falco Installation Guide Installation Guide

falco is a free and open-source runtime security. Falco provides cloud-native runtime security

Hardware Requirements:

CPU: 2+ cores

RAM: 2GB minimum

Storage: 10GB for logs

Network: gRPC/HTTP

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 8765 (default falco port)

None

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 falco
sudo dnf install -y falco

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

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=8765/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Verify installation
falco --version

bash

# Update package index
sudo apt update

# Install falco
sudo apt install -y falco

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

# Configure firewall
sudo ufw allow 8765

# Verify installation
falco --version

bash

# Install falco
sudo pacman -S falco

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

# Verify installation
falco --version

bash

# Install falco
apk add --no-cache falco

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

# Verify installation
falco --version

bash

# Install falco
sudo zypper install -y falco

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

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=8765/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Verify installation
falco --version

bash

# Using Homebrew
brew install falco

# Start service
brew services start falco

# Verify installation
falco --version

bash

# Using pkg
pkg install falco

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

# Start service
service falco start

# Verify installation
falco --version

bash

# Using Chocolatey
choco install falco

# Or using Scoop
scoop install falco

# Verify installation
falco --version

bash

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

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

# Test configuration
falco --version

bash

# Enable service
sudo systemctl enable falco

# Start service
sudo systemctl start falco

# Stop service
sudo systemctl stop falco

# Restart service
sudo systemctl restart falco

# Check status
sudo systemctl status falco

# View logs
sudo journalctl -u falco -f

bash

# Enable service
rc-update add falco default

# Start service
rc-service falco start

# Stop service
rc-service falco stop

# Restart service
rc-service falco restart

# Check status
rc-service falco status

bash

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

# Start service
service falco start

# Stop service
service falco stop

# Restart service
service falco restart

# Check status
service falco status

bash

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

# Check status
brew services list | grep falco

powershell

# Start service
net start falco

# Stop service
net stop falco

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

# Check status
Get-Service falco

See the official documentation for advanced configuration options.

nginx

upstream falco_backend {
    server 127.0.0.1:8765;
}

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

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

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

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://falco_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 falco.example.com
    Redirect permanent / https://falco.example.com/
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:443>
    ServerName falco.example.com
    
    SSLEngine on
    SSLCertificateFile /etc/ssl/certs/falco.example.com.crt
    SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/ssl/private/falco.example.com.key
    
    ProxyRequests Off
    ProxyPreserveHost On
    
    ProxyPass / http://127.0.0.1:8765/
    ProxyPassReverse / http://127.0.0.1:8765/
</VirtualHost>

haproxy

frontend falco_frontend
    bind *:80
    bind *:443 ssl crt /etc/ssl/certs/falco.pem
    redirect scheme https if !{ ssl_fc }
    default_backend falco_backend

backend falco_backend
    balance roundrobin
    server falco1 127.0.0.1:8765 check

bash

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

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=8765/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 falco

# View logs
sudo journalctl -u falco -f

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

bash

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

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

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

bash

# Stop service
sudo systemctl stop falco

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

# Start service
sudo systemctl start falco

1. Service won't start:

bash

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

# Check configuration
falco --version

# Check permissions
ls -la /etc/falco

2. Connection issues:

bash

# Check if service is listening
sudo ss -tlnp | grep 8765

# Test connectivity
telnet localhost 8765

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

3. Performance issues:

bash

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

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

# Check connections
ss -an | grep 8765

yaml

version: '3.8'
services:
  falco:
    image: falco:latest
    ports:
      - "8765:8765"
    volumes:
      - ./config:/etc/falco
      - ./data:/var/lib/falco
    restart: unless-stopped

Maintenance

bash

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

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

# Arch Linux
sudo pacman -Syu falco

# Alpine Linux
apk update && apk upgrade falco

# openSUSE
sudo zypper update falco

# FreeBSD
pkg update && pkg upgrade falco

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

# Restart after updates
sudo systemctl restart falco

Regular Maintenance

bash

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

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

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

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

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

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

Best Practices Guide: https://docs.falco.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

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