Installing a Modular Sensor from the Baremetal Installer ISO

You can install the Stellar Cyber Modular Sensor directly on your own x86-64 hardware using the baremetal installer ISO. The installer writes the sensor image to a local disk, erasing it, and then reboots into the installed sensor.

Stellar Cyber Photon appliances ship with the Modular Sensor already installed and do not require this procedure. For virtual deployments, use the packaged images described in Installing a Modular Sensor in VMware or Installing a Modular Sensor in KVM.

Hardware Requirements

The target machine must meet the following minimum specifications. The installer checks the processor, memory, disk capacity, and network adapter before it writes anything to disk, and refuses to install on hardware below these minimums:

These minimums apply to a Modular Sensor installed directly on physical hardware. Virtual Modular Sensors have their own minimums — refer to Virtual Modular Sensor Provisioning and Performance.

Resource

Minimum

CPU

8 cores

Memory

16 GB RAM

Target disk

238 GB (256 GB-class) SSD required. Hard disk drives (HDD) are not supported.

Network interface

At least one supported NIC. Stellar Cyber supports and validates Intel, NVIDIA / Mellanox ConnectX, and Broadcom network adapters for traffic capture. The installer reports Supported NIC present. when it finds one.

Firmware

UEFI. Disable Legacy/CSM — the image is UEFI-only.

During installation, the machine also attempts to reach the Stellar Cyber release server over DHCP-assigned networking. This is not required — the installer continues if the server is unreachable.

Installation Workflow

Complete the following procedures in order:

  1. Downloading the Baremetal Installer ISO

  2. Writing the ISO to a USB Drive

  3. Running the Baremetal Installer

The installer erases the entire target disk. Confirm that you have selected the correct machine and that no data on its local disk is needed before you begin.