Review value optimization recommendations
Optimization Advisor provides recommendations about data architecture and licensing based on usage patterns in Splunk Cloud Platform.
Use the Optimization Advisor dashboard
Optimization Advisor is a Value Insights dashboard in the Cloud Monitoring Console (CMC). It provides evidence-based recommendations to help you get more value from your Splunk Cloud Platform investment.
Using Cisco Data Fabric powered by the Splunk Platform, Optimization Advisor identifies opportunities to retain eligible data in lower-cost storage, such as Machine Data Lake (MDL), and promote selected data for search and analysis. It also evaluates license options based on usage patterns to help you assess whether your current license meets your needs.
To access the dashboard, see Open Optimization Advisor. For descriptions of its panels, see Optimization Advisor dashboard panels.
Open Optimization Advisor
Open Optimization Advisor from the Value Insights menu in the Cloud Monitoring Console.
Optimization Advisor is available in the Cloud Monitoring Console (CMC).
- In Splunk Web, select Cloud Monitoring Console.
- In the CMC navigation, select Value Insights.
- In the Value Insights menu, select Optimization Advisor.
The Optimization Advisor dashboard opens. To return to the existing Value Insights dashboard, select Usage, Use-cases & Savings from the same menu.
Optimization Advisor dashboard panels
Review what the Recommendation, Current license usage, Usage forecasting, Current data utilization, and License comparison panels show.
Recommendation
The Recommendation panel highlights a licensing or data architecture option based on usage patterns. It summarizes the projected benefit, such as additional ingest or search capacity, and directs you to your Splunk account team for a detailed assessment.
Projected benefits are estimates, and a recommendation does not change your license. If there is not enough usage and search history to make a recommendation, the panel displays a message, and projected values might show N/A.
Current license usage
The Current license usage panel summarizes your Splunk Cloud Platform subscription entitlement and recent usage as described in Use the License Usage dashboards. The fields vary by license model.
| Information | Description |
|---|---|
| License entitlement | Shows the capacity included in your current subscription. |
| Current usage | Shows current consumption in the units used by your subscription. |
| Ingest and search activity | Shows daily ingest and search activity or contracted amounts, depending on your license model. |
The values and units displayed depend on your current license model.
Usage forecasting
The Usage forecasting panel compares recent ingest and search activity with projected usage. Use it to discuss potential capacity needs.
| Information | Description |
|---|---|
| Historical daily usage | Solid lines show monthly averages of daily ingest and daily searches for the past 6 months. |
| Projected daily usage | Dashed lines show projected monthly averages of daily ingest and daily searches for the next 6 months. |
| Chart details | The chart distinguishes ingest and search activity with separate series and units. Point details can show the selected month, value, and change from the previous month. |
Projections are estimates and can differ from actual usage. If the required usage history is unavailable, the panel shows no data instead of a chart.
Current data utilization
The Current data utilization panel analyzes search activity from the past 30 days to identify data sources that warrant review as potential candidates for routing to Machine Data Lake (MDL).
| Information | Description |
|---|---|
| Frequently searched sourcetypes | Shows the share of sourcetypes with frequent search activity in the past 30 days. |
| Infrequently searched sourcetypes | Shows the share of sourcetypes with little or no search activity in the past 30 days. These sourcetypes are potential MDL candidates. |
| View underutilized sourcetypes | Opens the underlying list of sourcetypes for review. |
Some search activity might not be fully captured. Sourcetypes used by accelerated data models are excluded. Review results carefully before taking action. The panel can appear empty when it has no qualifying data to display.
License comparison
Based on usage and growth patterns, Optimization Advisor compares available Splunk Cloud Platform licensing models and provides an AI-based recommendation for the option projected to deliver the best value for your environment. When available, the License comparison panel shows the additional benefits of the recommended option compared with your current license.
Recommendations and projected benefits are estimates. The comparison might not be available for every recommendation. Confirm capacity, retention, and commercial terms with your Splunk account team before making a licensing decision.