Note on the AFF4 datastore deprecation

Starting from the version 3.3.0.0 GRR uses a new datastore format by default - REL_DB. REL_DB is backwards-incompatible with the now-deprecated AFF4 datastore format (even though they both use MySQL as a backend).

Use of AFF4-based deployments is now discouraged. REL_DB is expected to be much more stable and performant. Please see these docs if you’re upgrading an older GRR version and would like to try out the new datastore.

Installing from a release server deb (recommended)

This is the recommended way of installing the GRR server components. GRR server debs are built for Ubuntu 18.04 Bionic. They may install on Debian or other Ubuntu versions, but compatibility is not guaranteed.

1. MySQL is GRR’s default database backend, and should be up and running before installing GRR. The database framework can be run alongside GRR on the same machine, or on a remote machine. Here’s how you would install the community edition of MySQL from Ubuntu repositories:

   apt install -y mysql-server
   

   If you have never installed MySQL on the machine before, you will be prompted for a password for the ‘root’ database user. After installation completes, you will typically want to create a new database user for GRR and give that user access an empty database that the GRR server installation will use:

   mysql -u root -p
   

   mysql> SET GLOBAL max_allowed_packet=41943040;
   
   mysql> CREATE USER 'grr'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
   
   mysql> CREATE DATABASE grr;
   
   mysql> GRANT ALL ON grr.* TO 'grr'@'localhost';
   
   mysql> CREATE USER 'fleetspeak'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
   
   mysql> CREATE DATABASE fleetspeak;
   
   mysql> GRANT ALL ON fleetspeak.* TO 'fleetspeak'@'localhost';
   

   Please note: GRR is senstive to the MySQL’s max_allowed_packet setting. Make sure it’s not lower than 20971520. Creation of a new user is optional though since GRR can use the credentials of the root user to connect to MySQL.

2. Download the latest server deb from https://github.com/google/grr/releases:

   wget https://storage.googleapis.com/releases.grr-response.com/grr-server_3.4.5-1_amd64.deb

3. Install the server deb, along with its dependencies, like below:

   sudo apt install -y ./grr-server_3.4.5-1_amd64.deb

   The installer will prompt for a few pieces of information to get things set up. After successful installation, the grr-server and fleetspeak-server services should be running:

   root@grruser-bionic:/home/grruser# systemctl status grr-server
   ● grr-server.service - GRR Service
      Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/grr-server.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
      Active: active (exited) since Wed 2017-11-22 10:16:39 UTC; 2min 51s ago
        Docs: https://github.com/google/grr
     Process: 10404 ExecStart=/bin/systemctl --no-block start grr-server@admin_ui.service grr-server@frontend.service grr-server@worker.service grr-server@worker2.service (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
    Main PID: 10404 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
       Tasks: 0
      Memory: 0B
         CPU: 0
      CGroup: /system.slice/grr-server.service
   
   Nov 22 10:16:39 grruser-bionic systemd[1]: Starting GRR Service...
   Nov 22 10:16:39 grruser-bionic systemd[1]: Started GRR Service.
   
   	root@grruser-bionic:/home/grruser# systemctl status fleetspeak-server
   	● fleetspeak-server.service - Fleetspeak Server Service
   		 Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/fleetspeak-server.service; disabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   		 Active: active (running) since Thu 2021-08-12 18:35:13 UTC; 4s ago
   			 Docs: https://github.com/google/fleetspeak
   	 Main PID: 3555 (fleetspeak-serv)
   			Tasks: 7 (limit: 4666)
   		 CGroup: /system.slice/fleetspeak-server.service
   						 └─3555 /usr/bin/fleetspeak-server --services_config /etc/fleetspeak-server/server.services.config --components_config /etc/fleetspeak-server/server.components.config
   
   	Aug 12 18:35:13 grruser-bionic systemd[1]: Started Fleetspeak Server Service.
   

   In addition, administrative commands for GRR, e.g grr_console and grr_config_updater should be available in your PATH.