Ingest Splunk Forwarder Data into Cribl Search
Collect S2S traffic from Splunk universal or heavy forwarders to store it in Cribl Search for fast analysis.
Before You Begin
You’ll need:
- Cribl.Cloud Enterprise. For details, see Pricing.
- A lakehouse engine. See how to get one at lakehouse engines.
- Search Admin Permission, or higher. Learn who can do what at Cribl Search Permissions.
- A Splunk sender that can reach Cribl Search over TCP (for example, a Splunk universal forwarder).
You don’t need Cribl Stream, Edge, or Lake. (Looking for the Splunk TCP Source in Cribl Stream instead?)
1. Add a Splunk TCP Source in Cribl Search
On the Cribl.Cloud top bar, select Products > Search > Data > Add Source > Splunk TCP.
Describe Your Source
Under General, configure:
| Setting | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| ID | Source ID, unique across your Cribl.Cloud Workspace. Use letters, numbers, underscores, hyphens. | splunk_tcp_prod |
| Description | Describe your Source so others know what it’s for. | Ingests TCP from prod Splunk |
| Address | Hostname (FQDN) that your Splunk forwarder connects to. You’ll need this to set up your Splunk forwarder. | search.main.foo-bar-abc123.cribl.cloud |
| Port | Network port to listen on. Keep the default unless it conflicts with another service. | 9997 (default) |
Set Up Authentication
Use authentication to make sure only authorized Splunk forwarders can send data to your Cribl Search Source.
Under Authentication, select Add Token. Add as many tokens as you need.
| Setting | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Token | Authentication string you’ll need to set up your Splunk forwarder. Enter a token text, or select Generate for a random one. | 420 |
| Description | Describe which clients or environments use the token. | Prod UF |
Set Up Encryption
Use TLS encryption to protect your data in transit between upstream Splunk forwarders and your Cribl Search Source.
Under Encrypt, select Enabled, and set the Minimum TLS version you want to accept.
| TLS Version | When to Use |
|---|---|
| 1.3 | Recommended. Provides the best security. |
| 1.2 | Use only when connecting to older systems that don’t support TLS 1.3. |
| Older than 1.2 | Avoid if possible. These versions are no longer considered secure. |
Select Save to create the Source.
2. Set Datatype Rules
Configure Datatype rules to parse, filter, and normalize your data into structured fields. We call this process Datatyping.
On the Cribl.Cloud top bar, select Products > Search > Data > Datatyping (auto). Here, you can:
- Use Auto-Datatyping to parse your data automatically.
- Check for uncategorized data that didn’t match any Datatype rules.
- Handle the uncategorized data by adding custom Datatype rules.
See also:
- Datatypes in Cribl Search
- v2 Datatypes in Cribl Search
- List of Stock v2 Datatypes
- Add a Custom v2 Datatype
3. Set Dataset Rules
Configure Dataset rules to organize the parsed events into Datasets. This also determines how long the data is kept as each Dataset has its own retention period.
On the Cribl.Cloud top bar, select Products > Search > Data > Datasets: Organize Your Data, and see Organize Your Data for details.
4. Set Up Your Splunk Forwarder
Configure your upstream Splunk forwarder to send data to Cribl Search.
You’ll need these details from your Source configuration:
| Name | Example |
|---|---|
| Address | search.main.foo-bar-abc123.cribl.cloud |
| Port | 9997 (default) |
| Token | 420 |
To find these for an existing Source: On the Cribl.Cloud top bar, select Products > Search > Data > Sources, and select your Source.
Example: Splunk TCP > Cribl Search
Use this sample outputs.conf stanza, replacing
the example address (search.main.foo-bar-abc123.cribl.cloud), token, and port (if you changed the default 9997) with
your Source values.
[tcpout]
disabled = false
defaultGroup = cribl
[tcpout:cribl]
server = search.main.foo-bar-abc123.cribl.cloud:9997
sslVerifyServerCert = true
sslRootCAPath = $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/auth/cacert.pem
compressed = false
useSSL = true
sendCookedData = true
token = 4205. See Live Data Flow
Verify that events are successfully flowing from Splunk into Cribl Search.
On the Cribl.Cloud top bar, select Products > Search > Data > Live Data.
Here, check for your Splunk TCP Source. For details, see See Live Data Flow.
Next Steps
Now that your data is in Cribl Search, you can start using it. For example: