Getting Data In

Files and directories - local

One of Splunk's most versatile capabilities is monitoring files and directories for events. If your system generates it, Splunk can index, search, report and alert on it.

To get data from files and directories into Splunk, point Splunk at a file or directory:

1. From the Home page in Splunk Web, click Add data.

2. Under the To get started... banner, click A file or directory of files.

3. Click Next under Consume any file on this Splunk server.

4. On the Get data from files and directories page, specify the source of the data by clicking on one of the three available choices.

5. In the Full path to your data field, enter the path to the file or directory you want Splunk to monitor:

You can usually leave the other fields blank, including the fields under the More settings option. Look here for detailed information on those fields.

6. Click Save.

7. From the Success page, click Search to start searching. You can enter any term that’s in your data, or you can click on a source, source type or host to see data from the different directories within your syslog directory, the different types of data in those directories, or the different hosts that sent the syslog data in the first place.

For more information on getting data from files and directories, see "Monitor files and directories" in this manual.