Streamlining Tetragon Deployment with Amazon EC2 Image Builder

In today’s constantly evolving cloud environments, deploying robust security measures is critical for maintaining a strong security posture. Tetragon is the standard for eBPF-based security observability and runtime enforcement and has seen massive adoption by platform and security teams globally. Its eBPF-based architectural approach provides unprecedented visibility into system activity while maintaining minimal performance overhead. This is especially difficult when operations have to scale rapidly. Amazon EC2 Image Builder is a game-changing solution that simplifies the deployment of Tetragon. We are excited to announce the availability of the EC2 image builder integration for Isovalent Enterprise, which uses Tetragon as the underlying foundation, to streamline the deployment of Isovalent Enterprise via Amazon Machine Image (AMI) build processes.

By integrating Tetragon into preconfigured “Golden AMIs,” Image Builder eliminates many common deployment challenges, enhances security, and allows teams to focus on leveraging insights rather than managing installations. This integration will enable users to see how workload data can be correlated to actual network performance metrics, deep security insights, rapid troubleshooting, and managing operations costs in AWS environments using Tetragon.

What is Tetragon’s role in Cloud Security?

Cloud-native environments present two fundamental challenges from a security perspective. The first is achieving deep visibility into modern distributed systems where traditional tooling is inadequate. The second is making sense of the vast volume of data once that visibility has been achieved. Tetragon provides a robust solution for these challenges with deep visibility into system behavior through eBPF-powered security observability. Tetragon captures granular security-significant data, prying into places out of reach for traditional security tooling. Security teams now have vast amounts of low-level telemetry-system calls, file accesses, network connections, and process events- all rich with security significance.

The new integration between Isovalent Enterprise and AWS pushes networking telemetry directly to Amazon CloudWatch Network Monitoring, where workload data can be correlated to actual network performance metrics in AWS environments. These insights can also flow into Splunk, where network teams can create unified dashboards that combine metrics from on-premises networks, cloud networks, and application performance, and security teams can leverage this data for threat detection and policy enforcement. Enriching workload visibility data with AWS network performance and making it available to Splunk enables real-time visibility into the entire AWS network fabric. This gives network teams the observability and control they need to build and optimize truly agile environments that run today’s modern applications.

Without Tetragon, monitoring cloud environments can feel like searching for a needle in a haystack. The quicker and more efficiently Tetragon is deployed, the more effectively it can safeguard cloud workloads. However, traditional deployment methods often involve manual processes, which are time-consuming and prone to errors. This is where EC2 Image Builder shines.

How does the EC2 Image Builder simplify Deployment?

Amazon EC2 Image Builder offers a fully integrated platform to create, manage, and deploy standardized Golden AMIs. This service addresses several operational challenges of deploying your software and maintaining security across cloud environments.

One of the most significant benefits of EC2 Image Builder is standardization. Manually configuring instances can lead to discrepancies that undermine security and efficiency. With Image Builder, organizations can create preconfigured standardized images to meet specific requirements, reducing variability and ensuring consistency across deployments.
Another key advantage is automation. Regular updates, including security patches, can be labor-intensive and disruptive if performed manually. Image Builder automates these processes, ensuring images remain current with minimal effort. Moreover, it integrates vulnerability scanning and compliance checks, providing an added layer of security before images are deployed.
The service also handles complex dependency management. Different operating systems often require unique configurations, leading to compatibility issues. Image Builder eliminates this problem by taking a templated, version-controlled approach to image creation. This ensures software dependencies are met, configurations are consistent, and errors are minimized.

Capabilities like these translate into tangible benefits for organizations, including reduced operational costs, improved resource efficiency, and enhanced visibility. In addition, the service’s logging and versioning features provide greater control over image configurations and updates, simplifying troubleshooting and audit processes.

How can I enhance Tetragon Deployment with EC2 Image Builder?

For enterprises and businesses already using Tetragon or those exploring its capabilities, EC2 Image Builder addresses deployment challenges that can arise at scale. Consider a scenario where thousands of workloads are running Tetragon, and the operating systems on those servers are approaching the end of life. Without a solution like Image Builder, deploying Tetragon after upgrading the OS would require significant time and effort.

While traditional methods like user data scripts or configuration management tools can achieve similar outcomes, they have limitations. User data scripts require extensive testing to ensure accuracy and are often time-consuming. Configuration management tools automate deployment but demand ongoing maintenance to keep scripts updated and compatible across environments. EC2 Image Builder bypasses these complexities by embedding Tetragon into Golden AMIs. Each instance launched from these images is preconfigured with the necessary configuration, eliminating the need for additional deployment steps.

This streamlined process reduces operational overhead, ensures consistent security coverage, and allows cloud teams to focus on scaling operations rather than managing Tetragon installations.

How do you get started with EC2 Image Builder and Tetragon?

You must create a build component to leverage EC2 Image Builder for Tetragon deployments. A YAML configuration file can define the integration parameters for Tetragon.

Here’s an example:

name: tetragonInstaller
description: 'This component will download, extract, and install Tetragon using specified variables.'
schemaVersion: 1.0
phases:
  - name: build
    steps:
      - name: SetVariables
        action: ExecuteBash
        onFailure: Abort
        maxAttempts: 1
        inputs:
          commands:
            - 'ver="1.14.1"'
            - 'arch="amd64" # replace with arm64 for ARM binaries'
            - 'fname="tetragon-ee-v${ver}-${arch}"'
      - name: DownloadTetragon
        action: ExecuteBash
        onFailure: Abort
        maxAttempts: 3
        inputs:
          commands:
            - 'wget https://isovalent-tetragon-enterprise-public.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/tetragon-enterprise-standalone-tarball/tetragon-ee-v1.14.1-amd64.tar.gz'
      - name: ExtractTetragon
        action: ExecuteBash
        onFailure: Abort
        maxAttempts: 3
        inputs:
          commands:
            - 'tar -xvf tetragon-ee-v1.14.1-amd64.tar.gz'
      - name: InstallTetragon
        action: ExecuteBash
        onFailure: Abort
        maxAttempts: 3
        inputs:
          commands:
            - 'sudo ./tetragon-ee-v1.14.1-amd64/install.sh'

After creating your build component, you can use it to develop an Image Recipe and publish your AMI to the AWS Marketplace. This approach simplifies deployment and ensures Tetragon is always updated with the latest configurations and security features.

A Preemptive Approach to Cloud Security

Integrating EC2 Image Builder into your Tetragon deployment strategy future-proofs your cloud operations. By automating Tetragon deployment, enterprises can ensure consistent security, scale efficiently to meet growing demands and reduce operational overhead.

With pre-installed Tetragon deployed in every instance, businesses gain immediate protection and eliminate gaps in monitoring. This proactive approach transforms cloud security from a reactive, labor-intensive process into a streamlined, scalable operation.

By embracing EC2 Image Builder, your organization can achieve a more secure, efficient, and resilient cloud environment.

We invite our customers to try out Tetragon on the AWS Marketplace. You can request a demo from us if you want to learn more about Tetragon on AWS Marketplace before trying it out. Get in touch with us by clicking the button below:

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