3. Installation¶

Before Suricata can be used it has to be installed. Suricata can be installed on various distributions using binary packages: Binary packages.

For people familiar with compiling their own software, the Source method is recommended.

Advanced users can check the advanced guides, see Advanced Installation.

3.1. Source¶

Installing from the source distribution files gives the most control over the Suricata installation.

Basic steps:

tar xzvf suricata-6.0.0.tar.gz
cd suricata-6.0.0
./configure
make
make install

This will install Suricata into /usr/local/bin/, use the default configuration in /usr/local/etc/suricata/ and will output to /usr/local/var/log/suricata

3.1.1. Common configure options¶

--disable-gccmarch-native¶: Do not optimize the binary for the hardware it is built on. Add this flag if the binary is meant to be portable or if Suricata is to be used in a VM.

--prefix=/usr/¶: Installs the Suricata binary into /usr/bin/. Default /usr/local/

--sysconfdir=/etc¶: Installs the Suricata configuration files into /etc/suricata/. Default /usr/local/etc/

--localstatedir=/var¶: Setups Suricata for logging into /var/log/suricata/. Default /usr/local/var/log/suricata

--enable-lua¶: Enables Lua support for detection and output.

--enable-geoip¶: Enables GeoIP support for detection.

--enable-dpdk¶: Enables DPDK <https://www.dpdk.org/> packet capture method.

3.1.2. Dependencies¶

For Suricata's compilation you'll need the following libraries and their development headers installed:

libjansson, libpcap, libpcre2, libmagic, zlib, libyaml

The following tools are required:

make gcc (or clang) pkg-config

For full features, also add:

libgeoip, liblua5.1, libhiredis, libevent

Rust support:

rustc, cargo

Not every distro provides Rust packages yet. Rust can also be installed
directly from the Rust project itself::

https://www.rust-lang.org/en-US/install.html

3.1.2.1. Ubuntu/Debian¶

Minimal:

apt-get install build-essential libpcap-dev   \
                libyaml-0-2 libyaml-dev pkg-config zlib1g zlib1g-dev \
                make libmagic-dev libjansson libjansson-dev libpcre2-dev

Recommended:

apt-get install build-essential libpcap-dev   \
                libnet1-dev libyaml-0-2 libyaml-dev pkg-config zlib1g zlib1g-dev \
                libcap-ng-dev libcap-ng0 make libmagic-dev         \
                libgeoip-dev liblua5.1-dev libhiredis-dev libevent-dev \
                python-yaml rustc cargo libpcre2-dev

Extra for iptables/nftables IPS integration:

apt-get install libnetfilter-queue-dev libnetfilter-queue1  \
                libnetfilter-log-dev libnetfilter-log1      \
                libnfnetlink-dev libnfnetlink0

For Rust support:

apt-get install rustc cargo
cargo install --force --debug --version 0.14.1 cbindgen

3.2. Binary packages¶

3.2.1. Ubuntu¶

For Ubuntu, the OISF maintains a PPA suricata-stable that always contains the latest stable release.

To use it:

sudo apt-get install software-properties-common
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:oisf/suricata-stable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install suricata

3.2.2. Debian¶

In Debian 9 (stretch) and later do:

sudo apt-get install suricata

In the "stable" version of Debian, Suricata is usually not available in the latest version. A more recent version is often available from Debian backports, if it can be built there.

To use backports, the backports repository for the current stable distribution needs to be added to the system-wide sources list. For Debian 10 (buster), for instance, run the following as root:

echo "deb http://http.debian.net/debian buster-backports main" > \
    /etc/apt/sources.list.d/backports.list
apt-get update
apt-get install suricata -t buster-backports

3.2.3. CentOS, AlmaLinux, RockyLinux, Fedora, etc¶

RPMs are provided for the latest release of Enterprise Linux. This includes CentOS Linux and rebuilds such as AlmaLinux and RockyLinux. Additionally, RPMs are provided for the latest supported versions of Fedora.

RPMs specifically for CentOS Stream are not provided, however the RPMs for their related version may work fine.

3.2.3.1. Installing From Package Repositories¶

3.2.3.1.1. CentOS, RHEL, AlmaLinux, RockyLinux, etc Version 8+¶

dnf install epel-release dnf-plugins-core
dnf copr enable @oisf/suricata-7.0
dnf install suricata

3.2.3.1.2. CentOS 7¶

yum install epel-release yum-plugin-copr
yum copr enable @oisf/suricata-7.0
yum install suricata

3.2.3.1.3. Fedora¶

dnf install dnf-plugins-core
dnf copr enable @oisf/suricata-7.0
dnf install suricata

3.2.3.2. Additional Notes for RPM Installations¶

Suricata is pre-configured to run as the suricata user.
Command line parameters such as providing the interface names can be configured in /etc/sysconfig/suricata.
Users can run suricata-update without being root provided they are added to the suricata group.
Directories:
- /etc/suricata: Configuration directory
- /var/log/suricata: Log directory
- /var/lib/suricata: State directory rules, datasets.

3.2.3.2.1. Starting Suricata On-Boot¶

The Suricata RPMs are configured to run from Systemd.

To start Suricata:

systemctl start suricata

To stop Suricata:

systemctl stop suricata

To have Suricata start on-boot:

systemctl enable suricata

To reload rules:

systemctl reload suricata

3.3. Advanced Installation¶

Various installation guides for installing from GIT and for other operating systems are maintained at: https://redmine.openinfosecfoundation.org/projects/suricata/wiki/Suricata_Installation