Deployment

Colander official Docker image is available on GitHub. The stack we provide comes with the service Watchtower that will automatically update the version of Colander you deployed.

Requirements#

We suggest to use a dedicated server with at least:

• 4 cores
• 4GB of RAM
• 500GB of storage space

We recommend installing Debian because it’s the operating system we’re familiar with, and we can guide you through all the installation, maintenance, and debugging steps.

Your server must have a public IP address as well as a domain name.

Deployment procedure#

Once your server is up and running, download the latest Colander deployment package available on GitHub and decompress it on your server.

Configuration#

The next step is to configure the stack to be deployed. To do so, edit the file .envs/.tpl/.base and set the following variables according to your production environment:

• ACME_EMAIL: the email address attached to the TLS certificate
• ADMIN_NAME: full name of the administrator
• ADMIN_EMAIL: email address that will receive notifications on crashes and unhandled errors
• ROOT_DOMAIN: the domain name pointing to your server
• DJANGO_DEFAULT_FROM_EMAIL: the email address used for sending emails
• EMAIL_HOST: the host to use for sending email (can be the SMTP server of your email provider)
• EMAIL_HOST_USER: the username to use for the SMTP server
• EMAIL_HOST_PASSWORD: the password to use for the SMTP server
• EMAIL_PORT: the port to use for the SMTP server
• EMAIL_USE_TLS: True if the SMTP server uses TLS, False otherwise
• EMAIL_USE_SSL: True if the SMTP server uses SSL, False otherwise

Find more details about the email configuration in the Django documentation.

Once configured, you have to generate the entire configuration of the stack by running the following command:

bash gen.sh

The script will generate multiple files containing environment variables that will be passed to the different services.

First boot#

Now, you are ready to fire up the stack using docker compose:

docker compose -f no-sso.yml build
docker compose -f no-sso.yml up -d 

The Colander stack is now starting, you can see the logs by running

docker compose -f no-sso.yml logs

Check with your web browser if Colander is up by browsing the domain name you configured.

Admin user#

Next, you have to create an admin user for both Colander and Threatr by running

docker compose -f no-sso.yml run --rm colander-front python manage.py createsuperuser
docker compose -f no-sso.yml run --rm threatr-front python manage.py createsuperuser

and follow the instructions.

Insert default data#

Threatr comes with a set of predefined entity types, to load them, run the following command

docker compose -f no-sso.yml run --rm threatr-front python manage.py insert_default_data

Connect Colander to Threatr#

In the administration panel of Threatr, create a regular user via the Users menu. Then, via the Auth Token menu, create a new API key for the user you just created. Next, via the menu Vendor credentials, create a new entry for each 3rd-party API key you have for Virus Total and/or OTX Alien Vault.

• for VirusTotal, use the vendor identifier vt and for the credentials field, set

    {"api_key": "your VT API key"}

• for OTX Alien Vault, use the vendor identifier otx and for the credentials field, set

    {"api_key": "your OTX API key"}

In the administration panel of Colander, via the menu Backend credentials, create a new entry with threatr as backend identifier and for the credentials field, set

    {"api_key": "your Threatr API key"}

Development environment#

Setup#

The development environment relies on Docker Compose (or Podman). The file local.yml provides the entire stack you need.

git clone https://github.com/PiRogueToolSuite/colander.git
cd colander
docker compose -f local.yml build 
docker compose -f local.yml up -d
docker compose -f local.yml run --rm django python manage.py createsuperuser 
docker compose -f local.yml logs -f -n 44 django  # to check the logs

Then, you should be able to browse and log-in Colander at http://localhost:8000.

To stop your Colander stack:

docker compose -f local.yml stop