Installing a Modular, Network, or Security Sensor in AWS

This topic describes how to install a Modular Sensor in AWS.

About Modular Sensors

Sensors provide the data gathering foundation for Stellar Cyber's OpenXDR platform, gathering the right data with context. Modular sensors are purpose-built Stellar Cyber sensors that include both the host and the Stellar Cyber monitoring software. They are provided as both physical devices (Photon sensors) and virtual machine images for different target environments.

Previous releases provided a variety of different types of device sensors, including Network, Security, and Modular. Going forward, the only type of device sensor is Modular. You can use the Modular Sensor Profile to enable whatever sensor features you like, creating the same functionality provided by the different sensor types in previous releases.

A modular sensor lets you easily add the features you like to your sensor. This helps simplify your deployment and lets you manage the VM requirements for the sensors based on the modular features they use.

Modular Sensors always include log ingestion. From there, you can enable different features as part of your modular sensor profile:

  • Enable the Network Traffic feature to monitor the virtual environment, the physical environment if connected to the span port of a physical switch, or the LAN segment via a mirror port on a switch. The sensor monitors network and server response times and can identify applications.

    The sensor converts that information to metadata and forwards it to the DP as Interflow. The DP can then provide security, DDoS, and breach attempt detections.

  • Enable the Sandbox and IDS features to improve your security posture:

    • Sandbox lets you detect malware in files and network traffic through Stellar Cyber's integrated cloud service and also provides anti-virus services.
    • IDS lets you detect intrusion attempts using both files and network traffic.

Keep in mind that VM resource requirements increase as you add more features to the Modular Sensor Profile. Refer to Modular Sensor Specifications for details on the resources required to run different combinations of features in a Modular Sensor Profile, as well as how to use the show module and show module request CLI commands to compare provisioned resources against those required to run specific feature combinations. Stellar Cyber only enables a Modular Sensor Profile on a sensor if the host VM's resources can support it.

Installation Summary

You can install a modular, network, or security sensor in AWS. To install you must:

  1. Prepare.
  2. Launch the AMI.
  3. Connect the sensor to the Stellar Cyber Platform.
  4. Authorize the sensor.

Preparing

Click to see the minimum system requirements for installing a modular sensor.

You must have:

  • One IP address with access to a default gateway
  • A Stellar Cyber license that can be applied to the sensor

To prepare for the installation:

  1. Open firewall ports for log ingestion.
  2. Open firewall ports for Network Traffic, Sandbox, and IDS features, as necessary.
  3. Contact Stellar Cyber support (support@stellarcyber.ai) for access to the AMI. You must provide:
    1. AWS account name
    2. AWS account number
    3. AWS region for the sensor

Launching the AMI

To configure and launch the AMI:

Use our example as a guideline, as you might be using a different software version.

  1. Log in to your EC2 Dashboard.

  2. Click on AMIs, under Images.

    A list of existing AMIs appears.

  3. If you don't see any products, click the drop-down next to the search bar and choose Private images.

    If you still don't see any products, make sure your region setting is correct.

    And if you still don't see any products, contact technical support.

    AMI Names for Stellar Cyber Images

    For reference, the AMI names for the Stellar Cyber AMIs are as follows:

    • Modular Sensor – ModularSensor-5-x-y

    In all cases, the x-y refers to the minor version numbers of the sensor software (for example, ModularSensor-5-1-2).

  4. Click the check-box to the left of the AMI. The Launch button activates and the details appear.

  5. Click Launch. The Choose an Instance Type page appears.

  6. Choose a t2.2xlarge or higher type. Smaller instance types are not supported.

  7. Click Next: Configure Instance Details. The Configure Instance Details page appears.

    We recommend keeping the default settings.

  8. Click Next: Add Storage. The Add Storage page appears.

    We recommend keeping the default settings.

    As an option, you can encrypt your storage volume as follows:

    1. Click the Advanced button in the Configure Storage panel.

    2. Set the Encrypted dropdown in the EBS Volumes settings to Encrypted.

    You can also convert an existing sensor's unencrypted storage volume to use encryption.

  9. Click Next: Add Tags. The Add Tags page appears.

    Stellar Cyber does not use tags.

  10. Click Next: Configure Security Group. The Configure Security Group page appears.

    You can ignore the warning at the bottom of the page.

    Security groups define which local ports and remote hosts can reach the sensor. AWS enables SSH by default.

  11. Enter the Security group name.

  12. Click Add Rule. A new row appears. Configure inbound rules to allow your sensor to communicate with the DP.

    If you already added rules on a prior installation, you can choose Select an existing security group to see a list of the existing groups.

  13. Click Review and Launch. Make changes if necessary.

  14. Click Launch. The Select an existing key pair screen appears. Stellar Cyber is configured with a user name and password, so does not need a key pair.
  15. Choose Proceed without a key pair.

  16. Click the check-box to acknowledge.

  17. Click Launch Instance.

    You can launch the image but you cannot copy it. This means that the VM must be deployed in the AWS region where the image was authorized.

The VM is now running in the AWS cloud.

Connecting the Sensor to the Stellar Cyber Platform

To connect the sensor to the Stellar Cyber Platform:

  1. Log in to your new sensor. The default username/password is aella/changeme. You are immediately prompted to change the password.

  2. Change the password.

    After you change the password, your session closes automatically. When you log back in with your new credentials, the prompt changes to DataSensor>.

  3. Set the host name. The host name is displayed in Stellar Cyber and should be unique for each sensor:

    set hostname <new hostname>

  4. If necessary, set the proxy HTTP server:

    set proxy http://<proxy IP address:port>

    Note: The CLI prevents you from entering non-printable characters as part of the username or password for the proxy, as well as the proxy itself.

  5. Optionally assign the tenant (if you skip this, the sensor is assigned to Root Tenant):

    set tenant_id <Tenant ID from Stellar Cyber>

  6. Use the set cm command to specify the IP address to reach the management interface of the Stellar Cyber Platform. For a cluster, this is the IP address of the DL-master's management interface. For a single DP deployment, this is simply the Stellar Cyber Platform's management IP address. You can specify either an IP address or a hostname. For example:

    set cm 192.168.44.10

    or:

    set cm example.company.com

    If you specify a hostname rather than an IP address, the system attempts to verify the hostname with the DNS server. If the DNS server is not reachable, the system reports the error and lets you either proceed with the configured hostname or quit. This way, you can specify a hostname for the set cm destination in an offline environment without access to a DNS server.

  7. Verify with the show cm command. You should see the IP address of the Stellar Cyber Platform listed as the CM Controller and the Status should be Established.

  8. Use the show time command to view the time zone.

    During installation, the timezone for sensors are automatically set to UTC+0. Since the logs for some security products may only include the local time without a timezone, Stellar Cyber recommends that you set the sensor timezone to the same timezone as your security product.

  9. Log out with the quit command.

The sensor automatically contacts the DP to register itself.

Authorize the Sensor

You must authorize the sensor when it appears in the network.

You can authorize multiple sensors at a time. So if you're installing multiple sensors, install them all, then authorize them all at once.