Enterprise Recon Cloud 2.12.0

How To Scan Network Storage Locations

This section covers the following topics:

Overview

ER Cloud supports the following network storage locations:

  • Windows Share
  • Unix File Share (NFS)
  • Remote Access via SSH
  • Hadoop Clusters

For a more detailed explanation on network storage scans, refer to the Scanning - How Network Storage Scan Works section.

Licensing

For Sitewide Licenses, all scanned network storage Targets consume data from the Sitewide License data allowance limit.

For Non-Sitewide Licenses, network storage Targets require Server & DB Licenses or Client Licenses, and consume data from the Server & DB License or Client License data allowance limit, depending on the Target operating system.

See Target Licenses for more information.

Scan Windows Share

Requirements

To scan a Windows share Target:

  1. Use a Windows Proxy Agent.
  2. Ensure that the Target is accessible from the Proxy Agent host.
  3. The Target credential set must have the minimum required permissions to access the Target locations to be scanned.

    Recommended Least Privilege User Approach

    Data discovery or scanning of data requires read access. Remediation actions that act directly on supported file systems including Delete Permanently, Quarantine, Encryption and Masking require write access in order to change, delete and overwrite data.

    To reduce the risk of data loss or privileged account abuse, the Target credentials provided for the intended Target should only be granted read-only access to the exact resources and data that require scanning. Never grant full user access privileges or unrestricted data access to any application if it is not required.

Add Windows Share Target

  1. From the New Scan page, add Targets. Refer to the Add Targets section.
  2. In the Select Target Type window, enter the host name of the Windows share server in the Enter New Target Hostname field.
    For example, if your Windows share path is \\remote-share-server-name\remote-share-name, enter the Target Hostname as remote-share-server-name:
    Example of Server Details dialog box with Windows Share Target host name set to "remote-share-server-name".
  3. Click Test. If ER Cloud can connect to the Target, the button changes to a Commit button.
  4. In the Select Types dialog box, click on Network Storage.
  5. Under Network Storage Location Type, select Windows Share.
  6. Fill in the following fields:
    "Network Storage > Windows Share" dialog box with the path set to "folder_name".

    Field Description
    Path Enter the path of the folder to scan.
    For example: <folder_name>
    Credential Label Enter a descriptive label for the credential set.
    Username Enter your user name.
    For more information, refer to the Windows Target Credentials section below.
    Password Enter your password, or passphrase for the private key.
    (Optional) Private Key Upload the file containing the private key.
    Only required for Target hosts that use a public key-based authentication method.
    For more information, refer to the Set Up SSH Public Key Authentication section.
    Agent to act as proxy host Select a Windows Proxy Agent that matches the Target operating system (32-bit or 64-bit).
  7. Click Test, and then + Add Customized to finish adding the Target location.
Increased counting of licensed data usage

If the same location is recognized and scanned by ER Cloud separately as a different location and/or as a different protocol, ER Cloud will count the licensed data usage separately for each individual location.

To prevent redundant scanning and increased counting of licensed data usage, ensure that:

  • the same location is not selected for scanning using both Local Storage and Network Storage protocols,
  • both the shared folder and its subfolder are not selected for scanning if the subfolder is also shared separately,
  • multiple shared folders (all pointing to the same physical location) are not included in the scan, and
  • administrative shares are accounted for during location selection for the scan.

For more information and detailed scenarios, see Mitigate Increased Counting of Licensed Data Usage in ER2.

Windows Target Credentials

For scanning of Windows Share Targets using a Windows proxy agent, use the appropriate user name format when setting up the target Windows hosts credentials:

Username Description
<domain\username> Windows target host resides in the same Active Directory domain as the Windows proxy agent.
<target_hostname\username> Windows target host does not reside in the same Active Directory domain as the Windows proxy agent.

Remediate Windows Share Targets

When remediating match locations on Windows Share Targets using the "Quarantine" option, you can specify a secure location on the Windows Share Target or Windows Proxy Agent host.

Remediation dialog for Windows Share target in Investigate page.

Use the following syntax in the "Enter a secure location to quarantine the selected items" field to specify the absolute path to a secure quarantine location on the:

  • Windows Share Target

    # Syntax: \\<remote-share-server-name>\<remote-share-name>\<quarantine-folder> \\Windows-Share-Server\Engineering\Quarantine-Folder

  • Windows Proxy Agent host

    # Syntax: <quarantine-folder-on-proxy-agent-host> C:\Quarantine-Folder

Refer to the Perform Remedial Actions section.

Scan Unix File Share (NFS)

Requirements

Select the Unix File Share Target type when scanning a Network File System (NFS) share.

To scan a Unix file share Target:

  • Use a Unix or Unix-like Proxy Agent.
  • The Target credential set must have the minimum required permissions to access the Target locations to be scanned.
  • The Target must be mounted on the Proxy Agent host.
  • The Path field must be set to the mount path on the Proxy host when adding a Unix file share Target.

    Recommended Least Privilege User Approach

    Data discovery or scanning of data requires read access. Remediation actions that act directly on supported file systems including Delete Permanently, Quarantine, Encryption and Masking require write access in order to change, delete and overwrite data.

    To reduce the risk of data loss or privileged account abuse, the Target credentials provided for the intended Target should only be granted read-only access to the exact resources and data that require scanning. Never grant full user access privileges or unrestricted data access to any application if it is not required.

To mount an NFS share server, on the Proxy host, run as root:

# Requires nfs-common. Install with `apt-get install nfs-common` mount <nfs-server-hostname|nfs-server-ipaddress>:</target/directory/share-name>

Add Unix File Share Target

  1. From the New Scan page, add Targets. Refer to the Add Targets section.
  2. In the Select Target Type window, enter the host name of the Unix file share server in the Enter New Target Hostname field. This is usually an NFS file server.
    For example, if your Unix file share path is //remote-share-server-name/remote-share-name, enter the Target Hostname as remote-share-server-name:
    Example of Server Details dialog box with UNIX File Share Target host name set to "remote-share-server-name".
  3. Click Test. If ER Cloud can connect to the Target, the button changes to a Commit button.
  4. In the Select Types dialog box, click on Network Storage.
  5. Under Network Storage Location Type, select UNIX File Share.
  6. Fill in the following fields:
    "Network Storage > UNIX File Share" dialog box with the path set to "folder_name\file_name.txt".

    Field Description
    Path

    Enter the file path to scan. This is the mount path on the Proxy host for the Unix file share Target.

    For example: <folder_name/file_name.txt>.

    Agent to act as proxy host Select a Linux Proxy Agent. File share must be mounted on the selected Linux Proxy Agent host.
  7. Click + Add Customised to finish adding the Target location.

Scan Using Remote Access via SSH

Requirements

To scan a Target using remote access via SSH:

  1. The Target host must have an SSH server running on TCP port 22.
  2. The Proxy Agent host must have an SSH client installed.

Supported Operating Systems

ER Cloud supports the following operating systems as remote access via SSH Targets:

Environment (Target Category) Operating System
Microsoft Windows Desktop
(Desktop / Workstation)
  • Windows 10 32-bit/64-bit
  • Windows 11 64-bit

Looking for a different version of Microsoft Windows?

Microsoft Windows Server
(Server)
  • Windows Server 2012/2012 R2 64-bit
  • Windows Server 2016 64-bit
  • Windows Server 2019 64-bit
  • Windows Server 2022 64-bit

Looking for a different version of Microsoft Windows?

Linux
(Server)
  • Debian 11+ 32-bit/64-bit
  • RHEL 7+ 64-bit
  • Oracle Linux 8 64-bit
  • Ubuntu 16+ 32-bit/64-bit

Looking for a different Linux distribution?

UNIX
(Server)
  • AIX 7.2+
  • FreeBSD 13 32-bit/64-bit
  • FreeBSD 14 32-bit/64-bit
  • HP-UX 11.31+ (Intel Itanium)
  • Solaris 10+ (Intel x86)
  • Solaris 10+ (SPARC)
macOS
(Desktop / Workstation)
  • macOS Monterey 12.0
  • macOS Ventura 13.0
  • macOS Sonoma 14.0
Scans for macOS Targets locations
  • Selecting "All local files" when scanning macOS Targets may cause the same data to be scanned twice. See Exclude the Read-only System Volume from Scans for macOS Target locations for more information.
  • Scanning locations within the top-level Users (/Users) folder requires the "Full Disk Access" feature to be enabled for er2-agent. If locations within the /Users folder are scanned without enabling the required full disk access, these locations will be logged as inaccessible locations. For more information, refer to the Enable Full Disk Access section.

Looking for a different version of macOS?

Microsoft Windows Operating Systems

Ground Labs supports and tests ER Cloud for all Windows versions supported by Microsoft.

Prior versions of Windows may continue to work as expected. However, Ground Labs cannot guarantee support for these versions indefinitely.

Linux Operating Systems

Ground Labs supports and tests ER Cloud for all Linux distributions currently supported by the respective providers.

Prior versions of Linux distributions may continue to work as expected. However, Ground Labs cannot guarantee support for these versions indefinitely.

macOS Operating Systems

Ground Labs supports and tests ER Cloud for all macOS versions supported by Apple Inc.

Prior versions of macOS may continue to work as expected. However, Ground Labs cannot guarantee support for these versions indefinitely.

Add Remote Share Target

  1. From the New Scan page, add Targets. Refer to the Add Targets section.
  2. In the Select Target Type window, enter the host name of the remote share server in the Enter New Target Hostname field. The remote share server must have an SSH server running.
    Example of Server Details dialog box with Remote access via SSH Target host name set to "remote-share-server-name".
  3. Click Test. If ER Cloud can connect to the Target, the button changes to a Commit button.
  4. In the Select Types dialog box, click on Network Storage.
  5. Under Network Storage Location Type, select Remote access via SSH.
  6. Fill in the following fields:
    "Network Storage > Remote access via SSH" dialog box with the path set to "folder_name\file_name.txt".

    Field Description
    Path

    Enter the file path to scan.

    For example, <folder_name/file_name.txt>.

    Credential Label Enter a descriptive label for the credential set.
    Username

    Enter your remote host user name.

    Password

    • SSH password authentication:
      Enter your remote host user password.
    • SSH key pair authentication using private key (password-protected):
      Enter the passphrase for the private key.
    • SSH key pair authentication using private key (non password-protected):
      Leave the field blank.

    Private Key

    Upload the file containing the private key compatible with SSH format. For example, userA_ssh_key.pem.

    See Set up SSH Public Key Authentication for more information.

    The user account on the remote host must be configured to enable SSH key-pair authentication.
    Proxy Agent Select a Proxy Agent host with direct Internet access.
    Recommended Least Privilege User Approach

    Data discovery or scanning of data requires read access. Remediation actions that act directly on supported file systems including Delete Permanently, Quarantine, Encryption and Masking require write access in order to change, delete and overwrite data.

    To reduce the risk of data loss or privileged account abuse, the Target credentials provided for the intended Target should only be granted read-only access to the exact resources and data that require scanning. Never grant full user access privileges or unrestricted data access to any application if it is not required.

  7. Click Test, and then + Add Customized to finish adding the Target location.

Scan Hadoop Clusters

Requirements

To scan a Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) cluster, you must have:

  1. A Target NameNode running Apache Hadoop 2.7.3 (minimum version), Cloudera Distribution for Hadoop (CDH), or similar.
  2. A Proxy host running the Linux 3 or 4 Agent with database runtime components for RPM-based Linux systems. Refer to Install Linux 3 or 4 Agent for more information.
  3. A valid Kerberos ticket if Kerberos authentication is enabled. Refer to Generate Kerberos Authentication Ticket.

Install Linux 3 or 4 Agent

To install the Linux 3 or 4 Agent with database runtime components:

  1. On the designated Proxy host, go to the Web Console and navigate to Settings > Agents > Node Agent Downloads.
  2. In the list of Node Agents available for download, select the Linux 3 64bit (Red Hat) (RPM) * or Linux 4 64bit (Red Hat) (RPM) * Agent.

  3. To install the Linux 3 64bit (Red Hat) (RPM) * or Linux 4 64bit (Red Hat) (RPM) * database runtime Agent, run the following commands in a terminal on the designated Proxy Agent host:

    # Remove existing ER2 packages rpm -e er2
    # Install the epel-release package yum install epel-release
    # Install the required packages yum install libxml2 libgsasl openssl libcurl libuuid protobuf krb5-libs libaio
    # Install the Linux 3 or 4 Agent, where 'er2-2.x.x-linuxx-rh-x64_database-runtime.rpm' is the location of the rpm package on your computer. rpm -ivh er2-2.x.x-linuxx-rh-x64_database-runtime.rpm

  4. (Optional) Generate Kerberos Authentication Ticket.

Generate Kerberos Authentication Ticket

If Kerberos authentication is enabled for your HDFS cluster, run the following commands in a terminal on the designated Proxy Agent host.

To generate a Kerberos ticket:

  1. (Optional) Check if a valid Kerberos ticket has been issued for the principal user:

    klist

  2. Generate a Kerberos ticket as a principal user:

    # kinit <username>@<domain> kinit userA@example.com

To renew an expired Kerberos ticket:

  1. If the ticket has expired within its renewable lifetime:

    # kinit -kt '<path to keytab file>' <username>@<domain> kinit -kt '/home/hadoop/userA.keytab' userA@example.com

  2. If the ticket has expired beyond its renewable lifetime:

    kdestroy
    # kinit <username>@<domain> kinit userA@example.com

A valid Kerberos ticket is required to successfully scan a HDFS cluster. You should:
  1. Generate a New Kerberos Authentication Ticket if the ticket validity expires while the scan is still in progress, or
  2. Generate a Kerberos authentication ticket with a ticket lifetime that is valid for the duration of the scan.

Add Hadoop Target

  1. From the New Scan page, add Targets. Refer to the Add Targets section.
  2. In the Select Target Type window, enter the host name of the NameNode of the HDFS cluster in the Enter New Target Hostname field.
    For example, if your HDFS share path is hdfs://remote-share-server-name/remote-share-name, the host name of the NameNode is remote-share-server-name. Enter the Target Hostname as remote-share-server-name:
    Example of Server Details dialog box with Hadoop Cluster host name set to "remote-share-server-name".
  3. Click Test. If ER Cloud can connect to the Target, the button changes to a Commit button.
  4. In the Select Types dialog box, click on Network Storage.
  5. Under Network Storage Location Type, select HDFS.
  6. Fill in the following fields:
    "Network Storage > Remote access via SSH" dialog box with the path set to "folder_name\file_name.txt".
    Field Description
    Path

    Enter the file path to scan. For example, <folder_name>/<file_name>.

    If the NameNode is accessed on a custom port (default: 8020), enter the port before the HDFS file path: (port=<port>)<folder_name>/<file_name>.
    For example, to scan a Hadoop cluster with NameNode accessed on port 58020, enter (port=58020)folder-A/file-A.txt.

    Proxy Agent Linux 3 or 4 Agent with database runtime components.
  7. Click + Add Customised to finish adding the Target location.

    Recommended Least Privilege User Approach

    To reduce the risk of data loss or privileged account abuse, the Target credentials provided for the intended Target should only be granted read-only access to the exact resources and data that require scanning. Never grant full user access privileges or unrestricted data access to any application if it is not required.