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Monitoring Splunk platform health

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You know that keeping your Splunk deployment healthy - whether it's Splunk Enterprise or Splunk Cloud Platform - is critical. But knowing how and how often to check can be challenging. You might be using the Monitoring Console (MC) or Cloud Monitoring Console (CMC), but still wonder:

  • Are we catching everything? Could underlying configuration issues or performance bottlenecks be impacting users or data ingestion?
  • Beyond daily dashboards, what's a realistic frequency for deeper health assessments?
  • How can we perform these deeper checks efficiently and consistently across our specific deployment type?
  • Are we truly prepared for that upcoming version upgrade or maximizing our investment?

Relying solely on real-time dashboards or inconsistent manual checklists might leave you exposed or feeling doubtful about holistic health. You need a structured approach to proactively monitor and maintain Splunk platform health, tailored to your environment.

Solution: A layered approach to Splunk platform health monitoring

Effective Splunk platform health monitoring uses the right tools at the right frequency for different levels of insight, adapting to whether you run Splunk Enterprise or Splunk Cloud Platform.

Layer 1: Continuous operational monitoring

  • Tool:
    • For Splunk Enterprise: The Monitoring Console (MC).
    • For Splunk Cloud Platform: The Cloud Monitoring Console (CMC).
  • Frequency: Continuous or daily checks.
  • Focus: Focus on checks that help you assess real-time operational status (such as instance health, forwarder connections, or basic resource usage), immediate alerts, or essential performance indicators relevant to your platform (such as indexing rates, search concurrency, or app health). Using the Monitoring Console is crucial for spotting immediate problems.
  • Reference: Familiarize yourself with the Monitoring Console (MC) or the Cloud Monitoring Console (CMC) and leverage resources like Running a Splunk platform health check.

Layer 2: Periodic deep health assessments (Self-service with the Splunk Assessment Tool)

  • Tool: The Splunk Assessment Tool (SAT) app. Note that for Splunk Cloud Platform deployments, the SAT is typically run on a dedicated search head or search head cluster, not directly on the cloud stack infrastructure nodes.
  • What it is: The SAT is a free, lightweight app that runs 40+ automated checks across your deployment's configuration and health (such as topology validation, indexing and search performance checks, configuration best practices, KV store health, or app settings such as in Splunk Enterprise Security or Splunk ITSI).
  • Frequency: You should run the SAT strategically and consistently, but not necessarily daily:
    • Regular baseline: Run the SAT on a monthly or quarterly basis to establish trends, detect configuration drift, and proactively identify potential issues.
    • Event-driven: Run the SAT before major upgrades, significant configuration changes, cloud migrations (for Splunk Enterprise customers), or when troubleshooting persistent performance degradation.
  • Benefits:
    • Standardization and efficiency: The SAT replaces ad-hoc checks with a repeatable process.
    • Proactive detection: The SAT surfaces deeper configuration issues, performance drags, and deviations from best practices often missed by basic monitoring.
    • Actionable insights and efficiency score: The SAT generates a scored report, often including an overall efficiency score detailing findings by severity, explaining impact, and linking to remediation guidance. Results can be exported (for example to PowerPoint) for internal tracking or sharing with Splunk Support TSEs or Customer Success teams to facilitate troubleshooting and demonstrate improvement.
  • How to get it: 
    • Splunk Enterprise: Download the SAT directly from Splunkbase and install it on your Monitoring Console node.
    • Splunk Cloud Platform: Install it directly onto a search head via the Splunk web UI (Apps > Browse More Apps / Find More Apps, search for App ID 7419 or "Splunk Assessment Tool").

Layer 3: Expert point-in-time assessment (OnDemand Services)

  • Service offerings: Splunk OnDemand Services (ODS) offers specific health assessment packages, including:
    • Splunk Cloud Health Check: Tailored specifically for reviewing the health and configuration of your Splunk Cloud Platform deployment.
    • Splunk Instance Health Review: Focused on assessing the health and performance of specific Splunk Enterprise instances or potentially targeted components.
  • What it is: ODS services are point-in-time services where Splunk experts perform an in-depth assessment based on the chosen offering. Access is typically facilitated through OnDemand Services (ODS) credits, which might be part of your existing Splunk subscription or purchased separately.
  • Why consider it? ODS services are ideal if you need a thorough expert review for a specific milestone (like pre-upgrade for Splunk Enterprise, or a regular check-up for Splunk Cloud Platform), require pre-production validation, or need an objective assessment outside of a continuous program like VRP. This offers a focused deep dive tailored to your platform type and performed by Splunk professionals.
  • Focus: ODS services provide a comprehensive review of configuration, performance, and adherence to best practices relevant to the service scope (overall cloud environment or specific enterprise instance), often going deeper than automated SAT checks.
  • Benefits: ODS services deliver a detailed report with findings, prioritized recommendations, and remediation guidance directly from Splunk experts.
  • How to engage: You can discuss ODS services availability, scope, ODS credit usage, and engagement details with your Splunk account manager or sales representative. More about OnDemand Services can be found here, or consult the ODS Catalog PDF provided by your account team for specifics.

Layer 4: Guided optimization and targeted assessments (VRP engagement)

  • Approach: Leveraging the Value Realization Path (VRP) Content Packs and consultative guidance.
  • What it is: VRP is a structured assessment program where you collaborate with your Splunk account team (for example your Technical Account Manager (TAM), premium Assigned Expert (AE), or Professional Services (PS) representative) to achieve specific business or technical outcomes aligned with your journey (for example improving performance, mitigating risk, optimizing costs, or ensuring cloud readiness).
  • VRP Content Packs: These are specialized assessment modules that use SAT data as a foundation but add significantly more targeted analysis. They contain curated searches, dashboards, and logic focused on specific areas or solutions. Examples include:
  • Requires Engagement: Access to and use of VRP Content Packs are part of a VRP engagement facilitated by your Splunk TAM or AE. These packs provide deeper, guided analysis and are generally not freely downloadable. Your TAM or AE provides the appropriate packs and guides installation (which might require dependencies).
  • Frequency: Aligned with your VRP schedule and specific project milestones.
  • Benefits:
    • Expert analysis: Combines SAT data with expert interpretation tailored to your environment and goals.
    • Targeted deep dives: Assesses specific areas like workload management, data normalization, security posture, or cloud migration readiness in detail.
    • Prioritized roadmap: Helps build a clear plan for improvement based on data and expert guidance.

How to implement the layered approach

  1. Master the basics: Use the Monitoring Console or the Cloud Monitoring Console for daily operational awareness specific to your platform or any of your custom dashboards.
  2. Install and schedule SAT: Download the SAT from Splunkbase. Install it and run an initial assessment. Plan a regular usage cadence (for example monthly) and incorporate event-driven runs.
  3. Analyze SAT results: Review the SAT scorecard and efficiency score regularly. Use findings for proactive remediation. Share your results with Splunk TSEs or Customer Success representatives when needed.
  4. Engage for deeper insights (VRP): If you have a Splunk TAM or premium AE, discuss your goals with them. Review your SAT reports as a basis for VRP discussions. Your Splunk representatives can leverage the appropriate VRP Content Packs for deeper, guided analysis and help you to build a strategic optimization roadmap.

Next steps

  • Combine insights: Use data from all layers. An alert in the MC or CMC might be explained by a configuration issue found by the SAT, which can then be further analyzed through a VRP assessment.
  • Test changes: Always validate significant configuration changes (recommended by the SAT or VRP) in a non-production environment first.
  • Documentation: Track your SAT results and scores over time to monitor trends and the impact of remediation efforts.

By adopting this multi-layered approach you can gain comprehensive visibility into your environment's health, enabling proactive maintenance, optimized performance, and confident strategic planning, regardless of whether you use Splunk Enterprise or Splunk Cloud Platform.