Edit

Share via

Prerequisites for Microsoft Defender for Endpoint on Linux

Tip

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint on Linux now extends support for Arm64-based Linux servers in GA.

This article lists hardware and software requirements for Defender for Endpoint on Linux. For more information about Defender for Endpoint on Linux, such as what's included in this offering, see the following articles:

Important

If you want to run multiple security solutions side by side, see Considerations for performance, configuration, and support.

You might have already configured mutual security exclusions for devices onboarded to Microsoft Defender for Endpoint. If you still need to set mutual exclusions to avoid conflicts, see Add Microsoft Defender for Endpoint to the exclusion list for your existing solution.

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.
  • For installation at a custom path, refer to Prerequisites and system requirements for custom ___location installation.

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 *.endpoint.security.microsoft.com. 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.
  • An appropriate role assigned in Defender for Endpoint. See Role-based access control.

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 and higher
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.x
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.x
  • CentOS 7.2 and higher, excluding CentOS Stream
  • CentOS 8.x
  • 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 and higher
  • Oracle Linux 8.x
  • Oracle Linux 9.x
  • Amazon Linux 2
  • Amazon Linux 2023
  • Fedora 33-42
  • 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 GA:

  • Ubuntu 20.04 ARM64
  • Ubuntu 22.04 ARM64
  • Ubuntu 24.04 ARM64
  • Debian 11, 12 ARM64
  • Amazon Linux 2 ARM64
  • Amazon Linux 2023 ARM64
  • RHEL 8.x ARM64
  • RHEL 9.x ARM64
  • Oracle Linux 8.x ARM64
  • Oracle Linux 9.x ARM64
  • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 (SP5, SP6) ARM64

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. 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 alongside other fanotify-based security solutions is not supported and may lead to unpredictable behavior, including system hangs. If any applications use fanotify in blocking mode, they will appear in the conflicting_applications field of the mdatp health command output. You can still safely take advantage of Defender for Endpoint on Linux by setting antivirus enforcement level to passive. See Configure security settings in Microsoft Defender for Endpoint on Linux.> EXCEPTION: The Linux FAPolicyD feature, which also uses Fanotify in blocking mode, is supported with Defender for Endpoint in active mode on RHEL and Fedora platforms, provided that mdatp health reports a healthy status. This exception is based on validated compatibility specific to these distributions.

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.

Verify if devices can connect to Defender for Endpoint cloud services

  1. Prepare your environment, as described in Step 1 of the following article Configure your network environment to ensure connectivity with Defender for Endpoint service.

  2. Connect Defender for Endpoint on Linux through a proxy server by using the following discovery methods:

  3. 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

If the Microsoft Defender for Endpoint installation fails due to missing dependencies errors, you can manually download the prerequisite dependencies. The following external package dependencies exist for the mdatp package:

  • The mdatp RPM package requires glibc >= 2.17.
  • For DEBIAN the mdatp package requires libc6 >= 2.23.

Note

For versions 101.25042.0003 and later, no external dependencies are required, whereas versions older than 101.25032.0000 require additional packages:

  • RPM-based distributions: mde-netfilter, pcre, libmnl, libnfnetlink, libnetfilter_queue, glib2
  • DEBIAN-based distributions: mde-netfilter, libpcre3, libnetfilter-queue1, libglib2.0-0 Beginning with version 101.24082.0004, Defender for Endpoint on Linux no longer supports the Auditd event provider. We're transitioning completely to the more efficient eBPF technology. If eBPF isn't supported on your machines, or if there are specific requirements to remain on Auditd, and your machines are using Defender for Endpoint on Linux version 101.24072.0001 or older, the following additional dependency on the auditd package exists for mdatp:
  • The mdatp RPM package requires audit, semanage.
  • For DEBIAN, the mdatp package requires auditd.
  • For Mariner, the mdatp package requires audit.

Installation instructions

There are several methods and tools that you can use to deploy Microsoft Defender for Endpoint on Linux (applicable to AMD64 and ARM64 Linux servers):

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.

If you experience any installation issues, self-troubleshooting resources are available. See the links in the Related content section.

Next steps

Related content

Tip

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