samhain Installation Guide Installation Guide

samhain is a free and open-source integrity monitoring. Samhain provides host-based intrusion detection system

Hardware Requirements:

CPU: 1 core minimum

RAM: 512MB minimum

Storage: 2GB for data

Network: Client/server

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 49777 (default samhain 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 samhain
sudo dnf install -y samhain

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

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=49777/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Verify installation
samhain --version

bash

# Update package index
sudo apt update

# Install samhain
sudo apt install -y samhain

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

# Configure firewall
sudo ufw allow 49777

# Verify installation
samhain --version

bash

# Install samhain
sudo pacman -S samhain

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

# Verify installation
samhain --version

bash

# Install samhain
apk add --no-cache samhain

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

# Verify installation
samhain --version

bash

# Install samhain
sudo zypper install -y samhain

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

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=49777/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

# Verify installation
samhain --version

bash

# Using Homebrew
brew install samhain

# Start service
brew services start samhain

# Verify installation
samhain --version

bash

# Using pkg
pkg install samhain

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

# Start service
service samhain start

# Verify installation
samhain --version

bash

# Using Chocolatey
choco install samhain

# Or using Scoop
scoop install samhain

# Verify installation
samhain --version

bash

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

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

# Test configuration
samhain --version

bash

# Enable service
sudo systemctl enable samhain

# Start service
sudo systemctl start samhain

# Stop service
sudo systemctl stop samhain

# Restart service
sudo systemctl restart samhain

# Check status
sudo systemctl status samhain

# View logs
sudo journalctl -u samhain -f

bash

# Enable service
rc-update add samhain default

# Start service
rc-service samhain start

# Stop service
rc-service samhain stop

# Restart service
rc-service samhain restart

# Check status
rc-service samhain status

bash

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

# Start service
service samhain start

# Stop service
service samhain stop

# Restart service
service samhain restart

# Check status
service samhain status

bash

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

# Check status
brew services list | grep samhain

powershell

# Start service
net start samhain

# Stop service
net stop samhain

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

# Check status
Get-Service samhain

See the official documentation for advanced configuration options.

nginx

upstream samhain_backend {
    server 127.0.0.1:49777;
}

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

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

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

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://samhain_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 samhain.example.com
    Redirect permanent / https://samhain.example.com/
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:443>
    ServerName samhain.example.com
    
    SSLEngine on
    SSLCertificateFile /etc/ssl/certs/samhain.example.com.crt
    SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/ssl/private/samhain.example.com.key
    
    ProxyRequests Off
    ProxyPreserveHost On
    
    ProxyPass / http://127.0.0.1:49777/
    ProxyPassReverse / http://127.0.0.1:49777/
</VirtualHost>

haproxy

frontend samhain_frontend
    bind *:80
    bind *:443 ssl crt /etc/ssl/certs/samhain.pem
    redirect scheme https if !{ ssl_fc }
    default_backend samhain_backend

backend samhain_backend
    balance roundrobin
    server samhain1 127.0.0.1:49777 check

bash

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

# Configure firewall
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=49777/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 samhain

# View logs
sudo journalctl -u samhain -f

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

bash

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

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

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

bash

# Stop service
sudo systemctl stop samhain

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

# Start service
sudo systemctl start samhain

1. Service won't start:

bash

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

# Check configuration
samhain --version

# Check permissions
ls -la /etc/samhain

2. Connection issues:

bash

# Check if service is listening
sudo ss -tlnp | grep 49777

# Test connectivity
telnet localhost 49777

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

3. Performance issues:

bash

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

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

# Check connections
ss -an | grep 49777

yaml

version: '3.8'
services:
  samhain:
    image: samhain:latest
    ports:
      - "49777:49777"
    volumes:
      - ./config:/etc/samhain
      - ./data:/var/lib/samhain
    restart: unless-stopped

Maintenance

bash

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

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

# Arch Linux
sudo pacman -Syu samhain

# Alpine Linux
apk update && apk upgrade samhain

# openSUSE
sudo zypper update samhain

# FreeBSD
pkg update && pkg upgrade samhain

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

# Restart after updates
sudo systemctl restart samhain

Regular Maintenance

bash

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

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

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

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

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

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

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