Chapter 8. Changing the insights-client schedule
You can disable, enable, and modify the schedule that controls when the Insights client runs. By default, the Insights client runs every 24 hours. The timers in the default schedules vary so that all systems do not run the client at the same time.
8.1. Disabling the Insights client schedule
You must disable the client schedule before you can change the default Insights client settings and create a new schedule.
The procedure you use to disable the insights-client
schedule depends on your Red Hat Enterprise Linux and client versions.
Additional resources
8.1.1. Disabling the client schedule on RHEL 7.4 and earlier with Client 1.x
Client 1.x is no longer supported.
The --no-schedule
option is deprecated in Client 3.x and later.
Prerequisites
- Root-level access to your system.
Procedure
Enter the
insights-client
command with the--version
option to verify the client version.[root@insights]# insights-client --version Client: 1.0.2-0 Core: 1.0.76-1
Enter the
insights-client
command with the--no-schedule
option to disable the client schedule. This command removes the symbolic link in/etc/cron.daily
.[root@insights]# insights-client --no-schedule
Open the
/etc/insights-client/insights-client.conf
file with an editor and add the following line.no_schedule=True
8.1.2. Disabling the client schedule for RHEL 7.5 and later with Insights client 1.x
Insights client 1.x is no longer supported.
The --no-schedule
option is deprecated in Insights client 3.x and later.
Prerequisites
- Root-level access to your system.
Procedure
Enter the
insights-client
command with the--version
option to verify the client version.[root@insights]# insights-client --version Client: 1.0.2-0 Core: 1.0.76-1
Enter the
insights-client
command with the--no-schedule
option to disable the client schedule.[root@insights]# insights-client --no-schedule
8.1.3. Disabling the client schedule for RHEL 6, RHEL 7 and later with Client 3.x
Client 1.x is no longer supported.
The --no-schedule
option is deprecated in Client 3.x and later.
Prerequisites
- Root-level access to your system.
Procedure
Enter the
insights-client
command with the--version
option to verify the client version.[root@insights]# insights-client --version Client: 3.0.6-0 Core: 3.0.121-1
Enter the
insights-client
command with the--disable-schedule
option to disable the client schedule.[root@insights]# insights-client --disable-schedule
8.2. Enabling the Insights client schedule
When you first enable the client schedule, it runs using its default settings. If you make changes to the schedule, those settings take precedence.
When you run insights-client
from the command line, Insights client runs using the settings you specify for only that session. When the next scheduled run takes place, it uses the default settings.
8.2.1. Enabling the Insights client schedule on RHEL 7.4 or earlier and Client 1.x
You can enable the client schedule so that it runs on its default settings. If you change the default schedule settings, the changed settings take precedence.
Prerequisites
- Root-level access to your system.
- The client schedule is disabled.
- (Optional) You modified the default schedule.
Procedure
To verify the client version, enter the
insights-client
command with the--version
option.[root@insights]# insights-client --version Client: 1.0.2-0 Core: 1.0.76-1
Open the
/etc/insights-client/insights-client.conf
file with an editor. Add the following line to the file. If your configuration file already has a value forno_schedule
, change it toFalse
.no_schedule=False
Enter the
insights-client
command with the--register
option to enable the client.[root@insights]# insights-client --register
8.2.2. Enabling the Insights client schedule on RHEL 7.5 or later and Client 1.x
You can enable the client schedule so that it runs on its default settings. If you change the default schedule settings, the changed settings take precedence.
Client 1.x is no longer supported.
Prerequisites
- Root-level access to your system.
- The client schedule is disabled.
- (Optional) You modified the default schedule.
Procedure
To verify the client version, enter the
insights-client
command with the--version
option.[root@insights]# insights-client --version Client: 1.0.2-0 Core: 1.0.76-1
Enter the
insights-client
command with the--register
option to enable the client schedule.[root@insights]# insights-client --register
8.2.3. Enabling the Insights client schedule on RHEL 7 or later and Client 3.x
You can enable the client schedule so that it runs on its default settings. If you change the default schedule settings, the changed settings take precedence.
Prerequisites
- Root-level access to your system.
- The client schedule is disabled.
- (Optional) You modified the default schedule.
Procedure
To verify the client version, enter the
insights-client
command with the--version
option.[root@insights]# insights-client --version Client: 3.0.6-0 Core: 3.0.121-1
Enter the
insights-client
command with the--enable-schedule
option to enable the client schedule.[root@insights]# insights-client --enable-schedule
8.3. Modifying the Insights client schedule
To change when the Insights client runs, modify the schedule. The method that you use depends on the RHEL release and client version that your system is running.
Select the procedure that matches your version of RHEL.
-
For Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.4 and earlier, use
cron
to modify the system schedule. -
For Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.5 and later, update the
systemd
settings and theinsights-client-timer
file.
8.3.1. Scheduling the Insights client with cron
Use this procedure for systems running RHEL 7.4 releases and earlier with Client version 1.x.
Client 1.x is no longer supported.
To change the default schedule for running insights-client
, update a system cron
file.
In Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the /etc/crontab
file automatically executes scripts in several subdirectories at regular periods.
/etc/cron.hourly /etc/cron.daily /etc/cron.weekly /etc/cron.monthly
Prerequisites
- Root-level access to your system.
- The Insights client schedule is disabled.
Procedure
-
Select a schedule and set up
cron
to executeinsights-client
on it. -
Enable the
insights-client
schedule when you finish making changes.
Additional resources
-
Review the man pages for
crontab(1)
andcron(8)
to understand thecron
dependencies. -
What is
cron
and how is it used?
8.3.2. Scheduling insights-client
using systemd
settings
Use this for systems running RHEL 7.5 and later with Client 3.x.
You can change the default schedule for running insights-client
by updating the system systemd
settings and the insights-client.timer
file.
Prerequisites
- Root-level access to your system.
Procedure
To edit the settings in the
insights-client.timer
file, enter thesystemctl edit
command and the file name.[root@insights]# systemctl edit insights-client.timer
This action opens an empty file with the default system editor.
Enter different settings to modify the schedule. The values in this example are the default settings for
systemd
.[Timer] OnCalendar=daily RandomizedDelaySec=14400
Enable the
insights-client
schedule.[root@insights]# insights-client --enable-schedule
Additional resources
-
Review the man pages for
systemctl(1)
,systemd.timer(5)
, andsystemd.time(7)
to understandsystemd
-
What is
cron
and how is it used?
8.3.3. Refreshing the package cache for systems managed by Red Hat Satellite
Insights now provides the optional --build-packagecache
command to provide accurate reporting for applicable updates on Satellite-managed systems. This option rebuilds the yum/dnf
package caches for insights-client
, and creates a refreshed list of applicable updates for the system.
You can run the command manually to rebuild the package caches immediately, or you can edit the client configuration file (/etc/insights-client/insights-client.conf
) to rebuild the package caches automatically each time the system checks in to Insights.
Additional resources
-
For more information about how to run the
--build-packagecache
command, see System Patching Using Remediation Playbooks. -
For more information about the
--build-packagecache
options, see the following KCS article: https://access.redhat.com/solutions/7041171 - For more information about managing errata in Red Hat Satellite, see Managing content.