Splunk Enterprise Certified Architect Practice Test

Which Splunk Enterprise offering requires its own license?

1. Splunk Cloud Forwarder

2. Splunk Heavy Forwarder

3. Splunk Universal Forwarder

4. Splunk Forwarder Management

The correct answer is: Splunk Universal Forwarder

The correct answer highlights the unique licensing requirement of the Splunk Universal Forwarder. The Universal Forwarder is a lightweight agent that is designed to forward log data to a Splunk instance for indexing. Unlike the other forwarders, it does not require a full Splunk license for its operation since it solely functions to send data and does not perform any data indexing or searching. This feature makes it suitable for environments where the incoming data volume is high, and only forwarding to a centralized Splunk environment is needed without incurring additional licensing costs. In contrast, the other options involve functionalities that typically require a separate license. The Splunk Heavy Forwarder, for instance, allows for data transformation and can index locally, necessitating a full Splunk license. The Splunk Cloud Forwarder operates in conjunction with Splunk Cloud services, also requiring a separate licensing structure. Additionally, Splunk Forwarder Management is an administrative function that deals with managing forwarders and typically requires a license linked with the main Splunk Enterprise deployment.