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    ELK + pfSense 2.3 Working

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
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    • A
      ando1
      last edited by

      OK after a lot of reading and researching, I have successfully created an ELK stack and can monitor my pfsense 2.3 firewall. I am posting the steps I used below along with the files needed. You may need to modify some of the files to fit your IP address and environment. Also I posted the reference links I used to create the steps.

      I wanted to give credit to the sites that I got most of this information from as it helped me in figuring out how to make this work.

      UPDATE 11/17: I also found this site and was able to get version 5 working with Ubuntu server 16+: http://pfelk.3ilson.com/

      My original post on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/PFSENSE/comments/5axoaj/getting_elk_to_work_with_pfsense_23/

      Reference Links:
      http://secretwafflelabs.com/2015/11/06/pfsense-elk/
      https://elijahpaul.co.uk/monitoring-pfsense-2-1-logs-using-elk-logstash-kibana-elasticsearch/
      https://elijahpaul.co.uk/updated-monitoring-pfsense-logs-using-elk-elasticsearch-logstash-kibana-part-1/

      Prerequisites:
      • Ubuntu 14.04 Desktop - http://releases.ubuntu.com/14.04/
      • Kibana 4.5.4
      • Logstash 2.2.4
      • Elasticsearch 2.4.0
      • pfSense 2.3.2

      Files Needed (also in attached zip file)
      (You will need to modify some of these to fit your environment)
      • Kibana4 init script
      • Pfsense 2.2+ grok file - http://secretwafflelabs.com/files/pfsense2-2.grok
      • 02-syslog-input.conf - http://secretwafflelabs.com/files/02-syslog-input.conf
      • 20-syslog-filter.conf - http://secretwafflelabs.com/files/20-syslog-filter.conf
      • 81-pfsense-filter.conf - http://secretwafflelabs.com/files/81-pfsense-filter.conf
      • 99-elasticsearch-output.conf - http://secretwafflelabs.com/files/99-elasticsearch-output.conf
      • Dashboard - http://secretwafflelabs.com/files/Firewall_External_Dash.json
      • Visualizations Export - http://secretwafflelabs.com/files/Firewall_External_Visual.json
      • Saved Searches Export  - http://secretwafflelabs.com/files/export.json

      Steps:
      1. In order to be able to run the below commands as root, log into the Ubuntu desktop and type sudo - i
      2. Install Java

      apt-get remove --purge openjdk*

add-apt-repository -y ppa:webupd8team/java

apt-get update

apt-get -y install oracle-java8-installer

      3. Verify java version

      java -version

      Output
      java version "1.8.0_111"
              Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_111-b14)
              Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.111-b14, mixed mode)

      4. Install ElasticSearch

      wget https://download.elastic.co/elasticsearch/release/org/elasticsearch/distribution/deb/elasticsearch/2.4.0/elasticsearch-2.4.0.deb

dpkg -i elasticsearch-2.3.4.deb

      5. Download and install Logstash

      wget https://download.elastic.co/logstash/logstash/packages/debian/logstash_2.2.4-1_all.deb

dpkg -i logstash_2.2.4-1_all.deb

      6. Create a patterns directory for Geo_IP

      cd /etc/logstash/conf.d

mkdir patterns

      7. Create pfsense grok file

      cd /etc/logstash/conf.d/patterns

nano pfsense2-2.grok

      8. Download the GEO_IP database

      cd /etc/logstash

curl -O "http://geolite.maxmind.com/download/geoip/database/GeoLiteCity.dat.gz"

gunzip GeoLiteCity.dat.gz

      9. Create the logstash conf files

      02-syslog-input.conf

      nano /etc/logstash/02-syslog-input.conf

Copy the contents of 02-syslog-input.conf and save

Modify the port if needed

      20-syslog-filter.conf

      nano /etc/logstash/20-syslog-filter.conf

Copy the contents of20-syslog-filter.conf and save

Modify the section "#change to pfSense ip address" to reflect your pfsense IP address

      81-pfsense-filter.conf

      nano /etc/logstash/81-pfsense-filter.conf

Copy the contents of81-pfsense-filter.conf  and save

      99-elasticsearch-output.conf

      nano /etc/logstash/99-elasticsearch-output.conf

Copy the contents of99-elasticsearch-output.conf and save

      10. Download and install Kibana

      wget https://download.elastic.co/kibana/kibana/kibana-4.5.4-linux-x64.tar.gz

untar -xzvf  kibana-4.4.2-linux-x64.tar.gz

mv kibana-4.4.2-linux-x64 /opt/kibana4/

sed -i 's/#pid_file/pid_file/g' /opt/kibana4/config/kibana.yml

      11. Create "kibana4.sh" init script and save in /etc/init.d/

      cd /etc/init.d

nano kibana4.sh

Copy the contents of the kibana script and save

      12. Ensure services are running. Start if necessary.

      Start elasticsearch:

      service elasticsearch start

      Start logstash:

      service logstash start

      Start kibana:

       /opt/kibana4/bin/kibana &

      13. Log into your pfsense system and point your logs to the ELK IP address:
      Status –> System Logs

      14. Log into http://<ip_address>:5601
      15. Click "Create Index"

      16. On the kibana interface, go to Settings --> Objects and click Import. Import each file.
        • Dashboard - http://secretwafflelabs.com/files/Firewall_External_Dash.json
        • Visualizations Export - http://secretwafflelabs.com/files/Firewall_External_Visual.json
        • Saved Searches Export - http://secretwafflelabs.com/files/export.json

      17. On the kibana interface, go to Settings --> Objects and click the icon to view the new dashboard.

      Troubleshooting
      NOTE: For some reason my logstash doesn’t start at boot. I have to look into this, but haven't had time yet so I just start it manually

      Here are some good troubleshooting commands:

      Ensure logstash and elasticsearch are running and did not error out:

      /opt/logstash/bin/logstash agent -f /etc/logstash/conf.d/ --debug

      View the logstash stdout in realtime to see if you are receiving syslog messages from pfsense:

       tail -f /var/log/logstash/logstash.stdout

      Check the logstash configuration files:

      /opt/logstash/bin/logstash --configtest -f /etc/logstash/conf.d/

      If you do not see "Create Index" in step 12, see if logstash created one

      curl http://localhost:9200/_cat/indices

```[elk_files.zip](/public/_imported_attachments_/1/elk_files.zip)</ip_address>
      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
      • johnpozJ
        johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
        last edited by

        While this great, sure many people will be happy.  Why are you using old versions of stuff?

        The current is 5 is it not?  And why such an old version of java?  I just looked on my ubuntu 14.04 vm and 111 is current

        user@uc:~$ java -version
        java version "1.8.0_111"
        Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_111-b14)
        Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.111-b14, mixed mode)
        user@uc:~$

        An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
        If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
        Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
        SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.8, 24.11

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • A
          ando1
          last edited by

          @johnpoz:

          While this great, sure many people will be happy.  Why are you using old versions of stuff?

          The current is 5 is it not?  And why such an old version of java?  I just looked on my ubuntu 14.04 vm and 111 is current

          user@uc:~$ java -version
          java version "1.8.0_111"
          Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_111-b14)
          Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.111-b14, mixed mode)
          user@uc:~$

          I used these versions because these were the ones that worked for me. I asked several times on this forum and received no help so I decided to share a working config with others here as I have read many posts where people said they had tried and could not get it going. If you got a newer version to work, then that's great. Post the instructions so everyone can also enjoy.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • A
            AR15USR
            last edited by

            Thanks a bunch for this post ando1. Been looking forward to getting ELK going, will try it out when I get some free time…

            2.6.0-RELEASE

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • A
              AR15USR
              last edited by

              I see no Create Index button. The output from your trouble shooting section is:

              yellow open .kibana 1 1 1 0 3.1kb 3.1kb

              Also, when importing the 3 .json files, the "Firewall External" imports fine but I get this error on the other two:

              Error: Could not locate that index-pattern (id: logstash-*)
KbnError@http://0.0.0.0:5601/bundles/commons.bundle.js?v=10000:57463:21
SavedObjectNotFound@http://0.0.0.0:5601/bundles/commons.bundle.js?v=10000:57592:6
applyESResp@http://0.0.0.0:5601/bundles/kibana.bundle.js?v=10000:79296:37
processQueue@http://0.0.0.0:5601/bundles/commons.bundle.js?v=10000:42404:29
scheduleProcessQueue/<@http://0.0.0.0:5601/bundles/commons.bundle.js?v=10000:42420:28
$RootScopeProvider/this.$get$RootScopeProvider/this.$get$RootScopeProvider/this.$getdone@http://0.0.0.0:5601/bundles/commons.bundle.js?v=10000:38205:37
completeRequest@http://0.0.0.0:5601/bundles/commons.bundle.js?v=10000:38403:8
requestLoaded@http://0.0.0.0:5601/bundles/commons.bundle.js?v=10000:38344:10

              Also, in steps 4 & 10, the file version numbers don't match fyi…

              2.6.0-RELEASE

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • A
                AR15USR
                last edited by

                ando1, any idea what is going on?

                PS I ran everyone of your troubleshooting commands and they all error out fyi…

                2.6.0-RELEASE

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • A
                  ando1
                  last edited by

                  @AR15USR:

                  ando1, any idea what is going on?

                  PS I ran everyone of your troubleshooting commands and they all error out fyi…

                  Can you post the output of the logstash debug? You may need to stop the service before you run the command:

                  /opt/logstash/bin/logstash agent -f /etc/logstash/conf.d/ –debug

                  Also what error do you get when you run this?

                  /opt/logstash/bin/logstash --configtest -f /etc/logstash/conf.d/

                  Andy

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • A
                    ando1
                    last edited by

                    For anyone interested in getting the newest version of ELK (v5) working with pfSense, I was able to get do it using the instructions on this siye: http://pfelk.3ilson.com/

                    You need at least Ubuntu server vv16.04.01

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • A
                      AR15USR
                      last edited by

                      @ando1:

                      Can you post the output of the logstash debug? You may need to stop the service before you run the command:

                      /opt/logstash/bin/logstash agent -f /etc/logstash/conf.d/ –debug

                      Also what error do you get when you run this?

                      /opt/logstash/bin/logstash --configtest -f /etc/logstash/conf.d/

                      Andy

                      /opt/logstash/bin/logstash agent -f /etc/logstash/conf.d/ –debug

                      Error: Expected one of #, input, filter, output at line 1, column 1 (byte 1) after  {:level=>:error, :file=>"logstash/agent.rb", :line=>"214", :method=>"execute"}
You may be interested in the '--configtest' flag which you can
use to validate logstash's configuration before you choose
to restart a running system. {:level=>:info, :file=>"logstash/agent.rb", :line=>"216", :method=>"execute"}

                      /opt/logstash/bin/logstash –configtest -f /etc/logstash/conf.d/

                      Error: Expected one of #, input, filter, output at line 1, column 1 (byte 1) after  {:level=>:error}

                      2.6.0-RELEASE

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • A
                        ando1
                        last edited by

                        /opt/logstash/bin/logstash agent -f /etc/logstash/conf.d/ –debug

                        Error: Expected one of #, input, filter, output at line 1, column 1 (byte 1) after  {:level=>:error, :file=>"logstash/agent.rb", :line=>"214", :method=>"execute"}
You may be interested in the '--configtest' flag which you can
use to validate logstash's configuration before you choose
to restart a running system. {:level=>:info, :file=>"logstash/agent.rb", :line=>"216", :method=>"execute"}

                        /opt/logstash/bin/logstash –configtest -f /etc/logstash/conf.d/

                        Error: Expected one of #, input, filter, output at line 1, column 1 (byte 1) after  {:level=>:error}

                        You definitely have a config file issue. Logstash combines all the configuration files into one and then processes them. Since the error is at Line 1 column 1 it sounds like the problem may be in the 02-inputs file. Have a look at all config files and double check they are OK.

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • H
                          hamed_forum
                          last edited by

                          tanks
                          if can creat ova or ovf from vm machine and upload it its very good :)

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • D
                            doktornotor Banned
                            last edited by

                            http://pfelk.3ilson.com/ basically works, but some pointers:

                            1/ There's a PPA for MaxMind:

                            sudo add-apt-repository ppa:maxmind/ppa
                            • see http://dev.maxmind.com/geoip/geoipupdate/ for /etc/GeoIP.conf and run geoipupdate after that. The DB is located in /usr/share/GeoIP/GeoLite2-City.mmdb

                            2/ You really should set up some authentication:

                            https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/x-pack/current/installing-xpack.html#xpack-package-installation
                            https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/x-pack/current/setting-up-authentication.html
                            https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/x-pack/current/logstash.html

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • johnpozJ
                              johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
                              last edited by

                              Yeah I had issues with the date stuff in logstash config as well.. had to remove the +0400 and timezone..

                              I have it running, but elasticstack doesn't seem to want to stay running.  Haven't had time to look into why.  And have not had any time to do any visualizations - which is what everyone wants ;)

                              An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
                              If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
                              Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
                              SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.8, 24.11

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • D
                                doktornotor Banned
                                last edited by

                                @johnpoz:

                                I have it running, but elasticstack doesn't seem to want to stay running.  Haven't had time to look into why.

                                Make sure you've allocated at least 4GiB of RAM to this thing. (Java  >:( ::))

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                                • H
                                  hamed_forum
                                  last edited by

                                  Elasticsearch after 10 sec  start its stop

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • B
                                    bubbawatson
                                    last edited by

                                    @doktornotor:

                                    @johnpoz:

                                    I have it running, but elasticstack doesn't seem to want to stay running.  Haven't had time to look into why.

                                    Make sure you've allocated at least 4GiB of RAM to this thing. (Java  >:( ::))

                                    I run elk stack on 1.5  ;D

                                    Small office though. Thx for the info on auth.. I've been wondering how to do that.

                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • B
                                      BrunoCAVILLE
                                      last edited by

                                      I'm currently going through the process of installing ELK but I have an important question. If I redirect the logs from pfSense to the ELK server will I be able to access the raw logs somewhere? I need to have them somewhere and I'm wondering where they would be if they are sent to ELK.

                                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • B
                                        BrunoCAVILLE
                                        last edited by

                                        Eveything works well except the maps visualization, someone can help?

                                        ![Capture d’écran 2017-05-05 à 15.18.39.png](/public/imported_attachments/1/Capture d’écran 2017-05-05 à 15.18.39.png)
                                        ![Capture d’écran 2017-05-05 à 15.18.39.png_thumb](/public/imported_attachments/1/Capture d’écran 2017-05-05 à 15.18.39.png_thumb)

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                                        • B
                                          BrunoCAVILLE
                                          last edited by

                                          Up

                                          Logstash stops after a few seconds (rising heap size didn't help).

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                                          • A
                                            AMizil
                                            last edited by

                                            @BrunoCAVILLE:

                                            I'm currently going through the process of installing ELK but I have an important question. If I redirect the logs from pfSense to the ELK server will I be able to access the raw logs somewhere? I need to have them somewhere and I'm wondering where they would be if they are sent to ELK.

                                            Status Menu - System Logs - Settings  - and jump to :  Remote log servers - and you can add another 2 Syslog Servers you have ; ex syslog-ng, Splunk etc

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