Manage app deployment across all peers

Before reading this topic, see Manage common configurations across all peers. App deployment is just a special case of the configuration file deployment described in that topic.

You must use the manager node to deploy apps to the peer nodes. Do not use deployment server or any third party deployment tool, such as Puppet or CFEngine.

Distribute an app to the peer nodes

To distribute an app across the peer nodes:

1. Inspect the app for indexes.conf files. For each index defined in an app-specific indexes.conf file, set repFactor=auto, so that the index gets replicated across all peers. See The indexes.conf repFactor attribute.
2. Place the app in the $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/master-apps directory on the manager node. The set of subdirectories in this location constitute the configuration bundle.
3. Use Splunk Web or the CLI to distribute the configuration bundle to the peer nodes.

For detailed information on each of these steps, see Update common peer configurations and apps.

Once an app has been distributed to the set of peers, you launch it on each peer in the usual manner, with Splunk Web. See the chapter Meet Splunk apps in the Admin Manual.

When it comes time to access an app, you do so from the search head, not from an individual peer. Therefore, you must also install the app on the search head. On the search head, put the app in the conventional location for apps, that is, under the $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/apps directory. Install the app in the usual fashion, according to the app-specific instructions.

Delete an app from the peer nodes

To delete an app that you previously distributed to the peers, remove its directory from the configuration bundle. When you next push the bundle, the app will be deleted from each peer.