Configuring a QRadar 7.5.0 UP7 virtual appliance on Google Cloud Platform

Configure an IBM QRadar SIEM virtual appliance on a Google Cloud Platform (GCP) instance by using the provided image.

Before you begin

Acquire entitlement to a QRadar Software Node for any QRadar instance that is deployed from a third-party cloud marketplace. Entitlement to the software node must be in place before you deploy the QRadar instance. To acquire entitlement to a QRadar Software Node, contact your QRadar Sales Representative.

For any issues with QRadar software, engage IBM® Support. If you experience any problems with GCP infrastructure, refer to GCP documentation. If IBM Support determines that the GCP infrastructure is causing your issue, you must contact GCP for support to resolve the underlying issue with the GCP infrastructure.

Important: You must use static IP addresses.

Important: You cannot have more than two DNS entries. If you have more than two DNS entries in the /etc/resolv.conf file, the QRadar installation fails.

If you are installing a data gateway for QRadar on Cloud, see Installing a QRadar data gateway in Google Cloud Platform (https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/en/SSKMKU/com.ibm.qradar.doc_cloud/t_hosted_gcp_image.html).

Create a project name that allows for a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) to be no more than 63 characters long. The FQDN consists of the deployment name followed by -vm, the zone, the region, the project name, and .internal.
For example, if your project name is abc-stq-xyz, the appliance deployment name is qr-con, the zone is us-east4-c, and the region is c, the FQDN is qr-con-vm.us-east4-c.c.abc-stq-xyz.internal. The zone can be between 10 and 25 characters long. Depending on the zone, this leaves somewhere between 25 and 40 characters to be split between your project name and your deployment name.
In the project that you created in step 1, configure your network interface.
1. Click Google Cloud Platform > VPC network > VPC networks.
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  permission. Google and the Google logo are registered trademarks of Google LLC.}
2. Click the CREATE VPC NETWORK option.
3. Give your network a name, and configure the settings as needed. Set the DNS server policy field to No server policy.
4. Click Create.
Add an SSH key to the project. The key must be created for a user called cloud-user.
1. Click Google Cloud Platform > Compute Engine > Metadata.
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  the Google logo are registered trademarks of Google LLC.}
2. Click SSH Keys.
3. Click Edit.
4. Click Add item.
5. Enter an SSH key, followed by cloud-user.
6. Click Save.

Procedure

Download the QRadar 7.5.0 UP7 virtual appliance image from the IBM Fix Central website: https://www.ibm.com/support/fixcentral/swg/selectFixes?product=ibm%2FOther+software%2FIBM+Security+QRadar+SIEM&fixids=7.5.0-UP7-CMP-GoogleCloud-SingleImage-QRADAR-202309270935&function=fixId&parent=IBM%20Security
1. Download the image and the .sig files. The download can take a few hours.
2. Use the .sig file to verify the integrity of the downloaded image. For more information, see How to validate downloads from IBM Fix Central are trusted and code signed.
Go to Google Cloud and upload the image file to Google Cloud Storage. The upload can take up to an hour.

Attention: Do not rename the image file. Renaming the image can cause the import to fail.

Run the following command in Google Cloud Shell to import raw image to your GCP account.

gcloud compute images create <IMAGE NAME> --project=<GCP PROJECT NAME> --source-uri gs://<BUCKET NAME>/<RAW FILE PATH> --guest-os-features=MULTI_IP_SUBNET,UEFI_COMPATIBLE

The import process can take up to an hour.

Go to Navigation Menu > Computer Engine > Images, select the image that you imported, and then click Create Instance.
Set a deployment name for the appliance that allows for a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) to be no more than 63 characters long. The FQDN consists of the deployment name, the zone, the project name, and .internal.

For example, if your project name is abc-stq-xyz, the appliance deployment name is qr-con, the zone is us-east4-c, and the region is c, the FQDN is qr-con-vm.us-east4-c.c.abc-stq-xyz.internal. The zone can be between 10 and 25 characters long. Depending on the zone, this leaves somewhere between 25 and 40 characters to be split between your project name and your deployment name.
Select the zone that your project is in.
Select a Machine Type that meets the system requirements. For more information, see System requirements for virtual appliances.
Select the required Boot Disk Type and set the Boot Disk Size as 98 GB.
Select the network interface that you created.
Set the firewall rules for your appliance that allow ports 22 and 443 only from trusted IP addresses to create an allowlist of IP addresses that can access your QRadar deployment.
In a QRadar deployment with multiple appliances, other ports might also be allowed between managed hosts. For more information about what ports might need to be allowed in your deployment, see Common ports and servers used by QRadar.
If prompted, check the I accept the GCP Marketplace Terms of Service field.
Click Deploy.
Set the Firewalls and Additional Disks fields.
1. Click Google Cloud Platform > Compute Engine > VM instances.
2. Select your appliance from the list.
3. Click Edit.
4. In the Firewalls section, check Allow HTTP traffic and Allow HTTPS traffic.
5. Set the Additional disks.
  - In the Additional disks section, click ADD NEW DISK.
  - In the Disk settings section, select proper Disk type.
  - Estimate your storage needs and then enter a size in GiB. The minimum size is 250 GiB.
  - In the Deletion rule field, check Delete disk.
  - Click SAVE.
6. Click SAVE in the main edit page.
When the instance is ready, log in by using SSH and your key pair by typing the following command:
```
ssh -i <key.pem> cloud-user@<public_IP_address>
```
Type the following command to check the length of your FQDN:
```
hostname -f | wc -c
```
If the command returns a value greater than 63, the installation process fails. Restart this procedure with a shorter deployment name.
Verify that there are no more than 2 DNS entries for the instance by typing the following command:
```
grep nameserver /etc/resolv.conf | wc -l 
```
If the command returns 3 or more entries, edit /etc/resolv.conf to remove all but two of the entries before you proceed to the next step. You can add the entries back after installation is complete.

To install the QRadar Console, type the following command:

sudo /root/setup <appliance_id>

For example, to deploy an Event Collector, type the following command:

sudo /root/setup 1599

Appliance Type ID	Appliance type
1299	Flow Collector
1400	Data Collector
1599	Event Collector
1699	Event Processor
1799	Flow Processor
1899	Event and Flow Processor
3199	QRadar SIEM All-in-One (QRadar Console)
4000	QRadar AppHost
6500	QRadar Network Insights
7000	Event collectors, flow collectors, and data gateways

Enter a password for the admin account. Set a strong password that meets the following criteria.
- Contains at least 5 characters
- Contains no spaces
- Can include the following special characters: @, #, ^, and *.

What to do next

If you removed any DNS entries in /etc/resolv.conf, restore them.

For QRadar SIEM All-in-One (QRadar Console) installations, the QRadar instance uses Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). You can change the time zone of the instance. For more information about changing the time zone, see Configuring system time.

This image does not receive automatic software upgrades. You need to manually upgrade your system to keep it up to date. To receive QRadar upgrade notifications, see Receiving QRadar update notifications.

For all managed host (except data gateways) installations, see Adding a managed host.

For more information about adding the virtual appliance as a managed host and configuring flow sources and traffic mirroring, see QRadar Network Insights installations on Google Cloud.