Generate a diag

To help diagnose a problem, Splunk Support might request a diagnostic file from you. Diag files give Support insight into how an instance is configured and how it has been operating up to the point that the diag command was issued.

About diag

The diag command collects basic information about your Splunk platform instance, including Splunk's configuration details. It gathers information from the machine such as server specs, OS version, file system, and current open connections. From the Splunk platform instance it collects the contents of $SPLUNK_HOME such as app configurations, internal Splunk log files, and index metadata.

Diag does not collect any of your indexed data and we strongly encourage you to examine the tarball to ensure that no proprietary data is included. In some environments, custom app objects, like lookup tables, could potentially contain sensitive data. Exclude a file or directory from the diag collection by using the --exclude flag. Read on for more details.

Note: Before you send any files or information to Splunk Support, verify that you are comfortable sending it to us. We try to ensure that no sensitive information is included in any output from the commands below and in "Anonymize data samples to send to Support" in this manual, but we cannot guarantee compliance with your particular security policy.

Run diag with default settings

Be sure to run diag as a user with appropriate access to read Splunk files.

On *nix: $SPLUNK_HOME/bin

./splunk diag

On Windows: %SPLUNK_HOME%\bin

splunk diag

If you have difficulty running diag in your environment, you can also run the python script directly from the bin directory using cmd.

On *nix:

./splunk cmd python $SPLUNK_HOME/lib/python2.7/site-packages/splunk/clilib/info_gather.py

On Windows:

splunk cmd python %SPLUNK_HOME%\Python-2.7\Lib\site-packages\splunk\clilib\info_gather.py

Note: The python version number may differ in future versions of Splunk Enterprise, affecting this path.

This produces diag-<server name>-<date>.tar.gz in your Splunk home directory, which you can upload to your Splunk Support case via the website or built-in upload functionality. If you're having trouble with forwarding, Support will probably need a diag for both your forwarder and your receiver. Label each diag so it's clear which is from the forwarder and which is from the receiver.

Designate content for diag to include or exclude

Diag can be told to leave some files out of the diag. One way to do this is with path exclusions. At the command line you can use the --exclude flag. For example:

splunk diag --exclude "*/passwd"

This is repeatable:

splunk diag --exclude "*/passwd" --exclude "*/dispatch/*"

Note: File names excluded by the --exclude feature are listed in excluded_filelist.txt in the diag bundle to ensure Splunk Support can interpret the diag.

Components

A more robust way to exclude content is with components. The following options select which categories of information should be collected.

  --collect=<list>      Declare a set of components to gather, as a
                      comma-separated list, overriding any prior choices
  --enable=<component_name>
                      Add a component to the work list
  --disable=<component_name>
                      Remove a component from the work list

The available components are as follows.

Component	Description	Options
conf_replication_summary	A directory listing of replication summaries produced by search head clustering
consensus	Copies of the consensus protocol files used for search head cluster member coordination from var/run/splunk/_raft
dispatch	The search dispatch directories. See Dispatch directory and search artifacts in the Search Manual.
etc	The entire contents of the $SPLUNK_HOME/etc directory, which contains configuration information, including .conf files.	By default, diag excludes lookup files in etc/apps and etc/users starting in Splunk Enterprise version 6.5.0. To include lookups, use the option --include-lookups. By default, diag excludes files in $SPLUNK_HOME/etc larger than 10 MB. To modify this limit, use --etc-filesize-limit=<level>, where level is the file size in kilobytes and 0 disables this filter.
file_validate	The results of the latest file integrity check. See Check the integrity of your Splunk software files in the Admin Manual.
index_files	Files from the index that describe their contents. (Hosts.data, Sources.data, Sourcetypes.data, and bucketManifests). User data is not collected. If diag collects index files on larger deployments, it might take a while to run. Read about index files in the Splexicon.	--index-files=level Index data file gathering level: manifests, or full, meaning manifests + metadata files. Default: manifests.
index_listing	Directory listings of the index contents are gathered, in order to see file names, directory names, sizes, timestamps, and the like. This information is recorded in systeminfo.txt.	--index-listing=level Index directory listing level: light (hot buckets only), or full, meaning all index buckets. Default: light.
kvstore	Directory listing of the Splunk key value store files.
log	The contents of $SPLUNK_HOME/var/log/... See What Splunk Enterprise logs about itself.	Set the log age to gather using --log-age=<days>. Log files over this many days old are not included, 0 disables this filter. Default: 60. By default diag gathers at most three Windows crash .dmp files. To gather every .dmp file, use --all-dumps=<bool>. Fully gather files in $SPLUNK_HOME/var/log smaller than the size specified by --log-filesize-limit=size. For log files larger than this size, gather only this many bytes from the end of the file (capture truncated trailing bytes). [default: 1GB] To redact search terms from audit.log and remote_searches.log, use --filter-searchstrings. To not modify these log files, use --no-filter-searchstrings.
pool	If search head pooling is enabled, the contents of the pool dir.	By default diag excludes lookup files in pool starting in Splunk Enterprise version 6.5.0. To include lookups, use the option --include-lookups.
rest	splunkd httpd REST endpoint gathering. Collects output of various splunkd urls into xml files to capture system state. Off by default.
searchpeers	Directory listing of the "searchpeers" location, actually the data provided by search*heads* on indexers/search nodes.
app:<app_name>	If you have an app installed that extends diag, adding apps-specific troubleshooting data, it will offer a component similar to this. For information on what type of data the app provides, see the app documentation, review the content stored in the produced tar file, or contact the app developers.	An app might offer additional app-specific flags, in the form --app_name:setting

For example, the most commonly requested files collected are log files and configuration files only for initial analysis. To collect only those two components, use:

$SPLUNK_HOME/bin/splunk diag --collect=log,etc

Defaults can also be controlled in server.conf. Refer to server.conf.spec in the Admin Manual for more information. Apps do not currently offer defaulting of their settings in server.conf

Search string redaction

Diag by default removes some types of sensitive information from search strings in diag files. Read about configuring search string redaction in server.conf.spec.

These options cause diag to redact or hide data from the output diag.

   --filter-searchstrings
                       Attempt to redact search terms from audit.log &
                       remote_searches.log that may be private or personally
                       identifying
   --no-filter-searchstrings
                       Do not modify audit.log & remote_searches.log

Run diag on a remote instance

If you are not able to SSH into every machine in your deployment, you can still gather diags from full Splunk platform installations, but not from universal forwarders.

First, make sure you have the get_diag capability. The admin role has this capability by default. You also need login credentials for the remote server.

The syntax is:

splunk diag -uri https://<host>:<mgmtPort>

The options recognized for remote diag collection from the command line are --basename, --all-dumps, and exclude.

Upload a file to Splunk Support

If you have a support case already open, you can attach a diag at the conclusion of generating the output. Alternatively, you can upload a file that already exists, such as a previously generated diag or other debugging data.

To generate and upload a diag, the syntax is the following:

splunk diag --upload

To upload a file you already have, the syntax is the following:

splunk diag --upload-file=a-filename.zip

This command interactively prompts for values such as a splunk.com user name and password, choice of open cases for that user, and a description of the upload.

Optionally, you can perform the upload work non-interactively, by providing the required values as flags:

  Upload:
    Flags to control uploading files  Ex: splunk diag --upload
[...]
    --case-number=case-number
                        Case number to attach to, e.g. 200500
    --upload-user=UPLOAD_USER
                        splunk.com username to use for uploading
    --upload-password=UPLOAD_PASSWORD
                        splunk.com password to use for uploading
    --upload-description=UPLOAD_DESCRIPTION
                        description of file upload for Splunk support
    --firstchunk=chunk-number
                        For resuming upload of a multi-part upload; select the
                        first chunk to send

User names on splunk.com do not include @domain.com. The --firstchunk flag matters only if uploading a huge file fails after partial success. In this case, the diag output explicitly tells you the command to use to retry.

For example:

splunk diag --upload --case-number=757096 --upload-user=jawlige --upload-password=<passwd> --upload-description="Monday diag, as requested."

Examples

Exclude a lookup table

These two examples exclude content on the file level. A lookup table can be one of several formats, like .csv, .dat, or text.

Exclude all .csv files, or all .dat files, in $SPLUNK_HOME:

splunk diag --exclude "*.csv" or

splunk diag --exclude "*.dat"

Note: These examples exclude all files of that type, not only lookup tables. If you have .csv or .dat files that will be helpful for Support in troubleshooting your issue, exclude only your lookup tables. That is, write out the files instead of using an asterisk.

Exclude the dispatch directory

This example excludes content on the component level. Exclude the dispatch directory to avoid gathering search artifacts (which can be very costly on a pooled search head):

$SPLUNK_HOME/bin/splunk diag --disable=dispatch

Exclude multiple directories

To exclude multiple components, use the --disable flag once for each component.

Exclude the dispatch directory and all files in the shared search head pool:

$SPLUNK_HOME/bin/splunk diag --disable=dispatch --disable=pool

Note: This does not gather a full set of the configuration files in use by that instance. Such a diag is useful only for the logs gathered from $SPLUNK_HOME/var/log/splunk. See What Splunk Enterprise logs about itself in this manual.

Gather only logs

To include only the Splunk Enterprise internal log files:

$SPLUNK_HOME/bin/splunk diag --collect=log

Generate a diag, then upload it

$SPLUNK_HOME/bin/splunk diag --upload

Fetch a diag from a remote instance, then upload it

$SPLUNK_HOME/bin/splunk diag --uri https://splunkserver.example.com:8089
$SPLUNK_HOME/bin/splunk diag --upload-file=<diag_from_prior_command>

Save the settings for diag in server.conf

You can update the default settings for diag in the [diag] stanza of server.conf.

[diag]

EXCLUDE-<class> = <glob expression>
* Specifies a glob / shell pattern to be excluded from diags generated on this instance. 
* Example: */etc/secret_app/local/*.conf

Flags that you append to splunk diag override server.conf settings.

Diag contents

Primarily, a diag contains server logs, from $SPLUNK_HOME/var/log/splunk and $SPLUNK_HOME/var/log/introspection, and the configuration files, from $SPLUNK_HOME/etc.

Specifically, by pathname, there is:

_raft/...

Files containing the state of the consensus protocol produced by search head clustering from var/run/splunk/_raft

composite.xml

The generated file that splunkd uses at runtime to control its component system (pipelines & processors), from var/run/splunk/composite.xml

diag.log

A copy of all the messages diag produces to the screen when running, including progress indicators, timing, messages about files excluded by heuristic rules (eg if size heuristic, the setting and the size of the file), errors, exceptions, etc.

dispatch/...

A copy of some of the data from the search dispatch directory. Results files (the output of searches) are not included, nor other similar files (events/*)

etc/...

A copy of the contents of the configuration files. All files and directories under $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/auth are excluded by default.

excluded_filelist.txt

A list of files which diag would have included, but did not because of some restriction (exclude rule, size restriction). This is primarily to confirm the behavior of exclusion rules for customers, and to enable Splunk technical support to understand why they can't see data they are looking for.

introspection/...

The log files from $SPLUNK_HOME/var/log/introspection

log/...

The log files from $SPLUNK_HOME/var/log/splunk

rest-collection/...

Output of several splunkd http endpoints that contain information not available in logs. File input/monitor/tailing status information, server-level admin banners, clustering status info if on a cluster.

scripts/...

A single utility script may exist here for support reasons. It is identical for every diag.

systeminfo.txt

Generated output of various system commands to determine things like available memory, open splunk sockets, size of disk/filesystems, operating system version, ulimits.

Also contained in systeminfo.txt are listings of filenames/sizes etc from a few locations.

• Some of the splunk index directories (or all of the index directories, if full listing is requested.)
• The searchpeers directory (replicated files from search heads)
• Search Head Clustering -- The summary files used in synchronization from var/run/splunk/snasphot

Typically var/...

The paths to the indexes are a little 'clever', attempting to resemble the paths actually in use (For example, on windows if an index is in e:\someother\largedrive, that index's files will be in e/someother/largdrive inside the diag). By default only the .bucketManifest for each index is collected.

app_ext/<app_name>/...

If you have an app installed which extends diag, the content it adds to the produced tar.gz file will be stored here.

Behavior on failure

If for some reason diag fails, it does the following:

1. Cleans up temporary files it created while running.
2. Leaves a copy of the output in a temporary filename it references.

For example:

rjodman@mcp:~$ splunk/bin/splunk diag
[... lots of normal output...]
Selected diag name of: diag-mcp-2014-09-24
Starting splunk diag...
[etc .... etc]
Getting index listings...
Copying Splunk configuration files...
Exception occurred while generating diag, we are deeply sorry.
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/opt/splunk/lib/python2.7/site-packages/splunk/clilib/info_gather.py", line 1959, in main
    create_diag(options, log_buffer)
  File "/opt/splunk/lib/python2.7/site-packages/splunk/clilib/info_gather.py", line 1862, in create_diag
    copy_etc(options)
  File "/opt/splunk/lib/python2.7/site-packages/splunk/clilib/info_gather.py", line 1626, in copy_etc
    raise Exception("OMG!")
Exception: OMG!

Diag failure, writing out logged messages to '/tmp/diag-fail-F2B94h.txt', please send output + this file to either an existing or new case ; http://www.splunk.com/support
We will now try to clean out the temp directory...

For most real errors, diag tries to guess at the original problem, but it also writes out a file for use in bugfixing diag. Send this file to Support, and at least a workaround can often be provided quickly.

Additional resources

Watch a video on making a diag and using the anonymize command by a Splunk Support engineer:

Have questions? Visit Splunk Answers and see what questions and answers the Splunk community has about diags.