SUSE Installation with Self-Managed OpenSearch

The following article contains information on deploying Graylog with self-managed OpenSearch. Please note that Graylog Data Node is the preferred method of data management. See Get Started with Data Node for more information.

This guide describes the recommended way to install Graylog on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 and 15. All links and packages are present at the time of writing.

These installation steps also include installation of OpenSearch so that you can manage your search backend manually.

Warning: This guide does not cover security settings! The server administrator must make sure the Graylog server is not publicly exposed and is following security best practices.

Prerequisites

Hint: This guide assumes that any firewall is disabled and traffic can flow across all necessary ports.

Graylog 6.1 requires the following to maintain compatibility with its software dependencies: 

Graylog Version Minimum MongoDB Version Maximum MongoDB Version Minimum OpenSearch Version Maximum OpenSearch Version

6.1.x

5.0.7

7.x

1.1.x (or 1.3.x for Graylog Security)

2.15.x

Warning: We caution you not to install or upgrade to OpenSearch 2.16! It is not supported. Doing so will break your instance!

Additionally, we recommend you review the version notes specific to your preferred version of Graylog for guidance on installing and configuring your Graylog instance.

Server Timezone

To set a specific time zone on the Graylog server, you can use the following command. (For more information on setting a time zone, we recommend this blog post.)

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sudo timedatectl set-timezone UTC

Note the following patterns are required for a minimal setup (see SUSE 15 SP3 Deployment Guide):

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- Base System
- Minimal System (Appliances)
- YaST configuration packages

MongoDB

Installing MongoDB on SUSE should follow the tutorial for SUSE from the MongoDB documentation.

  1. Import the MongoDB public key.

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    sudo rpm --import https://www.mongodb.org/static/pgp/server-6.0.asc

  2. Add the MongoDB repository.

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    sudo zypper addrepo --gpgcheck "https://repo.mongodb.org/zypper/suse/15/mongodb-org/6.0/x86_64/" mongodb

  3. Install the MongoDB packages.

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    sudo zypper -n install mongodb-org

  4. Then, start the MongoDB instance.

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    sudo systemctl daemon-reload
    sudo systemctl start mongod.service

  5. In order to automatically start MongoDB on system boot, you have to activate the MongoDB service by running the following command:

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    sudo systemctl enable mongod.service

  6. Hold the currently installed version of the MongoDB package to prevent it from being automatically upgraded to a newer version when updates are installed.

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    sudo zypper addlock mongodb-org

    When you want to upgrade the package, be sure to remove the hold:

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    sudo zypper removelock <package-name>

    In the above code line, replace <package-name> with the correct package name.

OpenSearch

Hint: The remainder of this guide assumes that you wish to use Graylog with a self-managed OpenSearch deployment. Should you prefer to enable the Graylog Data Node, which is designed to configure and optimize OpenSearch for use with Graylog, please proceed now to Install Graylog Data Node.

The following installation steps assume you are using Zypper as your package manager with SUSE.

1. You may prefer to disable transparent huge pages to improve performance before installing.

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sudo su

cat > /etc/systemd/system/disable-transparent-huge-pages.service <<EOF
Description=Disable Transparent Huge Pages (THP)
DefaultDependencies=no
After=sysinit.target local-fs.target
[Service]
Type=oneshot
ExecStart=/bin/sh -c 'echo never | tee /sys/kernel/mm/transparent_hugepage/enabled > /dev/null'
[Install]
WantedBy=basic.target
EOF

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable disable-transparent-huge-pages.service
sudo systemctl start disable-transparent-huge-pages.service

2. Install the OpenSearch GPG key.

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sudo rpm --import https://artifacts.opensearch.org/publickeys/opensearch.pgp

3. From the CLI, you can install the package.

sudo curl -SL https://artifacts.opensearch.org/releases/bundle/opensearch/2.x/opensearch-2.x.repo -o /etc/zypp/repos.d/opensearch-2.x.repo
sudo zypper update
sudo OPENSEARCH_INITIAL_ADMIN_PASSWORD=<custom-admin-password> zypper install -y opensearch=2.15.0

Hint: OpenSearch 2.12 and greater now requires setting the OPENSEARCH_INITIAL_ADMIN_PASSWORD environment variable when installing. The password must be a minimum of eight characters with at least one uppercase letter, one lowercase letter, one number, and one special character.
For example: 
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sudo OPENSEARCH_INITIAL_ADMIN_PASSWORD=<custom-admin-password> zypper install -y opensearch

4. Edit the opensearch.yml file.

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sudo nano /etc/opensearch/opensearch.yml

5. At a minimum the following changes are required (for a single instance install).

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cluster.name: 
path.data: /var/lib/opensearch
path.logs: /var/log/opensearch
action.auto_create_index: false
plugins.security.disabled: true
network.host: 0.0.0.0  
discovery.type: single-node

6. After the installation succeeds, enable the OpenSearch service.

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sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable opensearch.service
sudo systemctl start opensearch.service

7. Then, enable and start OpenSearch.

sudo systemctl start opensearch

8. Hold the currently installed version of the OpenSearch package to prevent it from being automatically upgraded to a newer version when updates are installed.

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sudo zypper addlock opensearch

When you want to upgrade the package, be sure to remove the hold:

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sudo zypper removelock <package-name>

In the above code line, replace <package-name> with the correct package name.

9. Finally, verify that OpenSearch launched correctly.

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sudo systemctl status opensearch

Graylog

1. First install the Graylog GPG key with.

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sudo wget https://downloads.graylog.org/repo/el/stable/GPG-KEY-graylog -O /etc/pki/GPG-KEY-graylog

2. Then add the repository file /etc/zypp/repos.d/graylog.repo with the following content.

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[graylog]
name=graylog
baseurl=https://packages.graylog2.org/repo/el/stable/6.1/$basearch/
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/GPG-KEY-graylog
repo_gpgcheck=0

3. Refresh zypper repositories:

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sudo zypper --gpg-auto-import-keys ref

4. After that, install the latest Graylog Open release with:

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sudo zypper install graylog-server

If you are installing Graylog Enterprise, then you will use the following command.

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sudo zypper install graylog-enterprise

5. Mark the package on-hold so that package updates do not accidentally upgrade the Graylog server.

For Graylog Open:

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sudo zypper addlock graylog-server

For Graylog Enterprise:

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sudo zypper addlock graylog-enterprise

When you want to upgrade the package, be sure to remove the hold:

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sudo zypper removelock <package-name>

In the above code line, replace <package-name> with the correct package name.

Edit the Graylog Configuration File

1. Begin by opening the Graylog configuration file. Review the configuration file and edit as needed according to your preferences and environment.

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sudo nano /etc/graylog/server/server.conf

Warning: Add password_secret and root_password_sha2 values to the configuration file as these are mandatory and Graylog will not start without them.

2. To create your password_secret, run the following command:

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< /dev/urandom tr -dc A-Z-a-z-0-9 | head -c${1:-96};echo;

3. Use the following command to create your root_password_sha2:

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echo -n "Enter Password: " && head -1 </dev/stdin | tr -d '\n' | sha256sum | cut -d" " -f1

4. To be able to connect to Graylog, set the http_bind_address value in the configuration file to the public host name or a public IP address for the machine to which you can connect. More information about these settings can be found in Configuring the Web Interface. Alternatively, you can also set this configuration using this command:

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sudo sed -i 's/#http_bind_address = 127.0.0.1.*/http_bind_address = 0.0.0.0:9000/g' /etc/graylog/server/server.conf

Hint: If you’re operating a single-node setup and would like to use HTTPS for the Graylog web interface and the Graylog REST API, it’s possible to use NGINX or Apache as a reverse proxy.

5. Edit the elasticsearch_hosts setting to include a list of comma-separated URIs to one or more valid OpenSearch nodes. A sample specification may look as follows:

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elasticsearch_hosts = http://es-node-1.example.org:9200/foo,https://someuser:somepassword@es-node-2.example.org:9200

Warning: If this setting is not adjusted before start up, then you will NOT be able to log into Graylog using your previously configured root password!

6. The last step is to enable Graylog during the operating system’s startup:

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sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable graylog-server.service
sudo systemctl start graylog-server.service
sudo systemctl --type=service --state=active | grep graylog

Now you can ingest messages into Graylog!

Getting Started

Now that you have installed Graylog, you can review your initial configuration settings and connect to the web interface!

Cluster Setup

If you plan to have multiple servers assuming different roles in your cluster like we have in this big production setup you need to modify only a few settings. This is covered in our multi-node setup guide. The default file location guide lists the locations of the files you need to modify.