SPLK-4001 Splunk O11y Cloud Certified Metrics User Exam Questions and Answers

The correct answer is A. 64.

According to the web search results, the limit on the number of properties that an MTS can have is 64. A property is a key-value pair that you can assign to a dimension of an existing MTS to add more context to the metrics. For example, you can add the property use: QA to the host dimension of your metrics to indicate that the host is used for QA1

Properties are different from dimensions, which are key-value pairs that are sent along with the metrics at the time of ingest. Dimensions, along with the metric name, uniquely identify an MTS. The limit on the number of dimensions per MTS is 362

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

1: https://docs.splunk.com/Observability/metrics-and-metadata/metrics-dimensions-mts.html#Custom-properties 2: https://docs.splunk.com/Observability/metrics-and-metadata/metrics-dimensions-mts.html

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.

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 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.

The chart visualization types that are unaffected by changing the time picker on a dashboard are:

• Single Value: A single value chart shows the current value of a metric or an expression. It does not depend on the time range of the dashboard, but only on the data resolution and rollup function of the chart1
• List: A list chart shows the values of a metric or an expression for each dimension value in a table format. It does not depend on the time range of the dashboard, but only on the data resolution and rollup function of the chart2

Therefore, the correct answer is A and D.

To learn more about how to use different chart visualization types in Splunk Observability Cloud, you can refer to this documentation3.

1: https://docs.splunk.com/Observability/gdi/metrics/charts.html#Single-value 2: https://docs.splunk.com/Observability/gdi/metrics/charts.html#List 3: https://docs.splunk.com/Observability/gdi/metrics/charts.html

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 C. Timeshift.

According to the Splunk Observability Cloud documentation1, timeshift is an analytic function that allows you to compare the current value of a metric with its value at a previous time interval, such as an hour ago or a week ago. You can use the timeshift function to measure the change in a metric over time and identify trends, anomalies, or patterns. For example, to identify the servers where utilization has increased the most since last week, you can use the following SignalFlow code:

timeshift(1w, counters(“server.utilization”))

This will return the value of the server.utilization counter metric for each server one week ago. You can then subtract this value from the current value of the same metric to get the difference in utilization. You can also use a chart to visualize the results and sort them by the highest difference in utilization.

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.

1: https://opentelemetry.io/docs/collector/configuration/#processors 2: https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-contrib/tree/main/processor/attributesprocessor 3: https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-contrib/tree/main/processor/resourceprocessor

The most likely root cause of the issue is D. The detector has a muting rule.

A muting rule is a way to temporarily stop a detector from sending notifications for certain alerts, without disabling the detector or changing its alert conditions. A muting rule can be useful when you want to avoid alert noise during planned maintenance, testing, or other situations where you expect the metrics to deviate from normal1

When a detector has a muting rule, it will still generate alerts within the Splunk Observability UI, but it will not send email notifications or any other types of notifications that you have configured for the detector. You can see if a detector has a muting rule by looking at the Muting Rules tab on the detector page. You can also create, edit, or delete muting rules from there1

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

According to the Splunk O11y Cloud Certified Metrics User Track document1, a single-instance dashboard is a type of dashboard that displays charts and information for a single instance of a service or host. You can use a single-instance dashboard to monitor the performance and health of a specific server, such as the one that is restarting due to power supply issues. You can also create detectors for the metrics that are relevant to the server, such as CPU usage, memory usage, disk usage, and uptime. Therefore, option A is correct.

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. Only metrics with a dimension of host and a value beginning with test-.

This filter returns the metrics that have a host dimension that matches the pattern test-. For example, test-01, test-abc, test-xyz, etc. The asterisk () is a wildcard character that can match any string of characters1

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

1: https://docs.splunk.com/Observability/gdi/metrics/search.html#Filter-metrics 2: https://docs.splunk.com/Observability/gdi/metrics/search.html

The required components in the configuration of a data point are:

• Metric Name: A metric name is a string that identifies the type of measurement that the data point represents, such as cpu.utilization, memory.usage, or response.time. A metric name is mandatory for every data point, and it must be unique within a Splunk Observability Cloud organization1
• Timestamp: A timestamp is a numerical value that indicates the time at which the data point was collected or generated. A timestamp is mandatory for every data point, and it must be in epoch time format, which is the number of seconds since January 1, 1970 UTC1
• Value: A value is a numerical value that indicates the magnitude or quantity of the measurement that the data point represents. A value is mandatory for every data point, and it must be compatible with the metric type of the data point1

Therefore, the correct answer is A, C, and D.

To learn more about how to configure data points in Splunk Observability Cloud, you can refer to this documentation1.

1: https://docs.splunk.com/Observability/gdi/metrics/metrics.html#Data-points