Splunk Splunk Core Certified Consultant SPLK-3003 Exam Dumps: Updated Questions & Answers (October 2025)

These are the indexes.conf settings that can be leveraged to meet the requirements of the customer, given the following assumptions and calculations:

The customer has a single indexer with a single storage device for all data.

The customer wants to keep 30 days of data searchable, which means 30 x 50GB = 1500GB of data in total.

The customer wants to optimize search performance for hourly scheduled searches that process a week’s worth of data, which means 7 x 50GB = 350GB of data per search.

The indexes.conf settings that can be used to achieve these goals are:

maxDataSize: This setting determines the maximum size of a bucket before it rolls from hot to warm. By setting this to auto_high_volume, Splunk software will create buckets that are approximately 10GB in size, which is suitable for high-volume data sources. This will result in about 5 hot buckets and 145 warm buckets per index, which will reduce the number of buckets that need to be searched and improve search performance.

frozenTimePeriodInSecs: This setting determines how long Splunk software keeps the data in an index before freezing or deleting it. By setting this to 2592000 seconds (30 days), Splunk software will ensure that the data is searchable for at least 30 days, and then move it to the frozen state or delete it according to the coldToFrozenDir or coldToFrozenScript settings.

maxVolumeDataSizeMB: This setting determines the maximum size of a volume before Splunk software stops writing data to it. By setting this to 1536000 MB (1500 GB), Splunk software will ensure that the volume can store exactly 30 days of data, and then roll the oldest buckets to frozen or delete them according to the frozenTimePeriodInSecs setting.

The other options are incorrect because they either do not meet the requirements of the customer or they contain invalid or unnecessary settings. Option A is incorrect because frozenTimePeriodInSecs and maxVolumeDataSizeMB are redundant settings, as they both control the retention policy of the index. Also, maxHotBuckets is not relevant for search performance, as it only affects how many hot buckets can exist per index. Option B is incorrect because maxTotalDataSizeMB and maxGlobalDataSizeMB are not valid settings in indexes.conf, as they are only used in server.conf to control the total size of all indexes and all volumes respectively. Also, maxHotBuckets is not relevant for search performance, as it only affects how many hot buckets can exist per index. Option D is incorrect because homePath.maxDataSizeMB and maxHotSpanSecs are not valid settings in indexes.conf, as they are only used in volumes.conf to control the size and time span of hot buckets within a volume respectively. Also, maxWarmDBCount is not relevant for search performance, as it only affects how many warm buckets can exist per index. References:

Splunk Core Consultant knowledge source documents or study guide: https://www.splunk.com/en_us/resources/splunk-certification-exam-study-guide.html

Splunk Test Blueprint Consultant: https://www.splunk.com/en_us/pdfs/training/splunk-test-blueprint-consultant.pdf

Configure index storage1

indexes.conf2

server.conf3

volumes.conf4

As a best practice, the following should be used to ingest data on clustered indexers: splunktcp, splunktcp-ssl, HTTP Event Collector (HEC). These are the methods that allow data to be sent to the indexers by forwarders or other data sources, without requiring any configuration on the indexers themselves. The indexers can receive the data on specific ports and index it according to the cluster settings. These methods also support load balancing and encryption of the data. Therefore, the correct answer is D. splunktcp, splunktcp-ssl, HTTP Event Collector (HEC). References:

Splunk Core Certified Consultant Test Blueprint

Splunk Documentation: Forward data to an indexer cluster

Splunk Documentation: About forwarding and receiving data

Search Job Inspector provides statistics to show how much time and the number of events each indexer has processed. This can help validate and understand the customer’s concerns about the search performance and identify any bottlenecks or issues with the indexer cluster configuration. For example, the Search Job Inspector can show if some indexers are overloaded or underutilized, if there are network latency or bandwidth problems, or if there are errors or warnings during the search execution. The Search Job Inspector can also show how much time each search command takes and how many events are processed by each command. References:

https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/9.1.1/Search/ViewsearchjobpropertieswiththeJobInspector 4

https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/9.1.1/Search/Troubleshootingsearchperformance

The correct process and procedure for migrating a Splunk index cluster to new hardware is as follows:

Install new indexers. This step involves installing the Splunk Enterprise software on the new machines and configuring them with the same network settings, OS settings, and hardware specifications as the original indexers.

Configure indexers into the cluster as peers; ensure they receive the cluster bundle and the same configuration as original peers. This step involves joining the new indexers to the existing cluster as peer nodes, using the same cluster master and replication factor. The new indexers should also receive the same configuration files as the original peers, either by copying them manually or by using a deployment server. The cluster bundle contains the indexes.conf file and other files that define the index settings and data retention policies for the cluster.

Decommission old peers one at a time. This step involves removing the old indexers from the cluster gracefully, using the splunk offline command or the REST API endpoint /services/cluster/master/control/control/decommission. This ensures that the cluster master redistributes the primary buckets from the old peers to the new peers, and that no data is lost during the migration process.

Remove old peers from the CM’s list. This step involves deleting the old indexers from the list of peer nodes maintained by the cluster master, using the splunk remove server command or the REST API endpoint /services/cluster/master/peers. This ensures that the cluster master does not try to communicate with the old peers or assign them any search or replication tasks.

Update forwarders to forward to the new peers. This step involves updating the outputs.conf file on the forwarders that send data to the cluster, so that they point to the new indexers instead of the old ones. This ensures that the data ingestion process is not disrupted by the migration.

References:

Splunk Core Certified Consultant Test Blueprint

Splunk Documentation: Migrate an indexer cluster

Splunk Documentation: Decommission a peer node

Splunk Documentation: Remove a peer node from an indexer cluster

Splunk Documentation: Configure forwarders with outputs.conf

The directory where base config app(s) should be placed to initialize an indexer is $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/slave-apps. Base config app(s) are a set of configuration files that provide consistent, repeatable, and supportable configurations for Splunk deployments. Base config app(s) can be used to initialize an indexer by placing them in the slave-apps directory, which is a special directory that the cluster master uses to distribute apps to the indexer cluster peers. The cluster master pushes the base config app(s) to the slave-apps directory on each peer node, and the peer node applies the configurations from the app(s). Therefore, the correct answer is D. $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/slave-apps. References:

Splunk Core Certified Consultant Test Blueprint

Splunk Documentation: About base configurations

Splunk Documentation: Use base configurations

Splunk Documentation: Deploy apps to an indexer cluster

The search can be rewritten to maximize efficiency by using the index option. The index option is used to specify the index to search. This option is useful when you have multiple indexes and want to search only one of them. The index option is also useful when you want to search a specific index that is not the default index. The index option can reduce the search time and resource consumption by limiting the scope of the search. Therefore, the correct answer is C. Option C, which uses the index option to search only the main index for the sourcetype web_access. References:

Splunk Core Certified Consultant Test Blueprint

Splunk Documentation: Specify indexes in your search

Splunk Documentation: Use the index option

 The Topology Category Code: M14 would be recommended for a non-ES customer who has a concern about data availability during a disaster recovery event. This is because this topology provides high availability and disaster recovery for both the search head and the indexer layer, as well as load balancing and data replication. The M14 topology consists of two search head clusters, each with a minimum of three search heads, and two indexer clusters, each with a minimum of three indexers. The search head clusters are connected to their respective indexer clusters via the cluster master, and the indexer clusters are replicated across two sites using the site replication factor. This ensures that the data is available in both sites and can be searched by either search head cluster in case of a site failure. References:

[Splunk Certification Exam Study Guide], page 9

[Splunk Documentation: Splunk Validated Architectures]

The bloomfilter resides in the directory of each bucket that has one. The directory name is composed of the earliest and latest timestamps of the events in the bucket, as well as the bucket ID. For example, $SPLUNK_HOME/var/lib/splunk/indexfoo/db/db_1553504858_1553504507_8 is a possible directory name for a bucket. The bloomfilter is a file named bloomfilter in this directory. Therefore, the correct answer is A, $SPLUNK_HOME/var/lib/splunk/indexfoo/db/db_1553504858_1553504507_8. References :=

Splexicon:Bloomfilter

Indexer cluster configuration overview

When Splunk indexes events, it extracts metadata fields such as host, source, and source type from the raw data. These fields are used to identify and categorize the events, and to enable efficient searching and filtering. Splunk also assigns a unique identifier (_cd) and a timestamp (_time) to each event. Splunk does not extract the top 10 fields, perform parsing, merging, and typing processes on universal forwarders, or create report acceleration summaries during indexing. These are separate processes that occur either before or after indexing. Therefore, the correct answer is B. Extracts metadata fields such as host, source, source type. References:

Splunk Core Certified Consultant Test Blueprint

Splunk Documentation: How Splunk Enterprise indexes data

Splunk Documentation: About default fields

 A [script://] input sends data to a Splunk forwarder using the standard output (STDOUT) and standard error (STDERR) streams of the script. A [script://] input is a type of scripted input that runs an executable script on a Splunk forwarder and indexes the data that the script outputs to STDOUT or STDERR. The script can be written in any scripting language, such as Python, Perl, or shell, and it can perform various tasks, such as querying APIs, databases, or remote data interfaces, and formatting the data for indexing. The Splunk forwarder launches the script at a specified interval and reads the data from its STDOUT or STDERR streams.

The other options are incorrect because they are not the methods that a [script://] input uses to send data to a Splunk forwarder. Option A is incorrect because UDP stream is not a method that a [script://] input uses, but rather a method that a network input uses to receive data from UDP ports. Option B is incorrect because TCP stream is not a method that a [script://] input uses, but rather a method that a network input uses to receive data from TCP ports. Option C is incorrect because temporary file is not a method that a [script://] input uses, but rather a method that a monitor input uses to read data from files or directories. References:

Splunk Core Consultant knowledge source documents or study guide: https://www.splunk.com/en_us/resources/splunk-certification-exam-study-guide.html

Splunk Test Blueprint Consultant: https://www.splunk.com/en_us/pdfs/training/splunk-test-blueprint-consultant.pdf

Get data from APIs and other remote data interfaces through scripted inputs1

Configure scripted inputs2