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Chapter 4. Configuring insights-client

After you install Insights client, you must register your system with Red Hat Insights for Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Registration enables you to use Red Hat Insights for Red Hat Enterprise Linux services.

4.1. Registering your system with Red Hat Insights
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You can use the insights-client command to register a system with Red Hat Insights.

You can assign a different display name for your host when you register your system by appending the --display-name option to the command. The display name identifies the system in the Insights UI. If you do not assign a display name when you register the system, Insights uses the default hostname for the system.

Prerequisites

You have completed the following steps on your system:

  • Logged in with root-level permissions
  • Installed the Insights client

Procedure

  1. Run the following subscription-manager commands in the CLI: 

    [root@insights]# subscription-manager register
[root@insights]# subscription-manager status
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  2. Run the following insights-client registration commands as follows: 

    [root@insights]# insights-client --register
[root@insights]# insights-client --status
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Examples

  • The following example shows how you can register a system with a display name that is different from the hostname: 

    [root@insights01]# insights-client --register --display-name ITC-4
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    • Resulting output: 

      Successfully registered host insights01-rhel9 as ITC-4 in group None
Automatic scheduling for Insights has been enabled.
Starting to collect Insights data for ITC-4
Writing RHSM facts to /etc/rhsm/facts/insights-client.facts ...
Uploading Insights data.
Successfully uploaded report from ITC-4 to account 1234567.
View the Red Hat Insights console at https://console.redhat.com/insights/
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  • The following example shows how you can change the display name of a system that is already registered for Red Hat Insights. 

    [root@insights01]# insights-client --display-name ITC-5
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    • Resulting output: 

      System display name changed from ITC-4 to ITC-5
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For more information about the insights-client command options, see the Additional resources section.

Result

You can now access the cloud-based Red Hat Insights for Red Hat Enterprise Linux services.

Important
  • It can take up to 15 minutes for your newly registered system to be listed on the Red Hat Insights inventory page on the console.
  • Red Hat Satellite users: After registering a Satellite system with Insights, if you subsequently upgrade or rebuild your Satellite system by doing a fresh install, you must re-register the system in Insights. For more information about how to do that, see Re-registering your system with Red Hat Insights.

Additional resources

This issue affects Red Hat Satellite users. If you are a Satellite user registering a host with Red Hat Insights, after you run insights-client --register, the following output might display on the CLI:

Telemetry is not enabled for this host

This error can occur because the host_registration_insights parameter is set to false during host registration. It must be set to true for Satellite to accept the Insights client upload. To resolve this error message, you must do the following:

  • Change the host_registration_insights parameter to true
  • Run the insights-client --register command in the command line again after the parameter has been updated.

Additional resources

For detailed information about this issue and its resolution, see the following:

You can register a CentOS Linux 7 system to a RHEL 7 system, in order to convert to RHEL and leverage Insights. Before you begin the conversion process, it is recommended that you back up your system, satisfy prerequisites, and perform a pre-conversion analysis. Once that is complete, see the following for instructions on registering and converting:

Note

Conversions from CentOS Linux 8 and other Linux distributions must be performed in the command line interface or in Satellite.

Additional Resources

You can unregister your system with Red Hat Insights for Red Hat Enterprise Linux. When you do so, your system information is no longer uploaded to Insights for Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

Prerequisites

  • Root-level access to your system.
  • Your system is registered with Insights for Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

Procedure

  1. Enter the insights-client command with the --unregister option. 

    [root@insights]# insights-client --unregister
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Verification

Enter the following command to confirm the status and verify that the system has been successfully unregistered: 

[root@insights]# insights-client --status
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If the command is successful, you will see the following output: 

This host is unregistered.
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There are instances when you might need to re-register a system in Red Hat Insights for Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

Re-registering a system in Insights by using the correct steps can help to prevent and fix duplicate host entries in the Insights inventory service. For example, one reason you might re-register a system in Insights is to clean up entries for a previously registered system that has been rebuilt with a clean install.

Important

If you are a Red Hat Satellite user and you plan to upgrade or rebuild your Satellite system by doing a fresh install, you must re-register that system in Insights. Ensure that you unregister the system in Insights before you begin the upgrade. After you have reinstalled the Satellite system, register it again with the Insights client. Otherwise, you might see duplicate host entries or other unexpected results.

To re-register a system in Insights, run the insights-client command twice by using the following two options:

  1. --unregister
  2. --register

Prerequisites

You have completed the following steps on your system:

  • Logged in with root-level permissions
  • Installed the Insights client

Procedure

  1. On the command line, enter the insights-client command with the --unregister option. 

    [root@insights]# insights-client --unregister
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  2. Enter the insights-client command with the --register option. 

    [root@insights]# insights-client --register
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Verification

When a system has been successfully re-registered by using the insights-client command with the —-unregister option followed by the insights-client command with the —-register option, a new Insights profile gets created and the following output is displayed: 

Successfully uploaded report for <machine name>
View the Red Hat Insights console at https://console.redhat.com/insights/
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4.5. Changing the host display name
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You can change the host display name as it appears in the GUI. Make this change either when you register the system with Red Hat Insights for Red Hat Enterprise Linux, or after registration. If you do not assign a display name when you register the system, Red Hat Insights for Red Hat Enterprise Linux uses the value in /etc/hostname.

This procedure is optional. Determine if you want to use a display name in addition to the default hostname.

Note

Using the insights-client command to set the display name takes effect immediately, but does not run the Insights client.

Note

If you obfuscate the hostname, the hostname configured in /etc/hostname is obfuscated. Assign a display name so that you can identify a host even when its hostname is obfuscated.

Prerequisites

  • Root-level access to the system.

Procedure

  • Enter the insights-client command with the --display-name option and specify a display name. 

    [root@insights]# insights-client --display-name ITC-4
System display name changed from None to ITC-4
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  • To create a display name that contains spaces, use double quotes. 

    [root@insights]# insights-client --display-name "ITC-4 B9 4th floor"
System display name changed from None to ITC-4 B9 4th floor
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4.6. Displaying the client version
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You can display the client version and client core version.

Prerequisites

  • Root-level access to your system.

Procedure

  • Enter the insights-client command with the --version option. 

    [root@insights]# insights-client --version
Client: 3.0.6-0
Core: 3.0.121-1
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Additional resources

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