iplocation

Description

Extracts location information from IP addresses by using 3rd-party databases. This command supports IPv4 and IPv6.

The IP address that you specify in the ip-address-fieldname argument, is looked up in the database. Fields from that database that contain location information are added to each event. The setting used for the allfields argument determines which fields are added to the events.

Because all the information might not be available for each IP address, an event can have empty field values.

For IP addresses which do not have a location, such as internal addresses, no fields are added.

Syntax

iplocation [prefix=<string>] [allfields=<bool>] [lang=<string>] <ip-address-fieldname>

Required arguments

ip-address-fieldname

Syntax: <field>

Description: Specify an IP address field, such as clientip.

Optional arguments

allfields

Syntax: allfields=<bool>

Description: Specifies whether to add all of the fields from the database to the events. If set to true, adds the fields City, Continent, Country, lat (latitude), lon (longitude), MetroCode, Region, and Timezone.

Default: false. Only the City, Country, lat, lon, and Region fields are added to the events.

lang

Syntax: lang=<string>

Description: Render the resulting strings in different languages. For example, use "lang=es" for Spanish. The set of languages depends on the geoip database that is used. To specify more than one language, separate them with a comma. This also indicates the priority in descending order. Specify "lang=code" to return the fields as two letter ISO abbreviations.

prefix

Syntax: prefix=<string>

Description: Specify a string to prefix the field name. With this argument you can add a prefix to the added field names to avoid name collisions with existing fields. For example, if you specify prefix=iploc_ the field names that are added to the events become iploc_City, iploc_County, iploc_lat, and so forth.

Default: NULL/empty string

Usage

The iplocation command is a distributable streaming command. See Command types.

The Splunk software ships with a copy of the GeoLite2-City.mmdb database file. This file is located in the $SPLUNK_HOME/share/ directory.

Updating the MMDB file

You can replace the version of the .mmdb file that ships with the Splunk software with a copy of the paid version of the file or with a monthly update of the free version of the file.

1. From http://dev.maxmind.com/geoip/geoip2/geolite2/, download the binary gzipped version of the GeoLite2 City database file.
2. Copy the file to the search head on your Splunk Enterprise instance.
3. Expand the GZ file.
4. Stop any real-time searches that are running.
5. Copy the GeoLite2-City.mmdb file to the $SPLUNK_HOME/share/ directory to overwrite the file there.
6. Restart the real-time searches.

Impact of upgrading Splunk software

When you upgrade your Splunk platform, the GeoLite2-City.mmdb file in the share directory is replaced by the version of the file that ships with the Splunk software. One option is to store the MMDB file in a different path.

Storing the MMDB file in a different path

If you prefer to update the GeoLite2-City.mmdb file yourself, for example if you use a paid version of the file, you can store the MMDB file in a different path. The path that is used by the Splunk software to access the file must be updated.

Prerequisites

• Only users with file system access, such as system administrators, can specify a different path to the MMDB file in the limits.conf file.
• Review the steps in How to edit a configuration file in the Admin Manual.
• You can have configuration files with the same name in your default, local, and app directories. Read Where you can place (or find) your modified configuration files in the Admin Manual.

Never change or copy the configuration files in the default directory. The files in the default directory must remain intact and in their original location. Make the changes in the local directory.

If you use Splunk Cloud Platform, updates to the MMDB file are provided ONLY with Splunk version upgrades. If you wish to discuss or request this, file a Support ticket.

Steps

1. Open the local limits.conf file for the Search app. For example, $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/system/local.
2. Add the [iplocation] stanza.
3. Add the db_path setting and specify the absolute path to the GeoLite2-City.mmdb file. The db_path setting does not support standard Splunk environment variables such as $SPLUNK_HOME.
   For example: db_path = /Applications/Splunk/mmdb/GeoLite2-City.mmdb specifies a new directory called mmdb.
4. Ensure a copy of the MMDB file is stored in the ../Applications/Splunk/mmdb/ directory.
5. Because you are editing the path to the MMDB file, you should restart the Splunk server.

Storing the MMDB file with a different name

Alternatively, you can add the updated MMDB to the share directory using a different name and then specify that name in the db_path setting. For example: db_path = /Applications/Splunk/share/GeoLite2-City_paid.mmdb.

The MMDB file and distributed deployments

The iplocation command is a distributable streaming command, which means that it can be processed on the indexers. The share directory is not part of the knowledge bundle. If you update the MMDB file in the share directory, the updated file is not automatically sent to the indexers in a distributed deployment. To add the MMDB file to the indexers, use the tools that you typically use to push files to the indexers.

Examples

1. Add location information to web access events

This example uses the sample data from the Search Tutorial but should work with any format of Apache web access log. To try this example on your own Splunk instance, you must download the sample data and follow the instructions to get the tutorial data into Splunk. Use the time range All time when you run the search.

Add location information to web access events. By default, the iplocation command adds the City, Country, lat, lon, and Region fields to the results.

sourcetype=access_* | iplocation clientip

2. Search for client errors and return the first 20 results

This example uses the sample data from the Search Tutorial but should work with any format of Apache web access log. To try this example on your own Splunk instance, you must download the sample data and follow the instructions to get the tutorial data into Splunk. Use the time range All time when you run the search.

Search for client errors in web access events, returning only the first 20 results. Add location information and return a table with the IP address, City, and Country for each client error.

sourcetype=access_* status>=400 | head 20 | iplocation clientip | table clientip, status, City, Country

The results appear on the Statistics tab and look something like this:

clientip	status	City	Country
182.236.164.11	408	Zhengzhou	China
198.35.1.75	500	Princeton	United States
198.35.1.75	404	Princeton	United States
198.35.1.75	406	Princeton	United States
198.35.1.75	500	Princeton	United States
221.204.246.72	503	Taiyuan	China
1.192.86.205	503	Amesbury	United States
91.205.189.15	406
216.221.226.11	505	Redwood City	United States
216.221.226.11	404	Redwood City	United States
195.2.240.99	400		Russia

3. Add a prefix to the fields added by the iplocation command

Prefix the fields added by the iplocation command with iploc_. Add all of the fields in the GeoLite2-City.mmdb database file to the results.

sourcetype = access_* | iplocation prefix=iploc_ allfields=true clientip | fields iploc_*

4. Generate a choropleth map using IP addresses

Generate a choropleth map of your data like the one below using the iplocation command. See Use IP addresses to generate a choropleth map in Dashboards and Visualizations.