fleet/docs/Using-Fleet/configuration-files

Configuration files

• Queries
• Labels
• Enroll secrets
• Teams
• Organization settings

Fleet can be managed with configuration files (YAML syntax) and the fleetctl command line tool. This page tells you how to write these configuration files.

Changes are applied to Fleet when the configuration file is applied using fleetctl. Check out the fleetctl documentation to learn how to apply configuration files.

Queries

The query YAML file controls queries in Fleet.

You can define one or more queries in the same file with with ---.

The following example file includes several queries:

---
apiVersion: v1
kind: query
spec:
  name: osquery_schedule
  description: Report performance stats for each file in the query schedule.
  query: select name, interval, executions, output_size, wall_time, (user_time/executions) as avg_user_time, (system_time/executions) as avg_system_time, average_memory, last_executed from osquery_schedule;
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: query
spec:
  name: osquery_info
  description: A heartbeat counter that reports general performance (CPU, memory) and version.
  query: select i.*, p.resident_size, p.user_time, p.system_time, time.minutes as counter from osquery_info i, processes p, time where p.pid = i.pid;
---
apiVersion: v1
kind: query
spec:
  name: osquery_events
  description: Report event publisher health and track event counters.
  query: select name, publisher, type, subscriptions, events, active from osquery_events;

Continued edits and applications to this file will update the queries.

If you want to change the name of a query, you must first create a new query with the new name and then delete the query with the old name.

Labels

The following file describes the labels which hosts should be automatically grouped into. The label resource should include the actual SQL query so that the label is self-contained:

apiVersion: v1
kind: label
spec:
  name: slack_not_running
  query: >
    SELECT * FROM system_info
    WHERE NOT EXISTS (
      SELECT *
      FROM processes
      WHERE name LIKE "%Slack%"
    );    

Labels can also be "manually managed". When defining the label, reference hosts by hostname:

apiVersion: v1
kind: label
spec:
  name: Manually Managed Example
  label_membership_type: manual
  hosts:
    - hostname1
    - hostname2
    - hostname3

Enroll secrets

The following file shows how to configure enroll secrets.

apiVersion: v1
kind: enroll_secret
spec:
  secrets:
    - secret: RzTlxPvugG4o4O5IKS/HqEDJUmI1hwBoffff
    - secret: YBh0n4pvRplKyWiowv9bf3zp6BBOJ13O

Teams

Applies only to Fleet Premium.

The team YAML file controls a team in Fleet.

You can define one or more teams in the same file with with ---.

The following example file includes one team:

apiVersion: v1
kind: team
spec:
  team:
    name: Client Platform Engineering
    features:
      enable_host_users: false
      enable_software_inventory: true
      additional_queries:
        time: SELECT * FROM time
        macs: SELECT mac FROM interface_details
    agent_options:
      config:
        decorators:
          load:
            - SELECT uuid AS host_uuid FROM system_info;
            - SELECT hostname AS hostname FROM system_info;
        options:
          disable_distributed: false
          distributed_interval: 10
          distributed_plugin: tls
          distributed_tls_max_attempts: 3
          logger_plugin: tls
          logger_tls_endpoint: /api/v1/osquery/log
          logger_tls_period: 10
          pack_delimiter: /
      overrides: {}
      command_line_flags: {}
    secrets:
      - secret: RzTlxPvugG4o4O5IKS/HqEDJUmI1hwBoffff
      - secret: JZ/C/Z7ucq22dt/zjx2kEuDBN0iLjqfz

Team settings

Team agent options

The team agent options specify options that only apply to this team. When team-specific agent options have been specified, the agent options specified at the organization level are ignored for this team.

The documentation for this section is identical to the Agent options documentation for the organization settings, except that the YAML section where it is set must be as follows. (Note the kind: team key and the location of the agent_options key under team must have a name key to identify the team to configure.)

apiVersion: v1
kind: team
spec:
  team:
    name: Client Platform Engineering
    agent_options:
      # the team-specific options go here

Secrets

The secrets section provides the list of enroll secrets that will be valid for this team. If the section is missing, the existing secrets are left unmodified. Otherwise, they are replaced with this list of secrets for this team.

• Optional setting (array of dictionaries)
• Default value: none (empty)
• Config file format:

  team:
    name: Client Platform Engineering
    secrets:
      - secret: RzTlxPvugG4o4O5IKS/HqEDJUmI1hwBoffff
      - secret: JZ/C/Z7ucq22dt/zjx2kEuDBN0iLjqfz
  

Organization settings

The config YAML file controls Fleet's organization settings.

The following example file shows the default organization settings:

apiVersion: v1
kind: config
spec:
  agent_options:
    config:
      decorators:
        load:
          - SELECT uuid AS host_uuid FROM system_info;
          - SELECT hostname AS hostname FROM system_info;
      options:
        disable_distributed: false
        distributed_interval: 10
        distributed_plugin: tls
        distributed_tls_max_attempts: 3
        logger_plugin: tls
        logger_tls_endpoint: /api/osquery/log
        logger_tls_period: 10
        pack_delimiter: /
    overrides: {}
    command_line_flags: {}
  features:
    enable_host_users: true
    enable_software_inventory: true
  fleet_desktop:
    transparency_url: https://fleetdm.com/transparency
  host_expiry_settings:
    host_expiry_enabled: false
    host_expiry_window: 0
  integrations:
    jira: null
    zendesk: null
  org_info:
    org_logo_url: ""
    org_name: Fleet
  server_settings:
    deferred_save_host: false
    enable_analytics: true
    live_query_disabled: false
    server_url: ""
  smtp_settings:
    authentication_method: authmethod_plain
    authentication_type: authtype_username_password
    domain: ""
    enable_smtp: false
    enable_ssl_tls: true
    enable_start_tls: true
    password: ""
    port: 587
    sender_address: ""
    server: ""
    user_name: ""
    verify_ssl_certs: true
  sso_settings:
    enable_jit_provisioning: false
    enable_sso: false
    enable_sso_idp_login: false
    entity_id: ""
    idp_image_url: ""
    idp_name: ""
    issuer_uri: ""
    metadata: ""
    metadata_url: ""
  vulnerability_settings:
    databases_path: ""
  webhook_settings:
    failing_policies_webhook:
      destination_url: ""
      enable_failing_policies_webhook: false
      host_batch_size: 0
      policy_ids: null
    host_status_webhook:
      days_count: 0
      destination_url: ""
      enable_host_status_webhook: false
      host_percentage: 0
    interval: 24h
    vulnerabilities_webhook:
      destination_url: ""
      enable_vulnerabilities_webhook: false
      host_batch_size: 0

Settings

All possible settings are organized below by section.

Each section's key must be one level below the spec key, indented with spaces (not <tab> charaters) as required by the YAML format.

For example, when adding the host_expiry_settings.host_expiry_enabled setting, you'd specify the host_expiry_settings section one level below the spec key:

apiVersion: v1
kind: config
spec:
  host_expiry_settings:
    host_expiry_enabled: true

Features

The features section of the configuration YAML lets you define what predefined queries are sent to the hosts and later on processed by Fleet for different functionalities.

Note: this section used to be named host_settings, but was renamed in Fleet v4.20.0, host_settings is still supported for backwards compatibility.

features.additional_queries

This is the additional information to collect from hosts along with the host details. This information will be updated at the same time as other host details and is returned by the API when host objects are returned. Users must take care to keep the data returned by these queries small in order to mitigate potential performance impacts on the Fleet server.

• Optional setting (dictionary of key-value strings)
• Default value: none (empty)
• Config file format:

  features:
  	additional_queries:
      time: SELECT * FROM time
      macs: SELECT mac FROM interface_details
  

• Deprecated config file format:

  host_settings:
  	additional_queries:
      time: SELECT * FROM time
      macs: SELECT mac FROM interface_details
  

features.enable_host_users

Whether or not Fleet sends the query needed to gather user-related data from hosts.

• Optional setting (boolean)
• Default value: true
• Config file format:

  features:
  	enable_host_users: false
  

• Deprecated config file format:

  host_settings:
  	enable_host_users: false
  

features.enable_software_inventory

Whether or not Fleet sends the query needed to gather the list of software installed on hosts, along with other metadata.

• Optional setting (boolean)
• Default value: true
• Config file format:

  features:
  	enable_software_inventory: false
  

• Deprecated config file format:

  host_settings:
  	enable_software_inventory: false
  

Fleet Desktop

For more information about Fleet Desktop, see Fleet Desktop's documentation.

fleet_desktop.transparency_url

Available in Fleet Premium. Direct users of Fleet Desktop to a custom transparency URL page.

• Optional setting (string)
• Default value: Fleet's default transparency URL ("https://fleetdm.com/transparency")
• Config file format:

  fleet_desktop:
    transparency_url: "https://example.org/transparency"
  

Host expiry settings

The host_expiry_settings section lets you define if and when hosts should be removed from Fleet if they have not checked in. Once a host has been removed from Fleet, it will need to re-enroll with a valid enroll_secret to connect to your Fleet instance.

host_expiry_settings.host_expiry_enabled

Whether offline hosts' expiration is enabled. If host_expiry_enabled is set to true, Fleet allows automatic cleanup of hosts that have not communicated with Fleet in some number of days.

• Optional setting (boolean)
• Default value: false
• Config file format:

  host_expiry_settings:
  	host_expiry_enabled: true
  

host_expiry_settings.host_expiry_window

If a host has not communicated with Fleet in the specified number of days, it will be removed.

• Optional setting (integer)
• Default value: 0 (must be > 0 when enabling host expiry)
• Config file format:

  host_expiry_settings:
  	host_expiry_window: 10
  

Integrations

For more information about integrations and Fleet automations in general, see the Automations documentation. Only one automation can be enabled for a given automation type (e.g., for failing policies, only one of the webhooks, the Jira integration, or the Zendesk automation can be enabled).

It's recommended to use the Fleet UI to configure integrations since secret credentials (in the form of an API token) must be provided. See the Automations documentation for the UI configuration steps.

Organization information

org_info.org_name

The name of the organization.

• Required setting (string)
• Default value: none (provided during Fleet setup)
• Config file format:

  org_info:
  	org_name: Fleet
  

org_info.org_logo_url

The URL of the logo of the organization.

• Optional setting (string)
• Default value: none (uses Fleet's logo)
• Config file format:

  org_info:
  	org_logo_url: https://example.com/logo.png
  

Server settings

server_settings.debug_host_ids

There's a lot of information coming from hosts, but it's sometimes useful to see exactly what a host is returning in order to debug different scenarios.

For example, let's say the hosts with ids 342 and 98 are not behaving as you expect in Fleet. You can enable verbose logging with the following configuration:

---
apiVersion: v1
kind: config
spec:
  server_settings:
    debug_host_ids:
      - 342
      - 98

Once you have collected the logs, you can easily disable the debug logging by applying the following configuration:

---
apiVersion: v1
kind: config
spec:
  server_settings:
    debug_host_ids: []

Warning: This will potentially log a lot of data. Some of that data might be private. Please verify it before posting it in a public channel or a GitHub issue.

• Optional setting (array of integers)
• Default value: empty
• Config file format:

  server_settings:
    debug_host_ids:
      - 342
      - 98
  

server_settings.deferred_save_host

Whether saving host-related information is done synchronously in the HTTP handler of the host's request, or asynchronously. This can provide better performance in deployments with many hosts. Note that this is an experimental feature.

• Optional setting (boolean)
• Default value: false
• Config file format:

  server_settings:
    deferred_save_host: true
  

server_settings.enable_analytics

If sending usage analytics is enabled or not.

• Optional setting (boolean)
• Default value: true
• Config file format:

  server_settings:
    enable_analytics: false
  

server_settings.live_query_disabled

If the live query feature is disabled or not.

• Optional setting (boolean)
• Default value: false
• Config file format:

  server_settings:
    live_query_disabled: true
  

server_settings.server_url

The base URL of the fleet server, including the scheme (e.g. "https://").

• Required setting (string)
• Default value: none (provided during Fleet setup)
• Config file format:

  server_settings:
    server_url: https://fleet.example.org:8080
  

SMTP settings

It's recommended to use the Fleet UI to configure SMTP since a secret password must be provided. Navigate to Settings -> Organization settings -> SMTP Options to proceed with this configuration.

SSO settings

For additional information on SSO configuration, including just-in-time (JIT) user provisioning, creating SSO users in Fleet, and identity providers configuration, see Configuring single sign-on (SSO).

sso_settings.enable_jit_provisioning

Available in Fleet Premium. Enables just-in-time user provisioning.

• Optional setting (boolean)
• Default value: false
• Config file format:

  sso_settings:
    enable_jit_provisioning: true
  

sso_settings.enable_sso

Configures if single sign-on is enabled.

• Optional setting (boolean)
• Default value: false
• Config file format:

  sso_settings:
    enable_sso: true
  

sso_settings.enable_sso_idp_login

Allow single sign-on login initiated by identity provider.

• Optional setting (boolean)
• Default value: false
• Config file format:

  sso_settings:
    enable_sso_idp_login: true
  

sso_settings.entity_id

The required entity ID is a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) that you use to identify Fleet when configuring the identity provider. It must exactly match the Entity ID field used in identity provider configuration.

• Required setting if SSO is enabled, must have at least 5 characters (string)
• Default value: ""
• Config file format:

  sso_settings:
    entity_id: "https://example.com"
  

sso_settings.idp_image_url

An optional link to an image such as a logo for the identity provider.

• Optional setting (string)
• Default value: ""
• Config file format:

  sso_settings:
    idp_image_url: "https://example.com/logo"
  

sso_settings.idp_name

A required human-friendly name for the identity provider that will provide single sign-on authentication.

• Required setting if SSO is enabled (string)
• Default value: ""
• Config file format:

  sso_settings:
    idp_name: "SimpleSAML"
  

sso_settings.issuer_uri

The issuer URI supplied by the identity provider.

• Optional setting (string)
• Default value: ""
• Config file format:

  sso_settings:
    issuer_uri: "https://example.com/saml2/sso-service"
  

sso_settings.metadata

Metadata (in XML format) provided by the identity provider.

• Optional setting, either metadata or metadata_url must be set if SSO is enabled, but not both (string).
• Default value: "".
• Config file format:

  sso_settings:
    metadata: "<md:EntityDescriptor entityID="https://idp.example.org/SAML2"> ... /md:EntityDescriptor>"
  

sso_settings.metadata_url

A URL that references the identity provider metadata.

• Optional setting, either metadata or metadata_url must be set if SSO is enabled, but not both (string).
• Default value: "".
• Config file format:

  sso_settings:
    metadata_url: https://idp.example.org/idp-meta.xml
  

Vulnerability settings

vulnerability_settings.databases_path

Path to a directory on the local filesystem (accessible to the Fleet server) where the various vulnerability databases will be stored.

• Optional setting, must be set to enable vulnerability detection (string).
• Default value: "".
• Config file format:

  vulnerability_settings:
    databases_path: "/path/to/dir"
  

Webhook settings

For more information about webhooks and Fleet automations in general, see the Automations documentation.

webhook_settings.interval

The interval at which to check for webhook conditions. This value currently configures both the host status and failing policies webhooks, but not the recent vulnerabilities webhook. (See the Recent vulnerabilities section for details.)

• Optional setting (time duration as a string)
• Default value: 24h
• Config file format:

  webhook_settings:
    interval: "12h"
  

Failing policies webhook

The following options allow the configuration of a webhook that will be triggered if selected policies are not passing for some hosts.

webhook_settings.failing_policies_webhook.destination_url

The URL to POST to when the condition for the webhook triggers.

• Optional setting, required if webhook is enabled (string).
• Default value: "".
• Config file format:

  webhook_settings:
    failing_policies_webhook:
      destination_url: "https://example.org/webhook_handler"
  

webhook_settings.failing_policies_webhook.enable_failing_policies_webhook

Defines whether to enable the failing policies webhook. Note that currently, if the failing policies webhook and the osquery.enable_async_host_processing options are set, some failing policies webhooks could be missing. Some transitions from succeeding to failing or vice-versa could happen without triggering a webhook request.

• Optional setting (boolean).
• Default value: false.
• Config file format:

  webhook_settings:
    failing_policies_webhook:
      enable_failing_policies_webhook: true
  

webhook_settings.failing_policies_webhook.host_batch_size

Maximum number of hosts to batch on POST requests. A value of 0, the default, means no batching. All hosts failing a policy will be sent on one POST request.

• Optional setting (integer).
• Default value: 0.
• Config file format:

  webhook_settings:
    failing_policies_webhook:
      host_batch_size: 100
  

webhook_settings.failing_policies_webhook.policy_ids

The IDs of the policies for which the webhook will be enabled.

• Optional setting (array of integers).
• Default value: empty.
• Config file format:

  webhook_settings:
    failing_policies_webhook:
      policy_ids:
        - 1
        - 2
        - 3
  

Host status webhook

The following options allow the configuration of a webhook that will be triggered if the specified percentage of hosts are offline for the specified amount of time.

webhook_settings.host_status_webhook.days_count

Number of days that hosts need to be offline for to count as part of the percentage.

• Optional setting, required if webhook is enabled (integer).
• Default value: 0.
• Config file format:

  webhook_settings:
    host_status_webhook:
      days_count: 5
  

webhook_settings.host_status_webhook.destination_url

The URL to POST to when the condition for the webhook triggers.

• Optional setting, required if webhook is enabled (string).
• Default value: "".
• Config file format:

  webhook_settings:
    host_status_webhook:
      destination_url: "https://example.org/webhook_handler"
  

webhook_settings.host_status_webhook.enable_host_status_webhook

Defines whether the webhook check for host status will run or not.

• Optional setting (boolean).
• Default value: false.
• Config file format:

  webhook_settings:
    host_status_webhook:
      enable_host_status_webhook: true
  

webhook_settings.host_status_webhook.host_percentage

The percentage of hosts that need to be offline to trigger the webhook.

• Optional setting, required if webhook is enabled (float).
• Default value: 0.
• Config file format:

  webhook_settings:
    host_status_webhook:
      host_percentage: 10
  

Vulnerabilities webhook

The following options allow the configuration of a webhook that will be triggered if recently published vulnerabilities are detected and there are affected hosts. A vulnerability is considered recent if it has been published in the last 30 days (based on the National Vulnerability Database, NVD).

Note that the recent vulnerabilities webhook is not checked at webhook_settings.interval like other webhooks. It is checked as part of the vulnerability processing and runs at the vulnerabilities.periodicity interval specified in the fleet configuration.

webhook_settings.vulnerabilities_webhook.destination_url

The URL to POST to when the condition for the webhook triggers.

• Optional setting, required if webhook is enabled (string).
• Default value: "".
• Config file format:

  webhook_settings:
    vulnerabilities_webhook:
      destination_url: "https://example.org/webhook_handler"
  

webhook_settings.vulnerabilities_webhook.enable_vulnerabilities_webhook

Defines whether to enable the vulnerabilities webhook.

• Optional setting (boolean).
• Default value: false.
• Config file format:

  webhook_settings:
    vulnerabilities_webhook:
      enable_vulnerabilities_webhook: true
  

webhook_settings.vulnerabilities_webhook.host_batch_size

Maximum number of hosts to batch on POST requests. A value of 0, the default, means no batching. All hosts affected will be sent on one POST request.

• Optional setting (integer).
• Default value: 0.
• Config file format:

  webhook_settings:
    vulnerabilities_webhook:
      host_batch_size: 100
  

Agent options

The agent_options key controls the settings applied to the agent on all your hosts. These settings are applied when each host checks in.

See the osquery documentation for the available options. This document shows all examples in command line flag format. Remove the dashed lines (--) for Fleet to successfully update the setting. For example, use distributed_interval instead of --distributed_interval.

Agent options are validated using the latest version of osquery.

You can verify that your agent options are valid by using the fleetctl apply command with the --dry-run flag. This will report any error and do nothing if the configuration was valid. If you don't use the latest version of osquery, you can override validation using the --force flag. This will update agent options even if they are invalid.

Existing options will be overwritten by the application of this file.

Overrides option

The overrides key allows you to segment hosts, by their platform, and supply these groups with unique osquery configuration options. When you choose to use the overrides option for a specific platform, all options specified in the default configuration will be ignored for that platform.

In the example file below, all Darwin and Ubuntu hosts will only receive the options specified in their respective overrides sections.

apiVersion: v1
kind: config
spec:
  agent_options:
    config:
      options:
        distributed_interval: 3
        distributed_tls_max_attempts: 3
        logger_plugin: tls
        logger_tls_endpoint: /api/osquery/log
        logger_tls_period: 10
      decorators:
        load:
          - "SELECT version FROM osquery_info"
          - "SELECT uuid AS host_uuid FROM system_info"
        always:
          - "SELECT user AS username FROM logged_in_users WHERE user <> '' ORDER BY time LIMIT 1"
        interval:
          3600: "SELECT total_seconds AS uptime FROM uptime"
    overrides:
      # Note configs in overrides take precedence over the default config defined
      # under the config key above. Hosts receive overrides based on the platform
      # returned by `SELECT platform FROM os_version`. In this example, the base
      # config would be used for Windows and CentOS hosts, while Mac and Ubuntu
      # hosts would receive their respective overrides. Note, these overrides are
      # NOT merged with the top level configuration.
      platforms:
        darwin:
          options:
            distributed_interval: 10
            distributed_tls_max_attempts: 10
            logger_plugin: tls
            logger_tls_endpoint: /api/osquery/log
            logger_tls_period: 300
            disable_tables: chrome_extensions
            docker_socket: /var/run/docker.sock
          file_paths:
            users:
              - /Users/%/Library/%%
              - /Users/%/Documents/%%
            etc:
              - /etc/%%

        ubuntu:
          options:
            distributed_interval: 10
            distributed_tls_max_attempts: 3
            logger_plugin: tls
            logger_tls_endpoint: /api/osquery/log
            logger_tls_period: 60
            schedule_timeout: 60
            docker_socket: /etc/run/docker.sock
          file_paths:
            homes:
              - /root/.ssh/%%
              - /home/%/.ssh/%%
            etc:
              - /etc/%%
            tmp:
              - /tmp/%%
          exclude_paths:
            homes:
              - /home/not_to_monitor/.ssh/%%
            tmp:
              - /tmp/too_many_events/
          decorators:
            load:
              - "SELECT * FROM cpuid"
              - "SELECT * FROM docker_info"
            interval:
              3600: "SELECT total_seconds AS uptime FROM uptime"
  host_expiry_settings:
    # ...

Auto table construction

You can use Fleet to query local SQLite databases as tables. For more information on creating ATC configuration from a SQLite database, check out the Automatic Table Construction section of the osquery documentation.

If you already know what your ATC configuration needs to look like, you can add it to an options config file:

apiVersion: v1
kind: config
spec:
  agent_options:
    config:
      options:
        # ...
    overrides:
      platforms:
        darwin:
          auto_table_construction:
            tcc_system_entries:
              query: "SELECT service, client, allowed, prompt_count, last_modified FROM access"
              path: "/Library/Application Support/com.apple.TCC/TCC.db"
              columns:
                - "service"
                - "client"
                - "allowed"
                - "prompt_count"
                - "last_modified"

YARA configuration

You can use Fleet to configure the yara and yara_events osquery tables. Fore more information on YARA configuration and continuous monitoring using the yara_events table, check out the YARA-based scanning with osquery section of the osquery documentation.

The following is an example Fleet configuration file with YARA configuration. The values are taken from an example config supplied in the above link to the osquery documentation.

---
apiVersion: v1
kind: config
spec:
  agent_options:
    config:
      # ...
      yara:
        file_paths:
          system_binaries:
          - sig_group_1
          tmp:
          - sig_group_1
          - sig_group_2
        signatures:
          sig_group_1:
          - /Users/wxs/sigs/foo.sig
          - /Users/wxs/sigs/bar.sig
          sig_group_2:
          - /Users/wxs/sigs/baz.sig
    overrides: {}

Advanced configuration

Note: More settings are included in the contributor documentation. It's possible, although not recommended, to configure these settings in the YAML configuration file.