Deploying on Google Cloud Platform (GCP)¶

To deploy a filter node on the Google Cloud Platform, perform the following steps:

Log in to your Google Cloud Platform account.
Launch a filter node instance.
Configure the filter node instance.
Connect to the filter node instance via SSH.
Connect the filter node to the Wallarm Cloud.
Set up the filter node for using a proxy server.
Set up filtering and proxying rules
Allocate more memory for the Wallarm Node.
Configure logging.
Restart NGINX.

1. Log In to Your Google Cloud Platform Account¶

Log in to console.cloud.google.com.

2. Launch a Filter Node Instance¶

Launch your filter node instance using this link, and click LAUNCH ON COMPUTER ENGINE.

The instance will launch with a preinstalled filter node.

To see detailed information on launching instances in the Google Cloud, proceed to this link.

3. Configure the Filter Node Instance¶

Perform the following actions to configure the launched filter node instance:

Navigate to the VM instances page in the Compute Engine section of the menu.
Select the launched filter node instance and click the Edit button.
Allow the required types of incoming traffic by ticking the corresponding checkboxes in the Firewalls setting.
If necessary, you can restrict connecting to the instance with the project SSH keys and use a custom SSH key pair for connecting to this instance. To do this, perform the following actions:
1. Tick the “Block project-wide” checkbox in the SSH Keys setting.
2. Click the Show and edit button in the SSH Keys setting to expand the field for entering an SSH key.
3. Generate a pair of public and private SSH keys. For example, you can use the ssh-keygen and PuTTYgen utilities.
4. Copy an open key in OpenSSH format from the interface of the used key generator (in the current example, the generated public key should be copied from the Public key for pasting into OpenSSH authorized_keys file area of the PuTTYgen interface) and paste it into the field containing the “Enter entire key data” hint.
5. Save the private key. It will be required for connecting to the configured instance in the future.
Click the Save button at the bottom of the page to apply the changes.

4. Connect to the Filter Node Instance via SSH¶

To see detailed information about ways of connecting to instances, proceed to this link.

Connecting to the instance via a custom private key

If during base instance creation process you have enabled connection to the instance via a custom SSH key pair, make sure you have access to the private key from this key pair.

5. Connect the Filter Node to the Wallarm Cloud¶

The filter node interacts with the Wallarm cloud. There are two ways of connecting the node to the cloud:

Using the filter node token
Using your cloud account login and password

Required access rights

Make sure that your Wallarm account has the Administrator role enabled and two-factor authentication disabled, therefore allowing you to connect a filter node to the cloud.

You can check the aforementioned parameters by navigating to the user account list in the Wallarm console.

If you are using https://my.wallarm.com/, proceed to the following link to check your user settings.
If you are using https://us1.my.wallarm.com/, proceed to the following link to check your user settings.

Connecting Using the Filter Node Token¶

To connect the node to the cloud using the token, proceed with the following steps:

Create a new node on the Nodes tab of Wallarm web interface.
1. Click the Create new node button.
2. In the form that appears, enter the node name into the corresponding field and select the “Cloud” type of installation from the drop-down list.
3. Click the Create button.
In the window that appears, click the Copy button next to the field with the token to add the token of the newly created filter node to your clipboard.
On the virtual machine run the addcloudnode script:
Info

You have to pick which script to run depending on the Cloud you are using.
- If you are using https://my.wallarm.com/, run the script from the EU Cloud tab below.
- If you are using https://us1.my.wallarm.com/, run the script from the US Cloud tab below.
EU Cloud
```
/usr/share/wallarm-common/addcloudnode
```
US Cloud
```
/usr/share/wallarm-common/addcloudnode -H us1.api.wallarm.com
```
Paste the filter node token from your clipboard.

Your filter node will now synchronize with the cloud every 5 seconds according to the default synchronization configuration.

Node and cloud synchronization configuration

After running the addcloudnode script, the /etc/wallarm/syncnode file containing the node and cloud synchronization settings will be created.

To learn more about synchronization configuration file content, proceed to the link.

To connect the node to the cloud using your cloud account requisites, proceed with the following steps:

On the virtual machine run the addnode script:
Info

You have to pick which script to run depending on the Cloud you are using.
- If you are using https://my.wallarm.com/, run the script from the «EU Cloud tab below.
- If you are using https://us1.my.wallarm.com/, run the script from the US Cloud tab below.
EU Cloud
```
/usr/share/wallarm-common/addnode
```
US Cloud
```
/usr/share/wallarm-common/addnode -H us1.api.wallarm.com
```
Provide your Wallarm account’s login and password when prompted.

API Access

The API choice for your filter node depends on the Cloud you are using. Please, select the API accordingly:

If you are using https://my.wallarm.com/, your node requires access to https://api.wallarm.com:444.
If you are using https://us1.my.wallarm.com/, your node requires access to https://us1.api.wallarm.com:444.

Ensure the access is not blocked by a firewall.

6. Set up the Filter Node for Using a Proxy Server¶

Info

This setup step is intended for users who use their own proxy server for the operation of the protected web applications.

If you do not use a proxy server, skip this step of the setup.

You need to assign new values to the environment variables, which define the proxy server used, to configure Wallarm node for using your proxy server.

Add new values of the environment variables to the /etc/environment file:

Add https_proxy to define a proxy for the https protocol.
Add http_proxy to define a proxy for the http protocol.
Add no_proxy to define the list of the resources proxy should not be used for.

Assign the <scheme>://<proxy_user>:<proxy_pass>@<host>:<port> string values to the https_proxy and http_proxy variables.

<scheme> defines the protocol used. It should match the protocol that the current environment variable sets up proxy for.
<proxy_user> defines the username for proxy authorization.
<proxy_pass> defines the password for proxy authorization.
<host> defines a host of the proxy server.
<port> defines a port of the proxy server.

Assign a "<res_1>, <res_2>, <res_3>, <res_4>, ..." array value, where <res_1>, <res_2>, <res_3>, and <res_4> are the IP addresses and/or domains, to the no_proxy variable to define a list of the resources which proxy should not be used for. This array should consist of IP addresses and/or domains.

Resources that need to be addressed without a proxy

Add the following IP addresses and domain to the list of the resources that have to be addressed without a proxy for the system to operate correctly: 127.0.0.1, 127.0.0.8, 127.0.0.9, and localhost.
The 127.0.0.8 and 127.0.0.9 IP addresses are used for the operation of the Wallarm filter node.

The example of the correct /etc/environment file contents below demonstrates the following configuration:

HTTPS and HTTP requests are proxied to the 1.2.3.4 host with the 1234 port, using the admin username and the 01234 password for authorization on the proxy server.
Proxying is disabled for the requests sent to 127.0.0.1, 127.0.0.8, 127.0.0.9, and localhost.

https_proxy=http://admin:01234@1.2.3.4:1234
http_proxy=http://admin:01234@1.2.3.4:1234
no_proxy="127.0.0.1, 127.0.0.8, 127.0.0.9, localhost"

7. Set Up Filtering and Proxying Rules¶

The etc/nginx/conf.d directory contains NGINX and Wallarm filter node configuration files.

By default, this directory contains the following configuration files:

The default.conf file defines the configuration of NGINX.
The wallarm.conf file defines the global configuration of Wallarm filter node.
The wallarm-status.conf file defines the Wallarm monitoring configuration.

You can create your own configuration files to define the operation of NGINX and Wallarm. It is recommended to create a separate configuration file with the server block for each group of the domains that should be processed in the same way.

To see detailed information about working with NGINX configuration files, proceed to the official NGINX documentation.

Wallarm directives define the operation logic of the Wallarm filter node. To see the list of Wallarm directives available, proceed to the Wallarm configuration options page.

A Configuration File Example¶

Let us suppose that you need to configure the server to work in the following conditions:

Only HTTP traffic is processed. There are no HTTPS requests processed.
The following domains receive the requests: example.com and www.example.com.
All requests must be passed to the server 10.80.0.5.
All incoming requests are considered less than 1MB in size (default setting).
The processing of a request takes no more than 60 seconds (default setting).
Wallarm must operate in the monitor mode.
Clients access the filter node directly, without an intermediate HTTP load balancer.

Creating a configuration file

You can create a custom NGINX configuration file (e.g. example.com.conf) or modify the default NGINX configuration file (default.conf).

When creating a custom configuration file, make sure that NGINX listens to the incoming connections on the free port.

To meet the listed conditions, the contents of the configuration file must be the following:

    server {
      listen 80;
      listen [::]:80 ipv6only=on;

      # the domains for which traffic is processed
      server_name example.com; 
      server_name www.example.com;

      # turn on the monitoring mode of traffic processing
      wallarm_mode monitoring; 
      # wallarm_instance 1;

      location / {
        # setting the address for request forwarding
        proxy_pass http://10.80.0.5; 
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
      }
    }

8. Allocate More Memory for the Wallarm Node¶

The Wallarm Node uses Tarantool, an open‑source in-memory database, to calculate traffic metrics required for automated adjusting of security rules.

By default, the amount of RAM allocated to Tarantool is 75% of the total instance memory.

You can change the amount of RAM allocated for Tarantool. To allocate the instance RAM to Tarantool:

Open the Tarantool configuration file:
```
vi /etc/default/wallarm-tarantool
```
Set the amount of allocated RAM in the SLAB_ALLOC_ARENA in GB. For example, to set 24 GB:
```
SLAB_ALLOC_ARENA=24
```
To apply changes, restart the Tarantool daemon:
```
systemctl restart wallarm-tarantool
```

9. Configure Logging¶

Configure the filter node variables logging using NGINX. This will allow to perform a quick filter node diagnostics with the help of the NGINX log file.

10. Restart NGINX¶

Restart NGINX by running the following command:

systemctl restart nginx

The Installation Is Complete¶

The installation is now complete.

Check that the filter node runs and filters the traffic. See Check the filter node operation.

Default Settings

A freshly installed filter node operates in blocking mode (see the wallarm_mode directive description) by default.

This may result in the inoperable Wallarm scanner. If you plan to use the scanner, then you need to perform additional actions to render scanner operational.

Additional Settings¶

The filter node may require some additional configuration after installation.

The document below lists a few of the typical setups that you can apply if needed.

To get more information about other available settings, proceed to the “Configuration” section of the Administrator’s Guide.

Configuring the Display of the Client's Real IP¶

If the filter node is deployed behind a proxy server or load balancer without any additional configuration, the request source address may not be equal to the actual IP address of the client. Instead, it may be equal to one of the IP addresses of the proxy server or the load balancer.

In this case, if you want the filter node to receive the client's IP address as a request source address, you need to perform an additional configuration of the proxy server or the load balancer.

Adding Wallarm Scanner Addresses to the Whitelist¶

The Wallarm scanner checks the resources of your company for vulnerabilities. Scanning is conducted using IP addresses from one of the following lists (depending on the type of Wallarm Cloud you are using):

If you are using the Wallarm scanner, you need to configure the whitelists on your network scope security software (such as firewalls, intrusion detection systems, etc.) to contain Wallarm scanner IP addresses.

For example, a Wallarm filter node with default settings is placed in the blocking mode, thus rendering the Wallarm scanner unable to scan the resources behind the filter node.

To make the scanner operational again, whitelist the scanner's IP addresses on this filter node.

Limiting the Single Request Processing Time¶

Use the wallarm_process_time_limit Wallarm directive to specify the limit of the duration for processing a single request by the filter node.

If processing the request consumes more time than specified in the directive, then the information on the error is entered into the log file and the request is marked as an overlimit_res attack.

Limiting the Server Reply Waiting Time¶

Use the proxy_read_timeout NGINX directive to specify the timeout for reading the proxy server reply.

If the server sends nothing during this time, the connection is closed.

Limiting the Maximum Request Size¶

Use the client_max_body_size NGINX directive to specify the limit for the maximum size of the body of the client's request.

If this limit is exceeded, NGINX replies to the client with the 413 (Payload Too Large) code, also known as the Request Entity Too Large message.