Completing the initial setup (Tanium Cloud Appliance)

Obtain a Tanium™ Cloud Appliance image file from Tanium Support. For more information, see Contact Tanium Support.

Requirements

License Obtain a valid license from Tanium Support. Tanium Support must know the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) for each Tanium Server appliance in your deployment to generate your license file.
Cloud provider
  • AWS (x86-64 processors)
  • AWS GovCloud
  • Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
  • IBM Cloud
  • Microsoft Azure
  • Microsoft Azure GovCloud

Deploy the virtual image to the cloud provider

Contact Tanium Support to obtain a TanOS Cloud Appliance image. When you configure the image with your cloud provider, you must specify an encryption key pair to initially connect to the image. You can use an existing key pair or generate a new key pair.

For a Google Cloud Platform (GCP) deployment, you must upload the TanOS GCP artifact file to your GCP Tenancy. GCP creates the image in your tenancy from the artifact. You can then provision multiple TanOS Cloud Appliances from that image. See your GCP documentation for more information.



Remote access to TanOS

Network and host settings enable the appliance to establish connections with other computers in your local network and with other servers and hosts on the Internet. Specify appropriate settings for the network in which the appliance is deployed.

  • Your local "management computer" must be connected to a subnet that can reach the appliance IP address.
  • Your management computer must have an SSH client application or terminal emulator that can make a client connection to the appliance.
  • You must have an SSH client such as PuTTY to sign in to the TanOS console. For PuTTY, use version 0.71 or later.
  • You must have an SSH key generator such as ssh-keygen to generate keys for the tancopy user.
  • You must have an SFTP client such as WinSCP to copy files to and from the appliance. For WinSCP, use version 5.15.2 or later.

Watch the tutorial about how to configure WinSCP for the Tanium Appliance.

Configure network and host settings

  1. Make sure your virtual image is configured to use an encryption key pair, and that the private key is set up on your local computer.
  2. Sign in to your cloud provider and use an SSH client to connect to the TanOS console as a user with the tanadmin role. If prompted to accept the key fingerprint, enter yes.ClosedView screen
  3. When prompted, indicate that you want to complete the initial configuration. ClosedView screen
  4. Use the spacebar to page through the end-user license agreement (EULA). When complete, enter Q, enter your email address, and enter yes to accept the EULA.

    The email address is stored locally only. It is not used externally for any reason.

    The console configures SSH keys and IPSec settings, and then notifies you that the initial configuration is complete. Press the Enter key to terminate the session. ClosedView screen

Configure user access

TanOS has built-in user accounts to access the Appliance operating system and perform tasks.

Before you install a Tanium Appliance role, you must add SSH keys to authenticate access for the following accounts:

  • tanuser: Can make an SSH connection with SSH key authentication to the TanOS console and access temporary settings and status menus only.
  • tanadmin: Can make an SSH connection with SSH key authentication to the TanOS console and access all menus. By default, the tanadmin user is configured to use key authentication only. Any user with the tanadmin role is a highest-level administrator in TanOS.
  • tancopy: Can make an SFTP connection with SSH key authentication to TanOS and copy files to and from the /incoming and /outgoing directories.

Watch the tutorial about how to configure SSH key authentication for the Tanium Appliance.

Before you begin

  • You must have an SSH client to sign in to the TanOS console and an SFTP client to copy files to and from the Appliance.
  • You must have an SSH key generator to generate keys for the tancopy user.

Add SSH keys

You must set up an SSH key for the tancopy user. Tanium strongly recommends that you set up SSH key authentication for TanOS user accounts.

Add SSH keys for the tancopy user

You must set up an SSH key for the tancopy user. The SSH key is used to transfer files via SFTP to the /incoming and /outgoing folders.

  1. Use an SSH key generator such as ssh-keygen to generate a public/private key pair. Note:
    • Specify an RSA key with 2048 bits (such as ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 2048).
    • Specify a passphrase that is easy to remember.
    • Save the private key to a location that you can access when you set up your SFTP client.
  2. Copy all of the text in the public key file to the clipboard. If you use ssh-keygen, copy the contents of the .pub file that you created.

    In an SSH key exchange, the keys must match exactly, including line endings.

  3. Sign in to the TanOS console as a user with the tanadmin role.
  4. Enter C to go to the User Administration menu. ClosedView screen
  5. Enter U to manage TanOS users.
  6. Enter the line number for the tancopy user to go to the user administration menu for this user. ClosedView screen
  7. Enter A to go to the Authorized Keys menu. ClosedView screen
  8. Enter A and follow the prompts to add the contents of the public key generated in Step 1. ClosedView screen
  9. To test it, on your management computer, set up an SFTP client such as WinSCP to connect to the Tanium Server Appliance:
    1. Specify tancopy for user name
    2. Click Advanced.
    3. Under SSH, browse and select the private key that pairs with the public key uploaded to the Appliance.
    4. Save the configuration and click Login to initiate the connection.

      5. You should be able to connect to the Appliance and see the /incoming and /outgoing directories.

 

You might see permission denied messages because WinSCP attempts to read the listing of the /incoming directory. This is expected. The user tancopy has permission to write to /incoming but not read /incoming.

Add SSH keys for TanOS users

Tanium strongly recommends that you set up SSH key authentication for TanOS user accounts.

If you plan to set up multiple Appliances through an Appliance Array, use these steps to copy the public key for the tanadmin user on the primary Appliance to the tanadmin user accounts on the remaining Appliances.

You can also use ssh-copy-id to add an SSH public key to any TanOS user with the tanadmin profile.

  1. Use an SSH key generator such as ssh-keygen to generate a public/private key pair. Note:
    • Specify an RSA key with 2048 bits (such as ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 2048).
    • Specify a passphrase that is easy to remember.
    • Save the private key to a location that you can access when you set up your SFTP client.
  2. Copy all of the text in the public key file to the clipboard. If you use ssh-keygen, copy the contents of the .pub file that you created.

    In an SSH key exchange, the keys must match exactly, including line endings.

  3. Sign in to the TanOS console as a user with the tanadmin role.
  4. Enter C to go to the User Administration menu. ClosedView screen

  5. Enter U to manage TanOS users.

  6. Enter the line number of the user account that you want to manage. ClosedView screen
  7. Enter A to go to the Authorized Keys menu. ClosedView screen
  8. Enter A and follow the prompts to paste the public key generated in Step 1. ClosedView screen
  9. To test it, on your management computer, set up an SSH client such as PuTTY to connect to the Tanium Server Appliance:
    1. Specify the Tanium Server IP address, port 22, and SSH connection type.
    2. Under SSH, browse and select the private key that pairs with the public key uploaded to the Appliance.
    3. Open the SSH session and enter the tanadmin username.
    4. You are prompted for the SSH key passphrase instead of the tanadmin password. ClosedView screen

Upload the license file (Tanium Core Platform 7.3 or earlier)

After you complete the initial network configuration, upload a valid Tanium license file.

These steps only apply to Tanium Core Platform 7.3 or earlier. If you plan to install Tanium Core Platform 7.4 or later, you will use the Tanium Console to upload the license file after you install a Tanium Server role or Tanium All-in-One role.

Before you begin

Obtain a valid license from Tanium Support. For more information, see Contact Tanium Support.

After you complete the initial network configuration, upload a valid Tanium license file or request an activation key from Tanium.

  1. On your management computer, set up an SFTP client such as WinSCP to connect to the Appliance.
  2. Use SFTP to copy your license file (tanium.license) to the /incoming directory on the Appliance.
  3. Sign in to the TanOS console as a user with the tanadmin role.

    When the tanadmin menu loads, TanOS detects the license and copies it to the appropriate location.

Export the grub key

The grub key can be used during the boot sequence to diagnose and recover from failure conditions. You can export the key and store it in a safe location. During recovery, you need to provide the key.

  1. Sign in to the TanOS console as a user with the tanadmin role.
  2. Enter A to go to the Appliance Configuration menu. ClosedView screen
  3. Enter X to go to the Advanced Configuration menu. ClosedView screen
  4. Enter 6 and follow the prompts to export the grub key to the /outgoing folder. ClosedView screen
  5. Use SFTP to copy the file from the /outgoing directory to your local computer.

Add TanOS system users

Create additional TanOS system users based on tanadmin (privileged) and tanuser (restricted) profiles. It is useful to have more than one privileged user in case you forget the password for the initial tanadmin user.

  1. Sign in to the TanOS console as a user with the tanadmin role.
  2. Enter C to go to the User Administration menu. ClosedView screen
  3. Enter U to manage TanOS users. ClosedView screen
  4. Enter A and follow the prompts to add a system user. ClosedView screen

What to do next

  • To save time, Tanium recommends you complete advanced network configuration before you install Tanium Servers. See Reference: Appliance configuration.
  • In an IBM Cloud deployment, add an additional disk to increase the storage volume before you continue with array or role installation. For instructions, see Increase storage.
  • When these steps are completed, or if none of them apply, you can continue with the installation of an Appliance Array or a Tanium role (for example, All-in-One, Tanium Server, Tanium Module Server, or Tanium Zone Server).