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Introduction to the Splunk ACS Github Action CI/CD Starter

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Traditional methods of rapidly scaling and organization often fall short in today's dynamic environments. It's difficult to maintain the necessary, comprehensive understanding of your infrastructure and applications.

Automating management of your Splunk Cloud Platform environment is one way you can simplify the scaling process. To do this, you can use the Splunk Admin Config Services (ACS). ACS is a cloud-native API that provides programmatic self-service administration capabilities for Splunk Cloud Platform. ACS provides a wide array of capabilities to Splunk Cloud Platform administrators, from creating indexes and managing private apps, to configuring IP allow lists, and more - all without assistance from Splunk Support.

The ACS GitHub Action CI/CD Starter provides you with a smoother, more intuitive way to onboard with automation. Designed for both newcomers and seasoned users alike, this tool seamlessly integrates ACS capabilities and automation into your environment. The ACS GitHub Action CI/CD Starter helps you learn from the best practices recommended by Splunk experts, leveraging a ready-to-use template to optimize your CI/CD experience.

Key benefits

After reviewing the recordings and resources below, you can expect the following outcomes:

  1. Understand the current state of configuration within Splunk Cloud Platform
    • What changed
    • Who changed it
    • When they changed it and why
  2. Testing and validation
    • Ensure standards are being met
    • Prevent issues reoccurring
    • Validate configuration
  3. Repeatable deployment
    • Efficient and repeatable deployment that’s the same every time
  4. Compliance and control
    • Peer review of changes before they are applied
    • Approval processes before changes can be applied

Features of the ACS Github repository

ACS GitHub Repo.jpg

Deployment capabilities

  • Package, vet, and deploy changes to private apps
  • Install, update, or delete Splunkbase apps
  • Create and update indexes
  • Add and remove items from IP allow lists

Basic feature testings 

  • If changes to a private app are made, then it is put through AppInspect.
  • If changes to indexes are made, then each changed json file is validated against the openapi.json schema that we publish.
  • If changes to IP allow lists are made, then we validate against the OpenAPI schema. The admin should check in case someone has put a more restrictive IP in but has left 0.0.0.0/0 in place.

Development / release workflow using ACS 

This video shows a scenario where you're tasked with deploying a private app into your organization's environment. Learn how your team can utilize ACS and automation to easily track changes, identify who made them, and understand the reasons behind those changes.

ACS CI/CD starter walkthrough

This video shows the automated testings available in ACS.