Installation on Linux

This section provides the installation steps for NetObserv Flow. Many users get started using ElastiFlow with the Elastic Stack (Elasticsearch and Kibana). To install and configure both the Elastic Stack and NetObserv Flow, step-by-step instructions are provided for both Ubuntu/Debian and RedHat/AlmaLinux.

NetObserv Flow can be installed natively on Linux. Packages are currently provided for and supported on the Linux distributions and versions listed in the following table.

Distribution	Versions
Ubuntu	22.04 LTS, 24.04 LTS
Debian	12
RHEL/RockyLinux/AlmaLinux	8.x, 9.x

Ubuntu/Debian Installation (deb)

The Debian package for the NetObserv Flow can be downloaded from here. It can be used for installation on most Debian-based systems such as Debian and Ubuntu.

Download the .deb Package

The package can be downloaded using either the wget or curl command:

wget https://elastiflow-releases.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/flow-collector/flow-collector_7.26.3_linux_amd64.deb

curl https://elastiflow-releases.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/flow-collector/flow-collector_7.26.3_linux_amd64.deb --output flow-collector_7.26.3_linux_amd64.deb

Verify the Package

Checksum Verification

To ensure the downloaded file was fully downloaded and wasn't corrupted or tampered with, you can verify the provided checksum matches.

# get checksum of the downloaded file:
sha256sum flow-collector_7.26.3_linux_amd64.deb

# verify the checksum provided from the previous command matches the checksum here:
https://elastiflow-releases.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/flow-collector/flow-collector_7.26.3_linux_amd64.deb.sha256

GPG Verification

ElastiFlow signs the Debian package with a GNU Privacy Guard (GPG) key. To verify the Debian package, download and import the ElastiFlow GPG public key:

# import public key into gpg keychain
curl -o- https://elastiflow-releases.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/elastiflow.pgp | gpg --import -

# trust the public key
echo "6A2E26EFDE24AA7A634A442ED5C0572E5D212F6B:6:" | gpg --import-ownertrust

Next, download the signature file:

curl -SLO https://elastiflow-releases.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/flow-collector/flow-collector_7.26.3_linux_amd64.deb.sig

Finally, verify the file with the signature:

gpg --verify flow-collector_7.26.3_linux_amd64.deb.sig flow-collector_7.26.3_linux_amd64.deb

Ensure that libpcap-dev and ca-certificates are Installed

The collector requires libpcap-dev and ca-certificates. Check if the packages are installed:

sudo dpkg-query -l | grep libpcap-dev
sudo dpkg-query -l | grep ca-certificates

If installed, the output will look similar to the following:

ii  libpcap-dev:amd64       1.10.1-4build1                          amd64        development library for libpcap (transitional package)
ii  ca-certificates         20230311ubuntu0.22.04.1                 all          Common CA certificates

If the packages are not present, install them:

sudo apt install libpcap-dev ca-certificates

Install the .deb Package

There are two methods to install the NetObserv Flow package, apt or dpkg.

Install with apt

sudo apt install ./flow-collector_7.26.3_linux_amd64.deb

Install with dpkg

sudo dpkg -i flow-collector_7.26.3_linux_amd64.deb

RedHat/AlmaLinux Installation (rpm)

The RPM package for NetObserv Flow can be downloaded here. It can be used for installation on most RedHat-based systems such as RHEL and CentOS.

Download the .rpm Package

The package can be easily downloaded using wget or curl:

wget https://elastiflow-releases.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/flow-collector/flow-collector-7.26.3-1.x86_64.rpm

curl https://elastiflow-releases.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/flow-collector/flow-collector-7.26.3-1.x86_64.rpm --output flow-collector-7.26.3-1.x86_64.rpm

Verify the Package

Checksum Verification

To ensure the downloaded file was fully downloaded and wasn't corrupted or tampered with, you can verify the provided checksum matches.

# get checksum of the downloaded file:
sha256sum flow-collector-7.26.3-1.x86_64.rpm

# verify the checksum provided from the previous command matches the checksum here:
https://elastiflow-releases.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/flow-collector/flow-collector-7.26.3-1.x86_64.rpm.sha256

GPG Verification

ElastiFlow signs the RPM package with a GNU Privacy Guard (GPG) key. To verify the RPM package, download and import the ElastiFlow GPG public key:

# import public key into gpg keychain
curl -o- https://elastiflow-releases.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/elastiflow.pgp | gpg --import -

# trust the public key
echo "6A2E26EFDE24AA7A634A442ED5C0572E5D212F6B:6:" | gpg --import-ownertrust

# import public key into rpm trust store
rpm --import https://elastiflow-releases.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/elastiflow.pgp

Next, download the signature file:

curl -SLO https://elastiflow-releases.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/flow-collector/flow-collector-7.26.3-1.x86_64.rpm.sig

Finally, verify the file with the signature:

gpg --verify flow-collector- 7.26.3-1.x86_64.rpm.sig flow-collector-7.26.3-1.x86_64.rpm

Ensure that libpcap, libpcap-devel and ca-certificates are Installed

The collector requires libpcap, libpcap-devel and ca-certificates. Check if the packages are installed:

rpm -q libpcap libpcap-devel ca-certificates

If installed, the output will look similar to the following:

libpcap-1.9.1-5.el8.x86_64
libpcap-devel-1.9.1-5.el8.x86_64
ca-certificates-2023.2.60_v7.0.306-80.0.el8_8.noarch

If the packages are not present, install them:

RHEL 8.x based Distributions (Alma, Rocky, Fedora, etc.)

sudo dnf --enablerepo=powertools install libpcap libpcap-devel ca-certificates -y

RHEL 9.x based Distributions (Alma, Rocky, Fedora, etc.)

sudo dnf --enablerepo=crb install libpcap libpcap-devel ca-certificates -y

RHEL 9.x Distributions (Official RedHat distribution)

sudo dnf --enablerepo=codeready-builder-for-rhel-9-x86_64-rpms install libpcap libpcap-devel ca-certificates -y

Install/Upgrade the .rpm Package

If installing the NetObserv Flow package for the first time, i.e. NOT upgrading, run the following:

sudo yum install -y flow-collector-7.26.3-1.x86_64.rpm

If upgrading from a previously installed NetObserv Flow package, run the following:

sudo rpm -Uhv flow-collector-7.26.3-1.x86_64.rpm

Configuration

The NetObserv Flow will be installed to run as a daemon managed by systemd. Configuration of the collector is provided via environment variables and, depending on the enabled options, via various configuration files which by default are located within /etc/elastiflow.

To configure the NetObserv Flow, edit the file /etc/elastiflow/flowcoll.yml. For details on the configuration options, please refer to the Configuration Reference.

At a minimum the NetObserv Flow must point to a valid data store. Additionally, source flows need to be pointed to the NetObserv Flow so it can pass those along to the data store. The most common installation uses Elasticsearch and Kibana as the data store. To install and configure both the Elastic Stack and NetObserv Flow, step-by-step instructions are provided for both Ubuntu/Debian and RedHat/AlmaLinux.

Running the Collector

To start the collector, execute the follow commands:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload && sudo systemctl start flowcoll.service

To ensure the collector has started and is running, execute:

sudo systemctl status flowcoll.service

The collector can be stopped using:

sudo systemctl stop flowcoll.service

If you want the collector to be started automatically when the system is booted, it must be enabled:

sudo systemctl enable flowcoll.service