What does the followTail attribute do in inputs.conf?

What does the followTail attribute do in inputs.conf?

A. Pauses a file monitor if the queue is full.

B. Only creates a tail checkpoint of the monitored file.

C. Ingests a file starting with new content and then reading older events.

D. Prevents pre-existing content in a file from being ingested.

View Answer

Answer: D

Explanation:

The followTail attribute in inputs.conf controls how Splunk processes existing content in a monitored file.

D. Prevents pre-existing content in a file from being ingested: This is the correct answer. When followTail = true is set, Splunk will ignore any pre-existing content in a file and only start monitoring from the end of the file, capturing new data as it is added. This is useful when you want to start monitoring a log file but do not want to index the historical data that might be present in the file. A. Pauses a file monitor if the queue is full: Incorrect, this is not related to the followTail attribute.

B. Only creates a tail checkpoint of the monitored file: Incorrect, while a tailing checkpoint is created for state tracking, followTail specifically refers to skipping the existing content.

C. Ingests a file starting with new content and then reading older events: Incorrect, followTail does not read older events; it skips them.

Splunk Documentation

Reference: followTail Attribute Documentation

Monitoring Files

These answers align with Splunk’s best practices and available documentation on managing and configuring Splunk environments.