https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/8.2.2/Admin/Distdeploylicenses#:~:text=License%20requirements,do%20not%20index%20external%20data.
"All Splunk Enterprise instances functioning as management components needs access to an Enterprise license. Management components include the deployment server, the indexer cluster manager node, the search head cluster deployer, and the monitoring console."
https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/8.2.2/Updating/Aboutdeploymentserver
"The deployment server is the tool for distributing configurations, apps, and content updates to groups of Splunk Enterprise instances."

Reference:
Splunk platform attempts native authentication first. If authentication fails outside of a local account that doesn't exist, there is no attempt to use LDAP to log in. This is adapted from precedence of Splunk authentication schema.

Explanation/Reference: https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/7.3.0/Admin/Wheretofindtheconfigurationfiles

"The forwarder/indexer relationship can be considered platform agnostic (within the sphere of supported platforms) because they exchange their data handshake (and the data, if you wish) over TCP.

Explanation/Reference: https://docs.splunk.com/Documentation/Splunk/8.0.5/DistSearch/Whatsearchheadssend