How to Install the Assessment Agent Adapter on a Nessus Server

This document provides instructions to install the Extreme Networks Assessment Agent Adapter software on a Nessus Server. The Assessment Agent Adapter is required for communication between the Extreme Access Control appliance and the Nessus server.

  NOTE: As of NetSight Version 7.1, only Nessus Version 6 is officially supported.
  1. Go to the Network Management Suite (NMS) Download web page to download the Assessment Agent Adapter: https://extranet.extremenetworks.com/downloads/Pages/NMS.aspx. Select the version of Extreme Management Center you are using.
  2. Scroll down to find the Extreme Access Control Tools section of the web page. The install file is named "Assessment Adapter (for 3rd party assessment integration)". Download the file and copy it to the Nessus server.
  3. Open a shell and "cd" to the directory where you downloaded the install file.
  4. Change the permissions on the install file by entering the following command at the shell prompt:
         chmod 755 EXTRAssessmentServerAgentAdapter_x.x.x.x.bin
  5. Run the install program by entering the following command at the shell prompt:
         ./EXTRAssessmentServerAgentAdapter_x.x.x.x.bin
  6. The Introduction screen appears. Press Enter.
  7. Enter Nessus as the agent type to install. Press Enter.
  8. The Choose Install Folder screen appears where you can choose the installation folder or directory. Enter an absolute path or press Enter to accept the default installation folder /root/AssessmentAgent. The installer requires 100 MB of memory. If the installation folder does not have enough memory, you will see an error.
  9. The Pre-Installation Summary screen appears. This screen shows you the locations you have chosen for the installation process and disk space requirements. Review this information to ensure its accuracy. Press Enter.
  10. The Nessus Server Information screen appears. You must enter information in several fields in this screen.
  11.  Enter the port that the Nessus daemon is running on. The default value is 1241. Press Enter.
  12.  Enter the username that you created when you installed the Nessus server. Press Enter.
    If you did not create a user when you installed the Nessus server, from a shell prompt, type:
         cd /nessus installation directory/sbin
    followed by
         nessuscli adduser username
    and follow the prompts to add a user to the application. Press Enter.
  13.  Enter the password for the Nessus user. Press Enter.
  14. The SSL Server Information screen appears. Enter the port on which the HTTPS daemon is running. The default port number is 8445. Press Enter. The Assessment Agent Adapter begins installing.
  15. If you are upgrading to a newer version of the Assessment Agent Adapter, you are asked if you want to overwrite several files: launchAS.sh, bin/nessus_cmd, and version.txt. Enter the letter "y" to answer yes and press Enter.
  16. The Installation Complete screen appears. The installation is complete and the Assessment Agent Adapter has been installed on the server.
  17. Start the Assessment Agent Adapter as a background process by entering the following command at the shell prompt:
         /assessment agent adapter installation directory/launchAS.sh &
  18. Make sure that the Nessus daemon and the Assessment Agent Adapter are started each time the system is started, by adding this command into your rc.local script:
         /assessment agent adapter installation directory/launchAS.sh &
  19. To verify the Assessment Agent Adapter is running on the system, from the shell prompt enter:
         netstat -an | grep port number
    where port number is the port you entered that has the HTTPS daemon running on it. The default value for this is 8445. You should see returned entries with ESTABLISHED or LISTEN in them.
  20. To verify the Nessus application is running on the system, from the shell prompt enter:
         ps -eaf | grep nessusd
    You should see a return entry similar to: "nessusd: waiting for incoming connections." This is an indication that the Nessus process is running correctly on the system.

Related Information

For information on related tasks:

For information on related windows:

Top