Splunk Community: How to Connect and Improve Your Splunking

We can’t talk about the Splunk Community without breaking it out into all of it’s awesome parts. As you may or may not know, community is the backbone of Splunk. It’s made up of a lot of different segments and resources that you can read about here and here, but that I’ll also discuss these ideas in this blog so you will know all of the ways you can be a part of the community as well.

Splunk Answers

No matter what answer you’re looking for, Splunk Answers is the place to find it. This is where app developers, community members, subject matter experts, and many more go to get the answers they need. All you need in order to be able to ask a question on this website is a splunk.com account, which you can get for free by registering here.

Splunkbase

Splunkbase is where all of the apps and add-ons are hosted. Core Splunk is a really great product on its own, but if you want to extend the capabilities of this product, Splunkbase is where you can go to easily make that happen. Apps and Add-ons that you find here are posted by both Splunk, and community members such as myself. Many apps will have details posted about the app, or a link to a Splunk Docs page with very detailed information about everything from setting up and installing the app, to how to use and configure it.

Splunk Blogs

This link is fairly self-explanatory. Splunk blogs can be anything from tips and tricks, to customer success stories. You’ll also find information about events, industry trends, and life at Splunk – all in the form of blogs posted by Splunk.

Splunk Developers

Splunk developers website is a wealth of information for those of you who want to look under the hood of Splunk to try and develop some of your own great content. I reference this site countless times. It was invaluable in creating the Nest Add-on for Splunk, and we use content from this page regularly here at Hurricane Labs to ensure our apps can become certified and/or approved for Splunk Cloud by using the appinspect tool.

Splunk Documentation

Splunk Documentation is all in the name. Do you want documentation about core Splunk? Here it is. Need to know how to install and configure a specific app? This is also the place. If you want the official word on how to do something Splunk related, Splunk Docs is where you get your answer.

Splunk Education

Splunk Education is the official way the community gets trained and ultimately certified on all things Splunk. If it’s Splunk related and you want to know what to do, and how to do it, this is the place to be. Splunk Education is a great resource. No matter how long you’ve been doing Splunk, you can expect to gain something from these courses. As a side note, Splunk offers free training for veterans and students through Splunk Pledge. You can find out more about that here and here.

Splunk User Groups

Splunk User Groups are a great local resource. Here you can join fellow passionate Splunkers to see what they’re doing with Splunk, and even share some of your own use cases. User Group meetings are a lot of fun and really bring the Community together, face-to-face. I’ve personally had many questions answered by awesome people who show up to these groups, and even learned about some new ways to leverage Splunk.

SplunkLive!

SplunkLive! is a single day event to teach you how to make machine data accessible, usable, and valuable. You can go here to learn about customers using Splunk, share best practices, and network with peers and members of the Splunk community. These events generally take place in bigger cities, and are much larger than a User Group.

.conf

This is the annual Splunk conference that includes people from all over the world. If you’re only going to travel to one Splunk related event all year, let this be it. Here you’ll find exciting new product announcements and some of the most interesting use-cases for Splunk you’ll ever see. This conference also takes submissions for presentations every year, so if you think you have a use-case worth sharing, submit a talk! Splunk is a community, and .conf would be nothing without that community.

Splunk Chat

This may be one of the more hidden gems in the Splunk world, but it’s an invaluable resource. Slack is a common way to communicate with other Splunk users outside of user groups, .conf, or other Splunk events. If you join the Slack channel above, you’ll be able to communicate with the greater Splunk Community—customers, partners, and Splunkers—worldwide.

Schwag Store

Not sure where to get those super cool t-shirts? This is the place. Well, this is a place. There are actually plenty of places to get Splunk t-shirts. Most of the events already mentioned above have some kind of free schwag hanging around. If you really can’t wait though, or you want a specific shirt, here’s how to go straight to the source.

SplunkTrust

I’m going to steal some text straight from the Splunk website on this one, especially on account of the fact that I am, as of 2017, a fez wearing SplunkTrust inductee.

“SplunkTrust members are the most dedicated members of the Splunk community. They assist other members, participate in events, demonstrate the power of Splunk’s products and services, and help us (Splunk) identify future product needs. In turn we (Splunk) reward them with FREE .conf passes, education, snazzy fezzes, and more.”

If you want to know more about SplunkTrust, I recommend checking out the website above, or visiting .conf and coming to talk to some of us! We’re all happy to help answer any questions you may have, or at least point you in the right direction.

Splunk Reactions

I can’t say for sure how “official” this Tumblr account is, it’s certainly not a splunk.com page and therefore not an official community website. What I can tell you, is that it is really awesome. If you’ve ever had an occasion in the Splunk world that was hard, and you need a meme to lean on, this is the place to go. You can feel free to submit your own Splunk Reactions here to be approved. You are also able to share these memes worldwide, wherever you deem appropriate.

Splunk4Good

Again, this may not be an official community page, but how can I talk about the word community without talking about a portion of Splunk that is sitting right in between Big Data and social impact? Splunk4Good has come out with some of the most intriguing projects I have ever seen around Splunk. You can find out about them from this webpage, but you can also see many of their blogs featured on blogs.splunk.com.

Hopefully we’ve provided plenty of resources for you to get out and be a part of the Splunk Community. It’s always exciting to see new members getting out and contributing some of their own experiences and expertise. With all of these great options for getting involved, there’s no reason that you too, can’t become a Splunk Ninja.