In Splunk, what is the purpose of using a heavy forwarder?

The purpose of a heavy forwarder in Splunk is to forward data while performing parsing and indexing. Heavy forwarders can process the incoming data before sending it to other Splunk instances, such as indexers. This means they perform operations like data transformations, filtering, and extracting fields from the data during the forwarding process. This capability allows for efficient data management and ensures that only the needed data, in the correct format, reaches the indexers, optimizing the overall data pipeline in a Splunk deployment.

This capability distinguishes heavy forwarders from other types, such as universal forwarders, which primarily focus on sending raw data without parsing. While the sending of data securely is important, heavy forwarders are primarily recognized for their ability to preprocess the data. They are not passive receivers, which would imply they do not perform any active function like parsing. Additionally, while they may contribute indirectly to search speeds by ensuring data is properly indexed, enhancing the speed of indexed searches is not their primary function. Their core strength lies in handling data transformation and forwarding efficiently, which is why the indication of forwarding while parsing and indexing is the accurate function of a heavy forwarder.