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Install the traffic sensor

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The traffic sensor is currently in closed beta. Availability is limited, and setup and requirements may change during this phase.

If you’d like access, you can join the interest list.

Prerequisites

Supported operating systems

We currently only support the following operating systems:

.deb packages:

  • Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (x64, current LTS and previous LTS)

.rpm packages:

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 (x64, current and previous minor release)

Access checklist

Before you start the installation and capture setup, confirm you have the access and permissions below.

  • Host access: SSH access to the sensor host, or console access  

  • Privileges: a user account with sudo or root

  • Package install rights: permission to install required packages (for example apt access)

  • Capture permission: permission to read the traffic source (SPAN, TAP, or ERSPAN)

Install the sensor and hub

For ease of configuration and management during the beta phase, we strongly recommend deploying one dedicated hub per traffic sensor, with the hub and traffic sensor installed on the same machine.

  1. In your preferred site, go to Discovery > Systems > Download installers/packages.

  2. Select Network Discovery > Download Lansweeper repository package for the Linux Debian OS.
    Alternatively, open a terminal and run:

    curl -L -o lansweeper-repository.deb https://download.lansweeper.com/deb-repository/stable/latest
  3. Open a terminal and install the package you copied to your machine:

    sudo dpkg -i ./lansweeper-repository.deb
    sudo apt update
  4. In your site, select Systems > Link discovery system > Create new code. Specify an expiration date, then select Apply and copy the generated code.

    NOTE

    The expiration date indicates when the linking code can no longer be used to establish a new connection between a site and your discovery system. Any existing connection between the system and your site will remain active after the expiration date.

  5. Install the Network Discovery hub. Replace YourCloudTokenHere with your actual linking code and run:

    sudo env LINKING_CODE=YourCloudTokenHere apt install lansweeper-network-discovery-hub
  6. Install the sensor. Replace YourCloudTokenHere with your actual linking code, and YourHubInstance with the domain name where your hub is installed and run:

    sudo env HUB_CODE=YourCloudTokenHere HUB_INSTANCE=localhost HUB_PORT=59525 apt install lansweeper-network-discovery-traffic-sensor

    If the sensor is not installed on the same host as the hub, replace localhost with your hub’s IP address or FQDN.

  1. In your preferred site, go to Discovery > Systems > Download installers/packages.

  2. Select Network Discovery > Download Lansweeper repository package for the Linux Red Hat OS.
    Alternatively, open a terminal and run:

    curl -L -o lansweeper-repository.rpm https://download.lansweeper.com/rpm-repository/stable/latest
  3. Open a terminal and install the package you copied to your machine:

    sudo dnf install ./lansweeper-repository.rpm
    sudo dnf update
  4. In your site, select Systems > Link discovery system > Create new code. Specify an expiration date, then select Apply and copy the generated code.

    NOTE

    The expiration date indicates when the linking code can no longer be used to establish a new connection between a site and your discovery system. Any existing connection between the system and your site will remain active after the expiration date.

  5. Install the Network Discovery hub. Replace YourCloudTokenHere with your actual linking code and run:

    sudo env LINKING_CODE=YourCloudTokenHere dnf install lansweeper-network-discovery-hub
  6. Install the sensor. Replace YourCloudTokenHere with your actual linking code, and YourHubInstance with the domain name where your hub is installed and run:

    sudo env HUB_CODE=YourCloudTokenHere HUB_INSTANCE=localhost HUB_PORT=59525 dnf install lansweeper-network-discovery-traffic-sensor

    If the sensor is not installed on the same host as the hub, replace localhost with your hub’s IP address or FQDN.

Uninstall the sensor

On the host where the sensor is installed, run:

apt purge lansweeper-network-discovery-traffic-sensor

All information flows will stop after uninstalling the sensor.

On the host where the sensor is installed, run:

dnf remove lansweeper-network-discovery-traffic-sensor

All information flows will stop after uninstalling the sensor.

Next steps

Now that your hub and sensor are installed, the traffic sensor will immediately start to monitor traffic for new assets. Discovered assets will begin appearing in your site shortly after installation.

View assets discovered by the traffic sensor

To see a filtered view of all assets discovered by your traffic sensor:

  1. Go to Discovery > Systems and select your traffic sensor.

  2. Under Summary, locate the Assets section.

  3. Select Open details to view all assets detected by this sensor.