Search Tutorial

Start Splunk Enterprise and launch Splunk Web

After you download and install Splunk Enterprise, you need to start Splunk Enterprise and launch Splunk Web.

Start Splunk Enterprise on Windows

After the Windows installation finishes, Splunk Enterprise starts and launches Splunk Web in a supported browser.

1. If Splunk Enterprise does not start, you have the following options.

• Start Splunk Enterprise from the Start menu.
• Use the Windows Services Manager to start Splunk Enterprise.
• Open a cmd window, go to \Program Files\Splunk\bin, and type

splunk start

Start Splunk Enterprise on Linux

After you install Splunk Enterprise, use the Splunk CLI to start it.

1. (Optional) You can simplify the CLI access by adding a SPLUNK_HOME environment variable for the top level installation directory and adding $SPLUNK_HOME/bin to your shell's path.

If you installed in the default location for Linux, your export path looks like this:

# export SPLUNK_HOME=/opt/splunk
# export PATH=$SPLUNK_HOME/bin:$PATH

For information on how to access the CLI, see "About the CLI" in the Admin Manual.

2. Type the following to start Splunk Enterprise.

$SPLUNK_HOME/bin/splunk start

Accept the Splunk Enterprise License

After you run the start command, Splunk Enterprise displays the license agreement and prompts you to accept the license before the startup sequence continues.

If you have problems starting Splunk Enterprise, see "Start Splunk Enterprise for the first time" in the Installation Manual.

Other commands you might need

If you need to stop, restart, or check the status of your Splunk Enterprise server, use these CLI commands:

$ splunk stop
$ splunk restart
$ splunk status

Start Splunk Enterprise on Mac OS X

In Mac OS X, you can start Splunk Enterprise from the Finder.

1. Double-click the Splunk icon on the Desktop to launch the Splunk helper application, called "Splunk's Little Helper".

The first time you run the helper application, it notifies you that it needs to perform an initialization.

2. Click OK for Splunk enterprise to initialize and set up the trial license.

3. After the helper application opens, it displays several options:

• Start and Show Splunk: This option starts Splunk Enterprise and directs your web browser to open a page to Splunk Web.
• Only Start Splunk: This option starts Splunk Enterprise, but does not open Splunk Web in a browser.
• Cancel: Tells the helper application to quit. This action does not affect the Splunk Enterprise instance itself, only the helper application.

After you make your choice, the helper application performs the requested application and stops. Run the helper application again to either show Splunk Web or stop Splunk Enterprise.

Use the helper application to stop Splunk Enterprise if it is running.

Launch Splunk Web

At the end of the startup sequence, a message appears about where to access Splunk Web:

The Splunk Web interface is at http://localhost:8000

Splunk Web runs by default on port 8000 of the host on which it is installed. If you use Splunk Enterprise on your local machine, the URL to access Splunk Web is http://localhost:8000.

Using a Free license

If you are using a Free license, you do not need to authenticate to use Splunk Enterprise. When you start Splunk Enterprise you do not see the login screen. Instead, you go directly to Splunk Home, or whatever app is set as the default app for your account.

Using an Enterprise license

If you use an Enterprise license, when you launch Splunk Enterprise for the first time, this login screen appears. Follow the message to authenticate with the default credentials.

username: admin
password: changeme

When you sign in with your default password, you can create a password. You can skip this step or change your password to continue.

The first page you see is Splunk Home.

Next steps

This completes Part 1 of the Search Tutorial. Continue to Part 2: Getting started with Splunk Enterprise.