Splunk SPLK-4001 Splunk O11y Cloud Certified Metrics User Exam Exam Practice Test

The correct answers are A and D.

According to the Splunk Test Blueprint - O11y Cloud Metrics User document1, one of the alerting concepts that is covered in the exam is detectors and alerts. Detectors are the objects that define the conditions for generating alerts, and alerts are the notifications that are sent when those conditions are met.

The Splunk O11y Cloud Certified Metrics User Track document2 states that one of the recommended courses for preparing for the exam is Alerting with Detectors, which covers how to create, modify, and manage detectors and alerts.

In the Alerting with Detectors course, there is a section on Cloning Detectors, which explains that cloning a detector creates a copy of the detector with all its settings, rules, and alert recipients. The document also provides some reasons why you might want to clone a detector, such as:

To modify the rules without affecting the existing detector. This can be useful if you want to test different thresholds or conditions before applying them to the original detector.

To explore how a detector was created without risk of changing it. This can be helpful if you want to learn from an existing detector or use it as a template for creating a new one.

Therefore, based on these documents, we can conclude that A and D are accurate reasons to clone a detector. B and C are not valid reasons because:

Cloning a detector does not reduce the amount of billed TAPM for the detector. TAPM stands for Tracked Active Problem Metric, which is a metric that has been alerted on by a detector. Cloning a detector does not change the number of TAPM that are generated by the original detector or the clone.

Cloning a detector does not add an additional recipient to the detector’s alerts. Cloning a detector copies the alert recipients from the original detector, but it does not add any new ones. To add an additional recipient to a detector’s alerts, you need to edit the alert settings of the detector.

historical anomaly is a detector condition that allows you to trigger an alert when a signal deviates from its historical pattern1. Historical anomaly uses machine learning to learn the normal behavior of a signal based on its past data, and then compares the current value of the signal with the expected value based on the learned pattern1. You can use historical anomaly to detect unusual changes in a signal that are not explained by seasonality, trends, or cycles1.

Historical anomaly is suitable for creating a detector for the customer’s data, because it can account for the expected and consistent increase in traffic during November each year. Historical anomaly can learn that the traffic pattern has a seasonal component that peaks in November, and then adjust the expected value of the traffic accordingly1. This way, historical anomaly can avoid triggering alerts when the traffic increases in November, as this is not an anomaly, but rather a normal variation. However, historical anomaly can still trigger alerts when the traffic deviates from the historical pattern in other ways, such as if it drops significantly or spikes unexpectedly1.

According to the web search results1, subscribing to a built-in detector is a way to receive alerts and notifications from Splunk Observability Cloud when certain criteria are met. A built-in detector is a detector that is automatically created and configured by Splunk Observability Cloud based on the data from your integrations, such as AWS, Kubernetes, or OpenTelemetry1. To subscribe to a built-in detector, you need to do the following steps:

Find the built-in detector that you want to subscribe to. You can use the metric finder or the dashboard groups to locate the built-in detectors that are relevant to your data sources1.

Hover over the built-in detector and click the Subscribe button. This will open a dialog box where you can configure your subscription settings1.

Choose an outbound notification channel from the drop-down menu. This is where you can specify how you want to receive the alert notifications from the built-in detector. You can choose from various channels, such as email, Slack, PagerDuty, webhook, and so on2. You can also create a new notification channel by clicking the + icon2.

Enter the notification details for the selected channel. This may include your email address, Slack channel name, PagerDuty service key, webhook URL, and so on2. You can also customize the notification message with variables and markdown formatting2.

Click Save. This will subscribe you to the built-in detector and send you alert notifications through the chosen channel when the detector triggers or clears an alert.

Therefore, option C is correct.

The correct answer is A. Dimensions.

Dimensions are metadata in the form of key-value pairs that are sent along with the metrics at the time of ingest. They provide additional information about the metric, such as the name of the host that sent the metric, or the location of the server. Along with the metric name, they uniquely identify a metric time series (MTS)1

Changes to dimensions result in a new MTS, because they create a different combination of metric name and dimensions. For example, if you change the hostname dimension from host1 to host2, you will create a new MTS for the same metric name1

Properties, sources, and tags are other types of metadata that can be applied to existing MTSes after ingest. They do not contribute to uniquely identify an MTS, and they do not create a new MTS when changed2

To learn more about how to use metadata in Splunk Observability Cloud, you can refer to this documentation2.

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According to the Splunk Observability Cloud documentation1, lag is a rollup function that returns the difference between the most recent and the previous data point values seen in the metric time series reporting interval. This can be used to measure the time delta between a data point being sent and a data point being received, as long as the data points have timestamps that reflect their send and receive times. For example, if a data point is sent at 10:00:00 and received at 10:00:05, the lag value for that data point is 5 seconds.

According to the Splunk Observability Cloud documentation1, the maximum function is an analytic function that returns the highest value of a metric or a dimension over a specified time interval. The maximum function can be used as a transformation or an aggregation. A transformation applies the function to each metric time series (MTS) individually, while an aggregation applies the function to all MTS and returns a single value. For example, to discover the peak page visits for a site over the last day, you can use the following SignalFlow code:

maximum(24h, counters(“page.visits”))

This will return the highest value of the page.visits counter metric for each MTS over the last 24 hours. You can then use a chart to visualize the results and identify the peak page visits for each MTS.

The correct answer is B. A set of data points that all have the same metric name and list of dimensions.

A metric time series (MTS) is a collection of data points that have the same metric and the same set of dimensions. For example, the following sets of data points are in three separate MTS:

MTS1: Gauge metric cpu.utilization, dimension “hostname”: “host1” MTS2: Gauge metric cpu.utilization, dimension “hostname”: “host2” MTS3: Gauge metric memory.usage, dimension “hostname”: “host1”

A metric is a numerical measurement that varies over time, such as CPU utilization or memory usage. A dimension is a key-value pair that provides additional information about the metric, such as the hostname or the location. A data point is a combination of a metric, a dimension, a value, and a timestamp1

According to the web search results, dimensions are metadata in the form of key-value pairs that monitoring software sends in along with the metrics. The set of metric time series (MTS) dimensions sent during ingest is used, along with the metric name, to uniquely identify an MTS1. Splunk Observability Cloud has a limit of 36 unique dimensions per MTS2. If the limit of allowed dimensions is exceeded for an MTS, the additional dimensions are dropped and not stored or indexed by Observability Cloud2. This means that the data point is still ingested, but without the extra dimensions. Therefore, option A is correct.

The correct answer is C. 1 second.

According to the Splunk Test Blueprint - O11y Cloud Metrics User document1, one of the metrics concepts that is covered in the exam is data resolution and rollups. Data resolution refers to the granularity of the metric data points, and rollups are the process of aggregating data points over time to reduce the amount of data stored.

The Splunk O11y Cloud Certified Metrics User Track document2 states that one of the recommended courses for preparing for the exam is Introduction to Splunk Infrastructure Monitoring, which covers the basics of metrics monitoring and visualization.

In the Introduction to Splunk Infrastructure Monitoring course, there is a section on Data Resolution and Rollups, which explains that Splunk Observability Cloud collects high-resolution metrics at 1-second intervals by default, and then applies rollups to reduce the data volume over time. The document also provides a table that shows the different rollup intervals and retention periods for different resolutions.

Therefore, based on these documents, we can conclude that for a high-resolution metric, the highest possible native resolution of the metric is 1 second.

According to the web search results, dashboard groups are a feature of Splunk Observability Cloud that allows you to organize and share dashboards with other users in your organization1. You can create dashboard groups based on different criteria, such as service, team, role, or topic. You can also set permissions for each dashboard group, such as who can view, edit, or manage the dashboards in the group. Dashboard groups make it possible to share a collection of charts with your entire SRE organization, or any other group of users that you want to collaborate with.

The correct answer is D. Each data marker represents the sum of API calls in the hour leading up to the data marker.

The metric demo.trans.count is a cumulative counter metric, which means that it represents the total number of API calls since the start of the measurement. A cumulative counter metric can be used to measure the rate of change or the sum of events over a time period1

The chart below shows the metric demo.trans.count with a one-hour rollup and a line chart type. A rollup is a way to aggregate data points over a specified time interval, such as one hour, to reduce the number of data points displayed on a chart. A line chart type connects the data points with a line to show the trend of the metric over time2

Each data marker on the chart represents the sum of API calls in the hour leading up to the data marker. This is because the rollup function for cumulative counter metrics is sum by default, which means that it adds up all the data points in each time interval. For example, the data marker at 10:00 AM shows the sum of API calls from 9:00 AM to 10:00 AM3

To learn more about how to use metrics and charts in Splunk Observability Cloud, you can refer to these documentations123.

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According to the Splunk Observability Cloud documentation1, to create a detector, you need the following information:

Alert Signal: This is the metric or dimension that you want to monitor and alert on. You can select a signal from a chart or a dashboard, or enter a SignalFlow query to define the signal.

Alert Condition: This is the criteria that determines when an alert is triggered or cleared. You can choose from various built-in alert conditions, such as static threshold, dynamic threshold, outlier, missing data, and so on. You can also specify the severity level and the trigger sensitivity for each alert condition.

Alert Settings: This is the configuration that determines how the detector behaves and interacts with other detectors. You can set the detector name, description, resolution, run lag, max delay, and detector rules. You can also enable or disable the detector, and mute or unmute the alerts.

Alert Message: This is the text that appears in the alert notification and event feed. You can customize the alert message with variables, such as signal name, value, condition, severity, and so on. You can also use markdown formatting to enhance the message appearance.

Alert Recipients: This is the list of destinations where you want to send the alert notifications. You can choose from various channels, such as email, Slack, PagerDuty, webhook, and so on. You can also specify the notification frequency and suppression settings.

The possible ways to add a link to an existing dashboard from an alert are:

Build a global data link. A global data link is a feature that allows you to create a link from any dimension value in any chart or table to a dashboard of your choice. You can specify the source and target dashboards, the dimension name and value, and the query parameters to pass along. When you click on the dimension value in the alert message, you will be taken to the dashboard with the context preserved1

Add a link to the field. A field link is a feature that allows you to create a link from any field value in any search result or alert message to a dashboard of your choice. You can specify the field name and value, the dashboard name and ID, and the query parameters to pass along. When you click on the field value in the alert message, you will be taken to the dashboard with the context preserved2

Therefore, the correct answer is A and C.

To learn more about how to use global data links and field links in Splunk Observability Cloud, you can refer to these documentations12.

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The correct answer is A, C, and D. Organization metrics give insights into system usage, system limits, data ingested and token quotas. Organization metrics are included for free. A user can plot and alert on them like metrics they send to Splunk Observability Cloud.

Organization metrics are a set of metrics that Splunk Observability Cloud provides to help you measure your organization’s usage of the platform. They include metrics such as:

Ingest metrics: Measure the data you’re sending to Infrastructure Monitoring, such as the number of data points you’ve sent.

App usage metrics: Measure your use of application features, such as the number of dashboards in your organization.

Integration metrics: Measure your use of cloud services integrated with your organization, such as the number of calls to the AWS CloudWatch API.

Resource metrics: Measure your use of resources that you can specify limits for, such as the number of custom metric time series (MTS) you’ve created1

Organization metrics are not charged and do not count against any system limits. You can view them in built-in charts on the Organization Overview page or in custom charts using the Metric Finder. You can also create alerts based on organization metrics to monitor your usage and performance1

To learn more about how to use organization metrics in Splunk Observability Cloud, you can refer to this documentation1.

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The correct answer is D. Metric type.

A metric type is an optional, but highly recommended field that specifies the kind of measurement that a datapoint represents. For example, a metric type can be gauge, counter, cumulative counter, or histogram. A metric type helps Splunk Observability Cloud to interpret and display the data correctly1

To learn more about how to send metrics to Splunk Observability Cloud, you can refer to this documentation2.

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According to the Splunk Test Blueprint - O11y Cloud Metrics User document1, one of the metrics concepts that is covered in the exam is analytic functions. Analytic functions are mathematical operations that can be applied to metrics to transform, aggregate, or analyze them.

The Splunk O11y Cloud Certified Metrics User Track document2 states that one of the recommended courses for preparing for the exam is Introduction to Splunk Infrastructure Monitoring, which covers the basics of metrics monitoring and visualization.

In the Introduction to Splunk Infrastructure Monitoring course, there is a section on Analytic Functions, which explains that analytic functions can be used to perform calculations on metrics, such as sum, average, min, max, count, etc. The document also provides examples of how to use analytic functions in charts and dashboards.

One of the analytic functions that can be used is Sum Aggregation, which calculates the sum of values present in the input time series across the entire environment or per group. The document gives an example of how to use Sum Aggregation to calculate the total CPU usage across all hosts in a group by using the following syntax:

sum(cpu.utilization) by hostgroup

The component of the OpenTelemetry Collector that allows for the modification of metadata is A. Processors.

Processors are components that can modify the telemetry data before sending it to exporters or other components. Processors can perform various transformations on metrics, traces, and logs, such as filtering, adding, deleting, or updating attributes, labels, or resources. Processors can also enrich the telemetry data with additional metadata from various sources, such as Kubernetes, environment variables, or system information1

For example, one of the processors that can modify metadata is the attributes processor. This processor can update, insert, delete, or replace existing attributes on metrics or traces. Attributes are key-value pairs that provide additional information about the telemetry data, such as the service name, the host name, or the span kind2

Another example is the resource processor. This processor can modify resource attributes on metrics or traces. Resource attributes are key-value pairs that describe the entity that produced the telemetry data, such as the cloud provider, the region, or the instance type3

To learn more about how to use processors in the OpenTelemetry Collector, you can refer to this documentation1.

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