Introducing DS Management App: A Faster Alternative to Splunk Forwarder/Agent Management
Splunk Deployment Server is the default way to manage forwarder and agent apps, but when you have thousands of clients it can feel slow, fragile and hard to trust. The DS Management App takes the same underlying Splunk features and wraps them in a faster, more scalable approach so you can push apps, test changes and migrate serverclasses without fighting the UI.
Deployment Server is a useful way to track apps and configurations across Splunk forwarders. Once you pass a few thousand deployment clients, the cracks show up quickly. Pages lag, pushes take longer than they should and you end up stretching the phone home interval just to keep the system responsive. That is the opposite of what you want when agents are the way data reaches your Splunk environment.
Why we built the Splunk DS Management App
At Data Elicit we wanted something that could keep up with more than ten thousand deployment clients without turning the UI into a waiting game. DS Management App uses Splunk features like custom REST endpoints and static endpoints, then layers a leaner workflow on top so you can manage apps and serverclasses at scale.
Common problems with a large Deployment Server setup:
- Slow and clunky Deployment Server UI.
- Pushes for apps and add-ons taking longer than expected.
- Phone home intervals raised from sixty seconds to many minutes just to reduce load.
What DS Management App does differently:
- High scalability. Run with more than ten thousand deployment clients on a sixty second interval without the interface grinding to a halt.
- Responsive UI. A cleaner dashboard that stays usable even when you are working with many serverclasses and deployment apps.
- Migration built in. Pages that help you move apps and serverclass definitions instead of juggling files by hand.
- Testing support. A way to keep a subset of clients aside for controlled rollouts so you can validate changes before they reach production.
- Duplicate GUID cleanup. Tools to help resolve duplicate GUID issues that show up in bigger environments.
How it works
1. DS Management App on the Deployment Server
- Provides a custom REST endpoint for deployment logic.
- Maintains static files that describe the desired state for each deployment client.
2. Add-on on deployment clients
- Tries to fetch its static file based on GUID, IP, host name and client name. If nothing is found it asks the REST API for a fresh list, which is generated and stored for reuse.
- Compares the received application list and checksums with local state. When differences appear it installs new apps, removes old ones, updates changed apps and restarts Splunk when required.
- If nothing has changed, it does nothing and simply waits for the next interval. Retry logic handles API failures and logs errors if retries do not succeed.
- This cycle repeats on a short schedule so your forwarders stay aligned with the desired configuration.
Get the source code
DS Management App is released as open source so teams can review it, extend it and fit it into their own deployment patterns. You can explore the implementation and adjust it to match your environment.
GitHub Repository →How to get started
- Install the DS Management App on your Splunk server.
- Add Deployment Server connection details, repository path and phone home interval in the app settings.
- Use the migration page to move existing apps and serverclasses into the new structure.
- Manage deployment clients through the forwarder management UI and keep an eye on test groups during rollouts.
Contribute and collaborate
DS Management App is meant to grow with the Splunk community. Feedback from real environments is how it keeps getting better.
- Suggest improvements or refinements to workflows.
- Report bugs and edge cases that show up at scale.
- Request new features that would help your team.
Help and services
Data Elicit focuses on solutions that make it easier to monitor, manage and observe complex environments. DS Management App is one part of that, aimed at fixing the pain that shows up when Deployment Server has to deal with far more clients than it was designed for.
If you want support with this app or need a hand crafting a deployment model for your own Splunk estate, reach out to our team and we can work through design options, automation and monitoring patterns together.
For project discussions or help with custom Splunk apps, contact us at contactus@dataelicit.com and we will follow up.
Conclusion
DS Management App gives Splunk admins a faster and more predictable way to control forwarders and agents. Instead of stretching polling intervals and babysitting pushes, you can manage clients at scale, understand what changed and keep the environment in line with your standards.
Ready to dive deeper?
The overview here covers the main flows. In real deployments we align DS Management App with your forwarder topology, environments and rollout patterns so teams can ship changes without worrying about the underlying mechanics.
With a tuned DS Management App in place you get faster deployments, cleaner migrations and clearer visibility into which clients are running which apps at any time.
Get in touch with us today
to learn more about:
- ›DS Management App features and benefits
- ›Our Splunk professional and development services
- ›Optimizing your Deployment Server and forwarder fleet for scale
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