New Features for Data Inputs

Note:

Data Manager became Data Inputs.

We renamed Data Manager to Data Inputs to better reflect our unified approach to data ingestion. While the name changed, all your existing configurations remain the same.

In Splunk 10.4 and later, a navigation panel consolidates Data Inputs and related features into a single location. From there, you can switch between pages and manage all your data from one place.

Version 1.18.0 of Data Inputs was released July 30, 2026. It includes the following new features:
New feature Description
Send data to federated destinations in Machine Data Lake (MDL)

You can send data to a standard Splunk index or to a Machine Data Lake (MDL) dataset. To send data to MDL, enter a federated destination manually using the ~.federated. prefix, for example ~.federated.name. Federated destinations are not displayed in the Destination list, and Data Inputs validates each destination before you can review or save the input.
Connect to Azure Event Hub using managed identity

Azure ARM template version 4.7 lets the Azure Function connect to Event Hub using its system-assigned managed identity, so you don't need to configure or maintain a shared-access key for Event Hub. When you upgrade from ARM template version 4.6 to version 4.7, the template removes the old connection string app setting and configures identity-based Event Hub access.

See Update Azure data inputs to the newest ARM template version.