Deployment requirements

For a list of network data protocols that Splunk App for Stream supports for capture, see Supported Protocols.

Hardware requirements

Before you install Splunk App for Stream, make sure that your Splunk Enterprise deployment meets the requirements specified in "Introduction to capacity planning for Splunk Enterprise" in the Splunk Enterprise Capacity Planning Manual.

For details on Splunk component performance specifications and reference hardware requirements, see "Reference hardware" in the Splunk Enterprise Capacity Planning Manual.

For recommendations on scaling your Splunk Enterprise deployment for your specific performance requirements, see the "Performance questionnaire" in the Splunk Enterprise Capacity Planning Manual.

Note: Reference hardware recommendations refer only to the underlying Splunk Enterprise deployment on which your Splunk App for Stream installation runs. Depending on the throughput of the network data streams that you capture, additional processor, memory, and storage capacity might be required.

For information on Splunk App for Stream performance, see Performance test results and recommendations.

Supported operating systems

Splunk App for Stream 6.2.0 and later supports the following Linux, Mac, and Windows operating systems:

Linux

• Linux kernel version 2.6.x or later (32- and 64-bit).
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 or later
• CentOS 5 or later
• Ubuntu 10 or later
• Debian 5 or later

Linux kernel settings for high-volume packet capture

The default Linux kernel settings are not sufficient for high-volume packet capture. This can lead to missing packets and data loss. We recommend that you add the following kernel settings to your /etc/sysctl.conf file:

# increase kernel buffer sizes for reliable packet capture
net.core.rmem_default = 33554432
net.core.rmem_max = 33554432
net.core.netdev_max_backlog = 10000

Then run the following to reload the settings:

/sbin/sysctl -p

Mac OSX

• Mac OSX version 10.8 or later.

Windows

• Windows Server 2008R2 and later (64-bit).
• Windows 7 (64-bit) Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate editions.

Note: Splunk App for Stream supports running as Admin only on Windows.

Splunk Enterprise version

Splunk App for Stream is dependent on the Splunk Enterprise platform. Make sure to download and install the appropriate version of Splunk Enterprise before you install Splunk App for Stream.

Splunk App for Stream version 6.2.0 requires Splunk Enterprise version 6.1.x or later. (Splunk Enterprise version 6.2.1 or later recommended).

Splunk component requirements

Install the Splunk App for Stream on your Splunk forwarder, indexer, and search head, as applicable to your deployment. For details on Splunk App for Stream deployment architectures, see "Deployment architectures" in this manual.

• Forwarder: The forwarder sends network event data captured by the Stream Forwarder (streamfwd binary) to Splunk indexer(s) using the Wire Data modular input. Splunk App for Stream distributed deployments require universal forwarders.

By default, the Splunk universal forwarder does not send data to Splunk indexes. To send data from universal forwarders to Splunk indexes, you must configure the universal forwarder. See "Configure Splunk universal forwarder for use with Stream" in this manual.

• Indexer: Indexers receive and index network event data sent from Splunk forwarders.

• Search head: The search head is where you perform search and analysis operations on your network event data. Search Heads provide search time knowledge for field extractions and event types.

For more information about Splunk components, see "Components of a Splunk Enterprise deployment" in the Capacity Planning Manual.

Supported browsers

Splunk App for Stream 6.2.0 supports these browsers:

• Chrome (latest)
• Safari (latest)
• Firefox (latest) (version 10.x is not supported)
• Internet Explorer 9 or later. Internet Explorer version 9 is not supported in compatibility mode.

Splunk licensing

Splunk licenses are based on the amount of data stored by your Splunk indexers per day. For detailed information, see "How Splunk licensing works" in the Admin Manual".