What are the three main Splunk components?

The three main components of Splunk are the search head, indexer, and forwarder.

The search head is responsible for managing search requests from users and coordinating the distribution of searches to the indexers. It provides a user interface for running searches, creating reports, and visualizing data.

The indexer processes incoming data, indexing it for efficient searching. It is where data is stored and processed, allowing users to perform searches and access historical data. The indexer ensures that the data is organized and optimized for retrieval.

The forwarder is responsible for collecting and sending log data to the indexer. It acts as an agent that gathers data from various sources and forwards it to the indexer for processing. This component can also handle the forwarding of data from multiple sources to one or more indexers.

This understanding of the Splunk architecture is crucial for setting up and managing a Splunk environment effectively. Other options include components that do not fit into the core Splunk architecture, such as GPU, streamer, or SQL database, which are not integral to Splunk's data management and analysis framework.