The Splunk universal forwarder is a free, dedicated version of Splunk Enterprise that contains only the essential components needed to forward data. TechSelect uses the universal forwarder to gather data from a variety of inputs and forward your machine data to Splunk indexers.
The Splunk universal forwarder is a free, dedicated version of Splunk Enterprise that contains only the essential components needed to forward data. TechSelect uses the universal forwarder to gather data from a variety of inputs and forward your machine data to Splunk indexers. The data is then available for searching.
The universal forwarder is designed to run on production servers, having minimal CPU and memory usage and the least impact possible on mission-critical software.
Forwarders communicate with deployment servers, which then send configurations to the client forwarder. These configurations tell the forwarder what data to send to which indexers.
The forwarder sends the data encrypted to the indexers. Once the data is written to the Splunk index, searching can begin immediately; thus, searches are up to date within moments of the event occurrence.
- Universal forwarders do not have a web or application interface. Once installed, you must make configuration changes at the command line in both Windows and Unix- or Linux-based systems.
- Best practices:
- Use the universal forwarder when possible as a data collection method.
- Stop and start the universal forwarder from the command line.
- The Splunk license model is to bill by the amount of GB of daily data ingestion.
Benefits
Benefits of using the Splunk universal forwarder:
- Data consolidation from all types of inputs
- Reduces indexer load on the Data Center side (push vs. pull method)
- Improves resiliency by buffering data when needed, sending to available indexers and switching to others when needed (auto load balance)
- Administered remotely with the deployment server
These advanced steps are primarily for system administrators and others who are familiar with the command line. You don't need a bootable installer to upgrade macOS or reinstall macOS, but it can be useful when you want to install on multiple computers without downloading the installer each time.
Download macOS
Find the appropriate download link in the upgrade instructions for each macOS version:
- macOS Catalina, macOS Mojave, and macOS High Sierra download directly to your Applications folder as an app named Install macOS Catalina, Install macOS Mojave, or Install macOS High Sierra. If the installer opens after downloading, quit it without continuing installation.
To get the required installer, download from a Mac that is using macOS Sierra 10.12.5 or later, or El Capitan 10.11.6. Enterprise administrators, please download from Apple, not a locally hosted software-update server. - macOS Sierra downloads as a disk image that contains a file named InstallOS.pkg. Open this file and follow the onscreen instructions. It installs an app named Install macOS Sierra into your Applications folder.
- OS X El Capitan downloads as a disk image that contains a file named InstallMacOSX.pkg. Open this file and follow the onscreen instructions. It installs an app named Install OS X El Capitan into your Applications folder.
Use the 'createinstallmedia' command in Terminal
- Connect the USB flash drive or other volume that you're using for the bootable installer. Make sure that it has at least 12GB of available storage and is formatted as Mac OS Extended.
- Open Terminal, which is in the Utilities folder of your Applications folder.
- Type or paste one of the following commands in Terminal. These assume that the installer is still in your Applications folder, and MyVolume is the name of the USB flash drive or other volume you're using. If it has a different name, replace
MyVolume
in these commands with the name of your volume.
Catalina:*
Mojave:*
High Sierra:*
Sierra:
El Capitan: - Press Return after typing the command.
- When prompted, type your administrator password and press Return again. Terminal doesn't show any characters as you type your password.
- When prompted, type
Y
to confirm that you want to erase the volume, then press Return. Terminal shows the progress as the bootable installer is created. - When Terminal says that it's done, the volume will have the same name as the installer you downloaded, such as Install macOS Catalina. You can now quit Terminal and eject the volume.
* If your Mac is using macOS Sierra or earlier, include the
--applicationpath
argument, similar to the way this argument is used in the commands for Sierra and El Capitan.Use the bootable installer
After creating the bootable installer, follow these steps to use it:
- Plug the bootable installer into a compatible Mac.
- Use Startup Manager or Startup Disk preferences to select the bootable installer as the startup disk, then start up from it. Your Mac will start up to macOS Recovery.
Learn about selecting a startup disk, including what to do if your Mac doesn't start up from it. - Choose your language, if prompted.
- A bootable installer doesn't download macOS from the Internet, but it does require the Internet to get information specific to your Mac model, such as firmware updates. If you need to connect to a Wi-Fi network, use the Wi-Fi menu in the menu bar.
- Select Install macOS (or Install OS X) from the Utilities window, then click Continue and follow the onscreen instructions.
Learn more
For more information about the
createinstallmedia
command and the arguments that you can use with it, make sure that the macOS installer is in your Applications folder, then enter this path in Terminal:Catalina:
Mojave:
High Sierra:
Sierra:
El Capitan: