Install the Splunk Add-on for Stream Forwarder

Use the Deployment server to push Splunk Add-on for Stream Forwarder to all of your forwarders. You can also install Splunk Add-on for Stream Forwarder on individual forwarders.

To install a independent Stream Forwarder, see Install the Independent Stream Forwarder.

If you want to upgrade a forwarder to 7.3 or later, see Migrate Splunk Stream in a distributed deployment.

To configure your forwarders, see Configure your Splunk Stream forwarders

Secure your capabilities

In Splunk Universal forwarder 9.0.1 and later, the capability roles for the forwarder access the forwarder have been reduced to one capabilities:

  • CAP_DAC_READ_SEARCH

However, Splunk Stream 8.1 and later still needs the CAP_NET_ADMIN and CAP_NET_RAW capabilities . You must specify these capabilities in the Splunk universal forwarder systemd service unit file.

To change the Splunk Universal forwarder systemd service unit file to add the additional capabilities needed for Stream:

  1. Locate of Splunk Universal forwarder systemd service unit file using the following command: $SPLUNK_HOME/bin/splunk display boot-start
    • If you haven't enabled boot-start on your forwarder, the Splunk universal forwarder systemd service unit file is located at /lib/systemd/system/SplunkForwarder.service.
    • If you have enabled boot-start on your forwarder, the Splunk universal forwarder systemd service unit file is located at /etc/systemd/system/SplunkForwarder.service
  2. Edit Splunk Universal forwarder systemd service unit file and edit the line: AmbientCapabilities=CAP_DAC_READ_SEARCH To: CAP_NET_ADMIN and CAP_NET_RAW AmbientCapabilities=CAP_DAC_READ_SEARCH CAP_NET_ADMIN CAP_NET_RAW
  3. Reload the systemd daemon for the unit file change to take effect: sudo systemctl daemon-reload
  4. Restart the Splunk universal forwarder: sudo $SPLUNK_HOME/bin/splunk restart

Use the deployment server to distribute Splunk Add-on for Stream Forwarders to universal forwarders

  1. Go to http://splunkbase.com/app/5238.
  2. Click Download. The Splunk_TA_stream_<latest_version>.tgz installation package downloads to your local host.
  3. Log into Splunk Web.
  4. Click Manage Apps > Install app from file.
  5. Upload the Splunk_TA_stream_<latest_version>.tgz installer file.
  6. Restart Splunk Enterprise, if prompted. This installs the Splunk_TA_stream in the $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/apps directory. This is a pre-configured copy of Splunk_TA_stream that you can deploy to universal forwarders using the deployment server.
  7. Set Splunk_TA_stream permissions: On Linux and OSX, run the set_permissions.sh script in the Splunk_TA_stream directory. 
    cd $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/apps/Splunk_TA_stream
sudo chmod +x ./set_permissions.sh
sudo ./set_permissions.sh

To configure your forwarders, see Configure your Splunk Stream forwarders

Manually install the Splunk Add-on for Stream Forwarders on Splunk forwarders

To collect network data from one or more forwarders without using a deployment server, manually install Splunk_TA_stream on each forwarder.

  1. Go to http://splunkbase.com/app/5238 and download the latest installation package to $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/apps on the Universal Forwarder
  2. Untar the package to $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/apps
  3. Verify that Splunk_TA_stream/local/inputs.conf specifies the correct location of splunk_app_stream. 
     [streamfwd://streamfwd]
splunk_stream_app_location = https://localhost:8000/en-us/custom/splunk_app_stream/
stream_forwarder_id = 
disabled = 0
  4. Verify that Splunk_TA_stream/local/streamfwd.conf is configured to collect data from the network interface. By default, streamfwd.conf collects data from all network interfaces.
  5. Set Splunk_TA_stream permissions: On Linux and OSX, run the set_permissions.sh script in the Splunk_TA_stream directory. 
    cd $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/apps/Splunk_TA_stream
sudo chmod +x ./set_permissions.sh
sudo ./set_permissions.sh
  6. Restart Splunk Enterprise.