Splunk SPLK-4001 Splunk O11y Cloud Certified Metrics User Exam Practice Test

Answer : B

The correct answer is B. A set of data points that all have the same metric name and list of dimensions.

A metric time series (MTS) is a collection of data points that have the same metric and the same set of dimensions. For example, the following sets of data points are in three separate MTS:

MTS1: Gauge metric cpu.utilization, dimension ''hostname'': ''host1'' MTS2: Gauge metric cpu.utilization, dimension ''hostname'': ''host2'' MTS3: Gauge metric memory.usage, dimension ''hostname'': ''host1''

A metric is a numerical measurement that varies over time, such as CPU utilization or memory usage. A dimension is a key-value pair that provides additional information about the metric, such as the hostname or the location. A data point is a combination of a metric, a dimension, a value, and a timestamp1

Answer : D

The correct answer is D. Top / Bottom.

Top and bottom are aggregate analytic functions that allow a user to see the highest or lowest n values of a metric. They can be used to select a subset of the time series in the plot by count or by percent. For example, top (5) will show the five time series with the highest values in each time period, while bottom (10%) will show the 10% of time series with the lowest values in each time period1

To learn more about how to use top and bottom functions in Splunk Observability Cloud, you can refer to this documentation1.

Answer : A, D

According to the Splunk Lantern articleResolving flapping detectors in Splunk Infrastructure Monitoring, flapping is a phenomenon where alerts fire and clear repeatedly in a short period of time, due to the signal fluctuating around the threshold value. To reduce flapping, the article suggests the following ways:

Configure a duration or percent of duration for the alert: This means that you require the signal to stay above or below the threshold for a certain amount of time or percentage of time before triggering an alert. This can help filter out noise and focus on more persistent issues.

Apply a smoothing transformation (like a rolling mean) to the input data for the detector: This means that you replace the original signal with the average of its last several values, where you can specify the window length. This can reduce the impact of a single extreme observation and make the signal less fluctuating.

Answer : C

The correct answer is C. Info, Warning, Minor, Major, and Critical.

When creating a standalone detector, you can define one or more rules that specify the alert conditions and the severity level for each rule. The severity level indicates how urgent or important the alert is, and it can also affect the notification settings and the escalation policy for the alert1

Splunk Observability Cloud provides five predefined severity levels that you can choose from when creating a rule: Info, Warning, Minor, Major, and Critical. Each severity level has a different color and icon to help you identify the alert status at a glance. You can also customize the severity levels by changing their names, colors, or icons2

To learn more about how to create standalone detectors and use severity levels in Splunk Observability Cloud, you can refer to these documentations12.

1: https://docs.splunk.com/Observability/alerts-detectors-notifications/detectors.html#Create-a-standalone-detector 2: https://docs.splunk.com/Observability/alerts-detectors-notifications/detector-options.html#Severity-levels

Answer : C

The correct answer is C. 1 second.

According to the Splunk Test Blueprint - O11y Cloud Metrics User document1, one of the metrics concepts that is covered in the exam is data resolution and rollups. Data resolution refers to the granularity of the metric data points, and rollups are the process of aggregating data points over time to reduce the amount of data stored.

The Splunk O11y Cloud Certified Metrics User Track document2 states that one of the recommended courses for preparing for the exam is Introduction to Splunk Infrastructure Monitoring, which covers the basics of metrics monitoring and visualization.

In the Introduction to Splunk Infrastructure Monitoring course, there is a section on Data Resolution and Rollups, which explains that Splunk Observability Cloud collects high-resolution metrics at 1-second intervals by default, and then applies rollups to reduce the data volume over time. The document also provides a table that shows the different rollup intervals and retention periods for different resolutions.

Therefore, based on these documents, we can conclude that for a high-resolution metric, the highest possible native resolution of the metric is 1 second.

Answer : C

According to the Splunk Observability Cloud documentation1, to create a detector, you need the following information:

Alert Signal: This is the metric or dimension that you want to monitor and alert on. You can select a signal from a chart or a dashboard, or enter a SignalFlow query to define the signal.

Alert Condition: This is the criteria that determines when an alert is triggered or cleared. You can choose from various built-in alert conditions, such as static threshold, dynamic threshold, outlier, missing data, and so on. You can also specify the severity level and the trigger sensitivity for each alert condition.

Alert Settings: This is the configuration that determines how the detector behaves and interacts with other detectors. You can set the detector name, description, resolution, run lag, max delay, and detector rules. You can also enable or disable the detector, and mute or unmute the alerts.

Alert Message: This is the text that appears in the alert notification and event feed. You can customize the alert message with variables, such as signal name, value, condition, severity, and so on. You can also use markdown formatting to enhance the message appearance.

Alert Recipients: This is the list of destinations where you want to send the alert notifications. You can choose from various channels, such as email, Slack, PagerDuty, webhook, and so on. You can also specify the notification frequency and suppression settings.

Answer : A

The correct answer is A. Dimensions.

Dimensions are metadata in the form of key-value pairs that are sent along with the metrics at the time of ingest. They provide additional information about the metric, such as the name of the host that sent the metric, or the location of the server. Along with the metric name, they uniquely identify a metric time series (MTS)1

Changes to dimensions result in a new MTS, because they create a different combination of metric name and dimensions. For example, if you change the hostname dimension from host1 to host2, you will create a new MTS for the same metric name1

Properties, sources, and tags are other types of metadata that can be applied to existing MTSes after ingest. They do not contribute to uniquely identify an MTS, and they do not create a new MTS when changed2

To learn more about how to use metadata in Splunk Observability Cloud, you can refer to this documentation2.

1: https://docs.splunk.com/Observability/metrics-and-metadata/metrics.html#Dimensions 2: https://docs.splunk.com/Observability/metrics-and-metadata/metrics-dimensions-mts.html