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Overview

Wazuh provides a unified security information and event management (SIEM) platform for your Xloud environment. Agents deployed on your compute instances forward security events, system logs, and file integrity alerts to a central Wazuh manager. The manager correlates events across all monitored instances, applies detection rules, and generates alerts for security incidents, compliance violations, and vulnerability findings.
Prerequisites
  • Wazuh manager 4.7 or later deployed (standalone or cluster)
  • Network access from all instances to the Wazuh manager on TCP port 1514 (agent enrollment) and TCP port 1515 (agent registration)
  • sudo or root access on instances for agent installation
  • Ansible for automated bulk deployment (recommended for more than 5 instances)

Architecture

Components


Agent Deployment

Manual Installation (Single Instance)

Add Wazuh repository

Add Wazuh GPG key and repository

Install the agent

Install Wazuh agent
Replace <wazuh-manager-ip> with the IP address of your Wazuh manager.

Enable and start the agent

Start Wazuh agent
Agent registers with the manager. Verify in the Wazuh Dashboard under Agents — the instance appears with status Active.

Bulk Deployment via Ansible

Deploy Wazuh agents to all Xloud instances using the Ansible dynamic inventory:
playbooks/wazuh-deploy.yml
Run the playbook using the Xloud dynamic inventory:
Deploy Wazuh agents to all instances

Log Collection Configuration

Configure the agent to forward specific log files to the Wazuh manager for centralized analysis:
/var/ossec/etc/ossec.conf (log collection section)

File Integrity Monitoring

Wazuh monitors filesystem paths for unauthorized modifications — files added, deleted, or modified outside of expected change windows trigger alerts:
/var/ossec/etc/ossec.conf (FIM section)

Compliance Reporting

Wazuh includes pre-built compliance rule mappings for common frameworks. Enable compliance scanning in the agent configuration: View compliance dashboards in the Wazuh Dashboard under Security → Regulatory Compliance.

Verification

Navigate to the Wazuh Dashboard at http://<wazuh-dashboard-host>:5601:
  1. Open Agents — all deployed instances appear with status Active
  2. Open Security Events — incoming events from agents are visible in real time
  3. Open Integrity Monitoring — file change events appear per monitored path
  4. Open Regulatory Compliance — compliance scores per instance
All agents show Active status. Events are flowing from monitored instances.

Troubleshooting

Cause: The agent cannot reach the Wazuh manager on TCP port 1514, or the agent service stopped.Resolution:
Check agent service status
Test connectivity to manager
Verify that the security group for the instance allows outbound TCP 1514 to the manager.
Cause: Log collection paths do not exist, or the agent configuration has a syntax error.Resolution:
Validate agent configuration
Restart agent after config change
Check /var/ossec/logs/ossec.log on the instance for parsing errors.
Cause: Package manager repository not reachable from instance (outbound internet blocked), or wrong OS family detected.Resolution: Ensure instances have outbound HTTP/HTTPS access to packages.wazuh.com, or host the Wazuh packages internally and update the repository URL in the playbook. Use --limit to re-run the playbook on failed hosts only.

Next Steps

Ansible Integration

Automate Wazuh agent deployment and configuration updates using Ansible playbooks

Prometheus Integration

Complement Wazuh security events with infrastructure metrics from Prometheus

Grafana Dashboards

Build unified security and operations dashboards combining Wazuh and Prometheus data

Key Manager

Store Wazuh registration keys securely in Xloud Key Manager