Do You Splunk 2.0

A little over two years ago I blogged Do you Splunk? about the reporting integration with our FirePass SSL VPN and BIG-IP ASM. The Splunk reports have provided customers valuable insight into application access and user behavior along with deep analysis of application violations, web attacks and other key metrics. Recently, Splunk and F5 have been working behind the scenes and now you can also get 22 different templates for detailed reporting on the BIG-IP Access Policy Manager. BIG-IP APM is a flexible, high-performance access and security solution that runs as a module on BIG-IP LTM.

Splunk is the data engine for IT. It collects, indexes and harnesses the fast-moving IT data generated by all of your IT systems and infrastructure - whether physical, virtual or in the cloud and correlates various pieces of data sources to provide new views and new insights. Splunk makes it possible to search and navigate data from any application, server or network device from a web browser, in real time. Logs, configurations, messages, traps, alerts, and scripts: if a machine generates it, Splunk will index it. The Splunk for F5 App provides real-time dashboards for monitoring key performance metrics. Reports from Splunk support long-term trending and can be downloaded in PDF or Excel formats or scheduled for email delivery. The F5 App supports core Splunk functionality such as deep drill-down from graphical elements, robust role-based access controls and Splunk’s award-winning search capabilities.

The following are a sample of the reports available in this version of Splunk for F5 using ASM, APM and FirePass data:

Request Status Over Time
Top Attacker
Top Sites
Top Violations
Active Sync by Device Type
Top Device Type
Top User
Geo-location Reports
Session Duration and Throughput
Authentication Success/Failure
Connections by User
Failed Connections by User
All Connections Over Time

Splunk also has the unique ability to augment data from FirePass and ASM by connecting to and gathering data from Active Directory or LDAP and asset management databases that can highlight asset or application owner information.

Businesses are faced with competing challenges when it comes to granting their mobile workforce access to company data. The data must be readily accessible to users on the go but at the same time companies must protect and safeguard their internal systems that contain sensitive information. Robust monitoring controls are a must for maintaining auditing access, enabling dynamic application access and preventing data loss and availability issues.

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