Virtual appliance installations

You can install IBM® QRadar® SIEM on a virtual appliance. Ensure that you use a supported virtual appliance that meets the minimum system requirements.

There are two ways to install QRadar on your virtual appliance: a software installation, or an appliance installation.

Appliance installation
An appliance installation is a QRadar installation that uses the version of Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® (RHEL) included in the QRadar ISO. An appliance installation on your own hardware or in a virtual machine requires you to purchase a software node entitlement. Contact your QRadar sales representative for more information about purchasing a software node entitlement. You do not need to configure partitions or perform other RHEL preparation as part of an appliance installation. Choose this option, if RHEL is not already installed. Proceed to Installing a QRadar appliance. However, if the hardware/virtual instance configuration varies from our listed specifications, the version of RHEL included in the QRadar ISO may not install properly. In that case, you should attempt a software installation.
Software installation
A software installation is a QRadar installation that uses a RHEL operating system that you provide. The RHEL version required for your installment must be provided by a 3rd party. You must configure partitions and perform other RHEL preparations before a QRadar software installation. Aside from RHEL, all software installations requires you to purchase a software node entitlement. Contact your QRadar sales representative for more information about purchasing a software node entitlement. Proceed to QRadar software installations.
Note: If the installer does not detect that RHEL is installed, an appliance installation is performed automatically. You still see both the Appliance Install (purchased as an appliance) or Software Install (hardware was purchased separately) options in the installer menu. If RHEL is installed, only the Software Install (hardware was purchased separately) option appears.
To install a virtual appliance, complete the following tasks in order:
  • Create a virtual machine.
  • Install QRadar software on the virtual machine.
  • If your virtual appliance is a manged host, add your virtual appliance to your deployment.
Important: Install no software other than QRadar and RHEL on your virtual machine.