Untangle NGFW installation guide

Untangle NGFW installation is a very simple and straightforward process. If you have installed a Linux OS before, you will be familiar with the steps in this section and you can skip this section. However, if this is the first time you will be installing a Linux OS, you will need to go through this section.

Step 1 – booting and selecting the installation mode

We'll need to boot a dedicated PC using the Untangle NGFW installation media we have just created.

Tip

You may need to change the boot device order to be able to boot from the installation media. The simplest way to achieve this is by pressing F12 at the time of starting your computer (this may differ depending on your hardware manufacturer). The boot menu will display and you can select the desired device.

Successfully doing this will introduce you to the menu shown in the following screenshot, where you can select whether you want to use the graphical or text mode installation. Both modes will walk you through the same wizard; the only difference is the interface. Depending on your VGA card, select the right option for you.

The text interface is shown in the Step 3 – Configuring the system locale section, while the graphical interface is shown in the upcoming sections.

Step 2 – selecting the installation wizard language

In this section, we will need to select the installation wizard language. The selected language will be used in the installation process and will be the default language for the installed system. Note that you can change the system language later after the installation. Choose the language you want from the menu and then click on Continue as shown in the following screenshot:

Step 3 – configuring the system locale

In this section, you'll need to select your location as this will help the system to adjust the server time to your time zone and set the system locale. A list of suggested locations will appear based on the language you select in the previous step, as shown in the following screenshot:

If your country is not listed in the preceding list, you can choose other. This will open a new menu from which you can select your continent/region; as a result, another menu with the countries, territories, and areas located in the selected continent/region will appear, where you can select your country. The following screenshot shows the two menus:

If there is no locale defined for the combination of language and country you have selected, you will be prompted to select a locale from the previously selected language's default locales. For example, if you have selected the English language and selected Algeria (an Arabic locale) as the location, you will be prompted by the installation wizard to select one of the English locales as shown in the following screenshot:

You can go back in the installation wizard at any time to change the configurations. Just press the Go Back button in any menu. This will display the Debian Installer Main menu, which contains all setup steps. All that you have to do is select the step you want and press Continue. The next screenshot shows the Debian installer main menu window:

Step 4 – configuring the keymaps

The keymap is the keyboard layout you will use. Different countries have different keyboard layouts. For example, using Shift + 2 in the US keyboard will give you the @ symbol, while using the same combination in the UK keyboard will give you the " symbol. The following image shows the difference between the UK and US keymaps:

http://www.goodtyping.com/difteclats.htm

In the Untangle NGFW installation wizard, select the desired keymap and press Continue.

After that, the installation wizard will try to detect and mount the CD, load the installer components from the CD, detect the network hardware, and configure the network. Those steps will be streamlined and you will not be prompted for anything.

Note

Some setup steps will be streamlined and will not prompt you for any input; neither the steps will appear on the screen as progress. For example, after detecting the network hardware, you will be prompted to configure the clock, skipping the two steps between them, which are shown in the Debian installer main menu window.

Step 5 – configuring the server's time zone

Based on the selected location in the previous steps, a list of different time zones related to that location will appear to select from. The following screenshot shows the time zones related to the United States:

Step 6 – reviewing the hardware rating summary

Based on the summary of your hardware rating and whether or not it meets the recommended requirements, a value will be displayed, as shown in the following screenshot. You may have different values based on your hardware specifications, such as great, OK, and insufficient on 64-bit:

Step 7 – preparing the hard disk

Untangle NGFW will need to format the hard disk as shown in the following screenshot:

Note

Warning

This will erase any data on the hard disk.

You must press Yes to continue with the installation process.

After that, the Untangle NGFW installation wizard will prompt you to create two hard disk partitions, as shown in the following screenshot. Again, you have to select Yes to be able to continue with the installation process:

The two partitions are partition #1, which will contain the Untangle server system files and is formatted as ext3 (ext3 is a filesystem used by Linux systems), and the other partition is partition # 5, which will be used as memory swap space (when the RAM is full and the system needs more RAM space, the inactive pages in the memory will be moved to this swap space partition to free some space on the RAM); the partition is formatted as swap, which is similar to to the page file in Microsoft Windows operating systems.

By pressing Continue in the previous window, you will start the installation process. It will take about 10 minutes to complete the installation.

Step 8 – completing the installation

Eventually, the Finish the installation window will be displayed as shown in the following screenshot. It informs you that the installation process has completed, and asks you to remove the installation media from the PC and then restart the system. Thus, you can boot to the Untangle NGFW system instead of booting into the installation wizard again. Just press Continue to exit this wizard and let the Untangle NGFW server restart.