Deploy Host Defender

Install Host Defender on each host that you want Prisma Cloud to protect.

Single Host Defenders can be configured in the Console UI, and then deployed with a curl-bash script. Alternatively, you can use twistcli to configure and deploy Defender directly on a host.

Install a Host Defender (Console UI)

Host Defenders are installed with a curl-bash script. Install Host Defender on each host that you want Prisma Cloud to protect.

Prerequisites:

• Your system meets all minimum system requirements.
• You have sudo access to the host where Defender will be installed.
• Console can be accessed over the network from the host where you will install Defender.

1. Verify that the host machine where you install Defender can connect to Console.

   $ curl -sk -D - https://<CONSOLE>/api/v1/_ping

   If curl returns an HTTP response status code of 200, you have connectivity to Console. If you customized the setup when you installed Console, you might need to specify a different port.
2. Log into Console.
3. Go to Manage > Defenders > Deploy.

   1. In the first drop-down menu (2), select the way Defender connects to Console.

      A list of IP addresses and hostnames are pre-populated in the drop-down list. If none of the items are valid, go to Manage > Defenders > Names, and add a new Subject Alternative Name (SAN) to Console’s certificate. After adding a SAN, your IP address or hostname will be available in the drop-down list.

      Selecting an IP address in a evaluation setup is acceptable, but using a DNS name is more resilient. If you select Console’s IP address, and Console’s IP address changes, your Defenders will no longer be able to communicate with Console.
   2. (Optional) Set a proxy (3) for the Defender to use for the communication with the Console.
   3. (Optional) Set a custom communication port (4) for the Defender to use.
   4. (Optional) Set Assign globally unique names to Hosts to ON when you have multiple hosts that can have the same hostname (e.g., autoscale groups, overlapping IP addresses, etc).

      After setting the toggle to ON, Prisma Cloud appends a unique identifier, such as ResourceId, to the host’s DNS name. For example, an AWS EC2 host would have the following name: Ip-171-29-1-244.ec2internal-i-04a1dcee6bd148e2d.
   5. In the second drop-down list (5), select Host Defender - Linux or Host Defender - Windows.
   6. In the final field, copy the install command, which is generated according to the options you selected.
4. On the host where you want to install Defender, paste the command into a shell window, and run it.

Install a single Host Defender (twistcli)

Use twistcli to install a single Host Defender on a Linux host.

Prerequisites:

• Your system meets all minimum system requirements.
• Console can be accessed over the network from the host where you want to install Defender.
• You have sudo access to the host where Defender will be installed.
• Create a Role with Cloud Provisioning Admin permissions and without any account groups attached.

1. Verify that the host machine where you install Defender can connect to Console.

   $ curl -sk -D - https://<CONSOLE>/api/v1/_ping

   If curl returns an HTTP response status code of 200, you have connectivity to Console. If you customized the setup when you installed Console, you might need to specify a different port.
2. SSH to the host where you want to install Defender.
3. Download twistcli.

   $ curl -k \
     -u <USER> \
     -L \
     -o twistcli \
     https://<CONSOLE>/api/v1/util/twistcli

4. Make the twistcli binary executable.

   $ chmod a+x ./twistcli

5. Install Defender.

   $ sudo ./twistcli defender install standalone host-linux \
     --address https://<CONSOLE> \
     --user <USER>

After the Defender installation is complete, you can configure the HOST_FIM_MOUNTS environment variable by updating the /var/lib/twistlock/scripts/defender.conf file. Set the value of this new variable to a colon separated list of the additional mountpoints to track (for example: "/mnt/mountpoint1:/mnt/mountpoint2"). This enables the Defender to track file integrity across the specified mount points.

Verify the install

Verify that Defender is installed and connected to Console.

In Console, go to Manage > Defenders > Manage. Your new Defender should be listed in the table, and the status box should be green and checked.

Once the Defender installation is complete, to configure the HOST_FIM_MOUNTS environment variable, modify the /var/lib/twistlock/scripts/defender.conf file. Add a name-value pair, where the value is a colon-separated list of the additional mount points to be tracked (for example: "/mnt/mountpoint1:/mnt/mountpoint2"). After making the changes, restart the Defenders to apply the new configuration.