Overview of the Query Center

View information about the In Progress and Completed queries that that were run on the tenant.

The Query Center displays information about all queries that were run on the tenant, and the queries that are currently In Progress. The Query Center displays the following tabs:

• Query History

  View and manage all completed Cortex Query Language (XQL) and Graph Search queries. On this tab you can view query results, re-run and adjust queries, and schedule when a query runs. You can also see details of cancelled queries, including the query type and source, and the name of the user who cancelled the query.
• Active Queries

  View and manage all queries that are currently In Progress on the tenant. You can view details about a running query, including the user who ran the query, the context from which it ran, the source of the query, and the amount of time that the query has been running. From this tab you can also cancel active queries.

Note

• Very short queries might not be listed.
• You cannot cancel correlation queries.
• The default retention period for historic queries is aligned with issue retention.

Edit and run queries in Query Center

From the Query Center you can take action on the Completed and In Progress queries that are running on your tenant.

Right-click a query to see the available options, where some of the options differ depending on the type of query you've selected. The pivot (right-click) options described below are some of the ones that may require further explanation.

Note

If query limits are applied to your tenant, the number of concurrent running queries is limited per user. If query usage is reaching the defined limit, a system message warns you that a high query load is impacting performance. If you exceed the limit, new queries are blocked until query usage drops. You can view all active queries under Query Center → Active Queries, and cancel queries to reduce the load.

View the results of a query

You can view the original results of an XQL query when it was originally run in the Query Builder and added to the Query Center.

1. Select Investigation & Response → Search → Query Center → Query History.
2. Identify the XQL query by looking in the Query Name and Query Description columns.

   The Query Description column displays the parameters that were defined for a query. If necessary, use the filter on the column to reduce the number of queries displayed.

   Queries that were created from a Query Builder template are prefixed with the template name.
3. Right-click anywhere in the XQL query row and select Show results.

   You have the option to Show results in new tab or Show results in same tab.
4. (Optional) Export to file to export the results to a tab-separated values (TSV) file.
5. (Optional) Perform additional investigation on the issues.

   Right-click a value in the results table to see the options for further investigation.

Run a query

You can run a query for a Graph Search query.

1. Select Investigation & Response → Search → Query Center → Query History.
2. Identify the Graph Search query by looking in the Query Name and Query Description columns.

   The Query Description column displays the parameters that were defined for a query. If necessary, use the filter on the column to reduce the number of queries displayed.
3. Right-click anywhere in the Graph Search query row and select Run query.

   You have the option to Run in same tab or Show in new tab.
4. (Optional) The Graph Search results are displayed in a graph format by default. You can toggle to Table to view the results in a table format. In addition, you can always export the graph results using the icon at the top of the page to a PNG, SVG, or TSV file. Table results can only be exported to a TSV file.
5. (Optional) Perform additional investigation on the graph or table results.

   On the graph results, you can either hover or select different nodes for further investigation. While in the table results, you can select any cell in the table for further investigation.

Modify a query

After you view the query results of an XQL query or run a Graph Search query as explained in the tasks above, you can change your search parameters to refine the search results or correct a search parameter.

• For queries created in XQL, type your changes in the XQL query field where the original query is listed and the results are displayed in the Query Results tab. After modifying the query, you can run, schedule, or save the query.
• For queries created with a Query Builder template, the defined parameters are shown at the top of the Results page. Select Back to edit to modify the query with the template format or Continue in XQL to open the query in XQL.
• For Graph Search queries, the graph results are displayed. Click anywhere in the Graph Search query interface, where your existing query is defined, to display the complete query, update your query, and rerun the search.

Schedule a query to run

You can schedule an XQL query to run on or before a specific date. Cortex Cloud creates a new query in the Query Center, and when the query completes, it displays a notification in the notification bar.

How to schedule a query

1. Select Investigation & Response → Search → Query Center → Query History.
2. Right-click anywhere in the query and then select Schedule.
3. Choose a schedule option and the date and time that the query should run:

   • Run one time query on a specific date
   • Run query by date and time: Schedule a recurring query.
4. Click OK to schedule the query.

   Cortex Cloud creates a new query and schedules it to run on or by the selected date and time.
5. View the status of the scheduled query on the Scheduled Queries page.

   You can also make changes to the query, edit the frequency, view when the query will next run, or disable the query. For more information, see Manage scheduled queries.

Cancel a query

Note

You can cancel your own queries. To cancel queries run by other users, you must have View/Edit permissions for Configurations → Query Management. By default, Instance administrators have View/Edit permission.

On the Active Queries tab you can cancel one or more In Progress queries. You might want to cancel long-running queries, or cancel queries to reduce tenant consumption. If query limits are applied to your tenant and you exceed the defined limit of concurrent running queries, new queries are blocked until the number of active queries falls below the threshold. Canceling active queries allows you to unblock and run new queries.

How to cancel a query

1. Select Investigation & Response → Search → Query Center → Active Queries.
2. Select one or more queries and click Cancel Selected Queries.

Note

• Cancelled queries show a Canceled status. You can see details of all canceled queries in the Query History tab.
• You cannot cancel correlation rule queries.
• If you cancel a scheduled query, only the current query is cancelled. Future recurrences of the scheduled query are not affected.

Query Center reference information

The table below lists the common fields in the Query Center, where the options differ for an XQL query versus a Graph Search query.

Note

Certain fields are exposed and hidden by default. An asterisk (*) is beside every field that is exposed by default.

Query Center table

Field	Description
BQL	Indicates whether the Cortex Query Language (XQL) query was created by the native search. Native search has been deprecated; this field allows you to view data for XQL queries performed before deprecation.
COMPUTE UNIT USAGE	For XQL queries, indicates the number of query units that were used to execute the API query and Cold Storage query.
ISSUED BY *	For XQL queries, indicates the user who ran or scheduled the query. For Graph Search queries, indicates the user who ran the query.
DURATION (SEC)	Number of seconds it took to execute the XQL query.
EXECUTION ID	Unique identifier of XQL and Graph Search queries in the tenant. The identifier ID generated for queries executed in Cortex Cloud and XQL query API.
NUM OF RESULTS*	Number of results returned by the query.
PUBLIC API	Whether the source executing the XQL query was an XQL query API.
QUERY DESCRIPTION*	Query parameters used to run the query.
QUERY ID	Unique identifier of the query.
QUERY NAME*	For saved queries, the Query Name identifies the query specified according to a randomly generated number. XQL queries use the format XQL-QUERY-<number>, such as XQL-QUERY-12. Graph Search queries use the format Graph-Query-<number>, such as Graph-Query-1247. For scheduled queries, the Query Name identifies the auto-generated name of the parent XQL query. Scheduled queries also display an icon to the left of the name to indicate that the XQL query is recurring.
QUERY STATUS*	Status of the query, where the options differ based on the query type: XQL queries: Queued: The query is queued and will run when there is an available slot. Running Failed Partially completed: The query was stopped after exceeding the maximum number of permitted results. The default results for any query is a maximum of 1,000,000 results, when no limit is explicitly stated in the query. Queries based on XQL query entities are limited to 10,000 results. To reduce the number of results returned, you can adjust the query settings and rerun. Stopped: The query was stopped by an administrator. Completed Deleted: The query was pruned. Graph Search queries: Failed Completed
QUERY SYNTAX	The exact syntax used to write the query.
RESULTS SAVED*	For XQL queries, you can choose whether to save the query results, so the output of the field is either Yes or No. Yet, for Graph Search queries, the results can't be saved and must be run each time again, so the field is always No.
SIMULATED COMPUTE UNITS	Number of XQL query units that were used to execute the Hot Storage query.
Source	Source from which the query was run, for example Playbook, Report, or Investigation.
Source ID	ID of the source from where the query was run.
Source Name	Name of the source from where the query was run.
TIMESTAMP*	Date and time the query was created.
XQL	Indicates whether the XQL query was created by an XQL search.