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Remote Host Configuration and Management

Red Hat Insights 1-latest

Using the remote host configuration and management features for Red Hat Insights

Red Hat Customer Content Services

Abstract

This guide is for RHEL system administrators who want to use remote host configuration to register RHEL systems with services on the Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console platform.
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Remote host configuration (rhc) is a powerful tool that enables the following capabilities:

  • Easy registration. With the rhc client, you can register systems to Red Hat Subscription Management (RHSM) and Red Hat Insights for Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
  • Remediations and Tasks from Insights for Red Hat Enterprise Linux. When you connect systems to Insights for Red Hat Enterprise Linux with the rhc client, you can manage the end-to-end experience of finding and fixing issues. Registered systems can directly use tasks and remediation playbooks that are automatically generated from remediation plans and executed from within the Insights Automation Toolkit.

Supported configurations for remote host configuration

  • Use the rhc client for systems that connect directly to Red Hat services. To register systems with Red Hat Satellite or Capsule, see the following:

  • Fully supported by RHEL 8.6 and later, including RHEL 9 and RHEL 10.

1.1. Remote host configuration components
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The remote host configuration service includes the following two main components:

  • The remote host configuration client (a client-side daemon)
  • The remote host configuration manager (a server-side service)

The remote configuration client

The rhc client is preinstalled with all Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8.6 and later installations, with the exception of minimal installations. The rhc client consists of the following utility programs:

  • The yggdrasil (rhcd on version RHEL 9 and earlier) daemon runs on the system and listens for messages from the Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console. On properly configured systems, the yggdrasil daemon can receive and execute playbooks that are generated by Red Hat Insights remediation plans.
  • The rhc command-line utility for RHEL.

The remote host configuration manager

You can use the remote host configuration manager to enable or disable Insights for Red Hat Enterprise Linux remediation for systems that are connected using the rhc client and actively running the yggdrasil daemon.

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):

  • Control user access by organizing roles instead of assigning permissions individually to users.
  • Create groups that include roles and their corresponding permissions.
  • Assign users to these groups, allowing them to inherit the permissions associated with their group’s roles.

1.2.1. Predefined User Access groups and roles
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To make groups and roles easier to manage, Red Hat provides two predefined groups and a set of predefined roles:

  • Predefined groups

    The Default access group contains all users in your organization. Many predefined roles are assigned to this group. It is automatically updated by Red Hat.

    Note

    If the Organization Administrator makes changes to the Default access group its name changes to Custom default access group and it is no longer updated by Red Hat.

    The Default admin access group contains only users who have Organization Administrator permissions. This group is automatically maintained and users and roles in this group cannot be changed.

    On the Hybrid Cloud Console navigate to Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console > the Settings icon (⚙) > Identity & Access Management > User Access > Groups to see the current groups in your account. This view is limited to the Organization Administrator.

  • Predefined roles assigned to groups

    The Default access group contains many of the predefined roles. Because all users in your organization are members of the Default access group, they inherit all permissions assigned to that group.

    The Default admin access group includes many (but not all) predefined roles that provide update and delete permissions. The roles in this group usually include administrator in their name.

    On the Hybrid Cloud Console navigate to Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console > the Settings icon (⚙) > Identity & Access Management > User Access > Roles to see the current roles in your account. You can see how many groups each role is assigned to. This view is limited to the Organization Administrator.

1.2.2. Access permissions
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The Prerequisites for each procedure list which predefined role provides the permissions you must have. As a user, you can navigate to Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console > the Settings icon (⚙) > My User Access to view the roles and application permissions currently inherited by you.

If you try to access Insights for Red Hat Enterprise Linux features and see a message that you do not have permission to perform this action, you must obtain additional permissions. The Organization Administrator or the User Access administrator for your organization configures those permissions.

Use the Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console Virtual Assistant to ask "Contact my Organization Administrator". The assistant sends an email to the Organization Administrator on your behalf.

Additional resources

For more information about user access and permissions, see User Access Configuration Guide for Role-based Access Control (RBAC).

There are several User Access roles that are relevant for Red Hat Insights for Red Hat Enterprise Linux users. These roles determine if an Insights user can simply view settings or change them, and use remediation features.

User Access roles for using the Remote Host Configuration Manager in the Insights for Red Hat Enterprise Linux web console

  • RHC administrator. Members in a group with this role can perform any operations in the rhc manager.
  • RHC user. This is a default permission for all users on your organization’s Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console account, allowing anyone to see the current status of the configuration.

User Access roles for using remediation features in the Insights for Red Hat Enterprise Linux web console

  • Remediations administrator. Members in a group with this role can perform any available operation against any remediations resource, including direct remediations.
  • Remediations user. Members in a group with this role can create, view, update, and delete operations against any remediations resource. This is a default permission given to all Hybrid Cloud Console users on your account.

The rhc client performs critical system tasks, such as registering your system to the Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console, retrieving the current configuration of various services that the remote host configuration manager supports, and updating the current configuration of services. It also maintains a history of configuration changes, and ensures that newly connected systems are kept up to date with the latest configuration.

The rhc client updates a system through a change in the remote host configuration manager, and through a new remote host configuration connection event from Red Hat Insights for Red Hat Enterprise Linux inventory.

Note

Currently, settings apply to all systems connected with the rhc client. You cannot configure a system or group of systems independently.

Before configuring your system to connect using the rhc client, review the configuration in Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console > Red Hat Insights > Inventory > System Configuration > Remote Host Configuration (RHC). The remote host configuration manager settings determine your system’s configuration.

RHEL version considerations

Setup procedures for the rhc client differ depending on the Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) version on the system.

  • RHEL 8.6 and later, and RHEL 9.0 and later support simplified registration to Red Hat Subscription Management (RHSM) and Insights for Red Hat Enterprise Linux .
  • RHEL 8.5 supports the other features of remote host configuration, but configuration and setup involve a few more steps.

Timing of registration

To register the system to Red Hat Subscription Management (RHSM) and Insights for Red Hat Enterprise Linux with a single command, it might make sense to run the rhc connect command during the RHEL installation workflow, following network configuration. For RHEL 8.6 and later, this step will take care of the registration to Red Hat Subscription Management (RHSM), but you may still use RHSM for advanced configurations.

If you have already installed and registered the RHEL installation with RHSM, or registered with Insights for Red Hat Enterprise Linux, you can still use rhc connect to enable the rhc client at any time to get the benefits of the remote host configuration manager and direct remediations.

Additional resources

Register your RHEL 10 system by using the remote host configuration rhc client to connect to Red Hat services with the default feature levels. This enables all available features: access to Red Hat content, analytics for Red Hat Insights, and remote management.

Prerequisites

  • You have an activation key and an organization ID to register your system.
  • You have TCP ports and destinations enabled for the rhc daemon, Insights client, and Subscription Manager.
Note

For more information, see TCP ports and destinations.

Procedure

  • Open the terminal window.

  • Do one of the following:

    • To register the system with the default feature level and ensure the system executes the remediations and tasks from Insights: 

      # rhc connect --activation-key=<activation_key> --organization=<organization_ID>
      Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap 
      # dnf install -y rhc-worker-playbook
      Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

      To disable any of the features while registering your system: 

      # rhc connect --activation-key=<activation_key_name> --organization=<organization_ID> --disable-feature <feature>
      Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

    • Where feature can be replaced with:

      • content - Provides access to Red Hat CDN repositories.
      • analytics - Enables data collection for Insights.
      • remote-management - Establishes an additional MQTT network connection to Red Hat services for remote execution of certain actions from https://console.redhat.com.
  • For example, if you want to register your system with a remote management feature disabled so that your system cannot be managed remotely but the system has access to RHEL content and collects data for Insights analytics, enter: 
# rhc connect --activation-key=<activation_key_name> --organization=<organization_ID> --disable-feature remote-management
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Verification

  • Confirm the active features when registering with default options: 

    # rhc status
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap 
    Connection status:
✓ Connected to Red Hat Red Hat Subscription Manager
✓ Connected to Red Hat Insights
✓ The yggdrasil service is active
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

  • Confirm the active features with remote-management disabled: 

    # rhc status
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap 
    Connection status:
✓ Connected to Red Hat Red Hat Subscription Manager
✓ Connected to Red Hat Red Hat Insights
✓ The yggdrasil service is inactive
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap
Note

Yggdrasil is required for the use of remote management. So, when yggdrasil is inactive remote management is inactive as well.

Additional Resources

2.1.1. Customizing feature levels
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If you have a RHEL 10 system, you can use remote host configuration (rhc) to set feature levels when registering with the Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console.

By default, rhc connects your systems with the remote management feature level. This feature level includes access to RHEL content, analytics for Insights for Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and remote management (remediations and tasks services). If you want to opt out of any of these features, you can disable them when you register your systems.

Note

Customizing feature levels functionality is only available with Red Hat Enterprise Linux version 10.

See the following table for more details about feature levels:

Expand
Feature LevelFeature Level Name in the Command Line InterfaceDescription

Access to Red Hat content

Content

This feature level provides access to content in the Red Hat Content Delivery Network (CDN). This allows you to install and update packages.

Analytics for Insights for Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Analytics

This feature level collects data from your system using the Insights client and sends it to the Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console (HCC). Then, Red Hat Insights analyzes your data and returns recommendations. You need to have the content feature enabled as well in order to use the analytics feature.

Remote Management (Default)

remote-management

This allows you to use the remediations and tasks services. You must have the content and analytics features enabled in order to use the remote management feature.

If you have a Red Hat Enterprise Linux version 9 system, you can use remote host configuration (rhc) to register your system:

Prerequisites

  • You are logged in to the system as root or have sudo permissions.
  • You have an activation key and an organization ID to register your system.
  • You have TCP ports and destinations enabled for the rhc daemon, Insights client, and Subscription Manager.
Note

For more information, see TCP ports and destinations.

Procedure

  • Open your command-line interface (CLI), and run the following commands on your client system: 

    # rhc connect --activation-key=<activation_key_name> --organization=<organization_ID>
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap 
    # dnf install -y rhc-worker-playbook
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

Verification

Enter the following command in your CLI: 

# rhc status
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  • If the procedure is successful, you will see the following output: 

    Connection status:
✓ Connected to Red Hat Insights
✓ Connected to Red Hat Red Hat Subscription Manager
✓ The remote host configuration daemon is active
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

Additional Resources

If you have a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 system, you can use remote host configuration (rhc) to register your system.

Prerequisites

  • RHEL version is 8.6 or later.
  • You are logged in to the system as root or have sudo permissions.
  • You have an activation key and an organization ID to register your system.
  • You have TCP ports and destinations enabled for the rhc daemon, Insights client, and Subscription Manager.
Note

For more information, see TCP ports and destinations.

Procedure

  • Open your command-line interface (CLI), and run the following commands on your client system: 

    # rhc connect --activation-key=<activation_key_name> --organization=<organization_ID>
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap 
    # dnf install -y rhc-worker-playbook
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

  • Run the following command: 

    # rhc status
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

  • If the procedure is successful, you will see the following output: 

    Connection status:
✓ Connected to Red Hat  Red Hat Subscription Manager
✓ Connected to Red Hat Insights
✓ The remote host configuration daemon is active
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

Additional Resources

If you have already registered a system but you want to change the feature level, there are two methods available: manual or reinstalling.

2.4.1. Manually changing feature levels
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You can manually enable or disable the remote management feature as follows:

Prerequisites

  • You are logged in to the system as root or have sudo permissions.

Procedure

  • Open your command-line interface and navigate to the specific client system you want to edit.

  • Ensure that the rhc-worker-playbook package is installed and run the following command in your CLI: 

    # dnf install -y rhc-worker-playbook
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

  • Start and enable the yggdrasil service. 

    # systemctl start yggdrasil
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    # systemctl enable yggdrasil
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

  • Confirm that the yggdrasil service is active and enabled by running the following command in your CLI: 

    # systemctl status yggdrasil
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

2.4.2. Re-registering to change feature levels
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If you have an already registered system and you want to change the feature levels for that system you can unregister the system and re-register in order to disable or enable features.

Important

Re-registering a system will delete your customized configuration settings. Re-registration can also create a duplicate system record in your Systems Inventory. Therefore it is important to properly unregister the system before re-registering.

Unregistering your system:

Prerequisites

  • You are logged in to the system as root or have sudo permissions.
  • You have an activation key and an organization ID to unregister your system.

Procedure

  • Open the rterminal window.

  • Run the following command: 

    # rhc disconnect
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap
  • Re-Register the system with the desired feature level. Follow the instructions from section 2.1 Registering your Red Hat Enterprise Linux system version 10.

Additional resources

Prerequisites

  • You are logged in to the system as root or have sudo permissions.

Procedure

  • Run the following command on each Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) system that you want to remove from the remote host configuration manager.

    Important

    Disconnecting through the rhc client unregisters your system from both the Red Hat Customer Portal and Red Hat Insights for Red Hat Enterprise Linux. 

    # rhc disconnect

Disconnecting <$HOSTNAME> from console.redhat.com.
This might take a few seconds.

● Deactivated the Red Hat connector daemon

Manage your Red Hat connector systems: https://red.ht/connector
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

2.6. Using additional CLI options
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View additional options for the rhc command.

Prerequisites

  • You are logged in to the system as root or have sudo permissions.

Procedure

  • Run ps and pipe through grep to display the connector rhcd process. 

    PID TTY TIME COMMAND
14992 ? 0:00 /usr/sbin/rhcd
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  • Run systemctl status rhcd to view the on/off status of the rhcd daemon. 

    # systemctl status rhcd
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  • Enter rhc --help with no other options. 

    GLOBAL OPTIONS:
   --version, -v  print the version (default: false)
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

You can control the global remote host configuration (rhc) settings for Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems connecting to Red Hat Insights for Red Hat Enterprise Linux with the rhc client using remote host configuration manager. You can enable or disable the execution of remediations playbooks, which affects the execution of the remediation plan. The remote host configuration manager is located at Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console > Red Hat Insights > Inventory > System Configuration > Remote Host Configuration (RHC).

3.1. Opening the remote host configuration manager
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You can use the remote host configuration manager to view remote host configuration connection settings for enabling and disabling permissions to execute remediation playbooks on rhc-connected systems.

Prerequisites

  • You must be logged into the Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console.
  • You must have RHC user privileges.

Procedure

Use the remote host configuration manager to edit remote host configuration settings.

Prerequisites

  • You are logged in to the Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console.
  • You have RHC administrator privileges.

Procedure

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

Prerequisites

  • You have root-level access to the system or sudo permissions.
  • You have an rhc version that is between 0.2.4 and version 0.3.

Procedure

  1. Open the following file: /etc/rhc/config.toml
  2. Add this option to the file mqtt-reconnect-delay = "10s"
  3. Save your changes.

  4. Type the following command in the terminal: 

    # systemctl restart rhcd.service
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

Verification step

  • Type the following command in the terminal: 

    # systemctl status rhcd.service
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

    If the command completed successfully, you should see the following statement returned: 

# `Active: active (running)`
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The statement also includes a timestamp.

Remote host configuration (rhc) allows you to remediate issues on your Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) systems directly from Insights for Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Direct remediation is available when you have the rhc client installed on your RHEL 8.5 and later system.

For complete remediations documentation for Red Hat Insights, see the Red Hat Insights Remediations Guide.

System logs are a useful source of information when troubleshooting a remote host configuration issue. In addition, it is helpful to be aware of any known issues.

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

5.1.1. Subscription manager
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For subscription-manager, the system must be able to reach the following destination and TCP ports:

  • subscription.rhn.redhat.com:443 (https)
  • subscription.rhsm.redhat.com:443 (https)
  • cdn.redhat.com:443 (https)
  • *.akamaiedge.net:443 (https)
  • *.akamaitechnologies.com:443 (https)

5.1.2. Insights client
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For Red Hat Insights for Red Hat Enterprise Linux data collection to work correctly, the system must be able to reach the following destination and TCP ports:

  • api.access.redhat.com:443 (https)
  • cert-api.access.redhat.com:443 (https)

5.1.3. RHC client daemon
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For the rhc daemon, rhcd, to communicate with the MQTT message broker, the system must be able to reach the following:

  • connect.cloud.redhat.com:443 (https)

Use the following commands to add a proxy for rhc to use to connect to Red Hat. 

# 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
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5.2. RHC client communication
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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.

5.3. Consulting and interpreting log files
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Troubleshooting an issue often starts by looking at the logs to see what happened during a given event.

  • Use the following command to consult logs: 
# journalctl -u rhcd
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  • Use -f, --follow, to show only the most recent journal entries, and continuously print new entries as they are appended to the journal: 
# journalctl -u rhcd -f
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Your organization’s activation keys are listed on the Activation Keys page in the Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console. You can use an activation key as an authentication token to register a system with Red Hat hosted services, such as Red Hat Subscription Manager or remote host configuration (RHC). Administrators can create, edit, and delete activation keys for your organization. They also have the option to set system-level features, such as system purpose, on an activation key. When you use a preconfigured activation key to register a system, all the selected attributes are automatically applied at the time of registration.

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.

6.2. Creating an activation key
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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.

Prerequisites

  • You are logged in to the Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console.
  • You have the RHC administrator role in the role-based access control (RBAC) system for the Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console.

Procedure

To create an activation key in the Hybrid Cloud Console, perform the following steps:

  1. Navigate to Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console > Red Hat Insights > Inventory > System Configuration > Activation Keys.
  2. From the Activation Keys page, click Create activation key.

  3. In the Name field, enter a unique name for the activation key.

    Note

    Your activation key name must be unique, may contain only numbers, letters, underscores, and hyphens, and contain fewer than 256 characters. If you enter a name that already exists in your organization, you will receive an error message and the key will not be created.

  4. Optional: To add system purpose attributes to the activation key, navigate to the system purpose field that you want to populate. From the drop-down list, select the attribute value that you want to apply to the system.

    Note

    Only the system purpose attributes that are available to your organization’s account are selectable.

  5. When you have populated all the required fields, click Create.

    Note

    === The Create activation key button is disabled until a valid name is entered into the Name field. If the button remains disabled after populating the Name field, check that the name meets the noted criteria and that you are logged in to the Hybrid Cloud Console with the required RBAC role. For questions regarding your RBAC role, contact an Organization Administrator. ===

6.3. Viewing an activation key
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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.

Prerequisites

  • You are logged in to the Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console.
  • You have the RHC user or RHC administrator role in the role-based access control (RBAC) system for the Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console.

Procedure

To view an activation key in the Hybrid Cloud Console, perform the following steps:

  1. Navigate to Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console > Red Hat Insights > Inventory > System Configuration > Activation Keys.

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.

Prerequisites

  • You have root privileges or their equivalent to run the commands in the following procedure.
  • You have the numeric identifier for your organization (organization ID).

Procedure

To use an activation key to register a system with Subscription Manager, perform the following steps:

  1. From the terminal, enter the following command where <activation_key_name> is the name of the activation key you want to use and <1234567> is your organization ID: 

    subscription-manager register --activationkey=<activation_key_name> --org=<1234567>
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  2. The expected output confirms that your system is registered. For example: 

    The system has been registered with id:
62edc0f8-855b-4184-b1b8-72a9dc793b96
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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.

Prerequisites

  • You have root privileges or their equivalent to run the commands in the following procedure.
  • You have the numeric identifier for your organization (organization ID).

Procedure

To use an activation key to register a system with RHC, perform the following steps:

  1. From the terminal, enter the following command where <activation_key_name> is the name of the activation key you want to use and <1234567> is your organization ID: 

    rhc connect --activation-key <activation_key_name> --organization <1234567>
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

6.6. Editing an activation key
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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.

Prerequisites

  • You are logged in to the Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console.
  • You have the RHC administrator role in the role-based access control (RBAC) system for the Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console.

Procedure

To edit an activation key in the Hybrid Cloud Console, perform the following steps:

  1. Navigate to Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console > Red Hat Insights > Inventory > System Configuration > Activation Keys.
  2. From the Activation Keys page, locate the row that contains the activation key that you want to edit. Click More options and select Edit from the overflow menu.
  3. To update a system purpose attribute on the activation key, navigate to the system purpose field that you want to change. From the drop-down list, select the attribute value that you want to apply to the system.
  4. To remove a system purpose attribute from the activation key, navigate to the system purpose field that you want to clear and deselect the unwanted value from the drop-down list. To update the activation key, click Save changes.

6.7. Deleting an activation key
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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.

Prerequisites

  • You are logged in to the Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console.
  • You have the RHC administrator role in the role-based access control (RBAC) system for the Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console.

Procedure

To delete an activation key in the Hybrid Cloud Console, perform the following steps:

  1. Navigate to Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console > Red Hat Insights > Inventory > System Configuration > Activation Keys.
  2. From the Activation Keys page, locate the row containing the activation key that you want to delete. Click More options and select Delete from the overflow menu.

  3. In the Delete Activation Key window, review the information about deleting activation keys. If you want to continue with the deletion, click Delete.

    Important

    === Deleting this activation key will impact any automation that references it. To avoid any negative consequences of deleting this key, retire any automation script that uses this key or remove any references of this key from your Kickstart scripts.

Providing feedback on Red Hat documentation
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We appreciate and prioritize your feedback regarding our documentation. Provide as much detail as possible, so that your request can be quickly addressed.

Prerequisites

  • You are logged in to the Red Hat Customer Portal.

Procedure

To provide feedback, perform the following steps:

  1. Click the following link: Create Issue
  2. Describe the issue or enhancement in the Summary text box.
  3. Provide details about the issue or requested enhancement in the Description text box.
  4. Type your name in the Reporter text box.
  5. Click the Create button.

This action creates a documentation ticket and routes it to the appropriate documentation team. Thank you for taking the time to provide feedback.

Legal Notice
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Copyright © 2025 Red Hat, Inc.
The text of and illustrations in this document are licensed by Red Hat under a Creative Commons Attribution–Share Alike 3.0 Unported license ("CC-BY-SA"). An explanation of CC-BY-SA is available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/. In accordance with CC-BY-SA, if you distribute this document or an adaptation of it, you must provide the URL for the original version.
Red Hat, as the licensor of this document, waives the right to enforce, and agrees not to assert, Section 4d of CC-BY-SA to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law.
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