Splunk Core Certified User Practice Exam

Which of the following statements is true regarding Lookups?

1. They can only pull data from internal sources.

2. They can be configured to pull data from external sources like CSVs.

3. They cannot access files larger than 1MB.

4. They are exclusively for text data only.

The correct answer is: They can be configured to pull data from external sources like CSVs.

The chosen statement is accurate since lookups in Splunk can indeed be configured to pull data from external sources, such as CSV files, Excel files, or databases. This enables users to enrich their event data by combining it with additional reference datasets, which may reside outside of Splunk. For instance, if you have customer data stored in a CSV file, you can set up a lookup table that allows you to append that information to your search results. In contrast, the other statements present limitations that do not reflect the capabilities of lookups. Lookups are not restricted to internal sources; they are versatile and can utilize data from various external formats. Additionally, there is no inherent limitation on the size of files that can be processed as lookups in Splunk, as long as system resource constraints are taken into account. Lastly, lookups can handle more than just text data and may involve various data types as part of the enrichment process. Thus, the ability to pull data from external sources effectively embodies the utility and flexibility of lookups in Splunk.