According to Pods DnsConfig Documentation:

searches: a list of DNS search domains for hostname lookup in the Pod. This property is optional. When specified, the provided list will be merged into the base search domain names generated from the chosen DNS policy. Duplicate domain names are removed. Kubernetes allows for at most 6 search domains.

• Even though resolv.conf docs mention it accepts more than 6 search domains on latest versions, it's not yet possible to surpass this number of search domains through kubernetes deployment.

• I created a workaround on which an InitContainer creates and mount to the pod a new resolv.conf and after the container is up it replaces the automatically generated one. This way if the container crashes or gets rebooted the resolv.conf will always be reinforced.

nginx-emulating-your-splunk-deploy.yaml:

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: search
  namespace: default
  labels:
    app: splunk
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: splunk
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: splunk
    spec:
      hostname: search
      initContainers:
        - name: initdns
          image: nginx
          imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
          command: ["/bin/bash","-c"] 
          args: ["echo -e \"nameserver 10.39.240.10\nsearch indexer.splunk.svc.cluster.local splunk.svc.cluster.local svc.cluster.local cluster.local us-east4-c.c.'project-id'.internal c.'project-id'.internal google.internal\noptions ndots:5\n \" > /mnt/resolv.conf"]
          volumeMounts:
          - mountPath: /mnt
            name: volmnt      
      containers:
        - name: search
          image: nginx
          env:
          - name: SPLUNK_START_ARGS
            value: "--accept-license"
          - name: SPLUNK_PASSWORD
            value: password
          - name: SPLUNK_ROLE
            value: splunk_search_head
          - name: SPLUNK_SEARCH_HEAD_URL
            value: search
          ports:
          - name: web
            containerPort: 8000
          - name: mgmt
            containerPort: 8089
          - name: kv
            containerPort: 8191
          volumeMounts:
          - mountPath: /mnt
            name: volmnt
          command: ["/bin/bash","-c"] 
          args: ["cp /mnt/resolv.conf /etc/resolv.conf ; nginx -g \"daemon off;\""]
      volumes:
      - name: volmnt
        emptyDir: {}

• Remember to check the following fields and set according to your environment:
  • namespace, nameserver, container.image, container.args

• Reproduction:

$ kubectl apply -f search-head-splunk.yaml 
deployment.apps/search created

$ kubectl get pods
NAME                      READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
search-64b6fb5854-shm2x   1/1     Running   0          5m14sa

$ kubectl exec -it search-64b6fb5854-shm2x -- cat /etc/resolv.conf 
nameserver 10.39.240.10
search indexer.splunk.svc.cluster.local splunk.svc.cluster.local svc.cluster.local cluster.local us-east4-c.c.'project-id'.internal c.'project-id'.internal google.internal
options ndots:5

You can see that the resolv.conf stays as configured, please reproduce in your environment and let me know if you find any problem.

EDIT 1:

• The above scenario is designed for an environment where you need more than 6 search domains.

• We have to Hardcode the DNS server, but kube-dns service sticks with the same IP during Cluster lifespan and sometimes even after Cluster recreation, it depends on network configuration.

• If you need 6 or less domains you can just change dnsPolicy to None and skip the InitContainer:

apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: search
  namespace: splunk
  labels:
    app: splunk
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: splunk
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: splunk
    spec:
      hostname: search
      dnsPolicy: "None"
      dnsConfig:
        nameservers:
          - 10.39.240.10
        searches:
          - indexer.splunk.svc.cluster.local
          - splunk.svc.cluster.local
          - us-east4-c.c.'project-id'.internal
          - c.'project-id'.internal
          - svc.cluster.local
          - cluster.local
        options:
          - name: ndots
          - value: "5"
      containers:
      - name: search
        image: splunk/splunk
...
{{{the rest of your config}}}