Splunk Core Certified User Practice Exam

What occurs when the forwarder to indexer connection is lost?

1. Data is discarded until the connection is reestablished

2. Splunk queues the input data for later sending

3. Data is sent automatically to error logs

4. Splunk stops all data collection

The correct answer is: Splunk queues the input data for later sending

When the connection from the forwarder to the indexer is lost, Splunk employs a queuing mechanism to ensure that data is not lost during this period. Rather than discarding data, the forwarder queues the input data. This queuing allows the forwarder to temporarily store the data locally until the connection is reestablished. Once the connection is back up, the queued data will be sent to the indexer for processing. This design is crucial for maintaining the integrity and reliability of data collection in Splunk, ensuring that transient network issues do not lead to data loss. The other options do not accurately describe Splunk's behavior during a connection loss. Data is not discarded; instead, it is retained in the queue. There is no automatic sending of data to error logs for this scenario, and data collection does not stop entirely, as Splunk continues to gather data locally until the connection can be resumed.