Getting Data In

How do I block one forwarder from sending?

kst
Explorer

I have an indexer getting data from 24 hosts. We were well within our quota
until two hosts were added that, for whatever reason (misconfiguration, extremely
busy, etc.) are sending many GB. I have no control over these forwarders, I have to
wait for their admins to fix/reconfigure them. To keep from going over quota, I've
disabled port 9997 on the indexer until I can touch base with those admins. But is
there a way to stop accepting data from just those two offenders without shutting off
the other 24 forwarders? I'm at version 4.3, if that matters.

Tags (1)
1 Solution

dwaddle
SplunkTrust
SplunkTrust

You could always block that host from port 9997 using iptables on the indexer ...

View solution in original post

the_wolverine
Champion

Splunk should have a configurable way to do this at the indexer level. A rogue forwarder can easily take out an indexer by sending crap data or large volumes of data.

dwaddle
SplunkTrust
SplunkTrust

You could always block that host from port 9997 using iptables on the indexer ...

kst
Explorer

Thanks for the answers. FWIW, these were IIS logs being written to the default index.
I used iptables to shut 'em down.

Brian_Osburn
Builder

Need a little bit more information - are these hosts writing to a specific index? Are there specific file source that's causing the issues?

If you have the host, you can do something like this on the indexer side:

transforms.conf:
[block_transform]
REGEX=DEBUG\s\[
DEST_KEY = queue
FORMAT = nullQueue

props.conf:
[host::yourservername]
TRANSFORMS-bad_log = block_transform

This was taken from http://splunk-base.splunk.com/answers/11617/route-unwanted-logs-to-a-null-queue

the_wolverine
Champion

This is one way to do it but it consumes your indexer's resources to parse that data. Cheaper to block it from ever getting to your indexer.

Get Updates on the Splunk Community!

Index This | I am a number, but when you add ‘G’ to me, I go away. What number am I?

March 2024 Edition Hayyy Splunk Education Enthusiasts and the Eternally Curious!  We’re back with another ...

What’s New in Splunk App for PCI Compliance 5.3.1?

The Splunk App for PCI Compliance allows customers to extend the power of their existing Splunk solution with ...

Extending Observability Content to Splunk Cloud

Register to join us !   In this Extending Observability Content to Splunk Cloud Tech Talk, you'll see how to ...