Remote Host Configuration and Management

The complete remote host configuration solution comes with two main components: a client-side daemon and a server-side service to facilitate system management.

To maximize the value of remote host configuration, you must install additional packages. To allow systems to be managed by remote host configuration manager and to support the execution of remediation playbooks, install the following additional packages:

User Access is the Red Hat implementation of role-based access control (RBAC). Your Organization Administrator uses User Access to configure what users can see and do on the Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console (the console):

The remote host configuration tool is evolving rapidly for multiple major and minor versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. For the latest installation instructions, see the knowledge article, Registering your host using RHC. The article will be updated as changes are made for various RHEL versions.

View additional options for the rhc command.

Use the remote host configuration manager to view connection settings.

The first time you open the manager, it shows a pane for rhc command syntax that you can fill in and copy. This will simplify command entry on your Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) systems if they are not already running the remote host configuration utility. You can close this pane, but it cannot be reopened.

Use the remote host configuration manager to edit remote host configuration settings. You can enable or disable whether your RHEL systems receive remediation playbooks and rhc client configuration changes from remote host configuration manager. If you want to maintain your client configurations manually, or with your own configuration management system, you may disable the system configuration management settings.

You can enable settings to use OpenSCAP for compliance policies and Cloud Connector to fix issues directly from Red Hat Insights for Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Enabling OpenSCAP automatically installs the OpenSCAP and RHEL System Security Guide (SSG), required to use the compliance service.

To maintain a strong connection between remote host configuration(rhc) and Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console, it is recommended that you set an option for a 10 second reconnect delay.

#`systemctl status rhcd.service`

If the option was added successfully, you should see the following statement returned:

# `Active: active (running)` followed by a timestamp.

Registering your host using rhc

The complete remote host configuration solution currently relies on existing clients; your system will be communicating with Red Hat in different ways.

# mkdir -p /etc/systemd/system/rhcd.service.d
# cat /etc/systemd/system/rhcd.service.d/proxy.conf
[Service]
Environment=HTTPS_PROXY=http://proxy.corp.com:8888
# systemctl daemon-reload
# systemctl restart rhcd

The communication technology behind the rhc daemon, rhcd, is MQTT. The client establishes a connection to the Red Hat message broker and waits for new messages. The new messages are then read and converted into playbook execution. While the messages are consumed almost instantaneously, the communication is always established by the client. There is no communication initiated from the Red Hat services to your environment.

Troubleshooting an issue often starts by looking at the logs to see what happened during a given event.

# journalctl -u rhcd

# journalctl -u rhcd -f

There are occasionally issues that the user or org admin should be aware of when working with their systems.

The following known issues are documented for remote host configuration:

An activation key is a preshared authentication token that enables authorized users to register and configure systems. It eliminates the need to store, use, and share a personal username and password combination, which increases security and facilitates automation. For example, you can use a preconfigured activation key to automatically register a system with all the required system-level features. Additionally, you can put preconfigured activation keys in Kickstart scripts to bulk -provision the registration of multiple systems.

You can use an activation key and a numeric organization identifier (organization ID) to register a system with Red Hat hosted services, such as Red Hat Subscription Manager or remote host configuration (RHC). Your organization’s activation keys and organization ID are displayed on the Activation Keys page in the Hybrid Cloud Console.

Each user’s access to the activation keys in the Hybrid Cloud Console is managed through a role-based access control (RBAC) system. Users in the Organization Administrator group for your organization use the RBAC system to assign roles, such as RHC user and RHC administrator, to users within your organization. An RHC user can view the activation keys in the table on the Activation Keys page. Only an RHC administrator is authorized to use the Hybrid Cloud Console user interface to create, edit, and delete activation keys. An RHC administrator also has the option to configure an activation key to apply system purpose attributes (role, service level agreement, or usage) to the system during the registration process. An Organization Administrator has the RHC administrator role by default.

In the terminal, users with root privileges can use the activation key and the organization ID to register the system with a single command. If the activation key has been preconfigured with system purpose attributes, the specified attributes are automatically applied to the system upon registration.

As an RHC administrator, you can use the Hybrid Cloud Console interface to create preconfigured activation keys that authorized users in your organization can use to register systems to Red Hat hosted services, such as Red Hat Subscription Manager or remote host configuration (RHC). An activation key requires a unique name that enables users to use the activation key by entering the activation key name and organization ID, without requiring a username or password. An activation key can also contain system purpose attributes that can be automatically applied to individual systems at the time of registration. The activation keys that you create can be viewed in the table on the Activation Keys page and used to register systems in the terminal.

As an RHC user, you can view your organization’s numeric identifier (organization ID) and available activation keys on the Activation Keys page in the Hybrid Cloud Console. The activation keys and their respective details are presented in a table. The Name column contains the name of the activation key. The Role column contains the role value for the system purpose attribute set on the key. A potential role value is Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server. The SLA column contains the service level agreement value for the system purpose attribute set on the key. A potential service level agreement value is Premium. The Usage column contains the usage value for the system purpose attribute set on the key. A potential usage value is Production. If no system purpose attribute is set on the activation key, the respective field contains no value.

The activation keys that you create in the Hybrid Cloud Console combine all the system registration steps into one secure, automated process.

As a user with root privileges you can register the system, apply pre-configured system purpose attributes, and enable repositories with a single command. Root users can pass an activation key and a numeric organization identifier (organization ID) to the command line tools used to register a system to Red Hat hosted services such as Red Hat Subscription Manager or remote host configuration (RHC). If an RHC administrator has preconfigured the activation key to apply selected system purpose attributes, those attributes are automatically applied to the system during the registration process.

The activation keys that you create in the Hybrid Cloud Console combine all the system registration steps into one secure, automated process.

As a user with root privileges you can register the system, apply pre-configured system purpose attributes, and enable repositories with a single command. Root users can pass an activation key and a numeric organization identifier (organization ID) to the command line tools used to register a system to Red Hat hosted services such as Red Hat Subscription Manager or remote host configuration (RHC). If an RHC administrator has pre-configured the activation key to apply selected system purpose attributes, those attributes are automatically applied to the system during the registration process.

As an RHC administrator, you can use the Hybrid Cloud Console interface to edit the activation keys on the Activation Keys page. Specifically, you can add, update, or remove the system purpose attributes on an existing activation key. However, you cannot edit the name of the activation key itself.

As an RHC administrator, you can use the Hybrid Cloud Console interface to delete an activation key from the table on the Activation Keys page. You might want to delete an unwanted or compromised activation key for security or maintenance purposes. However, deleting an activation key that is referenced in an automation script will impact the ability of that automation to function. To avoid any negative impacts to your automated processes, either remove the unwanted activation key from the script or retire the automation script prior to deleting the key.