Share data in Splunk DB Connect

Splunk DB Connect includes the opt-in ability to send anonymized usage data to Splunk to help improve the add-on in future releases.

How Splunk DB Connect collects data

If you opt in, the add-on enables an internal library to track basic usage and crash information. The library uses browser cookies to track add-on user visitor uniqueness and sessions and sends events to Splunk using XMLHttpRequest (XHR) in JSON format.

Data Splunk DB Connect collects

If you opt in, Splunk DB Connect sends the following information to Splunk:

• The number of identities you defined on the Splunk platform instance.
• The number of connections you defined on the instance.
• The number of connections associated with each identity on the instance.
• Each connection's database type, whether SSL is enabled, and the connection's associated number of database inputs, outputs, and lookups
• The number of database inputs defined on the instance.
• Each input's type (batch mode or rising column).
• The number of database outputs you defined on the instance.
• The number of database lookups you defined on the instance.
• Whether you enabled search head clustering.
• Each search head's search head cluster mode.
• The daily license usage for each source type that DB Connect defines. DB Connect uses to send daily license usage. You can disable the saved search without harming DB Connect operations.
• The Splunk Enterprise license size.
• The name and version number of every JDBC driver you installed.
• The server roles you defined (provided by the server-roles attribute of the /services/server/info endpoint).
  

Event	Source type	Description	Data sent includes common fields, plus
			Field	Type	Description
Session start	mint:ping	Each ping event indicates that a new session has started.	fsEncrypted	N/A	Not used, always "NA"
			rooted	N/A	Not used, always false
Session end	mint:gnip	Each gnip event indicates that a session has ended.	ses_duration	int	How long the session lasted
Page views	mint:view	Triggered once per page view in the app.	current	string	The URL of the current web page, without the hostname.
			currentView	string	Not used. Hardcoded to 'examples'.
			domProcessingTime	int	Time spent to process the domain.
			domLookupTime	int	Time spent to look up the domain name.
			elapsedTime	int	Time spent to render the page.
			host	string	The hostname in the URL.
			loadTime	int	Time spent to load the page.
			previous	string	The referrer URL.
			serverTime	int	Time spent to get a response from the server.
App performance and configuration	mint:log	Usage and performance logs for the DB Connect that track dashboard memory usage, dashboard loading times, the number of accounts, inputs, and regions configured in the app, and non-sensitive input configuration parameters.	level	int	Log level. For example, 60 means 'error'.
			log_name	any	Log content. See examples below.
API calls	mint:network	XMLHTTPRequest calls, usually HTTP API calls from client side (browser) to the Splunk server.	failed	boolean	Indicates if the request failed or not.
			latency	int	Time spent before response received.
			protocol	string	Network protocol: either http or https.
			requestLength	string	N/A. Not used.
			responseLength	int	The size of the response.
			statusCode	string	HTTP response code.
			url	string	The request URL, without the hostname.

Common fields

The data that the DB Connect sends to Splunk, if enabled, includes the following common fields. This set of fields includes several fields that are disabled or deliberately not used for the DB Connect for purposes of anonymization.

Field	Type	Description	Example value
apiKey	string	MINT API key for the DB Connect	4t2fk73n
appRunningState	Field is unused by the SDK. Shows a value of "NA" in all events.
appVersionCode	Field is unused by the SDK. Shows a value of "NA" in all events.
appVersionName	string	The version name of the app sending data.	4.1.0
browser	string	The browser name.	Chrome
browserVersion	string	The browser version.	47.0.2526.111
carrier	Field is unused by the SDK. Shows a value of "NA" in all events.
connection	Field is unused by the SDK. Shows a value of "NA" in all events.
device	string	The device making the request.	MacIntel
extraData	JSON object	This field stores custom information for the app. This app uses extraData.splunk_version to store the version number of the Splunk platform instance.	6.3.1511
locale	string	The user locale set in the browser.	en-US
osVersion	string	The version code of the underlying operating system.	OS X 10.11.2
packageName	string	The package name of the DB Connect.	splunk_app_db_connect
platform	Not used for the DB Connect. Shows a value of "web" in all events.
remoteIP	Not used for the DB Connect. Shows a value of "3.0.0.0" in all events.
sdkVersion	string	The version of the SDK.	4.3
screenOrientation	Field is unused by the SDK. Shows a value of "NA" in all events.
session_id	string	A unique string to identify a session.	a5026251
state	string	Indicator of whether the browser is online or not. Can be either CONNECTED or DISCONNECTED.	CONNECTED
uuid	UUID	A random identifier to track the user's uniqueness	837227ea-4569-4675-9a17-ccb39ca69505

Example app performance and configuration events

DB Connect sends performance and configuration information using the log_name field in the mint:log source type. This log_name field contains two sub-fields, name, which indicates which type of logs are being transmitted, and data, the content of the tracking log.

There are three possible options for name:

• track_performance. When a user accesses a dashboard in the app, DB Connect sends performance logs for dashboard memory usage and loading times.
• track_configuration. When a Splunk admin visits the Configure page, DB Connect sends a log of the number of accounts, inputs, and regions configured in the app, and non-sensitive input configuration parameters.
• track_usage. When a Splunk admin visits the Configure page, DB Connect sends a log of the data volume that each input is responsible for.

The following examples demonstrate what data the DB Connect sends for each type of event.

log_name.name	Example JSON object
track_performance	{ "memory":{ "totalJSHeapSize":72200000, "usedJSHeapSize":39600000, "jsHeapSizeLimit":1620000000 }, "timing":{ "navigationStart":1453273923766, "unloadEventStart":1453273923929, "unloadEventEnd":1453273923930, "redirectStart":0, "redirectEnd":0, "fetchStart":1453273923766, "domainLookupStart":1453273923766, "domainLookupEnd":1453273923766, "connectStart":1453273923766, "connectEnd":1453273923766, "secureConnectionStart":0, "requestStart":1453273923773, "responseStart":1453273923927, "responseEnd":1453273923929, "domLoading":1453273923939, "domInteractive":1453273923975, "domContentLoadedEventStart":1453273923975, "domContentLoadedEventEnd":1453273923975, "domComplete":1453273926985, "loadEventStart":1453273926985, "loadEventEnd":1453273926987 } }
track_configuration	{ "identities": { "count": 7, "data": [ { "connections_count": 1 }, { "connections_count": 1 }, { "connections_count": 0 }, { "connections_count": 1 }, { "connections_count": 2 }, { "connections_count": 6 }, { "connections_count": 1 } ] }, "connections": { "count": 12, "data": [ { "connection_type": "db2", "jdbcUseSSL": false, "inputs_count": 0, "outputs_count": 0, "lookups_count": 0 }, { "connection_type": "informix", "jdbcUseSSL": false, "inputs_count": 0, "outputs_count": 0, "lookups_count": 0 }, { "connection_type": "memsql", "jdbcUseSSL": false, "inputs_count": 0, "outputs_count": 0, "lookups_count": 0 }, { "connection_type": "generic_mssql", "jdbcUseSSL": false, "inputs_count": 0, "outputs_count": 0, "lookups_count": 0 }, { "connection_type": "mssql_jtds_win_auth", "jdbcUseSSL": false, "inputs_count": 0, "outputs_count": 0, "lookups_count": 0 }, { "connection_type": "mysql", "jdbcUseSSL": false, "inputs_count": 4, "outputs_count": 2, "lookups_count": 3 }, { "connection_type": "mysql", "jdbcUseSSL": false, "inputs_count": 0, "outputs_count": 0, "lookups_count": 0 }, { "connection_type": "mysql", "jdbcUseSSL": false, "inputs_count": 0, "outputs_count": 0, "lookups_count": 0 }, { "connection_type": "mysql", "jdbcUseSSL": false, "inputs_count": 0, "outputs_count": 0, "lookups_count": 0 }, { "connection_type": "oracle", "jdbcUseSSL": false, "inputs_count": 0, "outputs_count": 1, "lookups_count": 1 }, { "connection_type": "oracle", "jdbcUseSSL": true, "inputs_count": 0, "outputs_count": 0, "lookups_count": 0 }, { "connection_type": "postgres", "jdbcUseSSL": false, "inputs_count": 0, "outputs_count": 0, "lookups_count": 0 } ] }, "drivers": { "count": 0, "data": [] }, "inputs": { "count": 4, "data": [ { "mode": "batch" }, { "mode": "rising" }, { "mode": "batch" }, { "mode": "rising" } ] }, "outputs": { "count": 3, "data": [ { "transactional": true, "is_saved_search": false }, { "transactional": true, "is_saved_search": false }, { "transactional": true, "is_saved_search": false } ] }, "lookups": { "count": 4, "data": [ { "input_fields_count": 0, "output_fields_count": 0 }, { "input_fields_count": 0, "output_fields_count": 0 }, { "input_fields_count": 0, "output_fields_count": 0 }, { "input_fields_count": 0, "output_fields_count": 0 } ] }, "serverstatus": { "count": 1, "data": [ { "isSHCluster": false, "javaVersion": "1.8.0_92" } ] } }
track_usage	{ "usage": [ { "time": "2017-06-21", "volumes": { "sakila_city_rising_input": "0" } }, { "time": "2017-06-22", "volumes": { "sakila_city_rising_input": "0" } }, { "time": "2017-06-23", "volumes": { "sakila_city_rising_input": "0.001021385" } }, { "time": "2017-06-24", "volumes": { "sakila_city_rising_input": "0" } }, { "time": "2017-06-25", "volumes": { "sakila_city_rising_input": "0" } }, { "time": "2017-06-26", "volumes": { "sakila_city_rising_input": "0" } }, { "time": "2017-06-27", "volumes": { "sakila_city_rising_input": "0" } } ] }

Data DB Connect does not collect

DB Connect does not collect or send the following kinds of data:

• Sensitive data such as usernames or passwords.
• Identifying information such as addresses, phone numbers, IP addresses, or hostnames.
• Indexed data that you ingest into your Splunk platform instance.

DB Connect does not collect any data that is not explicitly described in the Data Splunk DB Connect collects section above.

How to opt in or out

Splunk DB Connect presents an opt-in request the first time that you launch the app. You can also opt in at any time. In Settings, check the box under the Usage Collection tab.

To opt out, leave the box unchecked when the app presents the Help us improve Splunk products and services box. If you previously opted in but want to change your response, uncheck the box at the bottom of the Configure page, and then click Stop sending data. If you opt out after having previously opted in, the app immediately stops sending data to Splunk.

For more information about how Splunk collects and uses data, please refer to the Splunk Privacy Policy.