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Hardware Configuration

The Snare Central is capable of running on a variety of hardware configurations, from laptops, right up to Linux partitions on mainframe systems. Hardware requirements are significantly dependent on the volume of audit received by the Snare Central, and the type and number of audit objectives defined. As an appliance-style solution, expanding storage post-install is not a supported option. It is therefore recommended that storage allocation is sized with a view towards long term requirements.
However, in order for the Snare Central to be in a supported configuration, the following requirements MUST be followed. There should be no deviations from the specifications listed below.

Snare Central - Minimum Hardware Requirements

  • A 64-bit x86 compatible CPU (eg: Pentium Core I5, AMD64), preferably with two cores or more.
  • 500Gb hard disk or larger. This should be recognized by an operating system as one single disk, and may be either IDE, SATA ,Fiber Channel SAN or SCSI. Hardware RAID may be used, as long as the RAID controller is capable of either emulating normal IDE/SATA/SCSI protocols, or has a supported driver available in Snare.
  • An IDE, SATA or USB DVD writer supported by Snare. Most modern CD/DVD writers are ATAPI compatible, and will therefore work with the Snare Central. Some brands of USB Writers may be supported. Please consult the general compatibility notes below for more details.
  • 2 Gb RAM minimum, 4GB recommended or more.
  • A 100 megabit, or (preferably) a 1000 megabit (1 Gigabit) network card.

  • Keyboard, mouse and monitor as appropriate. 


This configuration may also be appropriate for sites with a medium to large number of source systems, that just want to use the Snare Central for the reflector functionality, and do not require any local reporting or data analysis. Reflector-only sites with high volumes of incoming data, or a count of source agents that is in the upper quarter of the 'larger configuration maximum, may need to increase the CPU and memory capacity to cope with the additional load.

Snare Central- Larger Configurations

Moderate environment up to 2,000 systems (<= 5,000 EPS)

  • A 64-bit x86 compatible CPU (eg: Pentium Core I7, Xeon), preferably with four (4) cores (8 virtual cpu's) or more.
  • 1Tb hard disk or larger. This should be recognized by an operating system as one single disk, and may be either IDE, SATA, Fiber Channel SAN or SCSI. Hardware RAID is recommended to be used, as long as the RAID controller is capable of either emulating normal IDE/SATA/SCSI protocols, or has a supported driver available in Snare.
  • An IDE, SATA or USB DVD writer supported by Snare. Most modern CD/DVD writers are ATAPI compatible, and will therefore work with the Snare Central. Some brands of USB Writers may be supported. Please consult the general compatibility notes below for more details.
  • 8 Gb RAM minimum, 16 GB RAM or more.
  • A 100 megabit, or (preferably) a 1000 megabit (1 Gigabit) network card.

  • Keyboard, mouse and monitor as appropriate. 


For large to very large environments please contact your Snare Sales representative.

Snare Central - AMC Configurations

Where Snare Central is used just for Agent Management then the disk space requirements can be reduced as the system is not collecting any logs

  • A 64-bit x86 compatible CPU (eg: Pentium Core I5, AMD64), preferably with two cores or more.
  • 100GB hard disk or larger. This should be recognized by an operating system as one single disk, and may be either IDE, SATA ,Fiber Channel SAN or SCSI. Hardware RAID may be used, as long as the RAID controller is capable of either emulating normal IDE/SATA/SCSI protocols, or has a supported driver available in Snare.
  • An IDE, SATA or USB DVD writer supported by Snare. Most modern CD/DVD writers are ATAPI compatible, and will therefore work with the Snare Central. Some brands of USB Writers may be supported. Please consult the general compatibility notes below for more details.
  • 4GB recommended or more.
  • A 100 megabit, or (preferably) a 1000 megabit (1 Gigabit) network card.

  • Keyboard, mouse and monitor as appropriate. 


General compatibility notes

In order to make compatibility research simpler, the Snare Central uses a Linux kernel from the Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 'Trusty' release. Hardware that is identified as compatible with the first release of Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 'Trusty' will also be accepted by the Snare Central.

Incompatible Hardware / Configurations

If commonly available hardware, or virtual machine implementations, are specifically identified as being incompatible with Snare Central version 7, the model numbers will be identified below.

Incompatible Hardware

No hardware has yet been specifically identified as incompatible.

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