Integrating Splunk with AEM as a Cloud Service (AEMaaCS) involves setting up Splunk on a Virtual Machine (VM) and configuring it to gather and process logs and metrics from AEMaaCS. The setup process will generally involve the following steps:
1. Setting up Splunk Enterprise on VM
Step 1: Install Splunk Enterprise on the VM
Download Splunk Enterprise:
- Go to the Splunk Downloads page and select the version for your operating system (Linux/Windows/Mac). For a VM setup, you’ll typically choose a Linux version (e.g., .rpm for RHEL/CentOS or .deb for Ubuntu).
Install Splunk on the VM:
- For Linux (Debian-based systems like Ubuntu):
wget -O splunk-8.x.x-xxxxxx-Linux-x86_64.deb https://download.splunk.com/path/to/splunk-package.deb
sudo dpkg -i splunk-8.x.x-xxxxxx-Linux-x86_64.deb
- For RHEL/CentOS (RPM-based systems):
wget -O splunk-8.x.x-xxxxxx-Linux-x86_64.rpm https://download.splunk.com/path/to/splunk-package.rpm
sudo rpm -i splunk-8.x.x-xxxxxx-Linux-x86_64.rpm
Start Splunk: After installation, you can start Splunk by running:
sudo /opt/splunk/bin/splunk start
The default login credentials are typically admin and changeme, which should be changed after your first login.
Set Splunk to Start on Boot:
sudo /opt/splunk/bin/splunk enable boot-start
Step 2: Configure Splunk
- Access Splunk Web Interface by navigating to http://<vm-ip>:8000 in your browser.
- Log in using the admin credentials you set up.
- Change the admin password after your first login.
- Set up indexing, monitoring, and data inputs. You'll need to configure the Splunk instance to accept incoming logs and data from AEMaaCS.
2. Integrating AEMaaCS with Splunk
Step 1: Install the Splunk HTTP Event Collector (HEC) on Splunk
Enable the HTTP Event Collector:
- In Splunk, go to Settings > Data Inputs and click on HTTP Event Collector.
- Click New Token to create a new token. This token will be used to authenticate AEM with Splunk.
- Provide a meaningful name (e.g., "AEM Integration") and configure the token settings.
Configure the HTTP Event Collector:
- Enable the HTTP Event Collector (HEC) if it’s not already.
- Configure the port (usually 8088), and ensure that it’s open in your VM's firewall settings.
- Make a note of the token value generated by Splunk for the HTTP Event Collector. This token will be used to authenticate AEMaaCS to Splunk.
Step 2: Configure AEMaaCS to Send Logs to Splunk
To send logs from AEMaaCS to Splunk, you can use Splunk Universal Forwarder or the HTTP Event Collector (HEC). Since AEMaaCS is a cloud service, the most suitable way is to use HEC or log forwarding via a logging service (e.g., Loggly or AWS CloudWatch).
Here’s how to configure AEMaaCS to send logs to Splunk:
Set up Splunk HTTP Event Collector (HEC):
- Log into AEMaaCS and configure the logging mechanism. AEMaaCS typically uses the Sling Logging framework and supports log forwarding.
- In your AEMaaCS instance, go to /etc/sling/logging configuration, and set up a custom logging configuration to send logs to Splunk HEC.
Configure AEMaaCS to Forward Logs to Splunk:
- Use the Splunk HEC API to forward logs directly from AEMaaCS to Splunk.
- This will involve setting up a logging framework in AEMaaCS that pushes log data to the Splunk HEC endpoint.
Example configuration for a logger in AEMaaCS:
{
"logger": {
"level": "INFO",
"handlers": [
{
"type": "splunk_hec",
"url": "http://<splunk-ip>:8088",
"token": "<your-hec-token>",
"source": "aem-logs"
}
]
}
}Configure AEM Logging Services:
- In AEMaaCS, configure the Sling Logger or other appropriate loggers to send log data via HEC. You may need to create a custom handler if one doesn’t already exist. Ensure the handler uses the token and endpoint you created in the Splunk HEC setup.
Step 3: Verify Data Flow into Splunk
Once the AEMaaCS logs are being forwarded to Splunk via HEC, you can verify the log entries are showing up by querying Splunk's index. In the Splunk web interface, go to the Search & Reporting app and query logs to see if the data from AEMaaCS is appearing.
Example query in Splunk:
index="aem_logs" source="aem-logs"
Monitor Logs:
- You can create custom dashboards in Splunk to monitor the AEM logs. This can include performance metrics, error logs, and other key data points like request/response times, page load times, etc.
3. Set Up Alerts and Dashboards in Splunk
After AEMaaCS logs are flowing into Splunk, you can create customized alerts and dashboards for real-time monitoring and proactive alerting based on certain conditions (like errors, performance issues, or slow response times). For example:
Create a Dashboard:
- You can create a custom dashboard in Splunk that visualizes logs from AEM, such as error logs, page load time, etc.
- Use Splunk Search Processing Language (SPL) to define your queries.
Set up Alerts:
- Configure alerts in Splunk for specific log conditions like errors or high response times to get notified when issues arise.
4. Optional: Use Splunk Apps for AEM
You can also look for Splunk Apps that are designed to integrate with Adobe Experience Manager (AEM). These apps typically come pre-configured with dashboards and searches tailored for AEM. This can help reduce the effort involved in setting up a complete monitoring solution.
Some popular Splunk Apps might include:
- Splunk for AEM (Adobe Experience Manager): Available on Splunkbase, these apps can simplify integration.
- Splunk App for Web Analytics: Useful for monitoring AEM-related analytics.
Conclusion
To integrate Splunk with AEMaaCS, you need to:
- Install Splunk on your VM and set it up to collect data.
- Configure AEMaaCS to send logs and metrics to Splunk, using HTTP Event Collector (HEC) or other logging methods.
- Monitor and visualize the data in Splunk through dashboards and alerts.
While Splunk offers a lot of flexibility for logging and monitoring, the key challenge with AEMaaCS (being a cloud-native solution) is ensuring that logs are properly forwarded from AEMaaCS to Splunk using the right data input methods.
