What is the Splunk data pipeline (input, parsing, indexing, search)? [Intermediate]
Answer
The Splunk data pipeline moves data through input, parsing, indexing, and search. Inputs receive data, parsing breaks it into events and applies metadata, indexing stores searchable data, and search heads run SPL queries over the indexes.
Technical explanation
Forwarders collect and send data from hosts or applications.
Parsing includes line breaking, timestamp recognition, source type assignment, and some transformations.
Indexing writes events into buckets, and search heads distribute searches across indexers.
Hands-on example
Hands-on flow: Universal Forwarder tails /var/log/checkout/app.log. Indexers parse timestamps and sourcetype=checkout_json, store events in index=prod_app, and the search head runs: index=prod_app sourcetype=checkout_json level=ERROR | stats count by error_code service.
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