http://www.splunk.com/view/SP-CAAAGPR

Explanation/Reference: https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/7.3.1/Admin/Configurationfiledirectories

The correct answer is B. The network input in Splunk might be found in the $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/apps/$appName/local/inputs.conf file.
A network input is a type of input that monitors data from TCP or UDP ports. To configure a network input, you need to specify the port number, the connection host, the source, and the sourcetype in the inputs.conf file. You can also set other optional settings, such as index, queue, and host_regex1.
The inputs.conf file is a configuration file that contains the settings for different types of inputs, such as files, directories, scripts, network ports, and Windows event logs. The inputs.conf file can be located in various directories, depending on the scope and priority of the settings. The most common locations are:
$SPLUNK_HOME/etc/system/default: This directory contains the default settings for all inputs. You should not modify or copy the files in this directory2.
$SPLUNK_HOME/etc/system/local: This directory contains the custom settings for all inputs that apply to the entire Splunk instance. The settings in this directory override the default settings2.
$SPLUNK_HOME/etc/apps/$appName/default: This directory contains the default settings for all inputs that are specific to an app. You should not modify or copy the files in this directory2.
$SPLUNK_HOME/etc/apps/$appName/local: This directory contains the custom settings for all inputs that are specific to an app. The settings in this directory override the default and system settings2.
Therefore, the best practice is to create or edit the inputs.conf file in the $SPLUNK_HOME/etc/apps/$appName/local directory, where $appName is the name of the app that you want to configure the network input for. This way, you can avoid modifying the default files and ensure that your settings are applied to the specific app.
The other options are incorrect because:
A) There is no network directory under the apps directory. The network input settings should be in the inputs.conf file, not in a separate directory.
C) There is no udp.conf file in Splunk. The network input settings should be in the inputs.conf file, not in a separate file. The system directory is not the recommended location for custom settings, as it affects the entire Splunk instance.
D) The var/lib/splunk directory is where Splunk stores the indexed data, not the input settings. The homePath setting is used to specify the location of the index data, not the input data. The inputName is not a valid variable for inputs.conf.

Explanation/Reference: https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/7.3.1/Indexer/SmartStoredataretention

https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/7.3.1/Admin/Configurationfiledirectories Section titled, Configuration file directories, states “A detailed list of settings for each configuration file is provided in the .spec file names for that configuration file. You can find the latest version of the .spec and .
example files in the $SPLUNK_HOME/etc system/README folder of your Splunk Enterprise installation…”

Reference:https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/SplunkCloud/8.2.2105/SearchReference/Metadata

homePath = $SPLUNK_DB/hatchdb/db
coldPath = $SPLUNK_DB/hatchdb/colddb
thawedPath = $SPLUNK_DB/hatchdb/thaweddb
https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/latest/Admin/Indexesconf
https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/7.3.1/Admin/Indexesconf#PER_INDEX_OPTIONS

Explanation
Reference
https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/8.2.3/Admin/Configurationparametersandthedatapipeline The parsing phase is the process of extracting fields and values from raw data. The parsing phase respects LINE_BREAKER, SHOULD_LINEMERGE, BREAK_ONLY_BEFORE_DATE, and all other line merging settings in props.conf. These settings determine how Splunk breaks the data into events based on certain criteria, such as timestamps or regular expressions. The event boundaries are defined by the props.conf file, which can be modified by the administrator. Therefore, the parsing phase is the last opportunity for defining event boundaries.

–reset Reset the fishbucket for the given key or file in the btree. Resetting the checkpoint for an active monitor input reindexes data, resulting in increased license use. https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/8.1.1/Troubleshooting/CommandlinetoolsforusewithSupport

https://www.splunk.com/en_us/blog/tips-and-tricks/what-is-this-fishbucket-thing.html
“Every Splunk instance has a fishbucket index, except the lightest of hand-tuned lightweight forwarders, and if you index a lot of files it can get quite large. As any other index, you can change the retention policy to control the size via indexes.conf” Reference https://community.splunk.com/t5/Archive/How-to-reindex-data-from-a-forwarder/td-p/93310

The correct answer is D. No, because the event time is greater than the retention time.
According to the Splunk documentation1, the frozenTimePeriodInSecs setting in indexes.conf determines how long Splunk software retains indexed data before deleting it or archiving it to a remote storage. The default value is 188697600 seconds, which is equivalent to six years. The setting can be overridden on a per- index basis.
In this case, the cat_facts index has a frozenTimePeriodInSecs setting of 2630000 seconds, which is equivalent to about 30 days. This means that any event that is older than 30 days from the current time will be removed from the index and will not be searchable.
The event timestamp was 3739283 seconds ago, which is equivalent to about 43 days. This means that the event is older than the retention time of the cat_facts index and will not be searchable.
The other settings in the stanza, such as maxHotSpanSecs and maxTota1DataSizeMB, do not affect the retention time of the events. They only affect the size and duration of the buckets that store the events.
References: 1: Set a retirement and archiving policy – Splunk Documentation

Explanation
Adding further clarity and quoting same Splunk reference URL from @giubal”
“To keep configuration settings consistent across peer nodes, configuration files are managed from the cluster master, which pushes the files to the slave-app directories on the peer nodes. Files in the slave-app directories have the highest precedence in a cluster peer’s configuration. Here is the expanded precedence order for cluster peers:
1.Slave-app local directories — highest priority
2. System local directory
3. App local directories
4. Slave-app default directories
5. App default directories
6. System default directory –lowest priority

The CLI command “Splunk add forward-server indexer:<receiving-port>” is used to define the indexer and the listening port on forwards. The command creates this kind of entry “[tcpout-server://<ip address>:<port>]” in the outputs.conf file.
https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Forwarder/8.2.2/Forwarder/Configureforwardingwithoutputs.conf

Explanation/Reference: https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/7.3.1/Security/Addandeditusers

Reference:
Splunk platform attempts native authentication first. If authentication fails outside of a local account that doesn’t exist, there is no attempt to use LDAP to log in. This is adapted from precedence of Splunk authentication schema.