Security Onion: Elastic Stack Alpha Release and Security Onion 14.04.5.3 ISO Image!

UPDATED 2018/04/09! We've released a newer version!
https://blog.securityonion.net/2018/04/security-onion-elastic-stack-general.html

We recently announced the first three technology previews of the Elastic stack on Security Onion:
http://blog.securityonion.net/2017/03/towards-elk-on-security-onion.html
http://blog.securityonion.net/2017/06/towards-elastic-on-security-onion.html
http://blog.securityonion.net/2017/07/towards-elastic-on-security-onion.html

We're excited to announce that our Elastic stack integration has now reached Alpha Release! Part of this Alpha release is a new 14.04.5.3 ISO image that contains these Alpha components. This ISO image contains all the latest Ubuntu and Security Onion updates as of September 5, 2017!

Highlights of this Alpha Release

Upgraded from Elastic 5.5.0 to 5.5.2
All Elastic config files and scripts are now in a new package called securityonion-elastic (securityonion_elastic.sh from previous tech previews is no longer necessary)
In Kibana, the Squert and Logout links have been moved to the side panel
Kibana search now defaults to last 24 hours
Lots of cleanup and fixes
Elastic distributed deployments are implemented using cross cluster search

Distributed Deployment with Master Server and Two Sensors

Video
You can learn more about this release by watching the State of the Onion talk at Security Onion Conference 2017.

Issues Resolved

Issue 1071: 14.04.5.3 ISO image
https://github.com/Security-Onion-Solutions/security-onion/issues/1071

Issue 1095: Elastic Stack Alpha Release
https://github.com/Security-Onion-Solutions/security-onion/issues/1095

Thanks
This new ISO image has been tested by Wes Lambert and Phil Plantamura. Thanks, guys!

New Installations
I've updated the Verify_ISO page for the new ISO image:
https://github.com/Security-Onion-Solutions/security-onion/blob/master/Verify_ISO.md

Please remember to verify the signature of the downloaded ISO image using the instructions on that page.

Please note! This ISO image includes the EXPERIMENTAL Elastic stack!

The Elastic components are included in the ISO image and Setup gives you an option of Stable Setup (ELSA) or Experimental Setup (Elastic). If you do not want to try the new Elastic stack, you can choose Stable Setup. If you choose Experimental Setup, the usual disclaimers and warnings apply!

Experimental Setup is ALPHA, BLEEDING EDGE, and TOTALLY UNSUPPORTED!
If this breaks your system, you get to keep both pieces!
This is a work in progress and is in constant flux.
This is intended to build a quick prototype proof of concept so you can see what our ultimate Elastic configuration might look like. This configuration will change drastically over time leading up to the final release.
Do NOT run this on a system that you care about!
Do NOT run this on a system that has data that you care about!
This should only be run on a TEST box with TEST data!
Experimental Setup may result in nausea, vomiting, or a burning sensation.

For more about this Elastic Alpha release, please see https://securityonion.net/wiki/elastic and the Screenshot tour at the bottom of this blog post.

Please note the following minimum hardware requirements for the Elastic stack:

2 CPU cores
8GB RAM

If you would prefer an ISO image with no Elastic components at all, you have a few options:

Install the older Security Onion 14.04.5.2 ISO image and then run sudo soup
OR
Install your preferred flavor of Ubuntu 14.04 and then add our PPA and your desired packages:
https://github.com/Security-Onion-Solutions/security-onion/wiki/InstallingOnUbuntu

Existing Deployments
If you have existing installations based on a previous 14.04 ISO image, there is no need to download the new ISO image. You can simply continue using our standard update process to install updated packages as they are made available:
https://github.com/Security-Onion-Solutions/security-onion/wiki/Upgrade

Release Notes
For more information about this release, please see:
https://github.com/Security-Onion-Solutions/security-onion/wiki/Security-Onion-14.04-Release-Notes

Want to show your support for Security Onion?
Security Onion t-shirts are available in our CafePress store!
http://www.cafepress.com/securityonion/11820053

Training
We have a 4-day Security Onion training class coming up in San Antonio, Texas! For this and other training options, please see:
https://securityonionsolutions.com

Support
Need support? Please see:
https://securityonion.net/wiki/Support

Screenshot Tour