Set up custom alert configuration files

Learn how to define custom alert action app settings in configuration files.

Custom alert action app configuration files

Here are all of the configuration files that you can use to manage a custom alert action app. Some files are required to make the app work and others are optional.

File	Description	Required?
alert_actions.conf	Contains settings for the custom alert action.	Yes
app.conf	Package and UI information about the app.	Yes
savedsearches.conf	Define instance settings for saved search actions.	A local copy is required on the Splunk platform instance but not in the custom alert action app directory.
restmap.conf	Define attribute/value pairs for REST endpoints and provide validation rules.	Optional
alert_actions.conf.spec	Describes attributes and possible values for configuring global saved search actions in alert_actions.conf.	Optional
savedsearches.conf.spec	Describes attributes and possible values for saved search entries in savedsearches.conf.	Optional
default.meta	Defines alert action permission and scope.	Optional

Set up required configurations

alert_actions.conf

Create a stanza in alert_actions.conf to configure the custom alert action.

Stanza naming
Follow these guidelines when naming the alert action stanza.

• The stanza name must be unique. Two apps cannot define the same alert action.
• The stanza name can contain only the following characters.
  • alphanumeric characters
  • underscores
  • hyphens
• The stanza name cannot contain spaces.

Typically, developers name stanzas using lower case letters separated by underscores as needed. Once you have a stanza name, match the name of the script or executable file for the custom alert action to the stanza name.

Alert action attributes
The following attributes can be set in the alert action stanza within alert_actions.conf.

Attribute	Type	Default	Description
is_custom	boolean	0	Indicates if the app implements a custom alert action. Custom alert action developers should set this value to 1.
label	text	N/A	Display name of the alert action in the Splunk Enterprise UI.
icon_path	relative file path to the custom alert action icon. The icon appears in the Splunk Web user interface.		To enable the custom alert action icon, indicate the relative path to the icon image file from $SPLUNK_HOME$/etc/[app]/appserver/static/. The best practice is to use a 48 x 48 px PNG file. The icon displays at 24 x 24 pixels. The custom alert action icon is not the same as the app icon that appears on Splunkbase. To use the Splunkbase app icon for the custom alert action icon in Splunk Web, specify appIcon.png as the icon_path value.
alert.execute.cmd	text		Provide the name/path of the script or binary to invoke, especially to avoid conflicts for modular inputs and custom alert actions with the same name or scheme. If specifying a binary outside of the [app]/bin search path, use a *.path file, where the content of the file is the absolute path of the binary. Environment variables are replaced when reading path files.
alert.execute.cmd.arg.<n>	text		Change the command line arguments passed to the script when it is invoked.
payload_format	(xml | json)	xml	Indicates format for payload sent to STDIN of the user-provided script.
disabled	boolean	0	Indicates whether the alert action is disabled. Set to "1" to disable the alert action.
param.[param_name]			Custom alert action parameter that is passed to the script as part of the payload. All parameters in the alert action stanza are treated as custom settings for the custom alert action. They are all passed to the alert script as part of the XML or JSON configuration payload.

These additional settings from alert_actions.conf are also honored. For more details, see alert_actions.conf.

Setting	Type	Default	Description
command	search string to invoke	sendalert $action_name$ results_file="$results.file$" results_link="$results.url$"	Partial search string executed by the scheduler when the alert is triggered. Developers can override default behavior to invoke a different custom search command or to pre-process the data before piping to sendalert. If you plan to include a subsearch in your command search string, be aware that the Splunk software must run the subsearch as a separate search before it parses the rest of the search string, which puts a load on the search scheduler. Usage of the subsearch can reduce alert action performance and might cause fewer scheduled searches to be run successfully in your environment.
maxtime	parameter for command search string	"$action.<action name>.maxtime{default=5m}$"	Sets the timeout for the command. Applies only to the sendalert command and custom search commands that use the deprecated Version 1 Custom Search Command protocol. Commands that use the Version 2 Custom Search Command protocol set their timeouts with the maxwait setting in commands.conf. Usage of either maxtime or maxwait are required, as they keep actions from backing up the alert queue and shutting down the search scheduler.
maxinputs	parameter for command search string	"action.<action name>.maxresults{default=50000}"	Along with max_action_results in limits.conf, maxinputs sets the maximum number of inputs that can be passed to the command when it is invoked. Applies only to streaming custom search commands that use the deprecated Version 1 Custom Search Command protocol. Use max_action_results for commands that use the Version 2 Custom Search Command protocol.
ttl	integer	10p	Provides the minimum time to live, in seconds, of the search artifacts produced by this action in the dispatch directory. If the integer is followed by the letter 'p', this measures the minimum time to live in terms of scheduled periods rather than seconds.
hostname	text		Custom hostname.
forceCsvResults	true | false	auto	When set to auto, automatically detects if the sendalert command is in the search that the alert is based on or the sendalert command is used in the alert actions. If the sendalert command is detected (or if set to 'true'), the search results are stored in the CSV format in the results.csv.gz file in the dispatch directory. Otherwise the search results are stored in the default SRS format, which is a serialized Splunk-specific search results format.

Example
The following example shows a stanza in the alert_actions.conf for a custom alert action.

$SPLUNK_HOME$/etc/apps/[name]/default/alert_actions.conf

[logger]
is_custom = 1
label = My Alert Action 
icon_path = myicon.png 
payload_format = json
disabled = 0
# Custom params
param.foo = bar
param.param1 = I can use a token: $result.host$

savedsearches.conf

A local copy of savedsearches.conf captures alert action user configurations for a particular Splunk instance.

For each Splunk platform instance, savedsearches.conf user settings override any global alert_actions.conf alert action settings.

Example
In this example, the alert_actions.conf file for a custom alert action defines a global parameter and setting for the alert action.

alert_actions.conf

[my_custom_alert]
param.email_option = 0

In a Splunk platform instance, the following setting for the same parameter in the local savedsearches.conf file overrides the global setting from the app.

savedsearches.conf

action.my_custom_alert.param.email_option= 1

How configurations propagate to the alert action

When the custom alert action script runs, it reads in payload information about the system and the alert. The payload includes alert action configurations merged from alert_actions.conf and savedsearches.conf.

The following example payload includes a <configuration> element with parameters and settings from the two files.

<alert>
    <server_host>localhost:8089</server_host>
    <server_uri>https://localhost:8089</server_uri>
    <session_key>1234512345</session_key>
    <results_file>
      /opt/splunk/var/run/splunk/12938718293123.121/results.csv.gz
    </results_file>
    <results_link>
       http://splunk.server.local:8000/en-US/app/search?sid=12341234.123
    </results_link>
    <sid>12341234.123</sid>
    <search_name>My Saved Search</search_name>
    <owner>admin</owner>
    <app>search</app>
    <configuration>
        <stanza name="[my_custom_alert]">
            <param name="[param_name_1]">[some value]</param>
            <param name="[param_name_2]">[other value]</param>
        </stanza>
    </configuration>
</alert>

• Note: For searches generated using the advanced search option, results_file and results_link parameters are not included in the payload passed to the custom alert action script.

Optional configurations

For information on optional configuration files, see Optional custom alert action components.