Step-by-step guide to installing Open-AudIT on supported Linux distributions including Red Hat, Rocky Linux, Debian, and Ubuntu.

Installing Open-AudIT on Linux

Installing Open-AudIT on Linux is straightforward — the installer handles all dependencies including Apache, PHP, MariaDB, and Nmap.

Supported Distributions

Red Hat / Rocky Linux 9 or 10 (64-bit)
Debian 12 or 13 (64-bit)
Ubuntu 24.04 (64-bit)

Step-by-Step Installation

1. Download the Installer

Go to firstwave.com or open-audit.org and download the latest Linux release. It's a .run file.

2. Run the Installer

sudo ./OAE-Linux-x86_64-release_X.X.X.run

Replace X.X.X with the version you downloaded. The installer will detect your distribution, install all required packages, configure services, create the database, and set everything up. No manual steps needed.

3. Log In and Activate

Once the installer finishes, open a browser and navigate to http://your-server/open-audit. You'll be prompted to activate your free license. See Activating Your License.

4. Add Credentials and Run a Discovery

See Running a Discovery.

Upgrading

Upgrading is identical to a fresh install — just run the new installer. When you log in after upgrading, Open-AudIT will take you to the database schema upgrade screen. Run the upgrade and you're done.

Manual Database Setup

The installer handles database creation automatically. If you ever need to do it by hand:

mysql -u root -p -e "CREATE DATABASE openaudit;"
mysql -u root -p -e "CREATE USER openaudit@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'openauditpassword';"
mysql -u root -p -e "GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON openaudit.* TO openaudit@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'openauditpassword'; FLUSH PRIVILEGES;"
mysql -u root -p openaudit < /usr/local/open-audit/other/open-audit.sql

Tip

The Open-AudIT installer runs these steps for you. You only need the commands below if you're doing a fully manual installation (air-gapped, hardened base image, etc.).

Manual dependency installation (advanced)

If you're on an air-gapped system or need to install dependencies yourself, here are the commands by distribution.

Red Hat / Rocky Linux 9 or 10

subscription-manager repos --enable codeready-builder-for-rhel-9-x86_64-rpms
dnf -y install https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-9.noarch.rpm
/usr/bin/crb enable
dnf -y upgrade
dnf -y module install php:8.3 --allowerasing
dnf -y install --allowerasing curl httpd ipmitool libnsl libxcrypt-compat logrotate \
  mariadb-server net-snmp net-snmp-utils nmap perl-Crypt-CBC perl-Time-ParseDate \
  php-cli php-fpm php-gd php-intl php-ldap php-mysqlnd php-process php-snmp \
  php-zip samba-client sshpass wget zip
systemctl enable php-fpm httpd mariadb
chmod u+s /usr/bin/nmap

Debian 12 / 13

apt-get update -qq
apt-get -yq install cron mariadb-server apache2 apache2-utils libapache2-mod-php \
  openssh-client php php-cli php-curl php-gd php-intl php-ldap php-mbstring \
  php-mysql php-snmp php-xml php-zip nmap zip wget curl sshpass screen smbclient \
  logrotate ipmitool snmp libcrypt-cbc-perl
systemctl restart apache2 mysql
chmod u+s /usr/bin/nmap
dpkg-statoverride --update --add root root 4755 /usr/bin/nmap

Ubuntu 24.04

apt-get update -qq
apt-get -yq install cron mariadb-server apache2 apache2-utils libapache2-mod-php \
  openssh-client php php-cli php-curl php-gd php-intl php-ldap php-mbstring \
  php-mysql php-snmp php-xml php-zip nmap zip wget curl sshpass screen smbclient \
  logrotate ipmitool snmp libcrypt-cbc-perl
systemctl restart apache2 mysql
chmod u+s /usr/bin/nmap
dpkg-statoverride --update --add root root 4755 /usr/bin/nmap