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Separate postanalytics module installation

The processing of requests in the Wallarm node is divided into two stages:

  • Primary processing in the NGINX-Wallarm module. The processing is not memory demanding and can be put on frontend servers without changing the server requirements.

  • Statistical analysis of the processed requests in the postanalytics module. Postanalytics is memory demanding, which may require changes in the server configuration or installation of postanalytics on a separate server.

Depending on the system architecture, the NGINX-Wallarm and postanalytics modules can be installed on the same server or on different servers. By default, Wallarm deployment instructions cover the steps to install all modules on the same server.

These instructions provide the steps to install the postanalytics module on a separate server. This option is available only for the following Wallarm artifacts:

Requirements

  • Access to the account with the Administrator role in Wallarm Console for the US Cloud or EU Cloud

  • SELinux disabled or configured upon the instructions

  • Executing all commands as a superuser (e.g. root)

  • Access to https://repo.wallarm.com to download packages. Ensure the access is not blocked by a firewall

  • Access to https://us1.api.wallarm.com if working with US Wallarm Cloud or to https://api.wallarm.com if working with EU Wallarm Cloud. If access can be configured only via the proxy server, then use the instructions

  • Access to GCP storage addresses to download an actual list of IP addresses registered in allowlisted, denylisted, or graylisted countries, regions or data centers

  • Installed text editor vim, nano, or any other. In the instruction, vim is used

1. Add Wallarm repositories

The postanalytics module, like the other Wallarm modules, is installed and updated from the Wallarm repositories. To add repositories, use the commands for your platform:

sudo apt -y install dirmngr
curl -fsSL https://repo.wallarm.com/wallarm.gpg | sudo apt-key add -
sh -c "echo 'deb https://repo.wallarm.com/debian/wallarm-node buster/4.6/' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/wallarm.list"
sudo apt update

sudo apt -y install dirmngr
curl -fSsL https://repo.wallarm.com/wallarm.gpg | sudo gpg --no-default-keyring --keyring gnupg-ring:/etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/wallarm.gpg --import
sudo chmod 644 /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/wallarm.gpg
sh -c "echo 'deb https://repo.wallarm.com/debian/wallarm-node bullseye/4.6/' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/wallarm.list"
sudo apt update

curl -fsSL https://repo.wallarm.com/wallarm.gpg | sudo apt-key add -
sh -c "echo 'deb https://repo.wallarm.com/ubuntu/wallarm-node bionic/4.6/' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/wallarm.list"
sudo apt update

curl -fsSL https://repo.wallarm.com/wallarm.gpg | sudo apt-key add -
sh -c "echo 'deb https://repo.wallarm.com/ubuntu/wallarm-node focal/4.6/' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/wallarm.list"
sudo apt update

curl -fsSL https://repo.wallarm.com/wallarm.gpg | sudo apt-key add -
sh -c "echo 'deb https://repo.wallarm.com/ubuntu/wallarm-node jammy/4.6/' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/wallarm.list"
sudo apt update

sudo yum install -y epel-release
sudo rpm -i https://repo.wallarm.com/centos/wallarm-node/7/4.6/x86_64/wallarm-node-repo-4.6-0.el7.noarch.rpm

sudo yum install -y https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-7.noarch.rpm
sudo rpm -i https://repo.wallarm.com/centos/wallarm-node/7/4.6/x86_64/wallarm-node-repo-4.6-0.el7.noarch.rpm

sudo yum install -y epel-release
sudo rpm -i https://repo.wallarm.com/centos/wallarm-node/8/4.6/x86_64/wallarm-node-repo-4.6-0.el8.noarch.rpm

2. Install packages for the postanalytics module

Install the wallarm-node-tarantool package from the Wallarm repository for the postanalytics module and Tarantool database:

sudo apt -y install --no-install-recommends wallarm-node-tarantool

sudo apt -y install --no-install-recommends wallarm-node-tarantool

sudo yum install -y wallarm-node-tarantool

sudo yum install -y wallarm-node-tarantool

3. Connect the postanalytics module to Wallarm Cloud

The postanalytics module interacts with the Wallarm Cloud. It is required to create the Wallarm node for the postanalytics module and connect this node to the Cloud. When connecting, you can set the postanalytics node name, under which it will be displayed in the Wallarm Console UI and put the node into the appropriate node group (used to logically organize nodes in UI). It is recommended to use the same node group for the node processing initial traffic and for the node performing postanalysis.

Grouped nodes

To provide the node with access, you need to generate a token on the Cloud side and specify it on the machine with the node packages.

To connect the postanalytics filtering node to the Cloud:

  1. Get Wallarm token of the appropriate type:

    1. Open Wallarm Console → Settings → API tokens in the US Cloud or EU Cloud.
    2. Find or create API token with the Deploy source role.
    3. Copy this token.
    1. Open Wallarm Console → Nodes in the US Cloud or EU Cloud.
    2. Do one of the following:
      • Create the node of the Wallarm node type and copy the generated token.
      • Use existing node group - copy token using node's menu → Copy token.

  2. Run the register-node script on a machine where you install the filtering node:

    sudo /usr/share/wallarm-common/register-node -t <TOKEN> --labels 'group=<GROUP>' -H us1.api.wallarm.com --no-sync --no-sync-acl
    • <TOKEN> is the copied value of the API token with the Deploy role.
    • --labels 'group=<GROUP>' parameter puts your node to the <GROUP> node group (existing, or, if does not exist, it will be created).
    sudo /usr/share/wallarm-common/register-node -t <TOKEN> -H us1.api.wallarm.com --no-sync --no-sync-acl
    • <TOKEN> is the copied value of the node token.
    • Use -H us1.api.wallarm.com to install into US Cloud, remove this option to install to EU Cloud.
    • You may add -n <HOST_NAME> parameter to set a custom name for your node instance. Final instance name will be: HOST_NAME_NodeUUID.

4. Update postanalytics module configuration

The configuration files of the postanalytics module are located in the paths:

  • /etc/default/wallarm-tarantool for Debian and Ubuntu operating systems

  • /etc/sysconfig/wallarm-tarantool for CentOS and Amazon Linux 2.0.2021x and lower operating systems

To open the file in the editing mode, please use the command:

sudo vim /etc/default/wallarm-tarantool

sudo vim /etc/default/wallarm-tarantool

sudo vim /etc/sysconfig/wallarm-tarantool

sudo vim /etc/sysconfig/wallarm-tarantool

Memory

The postanalytics module uses the in-memory storage Tarantool. For production environments, it is recommended to have larger amount of memory. If testing the Wallarm node or having a small server size, the lower amount can be enough.

The allocated memory size is set in GB via the SLAB_ALLOC_ARENA directive in the /etc/default/wallarm-tarantool or /etc/sysconfig/wallarm-tarantool configuration file. The value can be an integer or a float (a dot . is a decimal separator).

Detailed recommendations about allocating memory for Tarantool are described in these instructions.

Address of the separate postanalytics server

To set the address of the separate postanalytics server:

  1. Open the Tarantool file in the editing mode:

    sudo vim /etc/default/wallarm-tarantool

    sudo vim /etc/default/wallarm-tarantool

    sudo vim /etc/sysconfig/wallarm-tarantool

    sudo vim /etc/sysconfig/wallarm-tarantool

  2. Uncomment the HOST and PORT variables and set them the following values:

    # address and port for bind
HOST='0.0.0.0'
PORT=3313

  3. If the configuration file of Tarantool is set up to accept connections on the IP addresses different from 0.0.0.0 or 127.0.0.1, then please provide the addresses in /etc/wallarm/node.yaml:

    hostname: <name of postanalytics node>
uuid: <UUID of postanalytics node>
secret: <secret key of postanalytics node>
tarantool:
    host: '<IP address of Tarantool>'
    port: 3313

5. Restart Wallarm services

To apply the settings to the postanalytics module:

sudo systemctl restart wallarm-tarantool

sudo systemctl restart wallarm-tarantool

sudo systemctl restart wallarm-tarantool

sudo systemctl restart wallarm-tarantool

6. Install the NGINX-Wallarm module on a separate server

Once the postanalytics module is installed on the separate server, install the other Wallarm modules on a different server. Below are the links to the corresponding instructions and the package names to be specified for the NGINX-Wallarm module installation:

  • NGINX stable

    In the package installation step, specify wallarm-node-nginx and nginx-module-wallarm.

  • NGINX Plus

    In the package installation step, specify wallarm-node-nginx and nginx-plus-module-wallarm.

  • NGINX Distro from Debian/CentOS repositories

    In the package installation step, specify wallarm-node-nginx and libnginx-mod-http-wallarm/nginx-mod-http-wallarm.

The wallarm-node-tarantool package version

The wallarm-node-tarantool package must be of the same or a higher version than the primary NGINX-Wallarm module packages installed on a separate server.

To check versions:

# run from the server with primary NGINX-Wallarm module
apt list wallarm-node-nginx
# run from the server with the postanalytics module
apt list wallarm-node-tarantool

# run from the server with primary NGINX-Wallarm module
apt list wallarm-node-nginx
# run from the server with the postanalytics module
apt list wallarm-node-tarantool

# run from the server with primary NGINX-Wallarm module
yum list wallarm-node-nginx
# run from the server with the postanalytics module
yum list wallarm-node-tarantool

# run from the server with primary NGINX-Wallarm module
yum list wallarm-node-nginx
# run from the server with the postanalytics module
yum list wallarm-node-tarantool

7. Connect the NGINX-Wallarm module to the postanalytics module

On the server with the NGINX-Wallarm module → the /etc/nginx/conf.d/wallarm.conf file, specify the postanalytics module server address:

upstream wallarm_tarantool {
    server <ip1>:3313 max_fails=0 fail_timeout=0 max_conns=1;
    server <ip2>:3313 max_fails=0 fail_timeout=0 max_conns=1;

    keepalive 2;
    }

    # omitted

wallarm_tarantool_upstream wallarm_tarantool;

  • max_conns value must be specified for each of the upstream Tarantool servers to prevent the creation of excessive connections.

  • keepalive value must not be lower than the number of the Tarantool servers.

  • The # wallarm_tarantool_upstream wallarm_tarantool; string is commented by default - please delete #.

Once the configuration file changed, restart NGINX/NGINX Plus on the NGINX-Wallarm module server:

sudo systemctl restart nginx

sudo service nginx restart

sudo systemctl restart nginx

sudo systemctl restart nginx

8. Check the NGINX‑Wallarm and separate postanalytics modules interaction

To check the NGINX‑Wallarm and separate postanalytics modules interaction, you can send the request with test attack to the address of the protected application:

curl http://localhost/etc/passwd

If the NGINX‑Wallarm and separate postanalytics modules are configured properly, the attack will be uploaded to the Wallarm Cloud and displayed in the Events section of Wallarm Console:

Attacks in the interface

If the attack was not uploaded to the Cloud, please check that there are no errors in the services operation:

  • Make sure that the postanalytics service wallarm-tarantool is in the status active

    sudo systemctl status wallarm-tarantool

    wallarm-tarantool status

  • Analyze the postanalytics module logs

    sudo cat /var/log/wallarm/tarantool.log

    If there is the record like SystemError binary: failed to bind: Cannot assign requested address, make sure that the server accepts connection on specified address and port.

  • On the server with the NGINX‑Wallarm module, analyze the NGINX logs:

    sudo cat /var/log/nginx/error.log

    If there is the record like [error] wallarm: <address> connect() failed, make sure that the address of separate postanalytics module is specified correctly in the NGINX‑Wallarm module configuration files and separate postanalytics server accepts connection on specified address and port.

  • On the server with the NGINX‑Wallarm module, get the statistics on processed requests using the command below and make sure that the value of tnt_errors is 0

    curl http://127.0.0.8/wallarm-status

    Description of all parameters returned by the statistics service →

Postanalytics module protection

Protect installed postanalytics module

We highly recommend to protect a newly installed Wallarm postanalytics module with a firewall. Otherwise, there is a risk of getting unauthorized access to the service that may result in:

  • Disclosure of information about processed requests
  • Possibility of executing arbitrary Lua code and operating system commands

Please note that no such risk exists if you are deploying the postanalytics module alongside with the NGINX-Wallarm module on the same server. This holds true because the postanalytics module will listen to the port 3313.

Here are the firewall settings that should be applied to the separately installed postanalytics module:

  • Allow the HTTPS traffic to and from the Wallarm API servers, so the postanalytics module can interact with these servers:
    • us1.api.wallarm.com is the API server in the US Wallarm Cloud
    • api.wallarm.com is the API server in the EU Wallarm Cloud
  • Restrict the access to the 3313 Tarantool port via TCP and UDP protocols by allowing connections only from the IP addresses of the Wallarm filtering nodes.

Tarantool troubleshooting

Tarantool troubleshooting