Best Practices

Oftentimes during the course of a project, you may encounter schedule changes, new requirements or requirement changes, and risks.  When these things happen, it is still possible to complete the project however, without a project plan, it’s almost impossible to do so successfully.  A well-structured, clear, and concise project plan can always help to ensure that everything goes smoothly, no matter how many bumps you may encounter along the way.

According to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, a project plan is defined as a “formal, approved document used to guide both project...

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Your Splunk Shoe Rack

When splunking with a new customer, one the first things I review when auditing their environment is their index structure. Why? Well there's a lot you can tell about the maturity of a Splunk deployment based on this particular configuration. The old saying that Forrest learned from his mom comes to mind...

"Momma always says there's an awful lot you could tell about a person by their shoes. Where...

In my time working with and using Splunk, I have learned a few tricks and tips to make the Splunk experience even better. This post assumes you are familiar with a few Splunk keywords. If you are having trouble following along, take a look at this link and look up the terms: http://docs.splunk.com/Splexicon. If you have never seen Splunk before, I suggest taking a look at the Splunk Tutorial to familiarize yourself with the product: ...

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What is Syslog?

If you're familiar with IT system administration, syslog data is something you've most likely come across.  It's a standard used to log server, system, and device messages.  It was originally developed as part of the Sendmail project in the 1980's and has become the standard used for Unix-based systems and for network devices such as...