The purpose of this section is to explain how to install the Honeywall CDROM, and the different options you have. Please submit all bugs/corrections for this documentation or the Honeywall CDROM to our Bugzilla Server.

Last Modified: 16 August, 2005

4. Installation

1. Installation Steps
2. Alternate Automated Configuration Option

4.1 Installation Steps
These steps describe how to install the Honeywall software to your hard drive. Keep in mind, this process will DESTROY all data on your hard drive, so make sure the hard drive has no critical data, or you have made back-ups. You have been warned.

1. Ensure your system meets the requirements, as stated in Section 3: Requirements Section.

2. Download the latest copy of the Roo ISO from the CDROM homepage or a mirror local to you. Make sure you verify the MD5 signature after downloading.

3. Use your favorite CDROM mastering process to create a CDROM from the downloaded ISO. Or, if you are using virtualization software, such as VMware, you may be able to boot from the .iso image. For more information on how to boot and run from VMware, refer to the paper Deploying Honeywall Using VMware.

4. Confgiure your BIOS to ensure the system will boot from the CDROM. Boot your computer. It should boot from the CDROM, beginning the installation process.

5. The Honeynet Project splash screen should appear. At this point system will wait for you input. No installation will happen until you press the Enter key. Only after you have manually done that, then the system will begin the installation process. Once the installation begins it is a fully automated process, there is no need to interact with the the installation from this point on. For automated, headless installations that do not require manual intervention, pleasse refer to Section-7: Customization.

6. Once the installation is complete, the CDROM should eject and the system should reboot. Your hard drive now has a minimized (233 RPMs) and hardened Fedora Core 3 operating system with Honeywall support added. You should be presented with a command line login prompt. At this point you can login begin the standard configuration process. See the next section, Section 4: Initial Setup of the documentation for more details.

4.2 Alternate Automated Configuration Option

The above installation process is the most common process for standalone deployments, or for individuals or organizations that want to deploy a test system for the first time. However, organizations that are deploying distributed Honeywalls may want an install process that includes automated configuration, enabling a hands free deployment. Below are two such methods.

• You can have the CDROM read a pre-built Honeywall configuration file during the installation process. The primary way of doing this is by inserting a floppy into the computer before step [4]. This floppy needs to contain a preconfigured honeywall.conf file that contains all the information your system needs to configure itself (detail information aboubt this file in Section 5: Initial Setup. During the install process the CDROM will check for a floppy with the honeywall.conf configuration file. If it finds such a file on a floppy, it will use the variables contained there to install a fully configured honeywall. This only works on first boot. After that, there is a marker set and the floopy will never be checked again. This is because an attacker could walk up with his own floppy and reboot the system to gain access to it. This precaution also prevents from accidental reloading of older configurations from a forgotten floppy left in the system.

• The second way to automate configuration during the install process is to use customization features to insert your own pre-configured honeywall.conf file into a customized ISO, and can then let the installation process use this as the default configuration. Sites who will be deploying large numbers of honeywalls may want to pre-configure globally applicable values (such as central management host, SSH server port, whether or not root logins through SSH are allowed, etc.). You can learn more about customization in Section 8: Customization.