Splunk Enterprise Certified Admin Practice Test

What does the command 'splunk restart' do?

1. Stops the Splunk service

2. Restarts the Splunk service

3. Reloads configuration files

4. Makes data available to users

The correct answer is: Restarts the Splunk service

The command 'splunk restart' is specifically designed to restart the Splunk service. When executed, it performs a graceful shutdown of the Splunk platform and then initiates the start-up process again. This is essential for applying configuration changes, ensuring that updates to the system are recognized and that any modifications made to the Splunk environment take effect. In scenarios where configuration files have been adjusted or updated, a restart ensures that all changes are properly loaded and operational. This command is particularly useful during maintenance or when applying updates that necessitate a full service restart. While stopping the Splunk service can be necessary for certain tasks, simply stopping it does not activate the subsequent process of starting the service again, which is a key part of what 'splunk restart' accomplishes. Conversely, reloading configuration files can be done without a complete restart using different commands, such as 'splunk reload', and making data available to users is typically handled by the indexer and related services rather than through a restart command.