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Chapter 2. Register and connect RHEL systems using the rhc client

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
Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

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
Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

  • 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
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap 
    # 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
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

  • Run systemctl status rhcd to view the on/off status of the rhcd daemon. 

    # systemctl status rhcd
    Copy to Clipboard Toggle word wrap

  • Enter rhc --help with no other options. 

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