Install the Orb Sensor on FreeBSD

Installation

Setting up a FreeBSD system as an Orb sensor allows you to run continuous network monitoring.

Download

Download the Orb CLI for FreeBSD from our Early Access page:

AMD64:
Download Orb CLI for FreeBSD (AMD64)

ARM64:
Download Orb CLI for FreeBSD (ARM64)

After downloading, extract the archive and move the orb binary to a location in your PATH (e.g., /usr/local/bin/orb):

unzip orb-freebsd-amd64.zip
sudo mv orb /usr/local/bin/orb
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/orb

Usage

Running Manually

To start the Orb sensor, run:

orb sensor

If you would like to use other CLI functions, you can run:

orb help

for a list of available commands.

Running as a Service

To run Orb continuously in the background (so it persists after your shell session ends), you can set it up as an rc.d service.

Create an rc.d script at /usr/local/etc/rc.d/orb:

sudo ee /usr/local/etc/rc.d/orb

Add the following content:

#!/bin/sh
#
# PROVIDE: orb
# REQUIRE: NETWORKING
# KEYWORD: shutdown

. /etc/rc.subr

name="orb"
rcvar=orb_enable

command="/usr/local/bin/orb"
command_args="sensor"
pidfile="/var/run/${name}.pid"

orb_user="root"

start_cmd="${name}_start"
stop_cmd="${name}_stop"

orb_start()
{
    echo "Starting ${name}."
    /usr/sbin/daemon -p ${pidfile} -u ${orb_user} ${command} ${command_args}
}

orb_stop()
{
    if [ -f ${pidfile} ]; then
        echo "Stopping ${name}."
        kill -TERM `cat ${pidfile}`
        rm -f ${pidfile}
    else
        echo "${name} is not running."
    fi
}

load_rc_config $name
run_rc_command "$1"

Make the script executable:

sudo chmod +x /usr/local/etc/rc.d/orb

Enable the service to start at boot:

sudo sysrc orb_enable="YES"

Start the service:

sudo service orb start

To check the status:

sudo service orb status

To stop the service:

sudo service orb stop

Orb CLI Commands

The Orb CLI provides a set of commands to manage your Orb sensors and interact with your Orb account. Below are some common commands you can use:

orb [command]

Available Commands:

  sensor      Run the Orb sensor
  listen      Connect to a running Orb service
  link        Link this Orb to an account
  version     Current version of Orb
  summary     Show the latest summary for this Orb
  help        This screen

Flags:
  -h, --help     help for example
  -r  --remote   connect to remote host

Using Deployment Tokens

You can automatically link your Orb sensor to your Orb Cloud Space using a deployment token. This is especially useful for deploying multiple sensors or automating setup.

To use a deployment token, create a file named deployment_token.txt in the Orb configuration directory (typically ~/.config/orb) containing your token:

mkdir -p ~/.config/orb
echo "orb-dt1-yourdeploymenttoken678" > ~/.config/orb/deployment_token.txt

Replace orb-dt1-yourdeploymenttoken678 with your actual deployment token from the Orchestration section of Orb Cloud.

Alternatively, you can use the ORB_DEPLOYMENT_TOKEN environment variable:

ORB_DEPLOYMENT_TOKEN=orb-dt1-yourdeploymenttoken678 orb sensor

For more details on deployment tokens and other linking methods, see the Deployment Tokens guide.

For instructions on linking your Orb sensor to your account, refer to the Linking an Orb to Your Account guide.