Requirements
Browser support for UI
Rudder can be used with any recent version (less than 2 years old) of Firefox, Chrome (and derivatives), and Edge. Internet Explorer is not supported.
Network flows - Firewall configuration
Rudder uses the following network flows for regular operations. Make sure your firewalls allow these connections.
| From | To | Destination | Usage |
|---|---|---|---|
User or API client |
Root |
tcp/443 |
Access Web interface/API |
Node |
Relay/Root |
tcp/443 |
Send reports and inventories, fetch files |
Linux node |
tcp/5309 |
Fetch policies |
|
Windows node |
tcp/443 |
Fetch policies |
|
Relay |
Root |
tcp/443 |
Send reports and inventories, fetch files |
tcp/5309 |
Fetch policies |
||
Relay/Root |
Linux node |
tcp/5309 |
[optional] Trigger remote agent run |
Root |
Relay |
tcp/443 |
Security
Your Rudder server and relays should generally not be exposed on the Internet. If you manage nodes on remote networks, the usage of a VPN for Rudder communications is recommended.
By default, nodes listen on port 5309 to allow remote agent trigger. On nodes having public interfaces,
it is recommended to only allow connection to this port from the server through firewall configuration.
You can also totally disable the service on simple nodes (but not server or relayd) if you don’t want to use remote run with
systemctl disable rudder-cf-serverd && systemctl restart rudder-agent (or an equivalent Rudder policy).
PostgreSQL
We ensure that the version of PostgreSQL provided by all supported OS is compatible with Rudder. If you want to use an external database, please check specific requirements in the setup documentation for installing the PostgreSQL server on a separate host.
Cloud compatibility
The agent provides an abstraction that permits high-level management of the infrastructure. This abstraction is independent of the underlying hardware. This also works for the cloud - we can define configuration rules in Rudder that will be applied as well inside a cloud instance as in a virtual server or in a physical machine of a datacenter.
Any cloud instance based on one of the supported operating systems is automatically supported.
Hardware specifications for Rudder Agent
Rudder agent has a very small footprint, and only consumes:
-
10 to 20 MB of RAM during an agent run
-
a few kB on the network to check or update its policies
-
a few kB on the network to report
-
around 100 MB of disk space for the installed files and the workspace
These figures will vary depending on your configuration (backup retention, number of configured components to check, etc…)
Hardware specifications and sizing for Rudder Root Server
A dedicated server is strongly recommended, either physical or virtual with at least one dedicated core. Rudder Server runs on 64bits versions of every supported Operating System.
|
Rudder does not fear big infrastructures. It is currently used in production in infrastructure with more than 15000 nodes. |
Memory
The required amount of RAM mainly depends on the number of managed nodes. A general rule for the minimal values, on a stand-alone server is:
-
less than 50 nodes: 2 GB
-
between 50 and 1000 nodes: 4 GB
-
more than 1000 nodes: 4 GB + 1 GB of RAM by 500 nodes beyond 1000.
When your server has more than 2 GB of RAM, you have to configure the RAM allocated to the Java Virtual Machine as explained in the section about web application RAM configuration.
When your server has more than 4 GB, you may need to also tune the PostgresSQL server, as explained in the optimize PostgreSQL Server section.
|
As an example, a Rudder server which manages 2600 nodes (with a lot of policies checked) will need:
In our load-tests, with such a configuration, the server is not stressed and the user experience is good. |
CPU
The number of cores necessary also depends on the number of managed nodes. A general rule for the minimal values, on a stand-alone server is:
-
less than 50 nodes: 2 cores
-
between 50 and 1000 nodes: 4 cores
-
more than 1000 nodes: 4 cores + one core per 1000 nodes beyond 1000, when not in full compliance
-
more than 1000 nodes: 6 cores + one core per 500 nodes beyond 1000, when in full compliance
Adding more cores makes the Web Interface faster, and especially the policy generation part. PostgreSQL needs more computing power when a lot of nodes are involved in full compliance, that’s why the requirement grows more quickly.
Disk
To manage more than 100 nodes, it is strongly recommended to use SSD or NAS/SAN with low latency, to avoid slowdown during policy generation and inventories management.
The PostgreSQL database will take up most of the disk space needed by Rudder. The storage necessary for the database can be estimated by counting around 500 to 900 kB per Directive per Node per Day of retention of node execution reports (default is 4 days), plus 150 kB per Directive per Node per Day of archiving (default is 0 days), plus 150 kB per Directive per Node per Day of compliance retention (default is 8 days) :
max_space = number of Directives * number of Nodes * ( retention duration in days * 900 kB + archive retention in days * 150 + compliance retention in days * 150 )
For example, a default installation with 500 nodes and an average of 50 Directives by node should require between 76 GB and 114 GB of disk space for PostgreSQL.
Follow the reports Retention section to configure the retention duration.
|
Be careful to correctly size your /var partition. Compliance data are growing fast, and PostgreSQL doesn’t like at all to encounter a write error because the disk is full. It is also advised to set up your monitoring to check for available space on that partition. Special attention should be given to:
Note: When using Syslog reporting, ticking "Log all reports received to `/var/log/rudder/reports/all.log`" under the Administration → Settings tab in the Rudder web interface will record all logs from nodes in a text file, on top from the SQL database. This uses a lot of disk space, and is disabled by default. |
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