Splunk Enterprise Certified Admin Practice Test

Which component directs Splunk data collection and distribution?

1. Search Head

2. Forwarder

3. Deployment Server

4. Indexer

The correct answer is: Deployment Server

The Deployment Server is a crucial component in Splunk's architecture responsible for managing the configuration and distribution of Splunk applications across multiple instances, particularly forwarders. It is designed to streamline the process of deploying configurations, apps, and updates, allowing administrators to ensure that all forwarders are consistently updated with the necessary configurations and data integration settings. This helps maintain a uniform data collection approach and enables efficient management across a distributed environment. While other components like the Search Head, Forwarder, and Indexer play vital roles in the overall Splunk ecosystem—such as executing searches, collecting data from various sources, and indexing the data, respectively—they do not specifically manage the distribution of configurations or data collection settings to forwarders. Hence, the Deployment Server is the correct answer in this context.