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The site_mappings attribute should be added to the master node’s server.conf file when decommissioning a site in an indexer cluster. The site_mappings attribute is used to specify how the master node should reassign the buckets from the decommissioned site to the remaining sites. The site_mappings attribute is a comma-separated list of site pairs, where the first site is the decommissioned site and the second site is the destination site. For example, site_mappings = site1:site2,site3:site4 means that the buckets from site1 will be moved to site2, and the buckets from site3 will be moved to site4. The available_sites attribute is used to specify which sites are currently available in the cluster, and it is automatically updated by the master node. The site_search_factor and site_replication_factor attributes are used to specify the number of searchable and replicated copies of each bucket for each site, and they are not affected by the decommissioning process

When converting from a single-site to a multi-site cluster, existing single-site clustered buckets will maintain replication as required according to the single-site policies, but never age out. Single-site clustered buckets are buckets that were created before the conversion to a multi-site cluster. These buckets will continue to follow the single-site replication and search factors, meaning that they will have the same number of copies and searchable copies across the cluster, regardless of the site. These buckets will never age out, meaning that they will never be frozen or deleted, unless they are manually converted to multi-site buckets. Single-site clustered buckets will not continue to replicate within the origin site, because they will be distributed across the cluster according to the single-site policies. Single-site clustered buckets will not be replicated across all peers in the multi-site cluster, because they will follow the single-site replication factor, which may be lower than the multi-site total replication factor. Single-site clustered buckets will not stop replicating within the single-site and remain on the indexer they reside on, because they will still be subject to the replication and availability rules of the cluster

The Monitoring Console (MC) is the Splunk Enterprise monitoring tool that lets you view detailed topology and performance information about your Splunk Enterprise deployment1. The MC can be installed on any Splunk Enterprise instance that can access the data from all the instances in the deployment2. However, following the Splunk recommendations, the MC should be installed on the search head cluster deployer, which is a dedicated instance that manages the configuration bundle for the search head cluster members3. This way, the MC can monitor the search head cluster as well as the indexer cluster and the forwarders, without affecting the performance or availability of the other instances4. The other options are not recommended because they either introduce additional load on the existing instances (such as A and D) or do not have access to the data from the search head cluster (such as B).

1: About the Monitoring Console - Splunk Documentation 2: Add Splunk Enterprise instances to the Monitoring Console 3: Configure the deployer - Splunk Documentation 4: [Monitoring Console setup and use - Splunk Documentation]

 The splunk diag --exclude command is a way to exclude search artifacts when creating a diag. A diag is a diagnostic snapshot of a Splunk instance that contains various logs, configurations, and other information. Search artifacts are temporary files that are generated by search jobs and stored in the dispatch directory. Search artifacts can be excluded from the diag by using the --exclude option and specifying the dispatch directory. The splunk diag --debug --refresh command is a way to create a diag with debug logging enabled and refresh the diag if it already exists. The splunk diag --disable=dispatch command is not a valid command, because the --disable option does not exist. The splunk diag --filter-searchstrings command is a way to filter out sensitive information from the search strings in the diag

The splunk_instrumentation.log file is the least helpful in troubleshooting a crash, because it contains information about the Splunk Instrumentation feature, which collects and sends usage data to Splunk Inc. for product improvement purposes. This file does not contain any information about the Splunk processes, errors, or crashes. The other options are more helpful in troubleshooting a crash, because they contain relevant information about the Splunk daemon, the standard error output, and the crash report12

1: https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/9.1.2/Troubleshooting/WhatSplunklogsaboutitself#splunk_instrumentation.log  2: https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/9.1.2/Troubleshooting/WhatSplunklogsaboutitself#splunkd_stderr.log

When installing Enterprise Security on a Search Head Cluster (SHC), the following steps should be done: Install Enterprise Security on the deployer, and use the deployer to deploy Enterprise Security to the cluster members. Enterprise Security is a premium app that provides security analytics and monitoring capabilities for Splunk. Enterprise Security can be installed on a SHC by using the deployer, which is a standalone instance that distributes apps and other configurations to the SHC members. Enterprise Security should be installed on the deployer first, and then deployed to the cluster members using the splunk apply shcluster-bundle command. Enterprise Security should not be installed on a staging instance, because a staging instance is not part of the SHC deployment process. Enterprise Security configurations should not be copied to the deployer, because they are already included in the Enterprise Security app package.

The deployer distributes apps and non-search related and manual configuration file changes to the search head cluster members. The deployer does not bootstrap a clean Splunk install for a search head cluster, as this is done by the captain. The deployer also does not distribute runtime knowledge object changes made by users across the search head cluster, as this is done by the replication factor. For more information, see Use the deployer to distribute apps and configuration updates in the Splunk documentation.

The _internal index contains license-related events, such as the license usage, the license quota, the license pool, the license stack, and the license violations. These events are logged by the license manager in the license_usage.log file, which is part of the _internal index. The _audit index contains audit events, such as user actions, configuration changes, and search activity. These events are logged by the audit trail in the audit.log file, which is part of the _audit index. The _license index does not exist in Splunk, as the license-related events are stored in the _internal index. The _introspection index contains platform instrumentation data, such as the resource usage, the disk objects, the search activity, and the data ingestion. These data are logged by the introspection generator in various log files, such as resource_usage.log, disk_objects.log, search_activity.log, and data_ingestion.log, which are part of the _introspection index. For more information, see About Splunk Enterprise logging and [About the _internal index] in the Splunk documentation.