description: Send logs to Splunk HTTP Event Collector

Splunk

Splunk output plugin allows to ingest your records into a Splunk Enterprise service through the HTTP Event Collector (HEC) interface.

To get more details about how to setup the HEC in Splunk please refer to the following documentation: Splunk / Use the HTTP Event Collector

Configuration Parameters

Key Description default
Host IP address or hostname of the target Splunk service. 127.0.0.1
Port TCP port of the target Splunk service. 8088
Splunk_Token Specify the Authentication Token for the HTTP Event Collector interface.
Splunk_Send_Raw

When enabled, the record keys and values are set in the top level of the map instead of under the event key.

note: refer to the Sending Raw Events section below for more details to make this option work properly.

 Off
HTTP_User Optional username for Basic Authentication on HEC
HTTP_Passwd Password for user defined in HTTP_User

TLS / SSL

Splunk output plugin supports TTL/SSL, for more details about the properties available and general configuration, please refer to the TLS/SSL section.

Getting Started

In order to insert records into a Splunk service, you can run the plugin from the command line or through the configuration file:

Command Line

The splunk plugin, can read the parameters from the command line in two ways, through the -p argument (property), e.g:

  1. $ fluent-bit -i cpu -t cpu -o splunk -p host=127.0.0.1 -p port=8088 \
  2.   -p tls=on -p tls.verify=off -m '*'

Configuration File

In your main configuration file append the following Input & Output sections:

  1. [INPUT]
  2.     Name  cpu
  3.     Tag   cpu
  5. [OUTPUT]
  6.     Name        splunk
  7.     Match       *
  8.     Host        127.0.0.1
  9.     Port        8088
  10.     TLS         On
  11.     TLS.Verify  Off
  12.     Message_Key my_key

Data format

By default, the Splunk output plugin nests the record under the event key in the payload sent to the HEC. It will also append the time of the record to a top level time key.

If you would like to customize any of the Splunk event metadata, such as the host or target index, you can set Splunk_Send_Raw On in the plugin configuration, and add the metadata as keys/values in the record. Note: with Splunk_Send_Raw enabled, you are responsible for creating and populating the event section of the payload.

For example, to add a custom index and hostname:

  1. [INPUT]
  2.     Name  cpu
  3.     Tag   cpu
  5. # nest the record under the 'event' key
  6. [FILTER]
  7.     Name nest
  8.     Match *
  9.     Operation nest
  10.     Wildcard *
  11.     Nest_under event
  13. # add event metadata
  14. [FILTER]
  15.     Name      modify
  16.     Match     *
  17.     Add index my-splunk-index
  18.     Add host  my-host
  20. [OUTPUT]
  21.     Name        splunk
  22.     Match       *
  23.     Host        127.0.0.1
  24.     Splunk_Token xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxx
  25.     Splunk_Send_Raw On

This will create a payload that looks like:

  1. {
  2.     "time": "1535995058.003385189",
  3.     "index": "my-splunk-index",
  4.     "host": "my-host",
  5.     "event": {
  6.         "cpu_p":0.000000,
  7.         "user_p":0.000000,
  8.         "system_p":0.000000
  9.     }
  10. }

For more information on the Splunk HEC payload format and all event meatadata Splunk accepts, see here: http://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/latest/Data/AboutHEC

Sending Raw Events

If the option splunk_send_raw has been enabled, the user must take care to put all log details in the event field, and only specify fields known to Splunk in the top level event, if there is a mismatch, Splunk will return a HTTP error 400.

Consider the following example:

splunk_send_raw off

  1. {"time": ..., "event": {"k1": "foo", "k2": "bar", "index": "applogs"}}

splunk_send_raw on

  1. {"time": .., "k1": "foo", "k2": "bar", "index": "applogs"}

For up to date information about the valid keys in the top level object, refer to the Splunk documentation:

http://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/latest/Data/AboutHEC