Splunk Splunk Enterprise Certified Architect SPLK-2002 Exam Dumps: Updated Questions & Answers (February 2026)

Splunk indexing is read/write intensive, as it involves reading data from various sources, writing data to disk, and reading data from disk for searching and reporting. Therefore, it is important to select the appropriate disk storage solution for each deployment, based on the performance, reliability, and cost requirements. The recommended RAID setup for Splunk indexers is RAID 10 (1 + 0), as it provides the best balance of performance and reliability. RAID 10 combines the advantages of RAID 1 (mirroring) and RAID 0 (striping), which means that it offers both data redundancy and data distribution. RAID 10 can tolerate multiple disk failures, as long as they are not in the same mirrored pair, and it can improve the read and write speed, as it can access multiple disks in parallel2

High performance SAN (Storage Area Network) can be used for Splunk indexers, but it is not recommended, as it is more expensive and complex than local disks. SAN also introduces additional network latency and dependency, which can affect the performance and availability of Splunk indexers. SAN is more suitable for Splunk search heads, as they are less read/write intensive and more CPU intensive2

NFS (Network File System) should not be used for storing hot and warm buckets, as it can cause data corruption, data loss, and performance degradation. NFS is a network-based file system that allows multiple clients to access the same files on a remote server. NFS is not compatible with Splunk index replication and search head clustering, as it can cause conflicts and inconsistencies among the Splunk instances. NFS is also slower and less reliable than local disks, as it depends on the network bandwidth and availability. NFS can be used for storing cold and frozen buckets, as they are less frequently accessed and less critical for Splunk operations2

Virtualized environments are not usually preferred over bare metal for Splunk indexers, as they can introduce additional overhead and complexity. Virtualized environments can affect the performance and reliability of Splunk indexers, as they share the physical resources and the network with other virtual machines. Virtualized environments can also complicate the monitoring and troubleshooting of Splunk indexers, as they add another layer of abstraction and configuration. Virtualized environments can be used for Splunk indexers, but they require careful planning and tuning to ensure optimal performance and availability2

When using the props.conf LINE_BREAKER attribute to delimit multi-line events, the SHOULD_LINEMERGE attribute should be set to false. This tells Splunk not to merge events that have been broken by the LINE_BREAKER. Setting the SHOULD_LINEMERGE attribute to true, auto, or none will cause Splunk to ignore the LINE_BREAKER and merge events based on other criteria. For more information, see Configure event line breaking in the Splunk documentation.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation (From Splunk Enterprise Documentation)Splunk Enterprise documentation clarifies that none of the listed configurations are prohibited in production. Splunk allows the Cluster Manager to be colocated with the Monitoring Console in small deployments because both are management-plane functions and do not handle ingestion or search traffic. The documentation also states that the Search Head Cluster Deployer is not a runtime component and has minimal performance requirements, so it may be colocated with the Monitoring Console or Licensing Master when hardware resources permit.

Splunk also supports virtual machines for both search heads and indexers, provided they are deployed with dedicated CPU, storage throughput, and predictable performance. Splunk’s official hardware guidance specifies that while bare metal often yields higher performance, virtualized deployments are fully supported in production as long as sizing principles are met.

Because Splunk explicitly supports all four configurations under proper sizing and best-practice guidelines, there is no correct selection for “unsupported.” The question is outdated relative to current Splunk Enterprise recommendations.

 The parallelIngestionPipelines setting can be adjusted on the indexers and forwarders to improve Splunk performance. The parallelIngestionPipelines setting determines how many concurrent data pipelines are used to process the incoming data. Increasing the parallelIngestionPipelines setting can improve the data ingestion and indexing throughput, especially for high-volume data sources. The parallelIngestionPipelines setting can be adjusted on the indexers and forwarders by editing the limits.conf file. The parallelIngestionPipelines setting cannot be adjusted on the search head or the cluster master, because they are not involved in the data ingestion and indexing process.

The correct Splunk deployment to have the recommended minimum components for a high-availability search head cluster is 3 search heads, 1 deployer, 3 indexers. This configuration ensures that the search head cluster has at least three members, which is the minimum number required for a quorum and failover1. The deployer is a separate instance that manages the configuration updates for the search head cluster2. The indexers are the nodes that store and index the data, and having at least three of them provides redundancy and load balancing3. The other options are not recommended, as they either have less than three search heads or less than three indexers, which reduces the availability and reliability of the cluster. Therefore, option B is the correct answer, and options A, C, and D are incorrect.

1: About search head clusters 2: Use the deployer to distribute apps and configuration updates 3: About indexer clusters and index replication

Increasing the search factor in the cluster will best address the requirement of high availability for searchable data. The search factor determines how many copies of searchable data are maintained by the cluster. A higher search factor means that more indexers can serve the data in case of a failure or a maintenance event. Increasing the replication factor will improve the availability of raw data, but not searchable data. Increasing the number of search heads or CPUs on the indexers will improve the search performance, but not the availability of searchable data. For more information, see Replication factor and search factor in the Splunk documentation.

Number of concurrent users: This is an important factor because it affects the search performance and resource utilization of the Splunk environment. More users mean more concurrent searches, which require more CPU, memory, and disk I/O. The number of concurrent users also determines the search head capacity and the search head clustering configuration12

Volume of incoming data: This is another crucial factor because it affects the indexing performance and storage requirements of the Splunk environment. More data means more indexing throughput, which requires more CPU, memory, and disk I/O. The volume of incoming data also determines the indexer capacity and the indexer clustering configuration13

Existence of premium apps: This is a relevant factor because some premium apps, such as Splunk Enterprise Security and Splunk IT Service Intelligence, have additional requirements and recommendations for the Splunk environment. For example, Splunk Enterprise Security requires a dedicated search head cluster and a minimum of 12 CPU cores per search head. Splunk IT Service Intelligence requires a minimum of 16 CPU cores and 64 GB of RAM per search head45

The best practice for ingesting syslog data from network devices on port 514 into Splunk is to configure syslog to write logs and use a Splunk forwarder to collect the logs. This practice will ensure that the data is reliably collected and forwarded to Splunk, without losing any data or overloading the Splunk indexer. Configuring syslog to send the data to multiple Splunk indexers will not guarantee data reliability, as syslog is a UDP protocol that does not provide acknowledgment or delivery confirmation. Using a Splunk indexer to collect a network input on port 514 directly will not provide data reliability or load balancing, as the indexer may not be able to handle the incoming data volume or distribute it to other indexers. Using a Splunk forwarder to collect the input on port 514 and forward the data will not provide data reliability, as the forwarder may not be able to receive the data from syslog or buffer it in case of network issues. For more information, see [Get data from TCP and UDP ports] and [Best practices for syslog data] in the Splunk documentation.

 The following is a good practice for a search head cluster deployer: The deployer must be used to distribute non-replicable configurations to search head cluster members. Non-replicable configurations are the configurations that are not replicated by the search factor, such as the apps and the server.conf settings. The deployer is the Splunk server role that distributes these configurations to the search head cluster members, ensuring that they have the same configuration. The deployer does not only distribute configurations to search head cluster members when they “phone home”, as this would cause configuration inconsistencies and delays. The deployer does not distribute configurations to search head cluster members to be valid configurations, as this implies that the configurations are invalid without the deployer. The deployer does not only distribute configurations to search head cluster members with splunk apply shcluster-bundle, as this would require manual intervention by the administrator. For more information, see Use the deployer to distribute apps and configuration updates in the Splunk documentation.

The Splunk server name of the member can typically be determined by the serverName attribute in the server.conf file, which is not explicitly shown in the provided snippet. However, based on the provided configuration snippet, we can infer that this search head cluster member is configured to communicate with a cluster master (master_uri) located at node1 and a management node (mgmt_uri) located at node3. The serverName is not the same as the master_uri or mgmt_uri; these URIs indicate the location of the master and management nodes that this member interacts with.

Since the serverName is not provided in the snippet, one would typically look for a setting under the [general] stanza in server.conf. However, given the options and the common naming conventions in a Splunk environment, node3 would be a reasonable guess for the server name of this member, since it is indicated as the management URI within the [shclustering] stanza, which suggests it might be the name or address of the server in question.

For accurate identification, you would need to access the full server.conf file or the Splunk Web on the search head cluster member and look under Settings > Server settings > General settings to find the actual serverName. Reference for these details would be found in the Splunk documentation regarding the configuration files, particularly server.conf.