Splunk SPLK-1004 Splunk Core Certified Advanced Power User Exam Practice Test

Answer : A

When using a nested search macro in Splunk, an argument value can be passed to the inner macro by specifying the argument in the outer macro's invocation (Option A). This allows the outer macro to accept arguments from the user or another search command and then pass those arguments into the inner macro, enabling dynamic and flexible macro compositions that can adapt based on input parameters.

Answer : C

For defining geospatial lookups, Splunk uses KMZ or KML files (Option C). KML (Keyhole Markup Language) is an XML notation for expressing geographic annotation and visualization within Internet-based maps and Earth browsers like Google Earth. KMZ is a compressed version of KML files. These file types allow Splunk to map data points to geographic locations, enabling the creation of geospatial visualizations and analyses. GPX or GML files (Option A), TXT files (Option B), and CSV files (Option D) are not specifically used for geospatial lookups in Splunk, although CSV files are commonly used for other types of lookups.

Answer : D

Splunk supports the use of external lookups, which can be scripts or binary executables that enrich search results with external data. These external lookups can be written in various scripting languages or compiled as binary executables. Among the options given, Python and binary executables (Option D) are commonly used for creating external lookups in Splunk. Python is a widely used programming language that can easily interact with Splunk's API and data structures, and binary executables can be used for more complex or performance-critical lookup operations. Perl and Ruby (Options A and B) are less commonly used in this context, and Perl combined with binary executables (Option C) is not as standard for Splunk external lookups as Python.

Answer : D

The strftime function in Splunk is used to convert epoch time (also known as POSIX time or Unix time, which is a system for describing points in time as the number of seconds elapsed since January 1, 1970) into a human-readable string format. This function is particularly useful when formatting timestamps in search results or when creating more readable time representations in dashboards and reports. The strftime function takes an epoch time value and a format string as arguments and returns the formatted time as a string according to the specified format. The other options (tostring, strptime, and tonumber) serve different purposes: tostring converts values to strings, strptime converts string representations of time into epoch format, and tonumber converts values to numbers.

Answer : D

Self-describing data (Option D) refers to data that includes information about its own structure or schema within the data itself. This characteristic makes it easier to understand and process the data because the structure and meaning of the data are embedded with the data, reducing the need for external definitions or mappings. Examples of self-describing data formats include JSON and XML, where elements and attributes describe the data they contain.

Answer : B

The result of the xyseries command in Splunk is to transform a stats-like output into chart-like output (Option B). The xyseries command restructures the search results so that each row represents a unique combination of x and y values, suitable for plotting in a chart, making it easier to visualize complex relationships between multiple data points.

Answer : C

Wildcards can be used in the from clause of the tstats command in Splunk (Option C). The from clause specifies the data model or dataset from which to retrieve the statistics, and using wildcards here allows users to query across multiple data models or datasets that share a common naming pattern, making the search more flexible and encompassing.