Skip to main content

How to deploy Cado in Azure with Terraform

To set up Cado in Azure you can deploy via our Terraform script. The Terraform script automates the process of configuring the platform stack.

If you have signed up for a Free Trial or are working with the Cado Sales team already, you should receive the following pieces of information:

If you have not received the above items, reach out to sales@cadosecurity.com for more details or retrieve from our public update information. Once you receive them, continue on to the steps below.

  1. Install Terraform, if you have not already.

  2. Install Azure CLI, if you have not already.

  3. Run 'az login'. The account you log in with will be used to deploy. You should store the Cado VHD in your local Azure container for this account as well.

    tip

    If you have multiple Subscriptions, please ensure you set the Subscription properly prior to beginning the deployment, as outlined here:
    https://registry.terraform.io/providers/hashicorp/azurerm/latest/docs/guides/azure_cli#logging-into-the-azure-cli

    tip

    Depending on your Azure permissions, you may need to be assigned one or more of the following roles in order to complete the deployment:

    • Storage Blob Data Contributor
    • Storage Blob Data Reader
    • Storage Queue Data Contributor
    • Storage Queue Data Reader

  4. Create a storage account and container to stage the Cado VHD locally within your Azure tenancy. This will be from where the platform will be deployed. You must copy the image to the same region in which you want to deploy Cado. You can complete these steps using the Azure portal or the Azure CLI

    a. Create a resource group, if you do not have one already, for the local download of the VHD using the Azure portal or the Azure CLI as shown below. Note this needs to be less than 6 characters in length:

    az group create --resource-group "<AzureResourceGroup>" --location "<AzureRegion>"  --subscription "<SubscriptionName>"

    b. Create a storage account, if you do not have one already, using the Azure portal or the Azure CLI as shown below:

    az storage account create --name "<StorageAccountName>" --resource-group "<ResourceGroup>" --location "<AzureRegion>" --sku "Standard_LRS"  --subscription "<SubscriptionName>"

    c. Create a container, if you do not have one already, using the Azure portal or the Azure CLI as shown below:

    az storage container create -n "<ContainerName>" -g "<ResourceGroup>" --account-name "<StorageAccountName>" --account-key "<AccountKeyValue>"  --subscription "<SubscriptionName>"
    tip

    You can find your storage account's account key by either running the command below or by locating it within the Azure Portal:

    1. Running the following command:
    az storage account keys list --account-name <StorageAccountName>
    1. In the Azure portal, navigate to the resource group that you created, then the storage account, then click Settings > Access keys in your storage account's menu blade to see both primary and secondary access keys. You can then click the Show keys button and copy the Key value. Key values should be enclosed in double quotes if working from within bash. You can also use a connection string or SAS token to authenticate the command. More details on this here: Creating a container in a storage account

  5. Copy the VHD to your Azure subscription using the command below. Substitute $RELEASE_URI with the VHD URL which was provided by Cado Sales or from the public release URL:

    az storage blob copy start --subscription "<SubscriptionName>" --account-name "<StorageAccountName>" --account-key "<AccountKeyValue>" --destination-blob "cado_response.vhd" --destination-container "<ContainerName>" --source-uri "$RELEASE_URI"
    caution

    Wait for the copy operation to complete before moving to the next step. You can check the status of the blob copy by running the az storage blob show command as outlined below. This example is for Windows. You can pipe the same command to grep in Linux. You will know the process is complete when the output status field changes from pending to success

    az storage blob show --account-name "<StorageAccountName>" --account-key "<AccountKeyValue>" --name "cado_response.vhd" --container-name "<ContainerName>" --subscription "<SubscriptionName>"  -o yamlc | findstr status
    tip

    Also note that if you need to capture very large disks (>=1tb) you will need to deploy in a region where storage optimized (L) instances are available, e.g. US East.

  6. Extract azure.zip This is the ZIP that was provided by Cado Sales

  7. Change directories into azure/cado which was extracted in the previous step.

  8. Create a public and private ssh key. Make sure the directory exists before running the command and do not use a passphrase:

    tip

    You will likely need to create the keys directory by running mkdir ../keys prior to running the next step

    ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -f ../keys/azure_demo_key -q -N ""

  9. Customize the file azure/cado/main.tf by filling in the default values for the following variables:

    Parameter NameDescriptionExample
    image_idCado VHD blobstore URL. This is the URL to the cado_response.vhd blob within your container storage (created in Step 4c above) . It is in the format: https:// <StorageAccountName>.blob.core.windows.net/ <ContainerName>/ cado_response.vhd and can be found within your Azure Portal by navigating to "Home > Storage accounts", selecting the StorageAccountName, clicking "Storage browser (preview)", clicking the ContainerName, clicking the "cado_response.vhd" blob and viewing the "URL" value.https:// mycadostorage.blob.core.windows.net/ cadocontainer/cado_response.vhd
    ip_pattern_httpsList of incoming IPs permitted to access HTTPS. CIDR or source IP range or * to match any IP. At least one value is required.["1.2.3.4/32","1.2.3.5/32"]
    ip_pattern_allList of incoming IPs permitted to access HTTPS and SSH. CIDR or source IP range or * to match any IP. At least one value is required. This should be the CIDR of the machine that is running the Terraform deployment script.["1.2.3.6/32"]
    instance_typeInstance type to use for mainRecommended to use Standard_D16ds_v4 If you have questions on instance sizing, please contact support for guidance.
    resource_groupResource group name which will be created. This resource group name must not exist alreadyresgroup123
    regionRegion to deploy in. You can use the Display Name or Name of the region as shown when running az account list-locations -o tableNorth Europe, northeurope, East US, eastus
    share_sizeSize of network file share500 This value is dependent on the amount of data you will be processing into the Cado platform. Please speak with the sales or support team for proper sizing.
    main_sizeSize of main instance local disk in GB30 Do not change
    main_data_sizeSize of main instance local disk in GB500 This value is dependent on the amount of data you will be processing into the Cado platform. Please speak with the sales or support team for proper sizing.
    processing_modeProcessing mode to start inscalable-vm Do not change
    ssh_key_publicPath to SSH public key../keys/azure_demo_key.pub
    ssh_key_privatePath to SSH private key../keys/azure_demo_key
    proxy(https://user:pass@1.2.3.4:1234)Optional Proxy URL to use for outbound connections in format / User Pass - https://user:pass@1.2.3.4:1234
    proxy_cert_url(url)Optional location of where to download and trust the proxy certificate, leave blank to use proxy without a cert.
    tip

    We recommend a minimum setting of 500GB for main_data_size. The instance will roughly need to be sized to be 20% of the amount of data you intend to be on the platform at once. For example, to have 5TB of disk images imported you will need approximately 1000GB of disk space. Investigations can always be deleted to recover space.

  10. Deploy by running the following commands in the directory azure/cado/

    terraform init followed by terraform plan. Once you confirm the plan looks correct, you can then run terraform apply

  11. Make a note of the IP Address and the full Resource Id (/subscription/.../cado-main-vm) in the logs e.g.:

module.cado_scalable.azurerm_linux_virtual_machine.vm (remote-exec): public_ip = 1.2.3.4
module.cado_scalable.azurerm_linux_virtual_machine.vm: Creation complete after 1m53s [id=/subscriptions/2f34c608-91b5-4d14-ac36-b8e0377fbcca/resourceGroups/new_res_three/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/cado-main-vm]

The Resource ID can also be found within your Azure Portal by navigating to Home > Virtual Machines, clicking on the Cado VM name, then clicking Properties on the left navigation bar. Scroll down to find the Resource ID.

It will take about 20 minutes to deploy, then you can Log into Cado

Testing the deployment​

After deployment, you can import Test Data from the Help menu to confirm that the deployment was successful. :::

Renaming the Cado Instance​

When deploying, the main Cado instance will have the name CadoResponse. If you rename your Cado instance, please ensure the name starts with CadoResponse, otherwise the default update mechanism may not work properly due to how permissions are configured. :::

If you receive the error "The Cado platform in Azure will not start with the error: The client with object id does not have authorization to perform action 'Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts/read'"​

If you find the Cado platform in Azure will not start with the error: The client $client with object id $object does not have authorization to perform action 'Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts/read' over scope $subscription or the scope is invalid. If access was recently granted, please refresh your credentials.

Please resolve by:

  • Find the cado-main-vm in the azure portal
  • Go to the Identity section
  • You should see 'system assigned' is off, and 'user assigned' has a single entry 'cado-identity'
  • Remove any extra managed and switch system assigned to off
  • Then, reboot cado-main-vm and it will use the correct policy