Packetbeat is a lightweight network packet analyzer that is designed to monitor network traffic and analyze network protocols. In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Packetbeat on Ubuntu Server latest.
Before you begin, ensure that you have the following:
Before you install Packetbeat, ensure that your Ubuntu system is up-to-date with the latest patches and security updates.
To update, run the following commands:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
Packetbeat requires some dependencies to function correctly. Install the following packages:
sudo apt-get install curl wget apt-transport-https -y
You can install Packetbeat via the ElasticStack package repository.
First, add the ElasticStack package repository:
curl -L -O https://artifacts.elastic.co/packages/7.x/apt/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.gz
gunzip Packages.gz
sudo apt-get install gnupg2
sudo apt-key add /var/cache/apt/archives/packages.elastic.co_7.x_version.deb.asc
echo "deb https://artifacts.elastic.co/packages/7.x/apt stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/elastic-7.x.list
Next, update your package repository:
sudo apt-get update
Finally, install Packetbeat:
sudo apt-get install packetbeat
Once installed, you need to configure Packetbeat to monitor your network traffic.
The configuration file for Packetbeat is located at /etc/packetbeat/packetbeat.yml.
Open the packetbeat.yml file with your preferred text editor:
sudo nano /etc/packetbeat/packetbeat.yml
In the configuration file, specify the network interface that Packetbeat should monitor. For example, to monitor traffic on the eth0 interface, add the following line:
interfaces:
device: eth0
Save and close the file.
Once configured, start and enable Packetbeat to start automatically upon system boot:
sudo systemctl start packetbeat
sudo systemctl enable packetbeat
To verify that Packetbeat is running correctly, you can check the status of the service:
sudo systemctl status packetbeat
If the service is running correctly, it should display output similar to this:
● packetbeat.service - Packetbeat captures and analyzes network data from predefined protocols and services.
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/packetbeat.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Thu 2021-09-30 03:45:44 UTC; 3s ago
Docs: https://www.elastic.co/products/beats/packetbeat
Main PID: 6387 (packetbeat)
Tasks: 6 (limit: 1148)
Memory: 6.3M
CGroup: /system.slice/packetbeat.service
└─6387 /usr/share/packetbeat/bin/packetbeat -e -c /etc/packetbeat/packetbeat.yml -path.home /usr/share/packetbeat -path.config /etc/packetbeat -path.data /var/lib/packetbeat -path.logs /var/log/packetbeat
Sep 30 03:45:44 ubuntu systemd[1]: Started Packetbeat captures and analyzes network data from predefined protocols and services..
Packetbeat is now installed and running on your Ubuntu Server. You can now configure it to monitor different protocols and services.
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