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Prerequisites for Microsoft Defender for Endpoint on Linux

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Microsoft Defender for Endpoint on Linux now extends support for Arm64-based Linux servers in preview! For more information, see Microsoft Defender for Endpoint on Linux for Arm64-based devices (preview)

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This article lists hardware and software requirements for Microsoft Defender for Endpoint on Linux.

License requirements

To onboard servers to Defender for Endpoint, server licenses are required. You can choose from the following options:

For more detailed information about licensing requirements for Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, see Microsoft Defender for Endpoint licensing information.

For detailed licensing information, see Product Terms: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint and work with your account team to learn more about the terms and conditions.

System requirements

  • CPU: One CPU core minimum. For high-performance workloads, more cores are recommended.
  • Disk Space: 2 GB minimum. For high-performance workloads, more disk space might be needed.
  • Memory: 1 GB of RAM minimum. For high-performance workloads, more memory might be needed.

Note

Performance tuning might be needed based on workloads. For more information, see Performance tuning for Microsoft Defender for Endpoint on Linux

Software requirements

  • Linux server endpoints should be able to access the Microsoft Defender portal. If necessary, configure static proxy discovery.
  • Linux server endpoints should have systemd (system manager) installed.
  • Administrative privileges on the Linux server endpoint are required for installation.

Note

Linux distributions using system manager support both SystemV and Upstart. The Microsoft Defender for Endpoint on Linux agent is independent from Operation Management Suite (OMS) agent. Microsoft Defender for Endpoint relies on its own independent telemetry pipeline.

Supported Linux distributions

The following Linux server distributions and x64 (AMD64/EM64T) versions are supported:

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.2 or higher
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.x
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.x
  • CentOS 7.2 or higher, excluding CentOS Stream
  • Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
  • Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
  • Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
  • Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
  • Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
  • Debian 9 - 12
  • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12.x
  • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15.x
  • Oracle Linux 7.2 or higher
  • Oracle Linux 8.x
  • Oracle Linux 9.x
  • Amazon Linux 2
  • Amazon Linux 2023
  • Fedora 33-38
  • Rocky 8.7 and higher
  • Rocky 9.2 and higher
  • Alma 8.4 and higher
  • Alma 9.2 and higher
  • Mariner 2

The following Linux server distributions on Arm64 are now supported in preview:

  • Ubuntu 20.04 Arm64
  • Ubuntu 22.04 Arm64
  • Amazon Linux 2 Arm64
  • Amazon Linux 2023 Arm64

Support for Microsoft Defender for Endpoint on Linux for Arm64-based devices is now in preview.

Note

The workstation and desktop versions of these distributions are unsupported Distributions and versions that aren't explicitly listed are unsupported (even if they're derived from the officially supported distributions). After a new package version is released, support for the previous two versions is reduced to technical support only. Versions older than that which are listed in this section are provided for technical upgrade support only. Currently, Rocky and Alma distributions aren't supported in Microsoft Defender Vulnerability Management. However, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint is kernel-version agnostic for all other supported distributions and versions. The minimal requirement for the kernel version is 3.10.0-327 or later.

Warning

Running Defender for Endpoint on Linux with other fanotify-based security solutions isn't supported. It can lead to unpredictable results, including hanging the operating system. If there are any other applications on the system that use fanotify in blocking mode, applications are listed in the conflicting_applications field of the mdatp health command output. The Linux FAPolicyD feature uses fanotify in blocking mode, and is therefore unsupported when running Defender for Endpoint in active mode. You can still safely take advantage of Defender for Endpoint on Linux EDR functionality after configuring the antivirus functionality Real Time Protection Enabled to passive mode. See Enforcement level for Microsoft Defender Antivirus.

Supported filesystems for real-time protection and quick, full, and custom scans

Real-time protection and quick/full scans Custom scans
btrfs All filesystems are supported for real-time protection and quick/full scans
ecryptfs Efs
ext2 S3fs
ext3 Blobfuse
ext4 Lustr
fuse glustrefs
fuseblk Afs
jfs sshfs
nfs (v3 only) cifs
overlay smb
ramfs gcsfuse
reiserfs sysfs
tmpfs
udf
vfat
xfs

Note

NFS v3 mount points to be scanned thoroughly and are required to set the no_root_squash export option on these mount points. Without this option, scanning NFS v3 can potentially fail due to lack of permissions.

Network connections

  • Verify that your devices can connect to Microsoft Defender for Endpoint cloud services.
  • Prepare your environment, as described in Step 1 of the following article Configure your network environment to ensure connectivity with Defender for Endpoint service
  • Connect Defender for Endpoint on Linux through a proxy server by using the following discovery methods:
    1. Transparent proxy
    2. Manual static proxy configuration
  • Permit anonymous traffic in the previously listed URLs, if a proxy or firewall blocks traffic.

Note

Configuration for transparent proxies isn't needed for Defender for Endpoint. See Manual Static Proxy Configuration.

Warning

PAC, WPAD, and authenticated proxies aren't supported. Use only static or transparent proxies. SSL inspection and intercepting proxies aren't supported for security reasons. Configure an exception for SSL inspection and your proxy server to allow direct data pass-through from Defender for Endpoint on Linux to the relevant URLs without interception. Adding your interception certificate to the global store doesn't enable interception.

For troubleshooting steps, see Troubleshoot cloud connectivity issues for Microsoft Defender for Endpoint on Linux

External package dependency

For information on external package dependencies, see the following articles:

Installation instructions

There are several methods and tools that you can use to deploy Microsoft Defender for Endpoint on Linux:

Important

Installing Microsoft Defender for Endpoint in any location other than the default install path isn't supported. On Linux, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint creates an mdatp user with random UID and GID values. If you want to control these values, create an mdatp user before installation using the /usr/sbin/nologin shell option. Here's an example: mdatp:x:UID:GID::/home/mdatp:/usr/sbin/nologin.

Troubleshoot installation issues

If you experience any installation issues, for self-troubleshooting, follow these steps:

  1. For information on how to find the log that's generated automatically when an installation error occurs, see Log installation issues.

  2. For information about common installation issues, see Installation issues.

  3. If health of the device is false, see Defender for Endpoint agent health issues.

  4. For product performance issues, see Troubleshoot performance issues.

  5. For proxy and connectivity issues, see Troubleshoot cloud connectivity issues.

To get support from Microsoft, open a support ticket, and provide the log files created by using the client analyzer.

Next steps

See also

Tip

Do you want to learn more? Engage with the Microsoft Security community in our Tech Community: Microsoft Defender for Endpoint Tech Community