Configure the splunkd health report

The splunkd health report displays the status of a pre-defined set of Splunk Enterprise features. You can modify some health report settings, including feature thresholds, using the health report manager page in Splunk Web, or by editing health.conf.

For more information on health report configuration settings in health.conf, see health.conf.spec in the Admin Manual.

Supported features

The splunkd health report lets you monitor these Splunk Enterprise features:

Feature Category	Features
Data Forwarding / Splunk-2-Splunk Forwarding	TCPOutAutoLB
File Monitor Input	BatchReader, TailReader, Ingestion Latency, Forwarder Ingestion Latency
Index Processor	Buckets, Disk Space, Index Optimization
Indexer Clustering	Cluster Bundles, Data Durability, Data Searchable, Indexers, Indexing Ready, Master Connectivity, Replication Failures, Slave State, Slave Version, Search Head Connectivity
Resource Usage	IOWait
Search Head Clustering	Member to Captain Connection, Captain Common Baseline, Captain Election Overview, Members Overview, Snapshot Creation
Search Scheduler	Searches Skipped, Searches Delayed, Search Lag
Workload Management	Configuration Check, System Check

The IOWait feature is enabled in only these cases:

• The platform is Linux
• IOWait introspection is enabled in the default server.conf

For detailed information on splunkd health report features, see $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/system/default/health.conf.

Set feature indicator thresholds

Each feature in the health status tree has one or more indicators. Each indicator reports a value against a pre-set threshold, which determines the status of the feature. When the indicator value meets the threshold condition, the health status of the feature changes, for example, from green to yellow, or yellow to red.

There are two valid thresholds for each indicator: yellow and red. You can modify threshold values for any feature indicator using Splunk Web or the health.conf file. Changing threshold values for any feature applies to all associated search heads or search head captains.

If distributed health reporting is enabled on your deployment, changing a feature threshold on that instance will not be reflected in the health report presented by that single instance. To disable distributed health reporting, see Disable the distributed health report.

Set thresholds using Splunk Web

To set feature threshold values in Splunk Web:

1. Log in to Splunk Web on the instance you are monitoring.
2. Click Settings > Health report manager.
3. Find the feature you want to modify and click Edit Thresholds.
   The Edit Threshold modal opens showing a detailed description of each feature indicator.
4. Set new indicator threshold values. For example, to modify thresholds for the Search Scheduler: Searches Skipped feature, you can set new Red or Yellow threshold values for the percent_searches_skipped_high_priority_last_24h and percent_searches_skipped_non_high_priority_last_24h indicators:
   
   
   
   
5. Click Save.

To view and edit threshold settings on the health report manager page, your role must be assigned list_health and edit_health capabilities. For more information, see Set access controls for the splunkd health report.

Set thresholds using health.conf

To set feature threshold values in health.conf:

1. Log in to the instance you are monitoring.
2. Edit $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/system/local/health.conf
3. In the feature stanza, set new indicator threshold values. For example, to modify indicator threshold values for the batchreader feature, set new values for data_out_rate:yellow and data_out_rate:red thresholds in the following stanza:

   [feature:batchreader]
   indicator:data_out_rate:red = 10
   indicator:data_out_rate:yellow = 5
   

   Indicator thresholds are pre-set to values that apply to most use cases. When you modify threshold values, make changes in small increments. Setting threshold values too high can mask serious problems or failures.

For detailed descriptions of each feature indicator, see $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/system/default/health.conf.

Disable a feature

You can disable any feature in health.conf. Disabling a feature removes that feature from the splunkd health status tree. This is useful, for example, if you want to exclude a feature's status from the health report, while you troubleshoot a problem with that feature. All supported features are enabled by default in health.conf.

If distributed health reporting is enabled on your deployment, disabling a feature locally on that instance will not be reflected in the health report presented by that single instance. To disable distributed health reporting, see Disable the distributed health report.

There are three ways to disable a feature:

• Disable the feature in Splunk Web.
• Edit the feature stanza in health.conf.
• Use the /server/health-config endpoint.

Disable a feature in Splunk Web

1. Log in to Splunk Web on the instance you are monitoring.
2. Click Settings > Health report manager.
3. In the row of the feature to disable, click Edit.
4. Set the switch to disable for the particular feature.
   The feature is disabled and no longer impacts the overall health status of splunkd.

To temporarily disable alerts for a feature, click Snooze and specify a time duration. At the end of the specified duration alerts for the feature are re-enabled.

Disable a feature in health.conf

1. Log in to the instance you are monitoring.
2. Edit $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/system/local/health.conf.
3. In the feature stanza, add disabled = 1. For example, to disable the Data Durability feature:

   [feature:data_durability]
   indicator:cluster_replication_factor:red = 1
   indicator:cluster_search_factor:red = 1
   disabled = 1
   

   To enable a feature, set disabled = 0

4. Reload health.conf:

   curl -k -u admin:pass https://<host>:<mPort>/services/configs/conf-health.conf/_reload
   

Disable a feature using REST endpoint

1. Log in to the instance your are monitoring.
2. Run the following command against the server/health-config/{feature_name} endpoint. For example, to disable the batchreader feature:

   curl -k -u admin:pass \ 
   https://<host>:<mPort>/services/server/health-config/feature:batchreader -d disabled=1
   

3. Validate the feature no longer appears in the splunkd status report in Splunk Web.
   For endpoint details, see server/health-config/{feature_name} in the REST API Reference Manual.

To access server/health-config/ endpoints, your role must have the edit_health capability.

Disable the distributed health report

The distributed health report is enabled (set to disabled = 0) in health.conf. If for any reason you need to disable the distributed health report, you can do so as follows:

1. Log in to the instance from which you monitor your deployment.
2. Edit $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/system/local/health.conf.
3. In the [distributed_health_reporter] stanza, set disabled = 1. For example:

   [distributed_health_reporter]
   disabled = 1
   

Suppress health status updates

Features in the health status tree update their status at predetermined intervals. A feature whose health status changes frequently can cause excessive undesirable changes to the overall status of the splunkd health report. To prevent this, use the suppress_status_update_ms attribute in health.conf to reduce the frequency with which a particular feature can update its health status.

Use the suppress_health_status_update_ms attribute to:

• Limit excessive changes to the internal state by individual features.
• Reduce the number of log entries that arise from rapid feature status changes.
• Help quiet "noisy" features.

For example, an indexer clustering feature, such as data_durability, can experience frequent status changes during operations that impact its indicators: cluster_replication_factor and cluster_search_factor. To avoid frequent changes to the overall splunkd health report, you might set suppress_status_update_ms = 60000 to reduce health status updates to once every minute.

To suppress health status updates:

1. Log in to the instance you are monitoring.
2. Edit $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/system/local/health.conf
3. In the appropriate feature stanza, add the suppress_status_update_ms attribute. For example:

   [feature:data_durability]
   indicator:cluster_replication_factor:red = 1
   indicator:cluster_search_factor:red = 1
   suppress_status_update_ms = 60000
   

   By default, the minimum amount of time that must elapse between status updates is 300ms.

For more information, see health.conf.spec in the Admin Manual.

Configure health status logs

Each feature in the splunkd health status tree generates log entries in health.log. These log entries record information about feature indicator status changes over time. health.log is located in SPLUNK_HOME/var/log/splunk/.

There are two types of health.log log entries:

HealthChangeReporter: This log entry records specific health status changes for a feature indicator. Each entry includes a timestamp, feature name, indicator name, previous color, new color, and a possible reason for the status change. This log entry appears only if a feature's status changes, for example, from green to red:

02-28-2018 20:26:52.775 +0000 INFO  HealthChangeReporter - feature="Data Durability" indicator="cluster_replication_factor" previous_color=green color=red reason="Replication Factor is not met"

PeriodicHealthReporter: This log entry keeps an ongoing record of the status of each feature in the health status tree. Each entry includes a timestamp, the feature name, and current color. Log entries are made at a user-configurable interval. For example:

02-28-2018 20:27:06.826 +0000 INFO  PeriodicHealthReporter - feature="Data Durability" color=red

Set health.log entry intervals

You can set the interval at which PeriodicHealthReporter log entries are added to health.log. This is useful if you want to increase or decrease the overall number of log entries that appear in health.log.

To adjust the frequency of PeriodicHealthReporter log entries in health.log:

1. Log in to the instance you are monitoring.
2. Edit $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/system/local/health.conf
3. In the [health_reporter] stanza, set the full_health_log_interval attribute to an appropriate value in seconds. For example:

   [health_reporter]
   full_health_log_interval = 60
   

   By default, each feature generates a PeriodicHealthReporter log entry every 30 seconds.