Splunk Enterprise Certified Architect Practice Test

The algorithm used to determine captaincy in a Splunk search head cluster is the Raft distributed consensus. This algorithm plays a critical role in ensuring that there is a single authoritative node, known as the captain, which manages leadership among the search heads. By using the Raft consensus protocol, the search head cluster can achieve strong consistency and fault tolerance, facilitating effective decision-making in the leadership process.

Raft is designed to handle various situations in distributed systems, such as leader election and log replication, which are essential for maintaining the cluster's integrity and performance. It allows for a clear and efficient method of selecting a captain based on the current state of the cluster, ensuring that even if some nodes fail, a new captain can be elected quickly without disrupting the overall system.

The other options listed do not accurately reflect the consensus mechanism used in Splunk. This highlights the importance of understanding the foundational principles of distributed systems and how they are applied in technologies like Splunk.