Which type of forwarder is designed to have minimal impact on data transmission?

The Universal Forwarder is specifically designed to have minimal impact on the performance of the source machine while transmitting data to a Splunk instance. It operates efficiently by collecting and forwarding log data without engaging in extensive parsing or indexing of the data on the client side. This lightweight nature makes it ideal for environments where resource usage needs to be kept to a minimum, especially on servers that already have heavy workloads.

In contrast, a Heavy Forwarder is more robust, capable of parsing and transforming data before forwarding it to the indexer. This can lead to higher resource consumption, which is not suitable for all scenarios. Other types of forwarders, such as the Basic Forwarder and Enterprise Forwarder, do not align with the specific design goal of minimizing the impact on data transmission that the Universal Forwarder achieves. The specific architecture and approach of the Universal Forwarder make it the preferred choice for seamless and efficient data transmission in Splunk deployments.