Getting Started with Netsweeper

Quick Start Guide

This guide is intended to point you in the right direction and give you resources to help get you started with Netsweeper.

Requirements

The requirements for your server will vary depending on your intended usage, deployment type, number of users, and many other factors. For planning a deployment with respect to scaling and sizing, our Professional Services department can provide you with assistance. Speak to your Account Manager for more information about Professional Services.

For a test lab, at the bare minimum, you can use a physical or virtual machine with the following specs:

Please note: These specs should not be used in a production environment and are only meant to trial features. A server with these specs will not be able to handle filtering a large amount of user traffic.

• For processor speed and number of cores, more is better. If all software roles are installed and run on a single server, then more cores can help, especially with SSL inspection. 
• RAM is the area that has the biggest impact, 8Gb or more gives more options for tuning cache sizes to reside in memory.
• Disk space is a direct correlation to the amount of historical log data you want to retain, the more disk space you have the more historical data you can keep before the log files start to be rolled-over.
• There are some deployment scenarios with Netsweeper where more than one network interface is a requirement such as when inside, outside, or management interfaces are required, or for redundancy. 

Installation

Please download the following ISO image:
http://repo.netsweeper.com/netsweeper-el6-x86_64-5.2.5-1.iso
Once downloaded, this ISO should be extracted to installable media:

On to a DVD
Or onto a USB memory key
Or if using virtual infrastructure, then (as the un-extracted ISO) into the storage pool such that the ISO can be mounted as a CD/DVD ROM drive

The ISO installer will self-install (once you press enter) and utilise all the disk space allocated to the machine. Out of the box, the server will have an IP address of 192.168.100.100. You can change this from the command line if you know CentOS Linux, go to /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts and edit the file "ifcfg-eth0". Then restart the network stack:

Initial Configuration

'service network restart'. 

OR connect a laptop to the server with a direct Ethernet cable, statically configure the laptop IP address to be 192.168.100.101. You should then be able to use a browser to bring up the first time configuration tool
http://192.168.100.100:8081/

Netsweeper software roles:
Netsweeper software can be thought of as interrelated roles or processes.

Webadmin
Policy server
Proxy
Logger
Reporter
All of the roles can co-reside on a single server, or the roles can be separated out onto multiples servers (or VMs). For the
trial you can simply go for 1 server running all the roles although you can also separate out if you choose.

Documentation:
You can access all of our documentation online at http://helpdesk.netsweeper.com/docs/
There is a tonne of documentation there, a good proportion of which will be of little interest initially, so here are some
pointers to get you going:
Installing
Netsweeper in a Single Server Environment
http://helpdesk.netsweeper.com/docs/5.0/Configuration/Installing_Netsweeper/Netsweeper_in_a_Single-Server_Environment.htm
Please note: That for an on-premises deployment, you should ensure that the Netsweeper server(s) has outbound access to the Internet, with particular requirements for the following destinations/ports

cns.netsweeper.com/3436
cns.netsweeper.co.uk/3436
any/80
any/443
The documentation talks about bridges, ignore that, and just set up as static IP addressing to suit your LAN.
Once the configuration is complete, we will then be into the operational side of things - setting up policies, administrator
accounts, etc....
To help here take a look at:
Quick Overviews
http://helpdesk.netsweeper.com/docs/5.0/Quick_Overview/Content_Quick_Overviews.htm
These are short flash-based clips that demo operational areas.
The section entitled Policy Management is your next set of reading...
http://helpdesk.netsweeper.com/docs/5.0/Policy_Management/Contents__Policy_Management.htm
If you have further questions please don’t hesitate to let me know and I would be happy to arrange a call to assist you further.