Splunk Enterprise Certified Admin Practice Test

Where is the _fishbucket index located in an environment with a Universal Forwarder, Indexer, and Search Head?

1. Only in the Indexer

2. On the Search Head

3. Each instance has its own local index

4. In a centralized location

The correct answer is: Each instance has its own local index

The _fishbucket index is a unique component of the Splunk architecture, particularly representing the metadata stored by forwarders to track the files they have already read. Each Universal Forwarder maintains its own local instance of the _fishbucket index to record the progress of file ingestion on that specific forwarder. This design ensures that the Universal Forwarder can efficiently manage data inputs by keeping track of which parts of the files have already been indexed, preventing duplicate data ingestion when data sources are continuously updated or appended to. As such, every forwarder operates autonomously, storing its own records in the _fishbucket index distinct from the Indexer or Search Head, which do not utilize this index for their functions. While the Indexer and Search Head focus on data ingestion and searching capabilities, respectively, the existence of a local _fishbucket index on each Universal Forwarder is critical for maintaining the integrity and efficiency of data processing across the Splunk environment.