Cloud Platform | Migrating your Splunk Cloud deployment to Python 3.7

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Python 2.7, the last release of Python 2, reached End of Life back on January 1, 2020. As part of our larger effort to stay current on the latest libraries and packages, Splunk announced our Python 3 migration strategy in October 2018 and again in July 2019. Splunk has released versions of Splunk Cloud Platform providing a Python 3 runtime since the release of Splunk Enterprise 8.0, in October 2019. As the Splunk Cloud administrator, you can use the Splunk Platform Upgrade Readiness App to check compatibility with Python 3. If your Splunk Cloud Platform deployment does contain outdated Python code, you need to upgrade it to be compatible with Python 3 as soon as possible.

You might be wondering: what is the easiest way to migrate my deployment and Splunk apps to Python 3.7 while minimizing interruptions? We highly recommend you to utilize the Splunk Platform Upgrade Readiness App (URA) we provide to scan your deployed apps for any components that might be impacted by migration to Python 3 and steps you can take to prepare.

If the URA determines that there is any app on your stack that might not be compatible with Python 3.7, the table below outlines the actions you should take: 

	New app version compatible with Python 3.7 is available	No new app version or new version is not compatible with Python 3.7
App comes from Splunkbase	Update the app to the latest version compatible with Python 3.7	1. Take responsibility for updating the app as a private app, and accept that the app may no longer function after Splunk performs the platform update 2. Uninstall or disable the app
App does NOT come from Splunkbase	Take responsibility for updating the app as a private app	1. Take responsibility for updating the app as a private app, and accept that the app may no longer function after Splunk performs the platform update 2. Uninstall or disable the app

For Developers, Splunk’s AppInspect API  can help detect issues that would prevent your app from being compatible with Splunk Cloud. In addition, we encourage you to use the latest Splunk SDK for Python, or at least v1.6.6 , which is cross-compatible with Python 2 and Python 3.7.

For migration preparation for Splunk Enterprise, see Python Development in Splunk Enterprise for more details. 

If there are ML models existing within your Splunk solutions, you must update ML models to support Python 3 as well. For more information, see Splunk IT Service Intelligence and Splunk Machine Learning Toolkit.

If you have any questions, reach out to us at python27-eol@splunk.com.

Best,

Splunk Python Migration Team