Splunk Fundamentals 1 Practice Exam

Which component sends data as it happens, offering near real-time information?

1. A forwarder

2. A search head

3. A monitor

4. A database

The correct answer is: A monitor

The component that sends data as it happens, offering near real-time information, is a forwarder. Forwarders are special Splunk components that are responsible for collecting and sending data from a source to the Splunk indexer. They operate in real-time or near real-time, ensuring that data is ingested into Splunk as it is generated. This allows for immediate analysis and monitoring of live data, making it crucial for scenarios where timely insights and alerts are essential. In contrast, while a search head enables users to run searches on the indexed data and analyze the results, it does not facilitate the actual data sending process. A monitor typically refers to a file or directory monitoring component, which denotes how the forwarder watches for new data, but it does not send data itself. A database, on the other hand, is a storage system for structured data and does not inherently provide functionality for real-time data dissemination like a forwarder does. Thus, the forwarder is essential for real-time data collection in a Splunk environment.