Splunk Enterprise Certified Architect Practice Test

Which of the following describe search head clustering?

1. A deployer is required.

2. At least three search heads are needed.

3. Search heads must meet high-performance reference server requirements.

4. The deployer must have sufficient CPU and network resources.

The correct answer is: At least three search heads are needed.

Search head clustering is a feature in Splunk that enhances the capability of search heads to perform distributed searching, load balancing, and improved fault tolerance. The requirement for having at least three search heads is crucial for establishing a robust and reliable cluster. In a clustering setup, this number of search heads supports failover and ensures that even if one or two search heads are unavailable, the remaining one or two can continue to process search requests, thus maintaining the cluster's stability and availability. A minimum of three search heads allows for the consensus model of leader election and prevents "split-brain" scenarios, where two nodes compete to lead, which could lead to data inconsistencies. While it is beneficial for the deployer to have adequate resources and maintaining high-performance hardware for search heads can contribute to better performance, these specifics do not define the fundamental requirements that establish a search head cluster.