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In this article, we will cover how to deploy Netskope Cloud Exchange: A platform that facilitates the sharing of information between your different security vendors.


 


What is Cloud Exchange?


Cloud Exchange (CE) is a platform that facilitates the exchange of information between your security and operations platforms.



 


What can Cloud Exchange do?


Cloud Exchange is comprised of 5 key modules. You don’t have to use every module: only the ones that make sense based on the vendors in your current environment.


 


Threat Exchange


The Cloud Threat Exchange (CTE) module automates the sharing of threat indicators between security platforms in your environment.


 


Ticket Orchestrator


The Cloud Ticket Orchestrator (CTO) module automatically creates tickets and notifications in 3rd-party ITSM & collaboration systems (eg: ServiceNow, JIRA, Slack) to streamline incident response.


 


Risk Exchange


The Cloud Risk Exchange (CRE) module facilitates normalization of both user and SaaS application risk scores between security vendors. CRE is divided into two  sub-modules: User Risk Exchange (URE) and Application Risk Exchange (ARE).


 


Log Shipper


The Cloud Log Shipper (CLS) module extracts the raw event, alert, and log data from your Netskope tenant, and streams it to one or more receivers, like Sentinel or Exabeam.


 




Deploying Cloud Exchange


Cloud Exchange is deployed as a series of Docker containers within your environment.


 


ℹ Heads Up!


Red Hat leverages Podman instead of Docker. Netskope has specific instructions for RHEL/Podman here.


 


Requirements


Operating System



  • A system capable of supporting Docker, and Docker Compose (or Podman).

    • Ubuntu 20.04 LTS and RHEL 7.9 & 8.0 are supported by Netskope.




Minimum System Specification



  • 4 vCPUs

  • 4 GB memory

  • 40 GB storage


Netskope provides additional scaling numbers here.


Networking



  • CE requires outbound connectivity to GitHub, Docker Hub, your Netskope tenant, and any platform you plan to integrate it with. See here for a list of URLs. HTTP(S) proxies are supported.

  • CE requires inbound connectivity on 22 for server management, and 443 for the admin UI.

    • Do NOT expose Cloud Exchange publicly on the internet.






Install Docker & Docker Compose


You will need to install Docker and Docker Compose. The commands below cover the installation of Docker on an Ubuntu host.


 


1. Update the system:


sudo apt update -y && sudo apt upgrade -y

2. Install the initial packages:


sudo apt install apt-transport-https ca-certificates curl gnupg lsb-release -y

3. Add the GPG key for the Docker software repo:


sudo mkdir -p /etc/apt/keyrings && curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg

4. Add the Docker software repo:


echo "deb barch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu $(lsb_release -cs) stable" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null

5. Update the package index:


sudo apt update -y

ℹ Heads Up!


If you receive a GPG error, run command sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg and try again.


 


6. Install Docker:


sudo apt install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-compose-plugin -y

7. Verify the installation:


sudo docker run hello-world

If successful, the above command will print a confirmation message.


 


8. Install Docker Compose:


sudo curl -SL https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/download/v2.14.0/docker-compose-linux-x86_64 -o /usr/local/bin/docker-compose

9. Make the Docker Compose binary executable:


sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/docker-compose

10. Validate that Docker Compose is installed:


docker-compose --version
>> Docker Compose version v2.14.0

11. Set the Docker process to start at boot:


sudo systemctl enable docker

12. Check that the Docker service is running:


sudo systemctl status docker

● docker.service - Docker Container Engine
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/docker.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Wed 2022-12-07 05:49:10 UTC; 1min 14s ago

13: Troubleshooting:


If you attempt to run the docker command without sudo, you will get an error similar to:


ERROR: Got permission denied while trying to connect to the Docker daemon socket

To be able to use the docker command without sudo, run the following command:


sudo usermod -aG docker ${USER}

Log out of the system for the changes to take effect.


 




Installing Cloud Exchange


Clone the Cloud Exchange repository from Netskope on GitHub.


mkdir netskope && cd netskope
git clone https://github.com/netskopeoss/ta_cloud_exchange
cd ta_cloud_exchange

Install Cloud Exchange:


python3 ./setup

🛑 Warning!


Special characters are not supported when setting the maintenance password.


 


When prompted during setup:




  • Type 1 to install the latest version.




  • Specify whether you are using a HTTP(S) proxy.




  • Enter your Netskope Tenant ID. Do not enter the .goksope.com part.



  • Type HTTPS to access Cloud Exchange securely and 443 for a port (don’t use HTTP… just don’t)


  • Enter two separate passwords for auth token generation and maintenance.




  • Press ENTER or type No when prompted to enable TLS 1.2. TLS 1.3 is used by default.




For example setup script usage, see here.


 




Launching Cloud Exchange


To start Cloud Exchange:


./start

To stop Cloud Exchange:


./stop

On first run, the CE containers will be pulled from Docker Hub.


 


When complete, you will be able to access the Cloud Exchange UI in your browser:


https://<host ip address>

 


ℹ Heads Up!


Receiving an untrusted SSL certificate error is normal! You can replace the SSL certificate with one that is signed by a trusted CA to remove this warning: this is covered in the next section.


 



If you can’t access the UI, make sure that any firewalls (eg: ufw) and/or Network Security Group (NSG) permits port 443 inbound towards the host IP address.


 




(Optional) Changing the SSL Certificate


The self-signed SSL certificate that is used to secure the admin UI can be changed for one that is signed by a trusted CA in order to prevent any untrusted SSL certificate warnings.


 


1. Stop the Cloud Exchange service:


cd ~/netskope/ta_cloud_exchange
./stop

2. Remove the existing certificate and private key in the ta_cloud_exchange/data/ssl_certs/ directory:


cd ~/netskope/ta_cloud_exchange/data/ssl_certs/
rm -rf cte_cert.crt
rm -rf cte_cert_key.key

3. Rename your certificate and private key to cte_cert.crt and cte_cert_key.key and copy them to ta_cloud_exchange/data/ssl_certs/:


cp your_certificate.crt ~/netskope/ta_cloud_exchange/data/ssl_certs/cte_cert.crt

cp your_private_key.key ~/netskope/ta_cloud_exchange/data/ssl_certs/cte_cert_key.key

4. Restart Cloud Exchange:


cd ~/netskope/ta_cloud_exchange
./start

 


⚠️ Caution!


Rename your public and private key to cte_cert.crt and cte_cert_key.key respectively, or your certificate will not be used!


 


If the UI is no longer accessible after changing the certificate, check the format. Do not use a CA Bundle.


 




Configure Cloud Exchange


Now that you have deployed Cloud Exchange, we need to perform some initial configuration steps.


 


Logging into Cloud Exchange


The default username/password for the Super Admin account is admin/admin


 


Enabling Cloud Exchange Modules & Updates


You should enable all 5 of the CE modules under the Settings > General tab. Only the Super Administrator (the admin user) can turn these modules on/off: the toggles are not visible to normal admins.



 


Under System Updates, toggle ON Periodically check for updates.


 


(Optional) Setting a Proxy


If you require the Cloud Exchange plugins to communicate through a proxy, you can configure this under the Proxy tab under Settings > General.


 


Adding Users & Configuring SSO


By default, Cloud Exchange uses a local login mechanism where users sign into CE directly.


 


User Management is located under Settings > Users. To create a user, click the plus button on the top right-hand side of the Users table.



There are two roles available for assignment: Admin and Read-Only.


 


The Super Administrator role is only assigned to the default admin user. Only the default admin user can add/remove users, add/remove CE modules, and change CE module-specific config.


 


To configure Single-Sign-On, click the SSO tab under Settings > Users, and enable the SSO checkbox.


 



 


Add Your Netskope Tenant(s)


The last configuration step is to pair your Netskope tenant with your Cloud Exchange deployment in order for data to be synchronized. Multiple tenants are supported.


 


Get an API Key


Log into your Netskope tenant, and navigate to Settings > Tools > REST API v1




Copy the API token displayed. If this is your first time using the API, you may need to generate a new one.


 


Add your Netskope Tenant(s) in Cloud Exchange


Navigate to Settings > Netskope Tenants and click the Add Tenant button.



Fill in the fields according to the table below:


 































Field Description
Name Enter an easy to remember name for the tenant.
Tenant Name Enter the subdomain of your Netskope tenant - this is everything before the .goskope.com in the URL of your Netskope tenant. Eg: For lightwave.eu.goskope.com, enter lightwave.eu.
V1 API Token Enter the API token copied from your tenant.
V2 API Token N/A - Leave blank.
Initial Range Number of days of historical data to sync with CE. 7 days is good as a default.

 


Click Save to complete your configuration.



Verify the Netskope Tenant Configuration


Navigate to Logging in the bottom-left corner of the UI.


 


If your Netskope tenant was successfully added, you will start to see events synchronized.



 




Configure Plugins


Cloud Exchange uses the concept of “plugins” to determine where to send and receive data from:


Multiple inputs and outputs are supported.


 


Navigate to Settings > Plugins



Here you will see a list of supported plugins; tagged according to the CE module the plugin aligns to:


 































CE Tag Associated CE Module
CTO Cloud Threat Exchange. Synchronize threat intel, including IOCs, between vendors.
CRE Cloud Risk Exchange. Synchronize risk scores between vendors.
CTO Cloud Ticket Orchestrator. Automatically raise tickets and alerts in apps like Jira, ServiceNow, and Slack.
CLS Cloud Log Shipper. Automatically pull and push logs to SIEM applications like Splunk and Sentinel.
ARE Application Risk Exchange. Send Netskope SaaS app risk information to other security vendors.

 


To start, you will want to configure the Netskope plugins for the associated modules you wish to use. For example, if you wish to share IOCs between Netskope and Crowdstrike, ensure you configure the Netskope CTE + Crowdstrike CTE plugins.


 


Vendors could potentially have multiple plugins depending on the CE modules supported. For example, Crowdstrike has both CTE and CRE plugins for sharing both threat and risk intel.


 




Finish


Where to from here? It’s time to start exploring the different plugins across each of the Cloud Exchange modules.


Thank you followed the steps on brand-new ubuntu 20, all went well except sudo ./setup

 

had to use python3 ./setup instead


@Siva Yes...using "phython3 ./setup" is a relatively new requirement. Glad you figured that out! It's updated on our docs page: https://docs.netskope.com/en/install-cloud-exchange.html


@NathanCatania This is great stuff! Wondering if there is an update to this?

ubuntu@ip-10-0-0-161:~$ curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | sudo apt-key add -
Warning: apt-key is deprecated. Manage keyring files in trusted.gpg.d instead (see apt-key(8)).
OK
ubuntu@ip-10-0-0-161:~$


Hi everyone! I hope you have found this guide useful!


 


I have just updated it to be compatible with the latest v4 release of Cloud Exchange. Thank you to everyone who messaged me with corrections - it has been on my TODO list for a while 😉


 


Posts here have a 20,000 character limit so some of the guide has been trimmed down. For the full version, please see here.


 


@mpray 


Thank you for the Cloud Exchange document.
Let me confirm one thing.
I would like to set up a cluster configuration of Cloud Exchange (log shipper) in case of server failure, what is the best configuration?
Thank you in advance for your help.


Awesome documentation @NathanCatania, thanks so much.

 

Regarding the API piece for CE/NSTenant connection:  REST APIv2 token is now required in Cloud Exchange UI, and APIv1 is optional.

 

Could anyone please advise on what API Endpoints would be selected?

 

Also - v2 tokens expire at some point.  If an admin doesn't want to rotate tokens, will there be an option for them?  Or would that be a limitation of APIv2 itself?


if you are facing problems to start CE app (./start) with error below, it might be related with docker-compose version. 

ta_cloud_exchange_core Creating Error response from daemon: failed to mount local volume: mount ./data/repos:/var/lib/docker/volumes/ta_cloud_exchange_nfs_repos/_data, flags: 0x1000: no such file or directory

 

If you can spin a new VM, simply modify the value of docker-compose to the latest one (i.e.: 2.24.6) and that should fix the problem

sudo curl -SL https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/download/v2.24.6/docker-compose-linux-x86_64 -o /usr/local/bin/docker-compose


If it's a production VM, and spinning a new VM is not feasible, reach to support to provide you a workaround.

Also, Ubuntu 22.04 version can be used at this stage


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