The Infoblox platform-managed Data Connector is a utility designed to collect DNS query and response data and security logs from specified sources. It transfers the collected data to defined destinations such as the Infoblox Threat Defense, Infoblox NIOS reporting server, and generic syslog such as a SIEM (Security Information and Event Manager). The Data Connector supports integrations with Splunk using the Splunk forwarder and generic syslog with CEF or LEEF message format.

You can deploy multiple Data Connectors to balance the load and optimize data transfer to Infoblox NIOS Reporting.

The Data Connector filters source data based on user criteria (thus reducing data quantity) and converts the data to a format that can be securely transferred to and easily consumed by supported destinations. It acts as a central point for data collection across your network devices, which reduces the impact of data exchange and improves your network performance.

The following illustration describes the basic concept of the data collection process, which includes collecting supported data from NIOS or Infoblox Platform, filtering and storing the data, and sending the data to the supported destinations.

The diagram shows how data is collected from NIOS or BloxOne Cloud, stored, filtered, and sent to supported destinations, such as Syslog, Splunk, Splunk Cloud, NIOS Reporting, and Infoblox Cloud.
Diagram: A depiction of the Data Connector information flow where network event data from various sources is aggregated and filtered, then distributed to different systems for logging, analysis, and reporting.

Note the following:

The Data Connector collects DNS query and response data from the Infoblox Platform services and forwards this data to the NIOS reporting server through the SCP protocol, to the Infoblox Platform destination via HTTP requests, and to Syslog tools using UDP, TCP, and TLS protocols.
To ensure confidentiality, all protocol exchanges to and from the Data Connector are encrypted.

For more information, see the following:

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