Splunk Enterprise Certified Admin Practice Test

Does editing the inputs.conf file retrospectively update existing data?

1. True

2. False

3. Depends on the data type

4. Only if the file is saved

The correct answer is: False

Editing the inputs.conf file does not retrospectively update existing data. The inputs.conf file is primarily used to define data inputs, such as file sources, network ports, and other configurations for data collection. Changes made to this configuration file will only affect data that is ingested after the changes are made. Existing data that has already been indexed will remain intact as it was at the time of ingestion. This means that even if you modify inputs.conf to change the way data is collected or indexed, these changes will not alter or refresh data that has already been processed and stored in the index. The index is immutable concerning the original raw data once it's ingested. Any updates or changes will only come into effect for new data being indexed after the configuration modifications have been applied.