Super Mediator: Installation Instructions & Dependencies

To install Super Mediator, install its dependencies and then compile the source code.

Dependencies

Build and/or install these dependencies before installing Super Mediator.

Basic Build Environment

When building from source, ensure you have the packages needed to build software.

Package Dependency Note

On some systems (particularly Linux), many support libraries (for example, glib2), are divided into two (or more) packages:

  1. One package satisfies a run dependency: It is needed to run another package that depends on it. This package is named glib2-VERISON.rpm on Redhat and libglib2.0-VERSION.deb on Ubuntu.

  2. Another package satisfies a build dependency: It is needed only when building a another piece of software, and it contains C header files and additional library files. This package is named glib2-devel-VERSION.rpm on Redhat and libglib2.0-dev-VERSION.deb on Ubuntu.

  3. Sometimes documentation is in a third package.

When installing dependencies to build Super Mediator from source, ensure you install the package(s) that require the build dependencies; for example, either glib2-devel or libglib2.0-dev. Installing these packages also installs the packages needed for the run dependency (for example glib2 or libglib2.0).

When installing dependencies to install an RPM of Super Mediator, only the run dependency is needed (for example glib2), and often the package manager finds these packages for you.

Required Dependencies

Super Mediator requires GLib-2.0 2.18 or later. Note that GLib is included in many operating environments or ports collections.

Super Mediator requires libfixbuf. Super Mediator 2.x requires libfixbuf 3.x. Consult this table for earlier versions.

SUPER MEDIATOR VERSIONS FIXBUF VERSIONS
2.0 3.0
1.7.x, 1.8.x 2.3 and any later 2.x
1.6.x any 2.x version
1.2.x through 1.5.x 1.7 and any later 1.x
1.1.x 1.4 and any later 1.x

Optional Dependencies

Super Mediator is able to read compressed IPFIX files when the zlib library is found by configure. Many systems have zlib installed.

Note: MySQL and SiLK IPSet support is currently disabled in Super Mediator 2.0. This will be addressed in a later release.

When YAF's deep packet inspection is configured to export complete TLS/SSL certificates, Super Mediator can be configured to compute a hash (e.g., SHA1) of the X.509 certificate if Super Mediator has been built with OpenSSL support.

Super Mediator can be configured at run-time to load files into a MySQL database. To enable this feature, the MySQL or MariaDB client library must be found when Super Mediator is built. If the required library is found, the super_table_creator program is also built and installed.

Super Mediator can use SiLK's IPSet library when either the complete SiLK suite or the stand-alone SiLK IPSet library is discovered during the build process. The IPSet library may be used to filter flow records or to add an element to a record indicating that the record's IP address matched an IPSet.

Install from Source

To install from source, first download the version of Super Mediator you want to install.

Super Mediator uses a reasonably standard autotools-based build system. Super Mediator uses the pkg-config facility to find libfixbuf; you may have to set the PKG_CONFIG_PATH variable on the configure command line if libfixbuf is installed in a nonstandard location (other than the prefix to which you are installing Super Mediator itself).

To install Super Mediator from source you can run the following commands:

$ tar -xvzf super_mediator-2.0.0.tar.gz
$ cd super_mediator-2.0.0
$ ./configure {configure_options}
$ make
$ make install

NOTE: Installing from source will overwrite previous versions of Super Mediator's configuration file in the /usr/local/etc directory (the location may be different depending on the options given to configure). If you have customized the super\_mediator.conf file, make a copy prior to installing a new version of Super Mediator.

Configuration Options

Super Mediator supports the following configuration options in addition to those supplied by default via autoconf (for example, --prefix).

Note: MySQL and SiLK IPSet support is currently disabled in Super Mediator 2.0. This will be addressed in a later release.

--with-mysql, --with-mysql=MYSQL_CONFIG

Enable use the MySQL or MariaDB client library which allows Super Mediator to load files into a database. The configure script automatically looks for the mysql\_config program and includes this support if it is found. You may provide the path to that program as the argument to the --with-mysql option. Use --without-mysql to disable the automatic check.

--with-openssl, --with-openssl=OPENSSL_DIR

Enable TLS/SSL certificate hashing with OpenSSL; find openssl/sha1.h in OPENSSL_DIR/include and libssl in OPENSSL_DIR/lib. This feature is not checked for by default; it must be explicilty enabled.

--with-skipset, --with-skipset=SKIPSET_DIR

Enable SiLK IPSet support. To use the library bundled with SiLK, SKIPSET_DIR should contain include/silk/skipset.h and lib/libsilk.so. To use the separate SiLK IPSet library, SKIPSET_DIR is expected to contain include/silk-ipset/silk-ipset.h and lib/libskipset.so. The configure script looks for these files automatically; provide the SKIPSET_DIR value to help configure find it, or --without-skipset to disable the check.

--with-zlib, --with-zlib=ZLIB_DIR

Include the ability to read compressed IPFIX files; tell configure to find zlib.h in ZLIB_DIR/include and libz in ZLIB_DIR/lib. The configure script automatically looks for zlib and enables this feature when it is found.

--with-zlib-includes=ZLIB_INCLUDE

Look for zlib.h in the ZLIB_INCLUDE directory instead of in ZLIB_DIR/include.

--with-zlib-libraries=ZLIB_LIB

Look for libz in the ZLIB_LIB directory instead of in ZLIB_DIR/lib.