Orb Sensor on Windows

Install the Orb Sensor on Windows using Chocolatey

Chocolatey is a popular command-line package manager for Windows that simplifies software installation and management. See the Orb package on Chocolatey for available versions and package details.

0. Ensure you have Chocolatey installed on your Windows machine.
1. Open Command Prompt or PowerShell as Administrator.
2. Run the following command to install the Orb sensor and follow the prompts:

choco install orb

Once the installation is complete, you can verify that it succeeded by looking at the service status.

Keeping Orb Up to Date with Chocolatey

If you installed Orb using Chocolatey, you can easily keep it updated to the latest version.

Manual Updates

To manually update Orb to the latest version, run:

choco upgrade orb -y

The -y flag automatically confirms the upgrade without prompting.

Automatic Updates with Task Scheduler

To ensure Orb stays up to date automatically, you can set up a Windows Task Scheduler task to run regular updates.

Open PowerShell as Administrator and run:

Register-ScheduledTask -TaskName "Orb Auto-Update" `
  -Action (New-ScheduledTaskAction -Execute "C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\bin\choco.exe" -Argument "upgrade orb -y") `
  -Trigger (New-ScheduledTaskTrigger -Daily -At 3am) `
  -Principal (New-ScheduledTaskPrincipal -UserId "SYSTEM" -LogonType ServiceAccount -RunLevel Highest) `
  -Settings (New-ScheduledTaskSettingsSet -AllowStartIfOnBatteries -DontStopIfGoingOnBatteries -StartWhenAvailable) `
  -Description "Automatically updates Orb sensor via Chocolatey"

Verify the Scheduled Task

To verify the task was created successfully:

Get-ScheduledTask -TaskName "Orb Auto-Update"

You can manually run the task to test it:

Start-ScheduledTask -TaskName "Orb Auto-Update"

Install the Orb Sensor on Windows (manual)

Installation

Setting up a Windows device as an Orb sensor allows you to run continuous network monitoring as a background service.

Download

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

Download Orb CLI for Windows

After downloading, extract orb.exe to a permanent location on your system (e.g., C:\Program Files\Orb\orb.exe).

Setting Up as a Windows Service

You can install Orb as a Windows service using either PowerShell or the sc.exe command.

Option 1: Using PowerShell (Recommended)

Open PowerShell as Administrator and run:

New-Service -Name "Orb" -BinaryPathName "C:\Program Files\Orb\orb.exe windowsservice" -DisplayName "Orb Sensor Service" -StartupType Automatic

Replace C:\Program Files\Orb\orb.exe with the actual path where you placed the Orb executable.

Option 2: Using sc.exe

Open Command Prompt as Administrator and run:

sc.exe create Orb binPath= "C:\Program Files\Orb\orb.exe windowsservice" DisplayName= "Orb Sensor Service" start= auto

Starting the Service

After creating the service, start it using:

PowerShell:

Start-Service -Name "Orb"

Command Prompt:

sc.exe start Orb

The service will now start automatically on system boot.

Configuring the Orb Sensor

You can configure the Orb sensor with any options from Orb Configuration docs.

Environment Variables

To set environment variables for the Orb sensor Windows Service, you can use the New-ItemProperty cmdlet in PowerShell.

Example with ORB_FIRSTHOP_DISABLED and ORB_DEPLOYMENT_TOKEN environment variables:

New-ItemProperty `
  -Path "HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Orb" `
  -Name "Environment" `
  -PropertyType MultiString `
  -Value @("ORB_FIRSTHOP_DISABLED=1", "ORB_DEPLOYMENT_TOKEN=orb-dt1-yourdeploymenttoken678")

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, you can use the Environment Variables approach above to set ORB_DEPLOYMENT_TOKEN, or create a file named deployment_token.txt in the Orb configuration directory containing your token:

echo orb-dt1-yourdeploymenttoken678 > C:\ProgramData\Orb\deployment_token.txt

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

When the Orb service starts, it will automatically read this file and link to your Space.

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

Data Storage

When running as LocalSystem (the default), Orb saves data in:

C:\ProgramData\Orb

Orb CLI Commands

The Orb CLI provides a set of commands to manage your Orb sensors and interact with your Orb account. To use these commands, run orb.exe directly (not as a service):

orb.exe [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

Managing the Service

Stop the Service

PowerShell:

Stop-Service -Name "Orb"

Command Prompt:

sc.exe stop Orb

Check Service Status

PowerShell:

Get-Service -Name "Orb"

Command Prompt:

sc.exe query Orb

Uninstall the Service

Chocolatey Uninstall: If you installed Orb using Chocolatey, you can uninstall it with:

choco uninstall orb

Manual Uninstall: First, stop the service, then remove it:

PowerShell:

Stop-Service -Name "Orb"
Remove-Service -Name "Orb"

Command Prompt:

sc.exe stop Orb
sc.exe delete Orb

Troubleshooting

If the service fails to start:

1. Verify the path to orb.exe is correct in the service configuration
2. Check that orb.exe has the necessary permissions
3. Review Windows Event Viewer for error messages (Windows Logs → Application)
4. Ensure no other application is using the required network ports

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