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Deploying with All-in-One Installer

An all-in-one installer is designed to streamline and standardize the process of installing Wallarm node as a dynamic module for NGINX in various environments. This installer automatically identifies your operating system’s and NGINX versions, and install all the necessary dependencies.

The all-in-one installer provides a simple node installation process by automatically performing the following actions:

  1. Checking your OS and NGINX version.

  2. Adding Wallarm repositories for the detected OS and NGINX version.

  3. Installing Wallarm packages from these repositories.

  4. Connecting the installed Wallarm module to your NGINX.

  5. Connecting the filtering node to Wallarm Cloud using the provided token.

Use cases

Among all supported Wallarm deployment options, this solution is the recommended one for the following use cases:

  • Your infrastructure is based on bare metal or virtual machines without using container-based methods. Typically, these setups are managed with Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools like Ansible or SaltStack.

  • Your services are built around NGINX. Wallarm can extend its functionalities using the all-in-one installer.

Requirements

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

  • Supported OS:

    • Debian 10, 11 and 12.x
    • Ubuntu LTS 18.04, 20.04, 22.04
    • CentOS 7, 8 Stream, 9 Stream
    • Alma/Rocky Linux 9
    • RHEL 8.x
    • RHEL 9.x
    • Oracle Linux 8.x
    • Redox
    • SuSe Linux
    • Others (the list is constantly widening, contact Wallarm support team to check if your OS is in the list)

  • Access to https://meganode.wallarm.com to download all-in-one Wallarm installer. Ensure the access is not blocked by a firewall.

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

  • Access to the IP addresses below for downloading updates to attack detection rules and API specifications, as well as retrieving precise IPs for your allowlisted, denylisted, or graylisted countries, regions, or data centers

    34.96.64.17
34.110.183.149
35.235.66.155
34.102.90.100
34.94.156.115
35.235.115.105

    34.160.38.183
34.144.227.90
34.90.110.226

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

Step 1: Install NGINX and dependencies

Install the latest NGINX version of:

  • NGINX stable - see how to install it in the NGINX documentation.

  • NGINX Mainline (the latest supported version is v1.25.5) - see how to install it in the NGINX documentation.

  • NGINX Plus - see how to install it in the NGINX documentation.

  • Distribution-Provided NGINX - to install, use the following commands:

    sudo apt update 
sudo apt -y install --no-install-recommends nginx

    sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install nginx

    sudo yum -y update 
sudo yum install -y nginx

    sudo yum -y update 
sudo yum install -y nginx

    sudo yum -y update 
sudo yum install -y nginx

Step 2: Prepare Wallarm token

To install node, you will need a Wallarm token of the appropriate type. To prepare a token:

  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.

Step 3: Download all-in-one Wallarm installer

Wallarm suggests all-in-one installations for the following processors:

  • x86_64

  • ARM64 (beta)

To download all-in-one Wallarm installation script, execute the command:

curl -O https://meganode.wallarm.com/5.2/wallarm-5.2.1.x86_64-glibc.sh

curl -O https://meganode.wallarm.com/5.2/wallarm-5.2.1.aarch64-glibc.sh

Step 4: Run all-in-one Wallarm installer

  1. Run downloaded script:

    # If using the x86_64 version:
sudo env WALLARM_LABELS='group=<GROUP>' sh wallarm-5.2.1.x86_64-glibc.sh

# If using the ARM64 version:
sudo env WALLARM_LABELS='group=<GROUP>' sh wallarm-5.2.1.aarch64-glibc.sh

    The WALLARM_LABELS variable sets group into which the node will be added (used for logical grouping of nodes in the Wallarm Console UI).

    # If using the x86_64 version:
sudo sh wallarm-5.2.1.x86_64-glibc.sh

# If using the ARM64 version:
sudo sh wallarm-5.2.1.aarch64-glibc.sh

  2. Select US Cloud or EU Cloud.

  3. Enter Wallarm token.

Commands in the further steps are the same for x86_64 and ARM64 installations.

Step 5: Enable Wallarm node to analyze traffic

By default, the deployed Wallarm Node does not analyze incoming traffic.

To enable traffic analysis, perform the following configuration:

If you deploy the Wallarm Node for in-line traffic analysis and proxying of legitimate traffic, update the NGINX configuration file, typically located at /etc/nginx/sites-available/default.

The following minimal configuration adjustments are necessary:

  1. Set the Wallarm Node to wallarm_mode monitoring;. This mode is recommended for initial deployments and testing.

    Wallarm also supports more modes like blocking and safe blocking, which you can read more.

  2. Determine where the node should forward legitimate traffic by adding the proxy_pass directive in the required locations. This could be to the IP of an application server, a load balancer, or a DNS name.

  3. If present, remove the try_files directive from the modified locations to ensure traffic is directed to Wallarm without local file interference.
server {
    ...
+   wallarm_mode monitoring;
    location / { 
+        proxy_pass http://example.com;
-        # try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
    }
    ...
}

If you deploy the Wallarm Node for out-of-band traffic analysis, update the NGINX configuration file, typically located at /etc/nginx/sites-available/default.

The following minimal configuration adjustments are necessary:

  1. For the Wallarm node to accept mirrored traffic, set the following configuration in the server NGINX block:

    server {
    listen 80;
    ...

    wallarm_force server_addr $http_x_server_addr;
    wallarm_force server_port $http_x_server_port;
    # Change 222.222.222.22 to the address of the mirroring server
    #set_real_ip_from  222.222.222.22;
    #real_ip_header    X-Forwarded-For;
    #real_ip_recursive on;
    wallarm_force response_status 0;
    wallarm_force response_time 0;
    wallarm_force response_size 0;
}
    • The set_real_ip_from and real_ip_header directives are required to have Wallarm Console display the IP addresses of the attackers.
    • The wallarm_force_response_* directives are required to disable analysis of all requests except for copies received from the mirrored traffic.

  2. For the Wallarm node to analyze the mirrored traffic, set the wallarm_mode directive to monitoring:

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

    ...
}

    Since malicious requests cannot be blocked, the only mode Wallarm accepts is monitoring. For in-line deployment, there are also safe blocking and blocking modes but even if you set the wallarm_mode directive to a value different from monitoring, the node continues to monitor traffic and only record malicious traffic (aside from the mode set to off).

  3. If present, remove the try_files directive from the NGINX locations to ensure traffic is directed to Wallarm without local file interference:

    server {
    ...
    location / {
-        # try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
    }
    ...
}

Depending on your specific traffic routing rules and requirements, further customize both NGINX and Wallarm configurations as needed.

Step 6: Restart NGINX

Restart NGINX using the following command:

sudo systemctl restart nginx

Step 7: Configure sending traffic to Wallarm node

Depending on the deployment approach being used, perform the following settings:

Update targets of your load balancer to send traffic to the Wallarm instance. For details, please refer to the documentation on your load balancer.

Configure your web or proxy server (e.g. NGINX, Envoy) to mirror incoming traffic to the Wallarm node. For configuration details, we recommend to refer to your web or proxy server documentation.

Inside the link, you will find the example configuration for the most popular of web and proxy servers (NGINX, Traefik, Envoy).

Step 8: Test Wallarm node operation

  1. Send the request with test Path Traversal attack to a protected resource address:

    curl http://localhost/etc/passwd

    If traffic is configured to be proxied to example.com, include the -H "Host: example.com" header in the request.

  2. Open Wallarm Console → Attacks section in the US Cloud or EU Cloud and make sure the attack is displayed in the list.
    Attacks in the interface

Step 9: Fine-tune deployed solution

The dynamic Wallarm module with default settings is installed. The filtering node may require some additional configuration after deployment.

Wallarm settings are defined using the NGINX directives or the Wallarm Console UI. Directives should be set in the following files on the machine with the Wallarm node:

  • /etc/nginx/sites-available/default for the settings on the server and location levels

  • /etc/nginx/nginx.conf for the settings on the http level

  • /etc/nginx/wallarm-status.conf with Wallarm node monitoring settings. Detailed description is available within the link

  • /opt/wallarm/etc/collectd/wallarm-collectd.conf.d/wallarm-tarantool.conf with the settings for the collectd plugin that collects statistics from Tarantool

Below there are a few of the typical settings that you can apply if needed:

Launch options

As soon as you have the all-in one script downloaded, you can get help on it with:

sudo sh ./wallarm-5.2.1.x86_64-glibc.sh -- -h

Which returns:

...
Usage: setup.sh [options]... [arguments]... [filtering/postanalytics]

OPTION                      DESCRIPTION
-b, --batch                 Batch mode, non-interactive installation.
    --install-only          Initiates the first stage of the all-in-one installer in batch mode. Copies essential configurations, including files and binaries, and sets up NGINX for node installation, bypassing Cloud registration and activation. Requires --batch.
    --skip-ngx-config       Avoids automatic NGINX configuration changes that occur during the --install-only stage in batch mode, suitable for users who prefer manual adjustments later. When used with --install-only, it ensures only essential configurations are copied without altering NGINX settings. Requires --batch.
    --register-only         Initiates the second stage of the all-in-one installer in batch mode, completing the setup by registering the node in the Cloud and starting its service. Requires --batch.
-t, --token TOKEN           Node token, required in a batch mode.
-c, --cloud CLOUD           Wallarm Cloud, one of US/EU, default is EU, only used in a batch mode.
-H, --host HOST             Wallarm API address, for example, api.wallarm.com or us1.api.wallarm.com, only used in a batch mode.
-P, --port PORT             Wallarm API pot, for example, 443.
    --no-ssl                Disable SSL for Wallarm API access.
    --no-verify             Disable SSL certificates verification.
-f, --force                 If there is a node with the same name, create a new instance.
-h, --help
    --version

Batch mode

The --batch option triggers batch (non-interactive) mode, where the script requires configuration options via the --token and --cloud flags, along with the WALLARM_LABELS environment variable if needed. In this mode, the script does not prompt the user for data input step by step as in the default mode; instead, it requires explicit commands for interaction.

Below are examples of commands to run the script in batch mode for node installation, assuming the script has already been downloaded:

# If using the x86_64 version:
sudo env WALLARM_LABELS='group=<GROUP>' sh wallarm-5.2.1.x86_64-glibc.sh -- --batch -t <TOKEN> -c US

# If using the ARM64 version:
sudo env WALLARM_LABELS='group=<GROUP>' sh wallarm-5.2.1.aarch64-glibc.sh -- --batch -t <TOKEN> -c US

# If using the x86_64 version:
sudo env WALLARM_LABELS='group=<GROUP>' sh wallarm-5.2.1.x86_64-glibc.sh -- --batch -t <TOKEN>

# If using the ARM64 version:
sudo env WALLARM_LABELS='group=<GROUP>' sh wallarm-5.2.1.aarch64-glibc.sh -- --batch -t <TOKEN>

Separate execution of node installation stages

When preparing your own machine image using the all-in-one installer for cloud infrastructure, the standard installation process outlined in this article may not suffice. Instead, you will need to execute specific stages of the all-in-one installer separately to accommodate the requirements of creating and deploying a machine image:

  1. Build machine image: At this stage, it is necessary to download binaries, libraries, and configuration files of the filtering node and create a machine image based on them. Utilizing the --install-only flag, the script copies the required files and modifies NGINX configurations for node operation. If you wish to make manual adjustments, you can opt to bypass the NGINX file modification by using the --skip-ngx-config flag.

  2. Initialize a cloud instance with cloud-init: During instance initialization, the bootstrap phase (cloud registration and service start) can be executed using cloud-init scripts. This stage can be run independently from the build phase by applying the --register-only flag to the /opt/wallarm/setup.sh script copied during the build stage.

This functionality is supported starting from version 4.10.0 of the all-in-one installer in batch mode. The commands below enable the sequential execution of the outlined steps:

# If using the x86_64 version:
curl -O https://meganode.wallarm.com/5.2/wallarm-5.2.1.x86_64-glibc.sh
sudo sh wallarm-5.2.1.x86_64-glibc.sh -- --batch --install-only
sudo env WALLARM_LABELS='group=<GROUP>' /opt/wallarm/setup.sh --batch --register-only -t <TOKEN> -c US

# If using the ARM64 version:
curl -O https://meganode.wallarm.com/5.2/wallarm-5.2.1.aarch64-glibc.sh
sudo sh wallarm-5.2.1.aarch64-glibc.sh -- --batch --install-only
sudo env WALLARM_LABELS='group=<GROUP>' /opt/wallarm/setup.sh --batch --register-only -t <TOKEN> -c US

# If using the x86_64 version:
curl -O https://meganode.wallarm.com/5.2/wallarm-5.2.1.x86_64-glibc.sh
sudo sh wallarm-5.2.1.x86_64-glibc.sh -- --batch --install-only
sudo env WALLARM_LABELS='group=<GROUP>' /opt/wallarm/setup.sh --batch --register-only -t <TOKEN>

# If using the ARM64 version:
curl -O https://meganode.wallarm.com/5.2/wallarm-5.2.1.aarch64-glibc.sh
sudo sh wallarm-5.2.1.aarch64-glibc.sh -- --batch --install-only
sudo env WALLARM_LABELS='group=<GROUP>' /opt/wallarm/setup.sh --batch --register-only -t <TOKEN>

Finally, to complete the installation, you need to enable Wallarm to analyze traffic and restart NGINX.

Separate installation of filtering and postanalytics nodes

The filtering/postanalytics switch provides the option to install the postanalytics module separately. Without this switch, both filtering and postanalytics components are installed together by default.

Starting the installation over

If you need to delete the Wallarm node installation and start again, follow the steps below.

Impact of starting the installation over

Starting the installation over involves stopping and deleteing already running Wallarm services, thus pausing traffic filtering until reinstallation. Exercise caution in production or critical traffic environments, as this leaves traffic unfiltered and at risk.

To upgrade an existing node (e.g., from 4.10 to 5.0), see the upgrade instructions.

  1. Terminate Wallarm processes and remove configuration files:

    sudo systemctl stop wallarm
sudo rm -rf /opt/wallarm

  2. Continue with the reinstallation process by following the setup instructions from the 2nd step.