What role does the Splunk license master play?

The Splunk license master serves a critical function in managing license usage and compliance across a Splunk deployment. It is responsible for tracking the amount of data ingested by various Splunk instances within an organization to ensure that they stay within the limits of the licenses purchased. The license master collects data on daily indexing volume from all connected Splunk instances and enforces license compliance; if the data usage exceeds the licensed capacity, it can lead to system alerts or degraded performance.

This centralized management helps organizations avoid license violations and provides comprehensive insights into their data ingestion patterns, ensuring that they can effectively plan for and manage their Splunk infrastructure in accordance with their licensing agreements.