- 13 Nov 2024
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Install eBPF using script
- Updated on 13 Nov 2024
- 9 Minutes to read
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- DarkLight
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This topic guides you through the process of installing eBPF on a virtual machine using the Traceable Platform Agent (TPA) install script. eBPF (Extended Berkeley Packet Filter) enables efficient traffic capture directly from the Linux kernel, enabling high-performance traffic monitoring with minimal overhead. This installation method is suitable for environments where kernel-level visibility is required without external traffic routing or hardware-based solutions.
The installation script offers two modes of operation for eBPF:
eBPF with TPA: This mode installs eBPF and Traceable Platform agent (TPA). There is no prerequisite to having TPA previously installed. If you are starting out, this is the mode you can start with. For production deployments, ebpf-only is the preferred mode.
eBPF-Only: This mode installs only ebpf on the host. This mode has a prerequisite to having a Traceable Platform agent already deployed.
This topic will walk you through setting up both modes and provide the necessary steps to customize the eBPF deployment according to your environment's specific needs.
Download
To download the script, go to Traceable's download site. Navigate to install → traffic-mirroring → linux → latest. Click on the install.sh
script to download it, or enter the following command in your terminal:
curl -O https://downloads.traceable.ai/install/traffic-mirroring/linux/latest/install.sh
Provide the execute permission to the script. Enter the following command:
chmod +x install.sh
Installation
The installation script is a utility that installs and configures traffic-mirroring components. It can be used as follows:
sudo ./install.sh Subcommand Arguments [Optional-Arguments]
The sub-commands for the script are:
mirror Uses packet capture for data collection
ebpf Uses eBPF for data collection
tpa-only Install Traceable Platform Agent (TPA) only
ebpf-only Install eBPF only
cleanup Remove Traceable deployments
help Prints help
ebpf
The ebpf
sub-command installs the Traceable Platform agent and eBPF and runs them as systemd
services. For more details of this command (synopsis, example usages, argument descriptions), enter the following:
./install.sh ebpf help
The command has the following syntax:
./install.sh ebpf -e ENVIRONMENT -s SERVICE_NAME [-r REMOTE_ENDPOINT]
[-P PORTS] [-S SSL_DIRS] [-E EXCLUDE_PROCESSES] [--mode MODE]
[-R MAX_RETURN_PROBES] [--remote-cert-path ROOT_CA_CERT] [-t]
[--tpa-loglevel TPA_LOGLEVEL] [--tpa-log-max-size-mb TPA_LOGSIZE]
[--tpa-log-max-backups TPA_LOGCOUNT] [--ebpf-loglevel EBPF_LOGLEVEL]
[--ebpf-log-max-size-mb EBPF_LOGSIZE] [--ebpf-log-max-backups EBPF_LOGCOUNT]
[--no-download] [--enable-java-tls-capture] [--ebpf-max-memory EBPF_MAX_MEM]
[--tpa-max-memory TPA_MAX_MEM] [--set-memory-accounting]
[--ebpf-request-per-second-limit EBPF_REQUEST_LIMIT] [--ebpf-max-connection EBPF_MAX_CONNECTION]
[--ebpf-go-memory-limit EBPF_GO_MEMORY_LIMIT] [--otlp-max-connection-age OTLP_MAX_CONNECTION_AGE]
[--http-proxy HTTP_PROXY] [--https-proxy HTTPS_PROXY] [--no-proxy NO_PROXY]
[--tpa-max-cpu TPA_MAX_CPU] [--ebpf-max-cpu EBPF_MAX_CPU]
The following table explains the usage of the command arguments:
Argument | Mandatory | Description |
---|---|---|
| Yes | The service name for the mirrored traffic. |
| Yes | Environment name for the mirrored traffic. |
| No | Remote endpoint for Traceable Platform agent. |
| No | Comma-separated list of ports that you wish to track. |
| No | Comma-separated list of SSL directories. |
| No | Comma-separated list of process names that you wish to exclude from tracking. |
| No | Traffic type to be captured.
The default value is |
| No | Maximum number of return probes. |
| No | Prompt for Traceable Token for authentication. Check token for more details. |
| No | Root CA used to sign certificate for the Traceable Platform. |
| No | Logging level for the Traceable service. The allowed values are |
| No | The maximum log file size in MB created by the Traceable service. The default value is 10 MB. |
| No | Maximum number of backup log files created by the Traceable service. The default value is 10. |
| No | Logging level for the eBPF service. The allowed values are |
| No | Maximum log file size in MB created by the eBPF service. The default value is 10 MB. |
| No | Maximum number of backup log files created by the eBPF service. The default value is 10. |
| No | Use local packages to install Traceable and its components. For more information, see Airgapped installation. |
| No | Set it to |
| No | Maximum memory limit for the eBPF service. Takes a memory size in bytes. If the value is suffixed with K, M, G, or T, the specified memory size is parsed as Kilobytes, Megabytes, Gigabytes, or Terabytes (with the base 1024), respectively. Alternatively, a percentage value may be specified, which is taken relative to the installed physical memory on the system. |
| No | Maximum memory limit for the Traceable service. Takes memory size in bytes. If the value is suffixed with K, M, G, or T, the specified memory size is parsed as Kilobytes, Megabytes, Gigabytes, or Terabytes (with the base 1024), respectively. Alternatively, you can select the value as a percentage, which is taken relative to the installed physical memory on the system. |
| No | Set MemoryAccounting to |
| No | Sets the maximum number of requests the eBPF tracer would capture in a second. |
| No | Sets the maximum number of connections the eBPF tracer tracks at any given time. |
| No | This is the substitute for the Examples: 128974848, 129e6, 129M, 128974848000m, 123Mi |
| No | Sets the keepalive duration for the OTLP server in the Traceable Platform agent. The duration can be expressed as a string. The acceptable units are ns, us, s, m, and h. Example: 100ms = 100 milliseconds, 120s = 120 seconds, |
| No | Used for setting proxy URL for HTTP requests until overwritten by |
| No | Used for setting proxy URL for HTTPS requests until overwritten by |
| No | Specifies a string that contains comma-separated values specifying hosts that should be excluded from proxying. |
| No | Sets the maximum percentage of CPU that the Traceable Platform Agent (TPA) process is allowed to use. For example, |
| No | Sets the maximum CPU percentage for the eBPF process. For example, |
ebpf examples
Following are a few examples of using the ebpf
sub-command:
If you wish to capture all the traffic, use the following command:
ActionScriptActionScript
sudo ./install.sh ebpf -e myEnvironment -s myService -t
If you wish to capture traffic from a specific process or a set of processes, use the following command. In the example below, data is captured from ports 8080 and 9001.
ActionScriptActionScript
sudo ./install.sh ebpf -e myEnvironment -s myService -P 8080,9001 -t
ebpf-only
The ebpf-only
sub-command installs only the eBPF solution and runs them as systemctl
services. For more details of this command (synopsis, example usages, argument descriptions), enter the following:
Note
This mode requires that Traceable Platform agent is already installed.
./install.sh ebpf-only help
The command has the following syntax:
./install.sh ebpf-only -s SERVICE_NAME --tpa-endpoint ENDPOINT [-P PORTS]
[-S SSL_DIRS] [-E EXCLUDE_PROCESSES] [-R MAX_RET_PROBES] [--mode MODE]
[--tls-root-cert ROOT_CA_CERT] [--reporting-port REPORTING_PORT]
[--remote-port REMOTE_PORT] [--exporter EXPORTER] [--loglevel LOGLEVEL]
[--log-max-size-mb SIZE] [--log-max-backups COUNT]
[--no-download] [--enable-java-tls-capture] [--max-memory MAX_MEMORY]
[--set-memory-accounting] [--request-per-second-limit REQUEST_LIMIT] [--max-connection MAX_CONNECTION]
[--go-memory-limit GO_MEMORY_LIMIT] [--max-cpu MAX_CPU]
The following table explains the usage of the command arguments:
Argument | Mandatory | Description |
---|---|---|
| Yes | The service name for the mirrored traffic. |
| Yes | Endpoint of Traceable Platform Agent. |
| No | Comma-separated list of ports that you wish to track. |
| No | Comma-separated list of SSL directories. |
| No | Comma-separated list of process names to be excluded from tracking. |
| No | Maximum number of return probes. The default value is 1. |
| No | Traffic type to be captured.
The default value is |
| No | Root CA used to sign certificate for Traceable Platform Agent. eBPF uses this to validate the Traceable Platform Agent's certificate. If this value is provided, eBPF uses TLS encryption for data sent to the Traceable Platform Agent. |
| No | Reporting endpoint port of Traceable Platform Agent. If |
| No | Remote endpoint port of Traceable Platform Agent. If |
| No | eBPF span exporter. Allowed values are |
| No | Logging level for the eBPF service. The allowed values are |
| No | Maximum log file size in MB created by the eBPF service. The default value is 10 MB. |
| No | Maximum number of backup log files created by the eBPF service. The default value is 10. |
| No | Use local packages to install Traceable and its components. For more information, see Airgapped installation. |
| No | Set it to |
| No | Maximum memory limit for the Traceable service. Takes memory size in bytes. If the value is suffixed with K, M, G, or T, the specified memory size is parsed as Kilobytes, Megabytes, Gigabytes, or Terabytes (with the base 1024), respectively. Alternatively, you can select the value as a percentage, which is taken relative to the installed physical memory on the system. |
| No | set MemoryAccounting to true for the eBPF service. This is required on VMs where the |
| No | Sets the maximum number of requests the eBPF tracer would capture in a second. |
| No | Sets the maximum number of connections the eBPF tracer tracks at any given time. |
| No | This is the substitute for the Examples: 128974848, 129e6, 129M, 128974848000m, 123Mi. |
| No | Specifies the maximum CPU percentage for the eBPF. For instance, |
ebpf-only examples
Following are a few examples of using the ebpf-only
sub-command:
If your Traceable Platform agent is running on an IP address
10.120.0.3
, and you wish to install the eBPF solution and send the mirrored traffic to the Traceable Platform agent, use the following command:ActionScriptActionScript
sudo ./install.sh ebpf-only -s myService --tpa-endpoint 10.120.0.3
If your Traceable Platform agent is running with the TLS server on
10.120.0.3
and you have your root CA at/path/to/root/ca
, then you can enable TLS encryption for the traffic sent from eBPF to the Traceable Platform agent. Enter the following command:ActionScriptActionScript
sudo ./install.sh ebpf-only -s myService --tpa-endpoint 10.120.0.3 --tls-root-cert /path/to/root/ca
eBPF with centralized Traceable Platform agent
When you use the ebpf
subcommand for installation, the eBPF and Traceable Platform Agent are deployed on the same machine. eBPF starts capturing traffic and sends it to the agent. To streamline the forwarding process, you may run a central agent to which all devices with eBPF can send mirrored traffic. This can be accomplished in two simple steps:
Run the installation script with the
tpa-only
subcommand on the virtual machine (VM) where you wish to install the central agent.Run the installation script with the
ebpf-only
subcommand on all other VMs hosting your services.
If you wish to ensure secure communication between the VM capturing traffic and the central agent, follow these additional steps:
Enable the TLS server during installation with the
tpa-only
subcommand.Use the same root CA certificate for all
ebpf-only
installations.
Uninstallation
Enter the following command to uninstall. Note that the install script is used for both installation and uninstallation.
sudo ./install.sh cleanup