While looking around for some sort of dashboard to keep an eye on my Linux servers, I came across Rudder. Rudder allows you to keep track of all your Linux installations, and even force changes to make your servers meet compliance requirements for your organization. In this video, I’ll go over the process of setting up the server and agent components, as well as an overview and my thoughts.

Setting up the Rudder Server

Install updates

 sudo apt update
 sudo apt dist-upgrade

Set the hostname

 nano /etc/hostname

set the name for the server, for example: rudder-server

 nano /etc/hosts

Ensure the hostname in that file matches what you used for /etc/hostname

Reboot the server

Since we’ve installed updates and modified the hostname, reboot the server:

 reboot

Install the Apt key for package signing

 wget --quiet -O- "https://repository.rudder.io/apt/rudder_apt_key.pub" | sudo apt-key add -

Add the Rudder repository

echo "deb http://repository.rudder.io/apt/6.2/ $(lsb_release -cs) main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/rudder.list

Install the Rudder server component

apt update
apt install rudder-server-root

Access the server to make sure it works

Enter into a browser address bar:

  https://ip_of_rudder_server/rudder

Add a user for Rudder

rudder server create-user -u <username>

Install the Rudder agent

In the video, a new server was created for the agent. But you can install the Rudder agent on any server you may already have, since the goal is to monitor all of your servers.

Set the hostname

nano /etc/hostname

Set the name for the server, for example: rudder-agent

nano /etc/hosts

Ensure the hostname in that file matches what you used for /etc/hostname

Install updates

apt update
apt dist-upgrade

Install the Apt key for package signing

 wget --quiet -O- "https://repository.rudder.io/apt/rudder_apt_key.pub" | sudo apt-key add -

Add the Rudder repository

echo "deb http://repository.rudder.io/apt/6.2/ $(lsb_release -cs) main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/rudder.list

Update the repository index

apt update

Install the agent

apt install rudder-agent

Associate the server with the Rudder server

rudder agent policy-server <IP address of server>

Add the IPs to the network settings. As shown in the video, make sure you allow the networks in the network settings to allow your servers to communicate with Rudder.

Restart the Rudder agent

systemctl restart rudder-agent

Force check-in on the agent

rudder agent inventory

Install a plugin on the server

Edit:

/opt/rudder/etc/rudder-pkg/rudder-pkg.conf

Add your username/password for your account (If you have one)

Resynchronize available plugin list

rudder package update

List plugins

rudder package list --all

Install a plugin

Zabbix plugin used as an example:

rudder package install rudder-plugin-zabbix