Splunk® Enterprise

Dashboards and Visualizations

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Splunk Enterprise version 8.2 is no longer supported as of September 30, 2023. See the Splunk Software Support Policy for details. For information about upgrading to a supported version, see How to upgrade Splunk Enterprise.
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Configure dashboard permissions

Learn how to manage dashboard and panel search permissions.

Managing dashboard permissions

A dashboard is a knowledge object. The roles that you hold as a Splunk platform user govern your ability to configure dashboard permissions for yourself and others.

The following table shows the permissions management functions that the default roles in a new Splunk Platform implementation grant.

Default Splunk Role Permission Management Abilities
User Create new dashboards that are private to you.
Power, Admin Create new dashboards that are private to you.

Share private dashboards with users of an app, or users of all apps.
Set read and write access to a dashboard, by role.

Your implementation might have a different set of roles for its users. Or it could have the default roles but the permission management abilities might be moved around between them. If you want more information about the permission management capabilities of your role, talk to your Splunk administrator. For more information about role-based knowledge object permissions management, see Manage knowledge object permissions in the Knowledge Manager Manual.

Managing panel search permissions

The search that drives a dashboard panel is a separate knowledge object from the dashboard. The search has its own configurable permissions. Inline, or ad hoc searches, rather than saved searches, are not knowledge objects, so you don't need permission to view visualizations that ad hoc searches drive. To limit access to ad hoc searches, as an admin, you must restrict access to one of the knowledge objects that the ad hoc search depends on, such as an index or a source.

Panel search permissions

A saved panel search can run using the permissions of the person who created the saved search (the search owner) or the person who views the dashboard (the search user). The search user context can affect results and what different users see in a dashboard panel. For example, if you have permissions to an index that others do not, you might want to run the saved search as the owner so that any other user will see the same results.

Depending on the results data access that you want to provide, you can adjust the permissions context for the search in the Reports listing page. Locate the search on this page and select Edit > Edit Permissions to change whether the search runs with the owner or user context. For more details about the permissions for saved searches and reports, see Set report permissions.

Also, consider the enabled permissions for other knowledge objects in a dashboard, such as Field Extractions and Event Types. For additional information on setting up permissions for other knowledge objects see Manage knowledge object permissions in the Knowledge Manager manual.

Specify permissions for a new dashboard

When you create a new dashboard from the Search or Dashboard pages, you can configure permissions. Choose one of the following options.

Option Description
Private Only you have permission to view and edit the dashboard. The dashboard is not visible to other users.
Shared in app The dashboard is available to other users in the app context where it was created. For example, if you create the dashboard in the Search and Reporting app, the dashboard is visible to other users in this context. Depending on their permissions, other users can edit the dashboard.


Update dashboard permissions

After creating a dashboard you can change the permissions:

  1. Navigate to the Dashboards page in Search and Reporting.
  2. Locate the dashboard whose permissions you are updating.
  3. Under Actions, select Edit > Edit Permissions
  4. Depending on your role and capabilities, specify the following details.
    • Choose Owner to make the dashboard private.
    • Select App to share the dashboard in the current app context or share the dashboard in All apps on the Splunk platform instance.
    • Grant read and write permissions
    • Configure read (viewing) and writing (editing) privileges for other system users and/or roles.
Last modified on 11 August, 2022
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This documentation applies to the following versions of Splunk® Enterprise: 7.0.0, 7.0.2, 7.0.3, 7.0.4, 7.0.5, 7.0.6, 7.0.7, 7.0.8, 7.0.9, 7.0.10, 7.0.11, 7.0.13, 7.1.0, 7.1.1, 7.1.2, 7.1.3, 7.1.4, 7.1.5, 7.1.6, 7.1.7, 7.1.8, 7.1.9, 7.1.10, 7.2.0, 7.2.2, 7.2.3, 7.2.4, 7.2.5, 7.2.6, 7.2.7, 7.2.8, 7.2.9, 7.2.10, 7.3.0, 7.3.1, 7.3.2, 7.3.3, 7.3.4, 7.3.5, 7.3.6, 7.3.7, 7.3.8, 7.3.9, 8.0.0, 8.0.1, 8.0.2, 8.0.3, 8.0.5, 8.0.10, 7.2.1, 7.0.1, 8.0.4, 8.0.9, 8.1.0, 8.1.1, 8.1.2, 8.1.3, 8.1.4, 8.1.5, 8.1.6, 8.1.7, 8.1.8, 8.1.9, 8.1.10, 8.1.11, 8.1.12, 8.1.13, 8.1.14, 8.2.0, 8.2.1, 8.2.2, 8.2.3, 8.2.4, 8.2.5, 8.2.6, 8.2.7, 8.2.8, 8.2.9, 8.2.10, 8.2.11, 8.2.12, 9.0.0, 9.0.1, 9.0.2, 9.0.3, 9.0.4, 9.0.5, 9.0.6, 9.0.7, 9.0.8, 9.1.0, 9.1.1, 9.1.2, 9.1.3, 9.2.0, 8.0.6, 8.0.7, 8.0.8


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