This community innovation has been accepted at the 2026 DHIS2 Annual Conference as a digital poster.
Improving DHIS2 Performance with Splunk Monitoring
Background The U.S. government funded project Meeting Targets and Maintaining Epidemic Control (EpiC) supports countries to achieve and sustain HIV epidemic control through strengthened service delivery and strategic use of data. Implemented across multiple countries, EpiC works with governments to improve health information systems, and promote data driven decision making. Within EpiC, DHIS2 serves as a core platform for routine monitoring of HIV services. DHIS2 is deployed across more than 20 instances on physical and cloud based servers, used simultaneously by hundreds of users. Challenges As scale and usage of DHIS2 instances increased, operational challenges emerged, including gaps in monitoring, fragmented coordination between infrastructure, security, and application support teams, and delays in detecting and resolving issues. Slow resolution impacted data availability, system performance, and ultimately resulted in user mistrust. Support teams operated at different levels of access and responsibility, while communication with end users relied on instant messaging, email, and ticketing systems. Traditional reactive support models proved insufficient for a platform expected to function reliably and support accountable decision making. Solutions To address these challenges, we implemented centralized monitoring using Splunk. Splunk is a data platform that enables collection and analysis of machine generated information in real time. We used Splunk to integrate DHIS2 application logs and web server logs into a unified operational layer. This enables proactive identification of system failures, tracker data flow disruptions, and abnormal usage patterns. Further, it simplifies error troubleshooting and resolution across instances. Conclusion Centralized monitoring transformed DHIS2 support from reactive to proactive, improving consistent performance. By repositioning system monitoring within governance and accountability structures, countries gain a more resilient and transparent foundation for health data and service delivery.
Primary Author: Samuel Anthonio
Keywords:
Logs, Monitoring, Tracker, HIV, Health
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