Splunk Best Practices

Data types

There are generally two formats that Splunkers will need to categorize to weigh the amount of effort that goes into bringing the data to a dashboard:

• Structured data: These are usually logs for Apache, IIS, Windows events, Cisco, and some other manufacturers.
• Unstructured data: This type of logging usually comes from a proprietary application where each message can be printed differently in different operations and the event itself can span multiple lines with no definitive event start, or event end, or both. Often, this is the bulk of our data.

Structured data - best practices

In the land of unicorn tears, money trees, and elven magic, IT logs come in the same format, no matter what the platform, and every engineer lives happily ever after. ...