Installing FleetDM Management Server

Create Debian 11 VM

apt update && apt upgrade -y && apt install -y sudo gnupg net-tools dnsutils binutils git curl

Install MySQL Server

1. Download .deb package from here
2. Run sudo dpkg -i ./package.deb
3. Select MySQL 8
4. Select OK
5. Run sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y mysql-server
6. Set a root password
7. Select strong encryption

Install Fleet

1. Download latest fleetctl and fleet releases from here
2. Expand archives
3. Copy the fleet and fleetctl binaries to /usr/bin
4. Create a fleet database echo 'CREATE DATABASE fleet;' | mysql -u root -p
   

Install Redis Server

apt install -y redis
systemctl enable --now redis-server

Create a TLS Certificate for Fleet

Replace hostname with the server's hostname (should match the DNS record). Replace contoso.org with your domain.

openssl req -x509 -newkey rsa:4096 -sha256 -days 3650 -nodes \
  -keyout /etc/ssl/fleet.key -out /etc/ssl/fleet.cert -subj "/CN=hostname" \
  -addext "subjectAltName=DNS:hostname.contoso.org"

Create a Service Account to Run Fleet

sudo groupadd fleet
sudo useradd -Mrg fleet fleet
sudo chown fleet:fleet /etc/ssl/fleet.cert
sudo chown fleet:fleet /etc/ssl/fleet.key

Initialize the Database

fleet prepare db \
--mysql_address=127.0.0.1:3306 \
--mysql_database=fleet \
--mysql_username=root \
--mysql_password=toor

Create a Unit File to Control Fleet with Systemd

/etc/systemd/system/fleet.service

[Unit]
Description=Fleet
After=network.target

[Service]
User=fleet
Group=fleet
LimitNOFILE=8192
ExecStart=/usr/bin/fleet serve \
  --mysql_address=127.0.0.1:3306 \
  --mysql_database=fleet \
  --mysql_username=root \
  --mysql_password=toor \
  --redis_address=127.0.0.1:6379 \
  --server_cert=/etc/ssl/fleet.cert \
  --server_key=/etc/ssl/fleet.key \
  --logging_json

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Enable and start the service

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable --now fleet

Confirm Fleet is Running

systemctl status fleet
sudo netstat -tanup | grep 8080