Configure inputs for the Splunk Add-on for AWS

Configure SQS-based S3 inputs to collect the following events:

• CloudFront Access Logs
• Config
• ELB Access logs
• CloudTrail
• S3 Access Logs
• Custom data types

Before you configure SQS-based S3 inputs, perform the following tasks:

• Configure S3 to send notifications to SQS through Simple Notification Service (SNS). This lets S3 notify the add-on that new events were written to the S3 bucket.
• Subscribe to the corresponding SNS Topic.

Keep the following in mind as you configure your inputs:

• The SQS-based S3 input only collects in AWS service logs that meet the following criteria:
  • Near-real time
  • Newly created
  • Stored into S3 buckets
  • Has event notifications sent to SQS

Events that occurred in the past, or events with no notifications sent through SNS to SQS end up in the Dead Letter Queue (DLQ), and no corresponding event is created by the Splunk Add-on for AWS. To collect historical logs stored into S3 buckets, use the generic S3 input instead. The S3 input lets you set the initial scan time parameter to collect data generated after a specified time in the past.

• To collect the same types of logs from multiple S3 buckets, even across regions, set up one input to collect data from all the buckets. To do this, configure these buckets to send notifications to the same SQS queue from which the SQS-based S3 input polls message.
• To achieve high throughput data ingestion from an S3 bucket, configure multiple SQS-based S3 inputs for the S3 bucket to scale out data collection.
• After configuring an SQS-based S3 input, you might need to wait for a few minutes before new events are ingested and can be searched. Also, a more verbose logging level causes longer data digestion time. Debug mode is extremely verbose and is not recommended on production systems.
• The SQS-based input allows you to ingest data from S3 buckets by optimizing the API calls made by the add-on and relying on SQS/SNS to collect events upon receipt of notification.
• The SQS-based S3 input is stateless, which means that when multiple inputs are collecting data from the same bucket, if one input goes down, the other inputs continue to collect data and take over the load from the failed input. This lets you enhance fault tolerance by configuring multiple inputs to collect data from the same bucket.

Configure an SQS-based S3 input using Splunk Web

To configure inputs in Splunk Web, click Splunk Add-on for AWS in the navigation bar on Splunk Web home, then choose one of the following menu paths depending on which data type you want to collect:

• Create New Input > CloudTrail > SQS-based S3
• Create New Input > CloudFront Access Log > SQS-based S3
• Create New Input > Config > SQS-based S3
• Create New Input > ELB Access Logs > SQS-based S3
• Create New Input > S3 Access Logs > SQS-based S3
• Create New Input > Others > SQS-based S3

You must have the admin_all_objects role enabled in order to add new inputs.

Choose the menu path that corresponds to the data type you want to collect. The system automatically sets the source type and display relevant field settings in the subsequent configuration page.

Use the following table to complete the fields for the new input in the .conf file or in Splunk Web:

Argument in configuration file	Field in Splunk Web	Description
aws_account	AWS Account	The AWS account or EC2 IAM role the Splunk platform uses to access the keys in your S3 buckets. In Splunk Web, select an account from the drop-down list. In inputs.conf, enter the friendly name of one of the AWS accounts that you configured on the Configuration page or the name of the automatically discovered EC2 IAM role. If the region of the AWS account you select is GovCloud, you may encounter errors such as"Failed to load options for S3 Bucket". You need to manually add AWS GovCloud Endpoint in the S3 Host Name field. See http://docs.aws.amazon.com/govcloud-us/latest/UserGuide/using-govcloud-endpoints.html for more information.
aws_iam_role	Assume Role	The IAM role to assume, see Manage accounts for the Splunk Add-on for AWS.
sqs_queue_region	AWS Region	AWS region that the SQS queue is in.
sqs_queue_url	SQS Queue	The SQL queue URL.
sqs_batch_size	SQS Batch Size	The maximum number of messages to pull from the SQS queue in one batch. Enter an integer between 1 and 10 inclusive. Set a larger value for small files, and a smaller value for large files. The default SQS batch size is 10. If you are dealing with large files and your system memory is limited, set this to a smaller value.
s3_file_decoder	S3 File Decoder	The decoder to use to parse the corresponding log files. The decoder is set according to the Data Type you select. If you select a Custom Data Type, choose one from Cloudtrail, Config, ELB Access Logs, S3 Access Logs, or CloudFront Access Logs.
sourcetype	Source Type	The source type for the events to collect, automatically filled in based on the decoder chosen for the input.
interval	Interval	The length of time in seconds between two data collection runs. The default is 300 seconds.
index	Index	The index name where the Splunk platform puts the SQS-based S3 data. The default is main.