clair Installation Guide Installation Guide

clair is a free and open-source container vulnerability scanner. Clair provides static analysis of vulnerabilities in containers

Hardware Requirements:

CPU: 2+ cores

RAM: 2GB minimum

Storage: 10GB for DB

Network: HTTP/gRPC

Operating System:

Linux: Any modern distribution (RHEL, Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS, Fedora, Arch, Alpine, openSUSE)

macOS: 10.14+ (Mojave or newer)

Windows: Windows Server 2016+ or Windows 10

FreeBSD: 11.0+

Network Requirements:

Port 6060 (default clair port)

API on 6061

Dependencies:

See official documentation for specific requirements

System Access: root or sudo privileges required

This guide supports installation on:

RHEL 8/9 and derivatives (CentOS Stream, Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux)

Debian 11/12

Ubuntu 20.04/22.04/24.04 LTS

Arch Linux (rolling release)

Alpine Linux 3.18+

openSUSE Leap 15.5+ / Tumbleweed

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 15+

macOS 12+ (Monterey and later)

FreeBSD 13+

Windows 10/11/Server 2019+ (where applicable)

bash

# Install EPEL repository if needed
sudo dnf install -y epel-release

# Install clair
sudo dnf install -y clair

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now clair

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=6060/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Verify installation
clair --version

bash

# Update package index
sudo apt update

# Install clair
sudo apt install -y clair

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now clair

# Configure firewall
sudo ufw allow 6060

# Verify installation
clair --version

bash

# Install clair
sudo pacman -S clair

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now clair

# Verify installation
clair --version

bash

# Install clair
apk add --no-cache clair

# Enable and start service
rc-update add clair default
rc-service clair start

# Verify installation
clair --version

bash

# Install clair
sudo zypper install -y clair

# Enable and start service
sudo systemctl enable --now clair

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=6060/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Verify installation
clair --version

bash

# Using Homebrew
brew install clair

# Start service
brew services start clair

# Verify installation
clair --version

bash

# Using pkg
pkg install clair

# Enable in rc.conf
echo 'clair_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf

# Start service
service clair start

# Verify installation
clair --version

bash

# Using Chocolatey
choco install clair

# Or using Scoop
scoop install clair

# Verify installation
clair --version

bash

# Create configuration directory
sudo mkdir -p /etc/clair

# Set up basic configuration
# See official documentation for detailed configuration options

# Test configuration
clair --version

bash

# Enable service
sudo systemctl enable clair

# Start service
sudo systemctl start clair

# Stop service
sudo systemctl stop clair

# Restart service
sudo systemctl restart clair

# Check status
sudo systemctl status clair

# View logs
sudo journalctl -u clair -f

bash

# Enable service
rc-update add clair default

# Start service
rc-service clair start

# Stop service
rc-service clair stop

# Restart service
rc-service clair restart

# Check status
rc-service clair status

bash

# Enable in /etc/rc.conf
echo 'clair_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf

# Start service
service clair start

# Stop service
service clair stop

# Restart service
service clair restart

# Check status
service clair status

bash

# Using Homebrew services
brew services start clair
brew services stop clair
brew services restart clair

# Check status
brew services list | grep clair

powershell

# Start service
net start clair

# Stop service
net stop clair

# Using PowerShell
Start-Service clair
Stop-Service clair
Restart-Service clair

# Check status
Get-Service clair

See the official documentation for advanced configuration options.

nginx

upstream clair_backend {
    server 127.0.0.1:6060;
}

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name clair.example.com;
    return 301 https://$server_name$request_uri;
}

server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    server_name clair.example.com;

    ssl_certificate /etc/ssl/certs/clair.example.com.crt;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/ssl/private/clair.example.com.key;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://clair_backend;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    }
}

apache

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName clair.example.com
    Redirect permanent / https://clair.example.com/
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:443>
    ServerName clair.example.com
    
    SSLEngine on
    SSLCertificateFile /etc/ssl/certs/clair.example.com.crt
    SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/ssl/private/clair.example.com.key
    
    ProxyRequests Off
    ProxyPreserveHost On
    
    ProxyPass / http://127.0.0.1:6060/
    ProxyPassReverse / http://127.0.0.1:6060/
</VirtualHost>

haproxy

frontend clair_frontend
    bind *:80
    bind *:443 ssl crt /etc/ssl/certs/clair.pem
    redirect scheme https if !{ ssl_fc }
    default_backend clair_backend

backend clair_backend
    balance roundrobin
    server clair1 127.0.0.1:6060 check

bash

# Set appropriate permissions
sudo chown -R clair:clair /etc/clair
sudo chmod 750 /etc/clair

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=6060/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Enable SELinux policies (if applicable)
sudo setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect on

See official documentation for database configuration requirements.

bash

# Basic system tuning
echo 'net.core.somaxconn = 65535' | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
echo 'net.ipv4.tcp_max_syn_backlog = 65535' | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
sudo sysctl -p

bash

# Check service status
sudo systemctl status clair

# View logs
sudo journalctl -u clair -f

# Monitor resource usage
top -p $(pgrep clair)

bash

#!/bin/bash
# Basic backup script
BACKUP_DIR="/backup/clair"
DATE=$(date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S)

mkdir -p "$BACKUP_DIR"
tar -czf "$BACKUP_DIR/clair-backup-$DATE.tar.gz" /etc/clair /var/lib/clair

echo "Backup completed: $BACKUP_DIR/clair-backup-$DATE.tar.gz"

bash

# Stop service
sudo systemctl stop clair

# Restore from backup
tar -xzf /backup/clair/clair-backup-*.tar.gz -C /

# Start service
sudo systemctl start clair

1. Service won't start:

bash

# Check logs
sudo journalctl -u clair -n 100
sudo tail -f /var/log/clair/clair.log

# Check configuration
clair --version

# Check permissions
ls -la /etc/clair

2. Connection issues:

bash

# Check if service is listening
sudo ss -tlnp | grep 6060

# Test connectivity
telnet localhost 6060

# Check firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --list-all

3. Performance issues:

bash

# Check resource usage
top -p $(pgrep clair)

# Check disk I/O
iotop -p $(pgrep clair)

# Check connections
ss -an | grep 6060

yaml

version: '3.8'
services:
  clair:
    image: clair:latest
    ports:
      - "6060:6060"
    volumes:
      - ./config:/etc/clair
      - ./data:/var/lib/clair
    restart: unless-stopped

Maintenance

bash

# RHEL/CentOS/Rocky/AlmaLinux
sudo dnf update clair

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade clair

# Arch Linux
sudo pacman -Syu clair

# Alpine Linux
apk update && apk upgrade clair

# openSUSE
sudo zypper update clair

# FreeBSD
pkg update && pkg upgrade clair

# Always backup before updates
tar -czf /backup/clair-pre-update-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz /etc/clair

# Restart after updates
sudo systemctl restart clair

Regular Maintenance

bash

# Log rotation
sudo logrotate -f /etc/logrotate.d/clair

# Clean old logs
find /var/log/clair -name "*.log" -mtime +30 -delete

# Check disk usage
du -sh /var/lib/clair

Official Documentation: https://docs.clair.org/

GitHub Repository: https://github.com/clair/clair

Community Forum: https://forum.clair.org/

Best Practices Guide: https://docs.clair.org/best-practices

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Note: This guide is part of the HowToMgr collection. Always refer to official documentation for the most up-to-date information.

1. Prerequisites

2. Supported Operating Systems

3. Installation

RHEL/CentOS/Rocky Linux/AlmaLinux

Debian/Ubuntu

Arch Linux

Alpine Linux

openSUSE/SLES

macOS

FreeBSD

Windows

Initial Configuration

Basic Configuration

5. Service Management

systemd (RHEL, Debian, Ubuntu, Arch, openSUSE)

OpenRC (Alpine Linux)

rc.d (FreeBSD)

launchd (macOS)

Windows Service Manager

Advanced Configuration

Reverse Proxy Setup

nginx Configuration

Apache Configuration

HAProxy Configuration

Security Configuration

Basic Security Setup

Database Setup

Performance Optimization

System Tuning

Monitoring

Basic Monitoring

9. Backup and Restore

Backup Script

Restore Procedure

6. Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Integration Examples

Docker Compose Example

Maintenance

Update Procedures

Regular Maintenance

Additional Resources

Related Container security Guides

anchore Installation Guide