Chapter 5. Troubleshooting remote host configuration issues
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
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
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
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
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)
5.1.4. Adding a proxy for RHC to use for the connection
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
5.2. RHC client communication
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
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
-
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
5.4. Known issues
There are occasionally issues that the user or org admin should be aware of when working with their systems.
The following known issues are documented for remote host configuration:
Remote host configuration is stuck in the
checkingstatus if a Red Hat Satellite-connected system is also in the remediation plan.If you have a remediation plan that contains one or more remote host configuration systems and one or more Red Hat Satellite-connected systems, when you click the
Execute Playbookbutton on the remote host configuration manager. The remote host configuration system will be stuck atchecking. You will not be able to execute the remediation plan on the remote host configuration system.See RHC stuck at "checking" if a Satellite-connected system is also in the remediation plan for more information.
The
insights-clientcommand is not invoked after executing remediation with remote host configuration.Playbooks generated by Remediations generally have the following structure:
- Fix the problems listed in the remediation.
- Optionally reboot the system.
Execute the
insights-clientcommand so that Red Hat Insights for Red Hat Enterprise Linux has an updated version of the system’s state.If a playbook is invoked by clicking Execute playbook in the Remediations UI, and if the targeted system is running rhc client (as opposed to being managed by a Satellite), the final step is missing. As a result, Insights for Red Hat Enterprise Linux never receives an updated view of the system’s state.
-
The current temporary solution is to manually run:
insights-clienton the system OR wait 24 hours for the next upload. - See insights-client not invoked after executing remediation via RHC for more information.
