Splunk SPLK-4001 Practice Test - Questions Answers, Page 3

According to the Splunk Lantern articleResolving flapping detectors in Splunk Infrastructure Monitoring, flapping is a phenomenon where alerts fire and clear repeatedly in a short period of time, due to the signal fluctuating around the threshold value. To reduce flapping, the article suggests the following ways:

Configure a duration or percent of duration for the alert: This means that you require the signal to stay above or below the threshold for a certain amount of time or percentage of time before triggering an alert. This can help filter out noise and focus on more persistent issues.

Apply a smoothing transformation (like a rolling mean) to the input data for the detector: This means that you replace the original signal with the average of its last several values, where you can specify the window length. This can reduce the impact of a single extreme observation and make the signal less fluctuating.

The most likely root cause of the issue is D. The detector has a muting rule.

A muting rule is a way to temporarily stop a detector from sending notifications for certain alerts, without disabling the detector or changing its alert conditions. A muting rule can be useful when you want to avoid alert noise during planned maintenance, testing, or other situations where you expect the metrics to deviate from normal1

When a detector has a muting rule, it will still generate alerts within the Splunk Observability UI, but it will not send email notifications or any other types of notifications that you have configured for the detector. You can see if a detector has a muting rule by looking at the Muting Rules tab on the detector page. You can also create, edit, or delete muting rules from there1

To learn more about how to use muting rules in Splunk Observability Cloud, you can refer to this documentation1.

The correct answer is D. Mean (Transformation).

According to the web search results, a mean transformation is an analytic function that returns the average value of a metric or a dimension over a specified time interval1. A mean transformation can be used to smooth a very spiky metric, such as cpu.utilization, by reducing the impact of outliers and noise. A mean transformation can also help to see if the metric is trending up or down over time, by showing the general direction of the average value. For example, to smooth the cpu.utilization metric and see if it is trending up over time, you can use the following SignalFlow code:

mean(1h, counters(''cpu.utilization''))

This will return the average value of the cpu.utilization counter metric for each metric time series (MTS) over the last hour. You can then use a chart to visualize the results and compare the mean values across different MTS.

Option A is incorrect because rate/sec is not an analytic function, but rather a rollup function that returns the rate of change of data points in the MTS reporting interval1. Rate/sec can be used to convert cumulative counter metrics into counter metrics, but it does not smooth or trend a metric. Option B is incorrect because median is not an analytic function, but rather an aggregation function that returns the middle value of a metric or a dimension over the entire time range1. Median can be used to find the typical value of a metric, but it does not smooth or trend a metric. Option C is incorrect because mean (by host) is not an analytic function, but rather an aggregation function that returns the average value of a metric or a dimension across all MTS with the same host dimension1. Mean (by host) can be used to compare the performance of different hosts, but it does not smooth or trend a metric.

Mean (Transformation) is an analytic function that allows you to smooth a very spiky metric by applying a moving average over a specified time window.This can help you see the general trend of the metric over time, without being distracted by the short-term fluctuations1

To use Mean (Transformation) on a cpu.utilization metric, you need to select the metric from the Metric Finder, then click on Add Analytics and choose Mean (Transformation) from the list of functions. You can then specify the time window for the moving average, such as 5 minutes, 15 minutes, or 1 hour.You can also group the metric by host or any other dimension to compare the smoothed values across different servers2

To learn more about how to use Mean (Transformation) and other analytic functions in Splunk Observability Cloud, you can refer to this documentation2.

1: https://docs.splunk.com/Observability/gdi/metrics/analytics.html#Mean-Transformation2: https://docs.splunk.com/Observability/gdi/metrics/analytics.html

According to the web search results, dimensions are metadata in the form of key-value pairs that monitoring software sends in along with the metrics.The set of metric time series (MTS) dimensions sent during ingest is used, along with the metric name, to uniquely identify an MTS1.Splunk Observability Cloud has a limit of 36 unique dimensions per MTS2.If the limit of allowed dimensions is exceeded for an MTS, the additional dimensions are dropped and not stored or indexed by Observability Cloud2. This means that the data point is still ingested, but without the extra dimensions. Therefore, option A is correct.

The correct answer is A. Dimensions.

Dimensions are metadata in the form of key-value pairs that are sent along with the metrics at the time of ingest. They provide additional information about the metric, such as the name of the host that sent the metric, or the location of the server. Along with the metric name, they uniquely identify a metric time series (MTS)1

Changes to dimensions result in a new MTS, because they create a different combination of metric name and dimensions. For example, if you change the hostname dimension from host1 to host2, you will create a new MTS for the same metric name1

Properties, sources, and tags are other types of metadata that can be applied to existing MTSes after ingest. They do not contribute to uniquely identify an MTS, and they do not create a new MTS when changed2

To learn more about how to use metadata in Splunk Observability Cloud, you can refer to this documentation2.

1: https://docs.splunk.com/Observability/metrics-and-metadata/metrics.html#Dimensions 2: https://docs.splunk.com/Observability/metrics-and-metadata/metrics-dimensions-mts.html

The correct answer is D. Map, Nodes, Workloads, Node Detail, Workload Detail, Pod Detail, Container Detail.

The built-in Kubernetes Navigator is a feature of Splunk Observability Cloud that provides a comprehensive and intuitive way to monitor the performance and health of Kubernetes environments. It includes the following views:

Map: A graphical representation of the Kubernetes cluster topology, showing the relationships and dependencies among nodes, pods, containers, and services. You can use the map to quickly identify and troubleshoot issues in your cluster1

Nodes: A tabular view of all the nodes in your cluster, showing key metrics such as CPU utilization, memory usage, disk usage, and network traffic. You can use the nodes view to compare and analyze the performance of different nodes1

Workloads: A tabular view of all the workloads in your cluster, showing key metrics such as CPU utilization, memory usage, network traffic, and error rate. You can use the workloads view to compare and analyze the performance of different workloads, such as deployments, stateful sets, daemon sets, or jobs1

Node Detail: A detailed view of a specific node in your cluster, showing key metrics and charts for CPU utilization, memory usage, disk usage, network traffic, and pod count. You can also see the list of pods running on the node and their status. You can use the node detail view to drill down into the performance of a single node2

Workload Detail: A detailed view of a specific workload in your cluster, showing key metrics and charts for CPU utilization, memory usage, network traffic, error rate, and pod count. You can also see the list of pods belonging to the workload and their status. You can use the workload detail view to drill down into the performance of a single workload2

Pod Detail: A detailed view of a specific pod in your cluster, showing key metrics and charts for CPU utilization, memory usage, network traffic, error rate, and container count. You can also see the list of containers within the pod and their status. You can use the pod detail view to drill down into the performance of a single pod2

Container Detail: A detailed view of a specific container in your cluster, showing key metrics and charts for CPU utilization, memory usage, network traffic, error rate, and log events. You can use the container detail view to drill down into the performance of a single container2

To learn more about how to use Kubernetes Navigator in Splunk Observability Cloud, you can refer to this documentation3.

1: https://docs.splunk.com/observability/infrastructure/monitor/k8s-nav.html#Kubernetes-Navigator 2: https://docs.splunk.com/observability/infrastructure/monitor/k8s-nav.html#Detail-pages 3: https://docs.splunk.com/observability/infrastructure/monitor/k8s-nav.html

According to the web search results, ephemeral infrastructure is a term that describes instances that are auto-scaled up or down, or are brought up with new code versions and discarded or recycled when the next code version is deployed1.Splunk Observability Cloud has a feature that allows you to create detectors for ephemeral infrastructure without sending false notifications of instances being down2. To use this feature, you need to do the following steps:

Create the detector as usual, by selecting the metric or dimension that you want to monitor and alert on, and choosing the alert condition and severity level.

Select Alert settings, then select Ephemeral Infrastructure. This will enable a special mode for the detector that will automatically clear alerts for instances that are expected to be terminated.

Enter the expected lifetime of an instance in minutes. This is the maximum amount of time that an instance is expected to live before being replaced by a new one. For example, if your instances are replaced every hour, you can enter 60 minutes as the expected lifetime.

Save the detector and activate it.

With this feature, the detector will only trigger alerts when an instance stops reporting a metric unexpectedly, based on its expected lifetime. If an instance stops reporting a metric within its expected lifetime, the detector will assume that it was terminated on purpose and will not trigger an alert. Therefore, option B is correct.

According to the web search results, dashboard groups are a feature of Splunk Observability Cloud that allows you to organize and share dashboards with other users in your organization1. You can create dashboard groups based on different criteria, such as service, team, role, or topic. You can also set permissions for each dashboard group, such as who can view, edit, or manage the dashboards in the group. Dashboard groups make it possible to share a collection of charts with your entire SRE organization, or any other group of users that you want to collaborate with.

The correct answer is D. Each data marker represents the sum of API calls in the hour leading up to the data marker.

The metric demo.trans.count is a cumulative counter metric, which means that it represents the total number of API calls since the start of the measurement. A cumulative counter metric can be used to measure the rate of change or the sum of events over a time period1

The chart below shows the metric demo.trans.count with a one-hour rollup and a line chart type. A rollup is a way to aggregate data points over a specified time interval, such as one hour, to reduce the number of data points displayed on a chart. A line chart type connects the data points with a line to show the trend of the metric over time2

Each data marker on the chart represents the sum of API calls in the hour leading up to the data marker. This is because the rollup function for cumulative counter metrics is sum by default, which means that it adds up all the data points in each time interval. For example, the data marker at 10:00 AM shows the sum of API calls from 9:00 AM to 10:00 AM3

To learn more about how to use metrics and charts in Splunk Observability Cloud, you can refer to these documentations123.

1: https://docs.splunk.com/Observability/gdi/metrics/metrics.html#Metric-types 2: https://docs.splunk.com/Observability/gdi/metrics/charts.html#Data-resolution-and-rollups-in-charts 3: https://docs.splunk.com/Observability/gdi/metrics/charts.html#Rollup-functions-for-metric-types