Chapter 2. Enabling host communication with Insights
Before you can execute playbooks on remote systems from Red Hat Insights for Red Hat Enterprise Linux, your systems have to be able to communicate with Red Hat Insights.
- For Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems that are not managed by Red Hat Satellite, you should follow the procedure below to enable the rhc client on those systems.
- For systems that are managed by Satellite, you will configure Cloud Connector on the host servers for those systems. :context: host-communication-with-insights
2.1. Enabling the rhc client on systems directly managed by Insights
To be able to execute remediation playbooks from Insights for Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the rhc client must be enabled on the systems in your infrastructure. The rhc connect command does this by registering (RHEL8.6 and later, and 9.0 and later) systems with Red Hat Subscription Manager and Red Hat Insights, and enabling remote host configuration (rhc) features in Insights for Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
Prerequisites
- Sudo access on the Red Hat Enterprise Linux host system
Connect rhc on RHEL8.5 systems
Remote host configuration on RHEL 8.5 has dependencies of ansible and rhc-worker-playbook. To install the dependencies, you must first register with Subscription Manager.
Use the following commands to enable rhc on RHEL 8.5 systems.
[root]# subscription-manager repos --enable ansible-2.9-for-rhel-8-x86_64-rpms [root]# dnf -y install ansible rhc-worker-playbook-0.1.5-3.el8_4 [root]# rhc connect
Connect rhc on RHEL8.6 and later systems
Use the following commands to enable rhc on RHEL8.6 and later systems.
[root]# dnf -y update rhc [root]# dnf -y install rhc-worker-playbook [root]# rhc connect
Connect rhc on RHEL9.0 and later systems
Use the following commands to enable rhc on RHEL9.0 and later systems.
[root]# dnf -y install rhc rhc-worker-playbook [root]# rhc connect
Additional resources
- After enabling rhc, you can manage the configuration at Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console > Red Hat Insights > Inventory > System Configuration > Remote Host Configuration (RHC).
- For complete rhc documentation, see Remote Host Configuration and Management.
2.2. Enabling Cloud Connector for content hosts managed by Satellite
You can remediate issues on Satellite-managed content hosts remotely from the Insights for Red Hat Enterprise Linux user interface in the Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console. Remote remediation from Insights requires that your first configure the Cloud Connector plugin on the Satellite Server.
If you want to manage and execute host remediations completely from the Satellite web console, then you do not need to enable the Cloud Connector plugin.
The following prerequisites are comprehensive for Satellite Server configuration:
Prerequisites
- Satellite must be version 6.9 or later.
- You have root access to the Satellite server.
- The content hosts that are managaged by the satellite should have the Insights client installed and turned on. See the reference section of this documentation for Insights client installation and enablement procedures.
- Import a Subscription Manifest into Satellite. For more information, see Importing a Subscription Manifest into Satellite Server in the Red Hat Satellite Content Management Guide.
- Register your hosts to Satellite using an activation key to attach Red Hat subscriptions. For more information, see Registering Hosts in the Red Hat Satellite Managing Hosts guide.
2.2.1. Configuring Cloud Connector and uploading your Satellite Server content host inventory to Red Hat Insights
Before you can run remediation playbooks remotely from Insights, you must install and configure the Cloud Connector plugin on Satellite Server. Perform the following tasks to install, configure, and verify the configuration of Cloud Connector.
Procedure
On Satellite Server, enable the
remote-executionplugin by entering one of the following commands, based on your version of Satellite Server.On Satellite Server 6.12 and newer
[root]# satellite-installer --foreman-proxy-plugin-remote-execution-script-install-key true
On Satellite Server 6.9 - 6.11
[root]# satellite-installer --foreman-proxy-plugin-remote-execution-ssh-install-key true
NoteConfiguring Cloud Connector requires that the satellite perform a remote execution on itself. This is why the first step is to enable the
remote-executionscript or plugin.
- In the Satellite Server web UI, navigate to Configure > Red Hat Cloud > Inventory Upload. Verify that the Automatic Inventory Upload switch is turned ON, which is the default setting.
Optionally: Toggle the Obfuscate host names switch to the ON position to hide host names that Satellite Server reports to the Hybrid Cloud Console.
NoteThe Obfuscate host names setting only affects
rh_cloudreports. If you want to obfuscate hostnames and IP addresses, you should set obfuscation in the Insights client configuration. Satellite knows how to read this configuration, and will follow along. See Client Configuration Guide for Red Hat Insights sections, Obfuscating the host name and Obfuscating the IPv4 address.Automatic inventory upload and Obfuscate host names are global settings. They affect content hosts that belong to all organizations.
- Click Configure Cloud Connector. A Notice dialog box warns you that this action also enables auto reports upload. Click Confirm.
Wait for progress to finish. This should take about one minute. Go to Jobs > Configure Cloud Connector to see the job.
Eventually, you will see the satellite in Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console > the Settings icon (⚙) > Integrations, in the Red Hat tab. Allow up to one hour after the job is visible in the Satellite web console.
The bottom of the Inventory Uploads page shows the name of your organization; hovering over it will turn the area grey. Clicking on the name will cause it to expand, showing a Generating tab and Uploading tab where one can monitor the progress of the upload.
Click Restart to generate a data payload from each of the content hosts that have Insights client running, and upload your host inventory to Insights for Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
Repeat this step, clicking Restart for each organization for which you want to upload a content host inventory.
- Set Auto sync for the organization under Configure > Red Hat Cloud (after Sat 6.11) > Insights using the toggle in the upper right of the screen.
Verification
To verify that the upload was successful, log into Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console > Red Hat Enterprise Linux > Red Hat Insights > Inventory and search for the satellite_id tag for your content hosts.
Optionally, push the Sync inventory status button and wait for the task to finish. It will show you the number of content hosts recognized by Insights inventory.
