Splunk follows a distributed architecture that allows it to handle large volumes of data, provide high availability, and scale horizontally as data requirements grow. The key components of Splunk's architecture include:
1. Forwarders: Splunk forwarders are lightweight components installed on data sources or servers. They collect and forward data to the Splunk indexing tier. Forwarders can be configured to monitor log files, capture network data, or use scripted inputs to gather data from various sources.
2. Indexers: Indexers receive and process data forwarded by the forwarders. They perform data indexing, which involves parsing, extracting metadata, and storing the data in Splunk's proprietary index format. Indexers also manage the storage and retrieval of indexed data, providing fast search and analysis capabilities.
3. Search Heads: Search heads serve as the user interface for interacting with Splunk. They receive search requests from users, distribute them across the indexer cluster, and aggregate the results. Search heads handle search queries, dashboards, and visualization requests, making it easy for users to explore and analyze data.
4. Indexer Cluster: An indexer cluster consists of multiple indexers working together to provide scalability, redundancy, and load balancing. The cluster ensures high availability and fault tolerance by replicating data across multiple indexers. It allows users to search and retrieve data from any indexer in the cluster, improving performance and availability.
5. Deployment Server: The deployment server is responsible for managing the configuration and deployment of forwarders. It centrally manages the deployment of apps, configurations, and updates to forwarders, ensuring consistency and ease of administration.
6. Search Head Cluster: A search head cluster provides high availability and load balancing for the search heads. It allows multiple search heads to work together as a single unit, ensuring that search requests are distributed across the cluster and maintaining session state for users.
7. Splunk Enterprise Security (optional): Splunk Enterprise Security is a premium app that provides security monitoring, threat detection, and incident response capabilities. It includes prebuilt dashboards, correlation searches, and workflows to help organizations analyze and respond to security events effectively.
8. Splunk Apps and Add-ons: Splunk offers a wide range of apps and add-ons that extend its functionality for specific use cases, such as IT operations, application monitoring, log management, or compliance. These can be installed on top of the core Splunk platform to address specific business needs.
Overall, Splunk's architecture is designed to handle the ingestion, indexing, search, and analysis of large volumes of data in a distributed and scalable manner. It provides a robust foundation for collecting, monitoring, and gaining insights from machine-generated data across diverse sources and environments.