Splunk® Supporting Add-on for Active Directory

Deploy and Use the Splunk Supporting Add-on for Active Directory (SA-LDAPSearch)

Acrobat logo Download manual as PDF


This documentation does not apply to the most recent version of Splunk® Supporting Add-on for Active Directory. For documentation on the most recent version, go to the latest release.
Acrobat logo Download topic as PDF

Configure the Splunk Supporting Add-on for Active Directory

The Splunk Supporting Add-on for Active Directory is a bundle of commands written in Python. New for version 2.0, the add-on no longer requires an installation of Java on the machines that run it.

Configure the Splunk Supporting Add-on for Active Directory

Use Splunk Web to configure the Splunk Supporting Add-on for Active Directory.

If you have upgraded from a previous version, you must visit the Configuration page once to save your existing configuration in the new format. From then on, make any changes in this page.

If you have not used the add-on, use the Configuration page to add and remove configurations.

Configure the add-on with Splunk Web

The Splunk Supporting Add-on for Active Directory has a configuration page that you can access from Splunk Web.

LDAP 201 Config.png

To use the configuration page, activate the add-on by selecting it from the "App" menu in the upper left corner of the screen. Then, after the add-on loads, select "Configuration" from the menu.

Add a domain

To add a domain using the Configuration page:

1. In the lower left corner of the domain list pane, click the "+" sign.

2. In the Domain Name field, type in the name of the domain that you want the add-on to get data for.

3. In the Alternate domain name field, type in an alternate representation of the domain in NetBIOS format.

4. In the Base DN field, type in the same domain in LDAP notation.

    Example: DC=spl,DC=com

5. In the LDAP Server: Hostname field, type in the name or IP address of the host that the add-on should connect to for this domain.

6. In the LDAP Server: Port field, type in the port that the add-on should connect to on the LDAP server.

Note: When configuring the 'default' connection, use port 3268 (for plain text) or 3269 (for SSL) connections. This tells the add-on to connect to the Global Catalog, which is faster, but might not return all attributes. For other domain connections, use port 389 (for plain text) or 636 (for SSL)

7. If you want the server to use SSL to connect, click the SSL checkbox.

8. In the Credentials: Bind DN field, enter the username that the add-on should use to connect to the LDAP server you specified previously, in LDAP notation.

    Example: CN=Splunk Searcher,CN=Users,DC=spl,DC=com

Note: You can also enter the name in the following formats:

  • User Principal Name (UPN), such as 'user@splunk.com'
  • Security Account Manager (SAM) account name, such as 'splunk\username'
  • Base Distinguished Name (DN).

9. In the Credentials: Password field, enter the password for that user.

10. Optionally, you can test whether or not the add-on can make a valid connection. To do so, click the Test connection button.

A window appears while the add-on attempts to connect to the LDAP server and retrieve information. If the test succeeds, the window displays results. If no results display, then the test has failed and you must correct your settings before attempting to test the connection again.

11. Click Save to save your changes.

Remove a domain

To remove a domain:

1. In the domain list pane, click the domain that you want to remove.

2. Click the "-" button at the bottom of the pane.

3. Click the Save button to save the changes.

Configure the add-on for use on a heavy forwarder

You can configure the Splunk Supporting Add-on for Active Directory to run as a report (saved search) and route and forward that data to another Splunk Enterprise instance.

To configure forwarding and receiving, see Enable forwarding on a Splunk Enterprise instance and Enable a receiver in the Splunk Enterprise Forwarding Data manual.

To configure the add-on to forward data:

Configure the receiving instance

1. Configure receiving on the host(s) that should receive the forwarded data.

2. Create an index for the forwarded data to reside in.

Configure SA-LDAPsearch on the forwarding instance

1. Configure forwarding on the instance that runs the add-on.

2. Configure the add-on to connect to an Active Directory domain controller or Global Catalog, as described in "Configure the Splunk Supporting Add-on for Active Directory."

3. Create an index whose name matches what you created on the receiving indexer.

4. Configure the forwarder to route data based on destination index, as described in Filter data by target index" in the Forwarding Data manual.

Run and save the search

1. On the heavy forwarder, switch to the Search & Reporting app.

2. Type in a valid command or commands for the add-on, but do not invoke the search yet.

Note: See "The LDAP search commands" for proper syntax for the LDAP search commands.

3. At the end of the search, add the following line, substituting index with the index that you created:

| collect index=<index>

Note: Ensure that you include the | (pipe) symbol in the command.

4. Click the magnifying glass at the end of the search bar to invoke the search.

5. Once it completes, save it as a report. Click Save as… in the upper right corner of the page.

6. Give the report a name and a description, then click Save.

7. Schedule the report to run at an interval, as described in "Schedule reports" in the Reporting manual.

8. Once the report runs, confirm that you see events on the receiving indexer.

Where to find the events on the receiver

The events that you forward appear in the index that you created on the receiving indexer with the host field set to the name of the host that originated the LDAP search and a source type of stash. You can search the index that you created on the receiving instance to see all of the forwarded events.

If you do not see the events on the receiving indexer, confirm that:

  • You have created an index on both the heavy forwarder and the receiving indexer, and that the index names match.
  • The forwarding instance is a heavy forwarder. A universal forwarder cannot route data based on destination index.
  • You have configured the forwardedindex filter to forward data destined for the index you created.
  • You pipe the results of your LDAP search to the collect command and specify the index you created.

Configure the add-on to send data to Splunk Cloud

When you configure the Splunk Supporting Add-on for Active Directory for use with Splunk Cloud, there are several options:

  • Configure a heavy forwarder to send data to the Splunk Cloud instance. This option requires configuring the Splunk Cloud instance to receive data and installing an app on the heavy forwarder that lets you forward data to that Splunk Cloud instance. The procedure is similar to configuring the add-on to use a heavy forwarder, but there are additional steps required to get the Splunk Cloud instance to accept forwarding from external sources. Contact Splunk Support or your Splunk Cloud account representative for assistance.
  • Configure the Splunk Cloud instance to access the Active Directory instance through a firewall. Contact Splunk Support or your Splunk Cloud account representative for additional information and assistance.

Configure Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) settings for the add-on with ssl.conf

You can use the ssl.conf file to override SSL settings on the Splunk Enterprise instance that runs the add-on.

The settings in ssl.conf apply only to the Splunk Supporting Add-on for Active Directory and override settings that you have defined in server.conf on the instance. You can specify any valid attributes within the [sslconfig] stanza of server.conf. See the server.conf spec file. A list of common attributes follows:

Attribute Description Default
caCertFile = <filename> File name (relative to 'caPath') of the root CA (Certificate Authority) certificate store. Must refer to a PEM format file containing one or more root CA certificates concatenated together. cacert.pem
sslVersions = <versions_list> A comma-separated list of SSL versions to support for incoming connections. The versions available are "ssl3", "tls1.0", "tls1.1", and "tls1.2". The special version "*" selects all supported versions. The version "tls" selects all versions tls1.0 or newer. If you prefix a version is with "-" you remove it from the list.

SSLv2 is always disabled; "-ssl2" is accepted in the version list but does nothing. When configured in FIPS mode, ssl3 is always disabled regardless of this configuration.

*,-ssl2 (anything newer than SSLv2).
sslVerifyServerCert = true|false Used by distributed search: when making a search request to another server in the search cluster. Used by distributed deployment clients when polling a deployment server.

If you set this to true, you should make sure that the server that is being connected to is a valid one (authenticated). Both the common name and the alternate name of the server are then checked for a match if they are specified in this configuration file. A certificate is considered verified if either name matches.

false

1. Open a shell or command prompt.

2. Change to the $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/apps/SA-ldapsearch/local directory.

3. Create the ssl.conf file.

4. Add a single line [sslConfig] to the file.

5. Add valid key-value pairs to the file.

6. Save the file and close it.

7. Log into Splunk Web on the instance that runs the add-on.

8. Configure the add-on to add an LDAP domain. See Configure the add-on with Splunk Web.

Other uses

You can also create lookup tables with the report you save, depending on the LDAP commands you use. Lookup tables cannot be forwarded, however. To work around this limitation, you can:

  • Copy the lookup table to the lookup directory on a search head or indexer.
  • Import the lookup table into App Key Value Store.
Last modified on 08 June, 2018
PREVIOUS
Install the Splunk Supporting Add-on for Active Directory
  NEXT
The ldapsearch command

This documentation applies to the following versions of Splunk® Supporting Add-on for Active Directory: 2.0.1, 2.1.0, 2.1.1, 2.1.2, 2.1.3, 2.1.4, 2.1.5, 2.1.6


Was this documentation topic helpful?


You must be logged into splunk.com in order to post comments. Log in now.

Please try to keep this discussion focused on the content covered in this documentation topic. If you have a more general question about Splunk functionality or are experiencing a difficulty with Splunk, consider posting a question to Splunkbase Answers.

0 out of 1000 Characters