrastructure costs, optimize hardware investments, and achieve better TCO by efficiently utilizing existing resources. This leads to a more cost-effective Splunk deployment, improved operational efficiency, and enhanced data analysis capabilities, ultimately resulting in higher ROI and a streamlined path to success.

Next steps

This article is part of the Splunk Outcome Path, Reducing your infrastructure footprint. Click into that path to find more ways you can maximize your investment in Splunk software and achieve cost savings. 

In addition, these resources might help you implement the guidance provided in this article:

• Splunk Docs: About workload management 
• Splunk Docs: Set up Linux for workload management
• Splunk Docs: Enable workload management 
• Splunk Docs: Configure workload rules
• Splunk Docs: Workload management examples

• Splunk OnDemand Services: Use these credit-based services for direct access to Splunk technical consultants with a variety of technical services from a pre-defined catalog. Most customers have OnDemand Services per their license support plan. Engage the ODS team at ondemand@splunk.com if you require assistance.