How to Install Packetbeat on Elementary OS Latest

Packetbeat is a lightweight network packet analyzer that sends data to an Elasticsearch instance, which is part of the Elastic Stack. In this tutorial, we will walk you through the installation process of Packetbeat on Elementary OS Latest.

Prerequisites

Before we begin, make sure you have the following prerequisites:

  • A user account with sudo privileges
  • An Elasticsearch instance
  • A Kibana instance (optional)

Step 1: Download the Packetbeat Package

To download the Packetbeat package, follow these steps:

  1. Open a terminal window by pressing Ctrl + Alt + T.
  2. Run the following command to download the Packetbeat package:
wget https://artifacts.elastic.co/downloads/beats/packetbeat/packetbeat-{version}-linux-x86_64.tar.gz

Replace {version} with the version number that you want to install. You can check the latest version on the Packetbeat releases page.

Step 2: Extract the Packetbeat Package

Once the Packetbeat package is downloaded, you need to extract it. Run the following command:

tar -xzf packetbeat-{version}-linux-x86_64.tar.gz

Step 3: Configure Packetbeat

Before you can start Packetbeat, you need to configure it. Follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to the extracted package directory:
cd packetbeat-{version}-linux-x86_64
  1. Open the packetbeat.yml configuration file using a text editor:
sudo nano packetbeat.yml
  1. Update the following parameters:
  • Change the Elasticsearch output section to point to your Elasticsearch instance:
output.elasticsearch:
  hosts: ["localhost:9200"]
  • Uncomment the following lines to enable the packet capture:
packetbeat.interfaces.device: any
packetbeat.interfaces.type: af_packet

Step 4: Start Packetbeat

Once the configuration is updated, you can start Packetbeat. Run the following command:

sudo ./packetbeat -e

The -e flag tells Packetbeat to run in foreground mode, which is useful for debugging.

Step 5: Verify Packetbeat is Working

To verify Packetbeat is working properly, you can check the logs. Open a new terminal window and run the following command:

tail -f /var/log/packetbeat/packetbeat

You should see logs similar to this:

2021-10-07T23:41:53.538+0200	WARN	[sniffer]	sniffer/sniffer.go:106	BFD conditions failed for ${DEVICE NAME}: link is not ethernet: Link type not supported

This indicates that Packetbeat is running and capturing network traffic.

Conclusion

Congratulations! You have successfully installed and configured Packetbeat on Elementary OS Latest. You can now analyze network traffic and send data to an Elasticsearch instance, which can be visualized in Kibana.