Installing Open-AudIT on Windows

Open-AudIT can be downloaded, installed, configured, and discovering devices in under 10 minutes on Windows.

Before You Start

• Use Windows Server. Open-AudIT must be installed on a 64-bit Windows Server (2016 or later). Windows 10 and Windows 11 are not supported.
• Install Nmap first. Open-AudIT depends on Nmap for discovery. There's no way around this — no Nmap, no discovery.

Step-by-Step Installation

1. Install Nmap

Go to nmap.org, download the latest Windows release, right-click the installer and select Run as Administrator. Accept all defaults. Open-AudIT doesn't need any special Nmap configuration — it just needs it to be installed.

2. Install the Visual C++ Runtime

Download and install the latest Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable from the Microsoft support page.

3. Download and Install Open-AudIT

Go to firstwave.com or open-audit.org and download the latest Open-AudIT installer.

Right-click the .exe file and select Run as Administrator. The installer takes care of the rest — Apache, PHP, MySQL, and Open-AudIT itself are all set up automatically.

4. Configure the Apache Service Account

For Open-AudIT 5.0 and later, the Apache service needs to run under a regular user account (or Administrator) rather than the default "Local System" account. The Local System account has no access to network resources, which breaks the ability to copy audit scripts to Windows targets.

To change it:

1. Press Windows + R, type services.msc, and press Enter.
2. Find Apache 2.4 in the list, right-click it, and select Properties.
3. Click the Log On tab.
4. Select This account, then enter a valid username and password.
5. Click OK, then right-click the Apache 2.4 service and click Restart.

5. Activate Your License

Log in to Open-AudIT (usually at http://localhost/open-audit). You'll be prompted to activate your free license. See Activating Your License for the full walkthrough.

6. Add Credentials and Run a Discovery

Once licensed, add credentials for your network devices and kick off your first discovery. See Running a Discovery.

Upgrading

Upgrading is the same process as a fresh install. You don't need to reinstall Nmap. Just run the installer as Administrator, then log in to Open-AudIT — you'll be taken to the schema upgrade screen automatically. Run the upgrade and you're good to go.

Manual Database Setup

The installer creates and populates the database for you. If you ever need to do it manually (e.g., after a migration), here are the commands:

c:\xampp\mysql\bin\mysql.exe -u root -p -e "CREATE DATABASE openaudit;"
c:\xampp\mysql\bin\mysql -u root -p -e "CREATE USER openaudit@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'openauditpassword';"
c:\xampp\mysql\bin\mysql -u root -p -e "GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON openaudit.* TO openaudit@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'openauditpassword'; FLUSH PRIVILEGES;"
c:\xampp\mysql\bin\mysql -u root -p openaudit -e "c:\xampp\open-audit\other\openaudit_mysql.sql"