About the Content Pack for Windows Dashboards and Reports

The Content Pack for Windows Dashboards and Reports gives you visibility into the health and performance of your Microsoft Windows Server and Active Directory environments.

You can use the Content Pack for Windows Dashboards and Reports to perform the following tasks:

• Identify infrastructure problems, such as non-running services and load issues.
• Monitor the performance of all servers throughout your Windows environment.
• Monitor security events, such as virus outbreaks and anomalous logons.
• Track administrative changes to the environment.
• Plan for capacity expansion.

The content pack includes the following components:

• Active Directory Entity Type with vital metrics that describe the overall performance of entities for Domain Controllers.
• One entity discovery search that you can enable when you are ready to import your Windows AD entities. See Enable entity discovery search.
• Dashboards and reports for proactive environment management.
• Knowledge objects that populate the dashboards and reports present in the content pack.

The content pack components let you monitor system, server, network, and printer availability. You can also leverage additional modules to monitor other aspects of your Windows network:

• Use Splunk Add-on for Microsoft Windows to monitor your Microsoft Windows Server.
• Use the Splunk Supporting Add-on for Microsoft Windows Active Directory to monitor your Microsoft Windows Server Active Directory.

Installation

You can install the Windows Dashboards and Reports Content Pack after installing the Splunk App for Content Packs on the search head where you have installed ITSI or ITE Work.

For installation instructions, see Install and configure the Splunk App for Content Packs in the Splunk App for Content Packs manual.

Deployment requirements

Use the following table to ensure you are running the correct version of the content pack, ITSI/IT Essentials Work, Splunk Add-on for Microsoft Windows and Splunk Supporting Add-on for Active Directory:

Splunk App for Content Packs version	Content pack version	ITSI version	IT Essentials Work version	Splunk Add-on for Microsoft Windows version	Splunk Supporting Add-on for Active Directory version
1.6.0	1.1.0	4.11.4 and higher	4.11.4 and higher	8.0.0, 8.4.0, 8.5.0	3.0.3, 3.0.4
1.5.0	1.0.1	4.9.6 and higher, 4.11.3 and higher	4.9.6 and higher, 4.11.3 and higher	7.0.0, 8.0.0	3.0.2, 3.0.3
1.3.0	1.0.0	4.9.0 or higher	4.9.0 or higher	7.0.0, 8.0.0, 8.1.2	3.0.2, 3.0.3

Configuration requirements

Use the following table to review the configuration requirements for the Content Pack for Windows Dashboards and Reports:

Component	Search head	Indexer	Forwarder
Content Pack for Windows Dashboards and Reports	X
Splunk Add-on for Microsoft Windows	X	X	X
Splunk Supporting Add-on for Active Directory	X

Additional resources

• For ITSI deployment planning guidelines, see Plan your ITSI deployment in the Install and Upgrade manual.
• For ITSI version compatibility with Splunk Enterprise versions, see Splunk products version compatibility matrix.