Deployment Guides

This section covers the process of setting up the Plixer Replicator hardware or virtual appliance for use and includes detailed instructions for each type of deployment.

To complete the setup process for either type of Plixer Replicator, you will need to provide a subscription or evaluation key. You can obtain a license key from Plixer or a local reseller.

Hint

You can review and manage the Plixer Replicator’s license details by navigating to Settings > Licensing in the web interface.

Hardware appliance

After mounting the Plixer Replicator in a server or network rack, follow these steps to deploy the appliance:

  1. Using an SSH client, login remotely to the Plixer Replicator with the username root and the password replicator and wait for the device to reboot.

  2. Login again using root and replicator as the username and password, respectively, and enter the answers to the configuration questions that follow.

  3. After the Plixer Replicator reboots to apply the new settings, login with the new credentials entered during the previous step.

  4. Issue the license set command and enter your license key when prompted.

  5. Press CTRL+X to save your settings.

After the initial setup, the Plixer Replicator will be ready for configuration.

Virtual appliance - ESX

To streamline the deployment process, the Plixer Replicator virtual appliance for ESX is provided as an all-in-one OVF template.

System requirements for ESX deployments:

  • RAM: 2 GB

  • Storage: 100 GB

  • Processor: 2 CPU, 2 cores, 2 GHz+

  • OS: ESX/ESXi5+

  • VMware Tools (to shut down the machine via the VMware vSphere client)

Deploying the OVF template

  1. After connecting to the ESX host via VMware vSphere or vCenter, select File > Deploy OVF Template.

  2. Select Deploy from File, navigate to the OVF Template, and click Next.

  3. Review the OVF template details and click Next.

  4. Provide a name for the virtual appliance and follow the deployment wizard that follows.

  5. Review the virtual settings provided and click Finish to complete importing the OVF Template.

  6. Right-click on the Plixer Replicator virtual machine to boot it up.

  7. Navigate to the Console tab and log in with the username root and password replicator.

  8. After the machine performs a quick setup and reboots, log in again with the same credentials and enter the answers to the configuration questions that follow.

  9. After the Plixer Replicator virtual appliance reboots to apply the new settings, log in with the new credentials entered during the previous step.

  10. Issue the license set command to enter the license key and press CTRL+X to save all current settings.

Once the license key has been entered, the Plixer Replicator virtual appliance will be ready for configuration.

Installing VMware Tools

The Plixer Replicator package includes a script to install VMware Tools, which is not installed by default.

To run the script:

  1. Right-click on the Plixer Replicator virtual machine in the VMware vSphere client and select Guest > Install/Upgrade VMware Tools.

  2. Navigate to the Console tab of the Plixer Replicator virtual appliance and log in as the root user.

  3. Enter the following:

/home/replicator/conf/vmwareToolsInstall.sh

Note

VMware tools is not required for the Plixer Replicator virtual appliance’s core functionality, but there are certain advantages to installing the package. For more information, refer to the VMware Tools documentation.

Upgrading the virtual machine hardware version

The Plixer Replicator virtual appliance for ESX is built on virtual machine hardware version 7 to maintain backwards compatibility with ESXi 5 hypervisors.

To upgrade the hardware version:

  1. Shut down the virtual machine.

  2. Right-click on the virtual machine in vSphere (or vCenter) and select Upgrade Virtual Hardware.

Virtual appliance - Hyper-V

System requirements for Hyper-V deployments:

  • RAM: 2 GB

  • Storage: 100 GB

  • Processor: 2 CPU, 2 cores, 2 GHz+

Importing the virtual machine

  1. Unzip the latest Plixer Replicator virtual appliance package on the Hyper-V server.

  2. In Hyper-V Manager, select Import Virtual Machine and browse to the Plixer Replicator system folder.

  3. Select the virtual machine and import type.

  4. Go to Settings, select the network adapter, and assign it to the appropriate virtual switch.

  5. In the network adapter’s Advanced Features section, set the MAC address to Static, enter a unique MAC address, and press OK.

  6. Start the virtual machine, right-click on it, and select Connect.

  7. Log in with the username root and password replicator and wait for the server to reboot after a quick setup.

  8. Issue the license set command to enter the license key.

  9. Press CTRL+X to save all current settings.

One the license key has been applied, the Plixer Replicator virtual appliance will be ready for configuration.

Virtual appliance - KVM

System requirements for KVM deployments:

  • RAM: 2 GB

  • Storage: 100 GB

  • Processor: 2 CPU, 2 cores, 2 GHz+

Importing the virtual machine

  1. Create a directory for the install (e.g., mkdir kvm/plixer_replicator/).

  2. Download the latest Plixer Replicator virtual appliance package by entering wget https://files.plixer.com/Replicator_KVM.tar.gz

Important

If the URL above does not work, contact support for the latest image.

  1. Unzip the file in the install directory on the KVM server by entering sudo tar xvzf Replicator_KVM.tar.gz.

  2. Enter sudo ./install.sh to run the install script.

  3. Log in to the virtual appliance and use the virsh console Replicator command to get to the console.

  4. Log in with the username root and the password replicator and wait for the machine to reboot.

  5. When prompted, log in again and follow the shell script to enter the network details for the virtual appliance.

  6. Issue the license set command to enter the license key.

  7. Press CTRL+X to save all current settings.

Once the license key has been applied, the Plixer Replicator virtual appliance will be ready for configuration.

Basic configuration

Before the Plixer Replicator can start replicating and forwarding packets to network management devices or systems, it must first be configured for use.

To assist with the basic configuration process, a setup wizard is triggered when the user first logs in to the web interface.

Note

The default username for the web interface is admin and the default password is admin. To change the default login credentials, use the Interactive Mode command password webui.

Logging in for the first time

To enable LDAP authentication, go to the Settings tab and enter the LDAP server details. The LDAP password can be updated using the Interactive Mode command ldapadminpass.

The setup wizard will walk the user through the following steps:

Applying a license key

When the user first logs in, Plixer Replicator automatically checks for a valid license key before proceeding. If no license key has been applied, the user will be prompted to enter one.

Once a valid subscription or evaluation key has been entered, the wizard will continue to the next step.

Note

License keys are available from Plixer or local resellers. Users can view and manage their license details by going to Settings > Licensing in the web interface.

Creating a Profile

If there are currently no Profiles configured, the wizard will walk the user through creating one.

Important

Before attempting to add a Profile, configure a device to start sending packets to the Plixer Replicator and take note of the port it uses to send data.

To create a Profile, the user will need to provide the following:

  1. A unique name for the profile

  2. The port for inbound packets (In Port)

  3. The port for outbound packets (Out Port)

For more information on creating and configuring Profiles, see the section on profile management.

After a Profile has successfully been created, the wizard will continue to the next step.

Confirming that packets are inbound

The Dashboard and Streams tabs of the Plixer Replicator web interface provide real-time oversight of the appliance’s packet activity.

As the last step of the setup wizard, the user will be directed to the Streams tab to verify the the Plixer Replicator is receiving packets from devices that have been configured to send log data to it.

See the section on the Plixer Replicator web interface to learn more about the functions of each tab.

Setting up SSL

SSL support can be enabled for the Plixer Replicator during the initial deployment process. Alternatively, a user can run the /home/replicator/conf/enable_ssl.sh script to enable SSL at a later time.

Important

An active Internet connection is required to download the latest OpenSSL and httpd packages.

As part of the process, the script will walk the user through the creation of a self-signed SSL certificate.

Enter the following information when prompted to create the certificate:

Name Field

Description

Country name

The two-letter ISO abbreviation for a country

example: US = United States

State / province

The state/province where the organization is located (no abbreviations)

example: Maine

City / locality

The city where the organization is located (no abbreviations)

example: Kennebunk

Organization

The full legal name of the organization

example: Plixer

Email address

The email address for the CA (whom to contact)

example: someone@your.domain

Common name

URL to attach to the certificate

example: 10.1.1.19 or replicator.company.com

Extra attributes

A challenge password and an optional company name can be added to the certificate request

Creating a CA-signed certificate

To create an SSL certificate signed by a trusted certificate authority or CA, follow these steps:

  1. After enabling SSL, send the /etc/pki/tls/private/ca.csr file to the CA to be signed and ask them to return it as Base64 encoded.

Important

When exporting a certificate, do not select DER encoded as the export file format.

  1. Once the CA-signed certificate is received, stop the Apache service by entering service httpd stop.

  2. Replace the active SSL certificate with the new one and rename the file to *//etc/pki/tls/certs/ca.crt.

  3. Restart the Apache service by entering service httpd start.