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Chapter 1. Introducing Red Hat Satellite 6.11

These release notes highlight major changes, enhancements, technology preview items, known issues, deprecated functionality, and removed functionality you must take into consideration when deploying this release of Red Hat Satellite 6. Notes for updates released during the support lifecycle of this Red Hat Satellite 6 release will appear in the advisory text associated with each update.

1.1. Major Changes

This release of Red Hat Satellite 6 features the following major changes:

Connected and Disconnected servers supported on RHEL 7 and RHEL 8
With this release, both connected and disconnected Satellite Servers and Capsule Servers are supported on RHEL 7 and RHEL 8.
Support for RHEL 9 clients
Red Hat Satellite 6.11 supports RHEL 9 hosts; the name of the repository for RHEL 9 is satellite-client-6-for-rhel-9-<arch>-rpms, where <arch> must be replaced by the required architecture.
Upgrading Satellite Server and Capsule Server installations from RHEL 7 to RHEL 8

With Red Hat Satellite 6.11, you can upgrade your Satellite Server and Capsule Server installations from Red Hat Enterprise Linux version 7 to version 8 in two different ways:

New Hosts Page

Red Hat Satellite 6.11 introduces a new Hosts page as a Technology Preview.

For more information, see Section 1.3, “Technology previews”.

No Support for Mixed Versions
In a disconnected environment, if some of your Satellite servers are on different versions, content import and content export do not work. All of your Satellite servers must be on the same version.
Product Version-Specific Maintenance Tools

Beginning with this release, maintenance tools are no longer provided from a global repository. A repository specific to the product version is used instead to better identify correctly referenced repositories.

The respective repository names are rhel-7-server-satellite-maintenance-6.11-rpms (for RHEL 7) and satellite-maintenance-6.11-for-rhel-8-x86_64-rpms (for RHEL 8).

Puppet integration optional and disabled by default

The integration of Puppet servers and Red Hat Satellite that allows you to manage hosts using Puppet inside Red Hat Satellite is now optional.

If you have a fresh installation of Red Hat Satellite and want to use Puppet, you must first enable it. If you do not intend to use Puppet after your upgrade to Red Hat Satellite 6.11, you can disable it.

For more information, see Managing Configurations Using Puppet Integration in Red Hat Satellite.

Run Pulp 3 on Python 3.8
Pulp 3 does not function on Python 3.6. During the upgrade to Red Hat Satellite 6.11, users are upgraded to Python 3.8.
Red Hat Satellite 6.11 repository changes

With this release, the Satellite Client repository replaces the Satellite Tools repository.

Note that the Satellite Client repository does not include the hammer packages. The Satellite Client repository includes the following packages: katello-host-tools, gofer, qpid-proton, rubygem-foreman_scap_client.

Additionally, the following repositories are added or changed in Red Hat Satellite 6.11 :

  • The Satellite-Utils repository is an option to run on the client for all supported versions of RHEL 7 and RHEL 8.
  • The Satellite-Maintenance repository now denotes minor versions (such as Red Hat Satellite 6.11) rather than only major versions (such as Red Hat Satellite 6).
Change to Capsule certificate archive
The contents of the Capsule certificate archive have changed. Consequently, you must regenerate the certificate archive when upgrading a Capsule server. For more details on the regeneration, see Upgrading Capsule Servers.
New default port for communication with Red Hat Subscription Management (RHSM) API on Capsule servers
With this release, Capsule Servers accept communication for the RHSM API on port 443 by default. The formerly used port 8443 is now deprecated and remains open only for existing content hosts that do not get an automatic configuration update.
Module-based installation on RHEL 8
With this release, module-based installation of Satellite Server and related packages on RHEL 8 is supported.

1.2. Enhancements

This release of Red Hat Satellite 6 features the following enhancements:

Inter-Server Synchronization improvements

Red Hat Satellite 6.11 improves configuration of inter-server synchronization (ISS) between two Satellite Servers in a multi-server Satellite setup.

There are different ways of using ISS:

  • ISS Network Sync in a Disconnected Scenario
  • ISS Export Sync in an Air-Gapped Scenario
Content Publication workflow simplification

With this release, the Content Views UI is updated to simplify the Content Publication workflow.

You can now use the following procedures in your workflows:

  • Create a simple Content View
  • Publish a Content View with the Content View promoted to the Library Environment by default
  • Add the upstream CentOS repositories to your Content View
  • View the module streams of the repositories in your Content Views
  • Filter Content Views to include or exclude specific packages
  • Filter Content Views containing Yum content to include or exclude specific packages, package groups, errata, or module streams
  • Create a new Lifecycle Environment
Registration and preview templates
With Red Hat Satellite 6.11, previewing a global registration template does not require the selection of a host. Additionally, you can now preview the host_init_config template on any host, not only on the managed ones.
Improved behavior for configuring and running remote jobs

Satellite Servers now differentiate between infrastructure (Satellite Server or Capsule Server registered as hosts) and regular hosts. As a result, Red Hat Satellite 6.11 allows for preventing users from running remote jobs on infrastructure hosts.

To run remote jobs on infrastructure hosts, your user role must have the execute_jobs_on_infrastructure_hosts permission. This permission is enabled by default for the Manager, Site Manager, and Remote Execution Manager roles.

If you need the execute_jobs_on_infrastructure_hosts permission, contact your administrator.

Provisioning improvements
With Red Hat Satellite 6.11, provisioning templates has an icon available.
Simplified host content source changing
Red Hat Satellite 6.11 provides the Update packages option to update all packages on the host upon registration.
Modified global setting: Subscription connection enabled

The content_disconnected global setting is changed to subscription_connection_enabled and is a global setting to be configured each time you utilize a disconnected Satellite Server.

As a result, Satellite Server is now connected to the Red Hat Customer Portal by default, and you must manually select No by going to Admin > Settings in the Content tab if needed.

Note that you cannot connect to the Red Hat Customer portal if you select No.

New error signaling unsupported options in TASK-Filter

In this release, you are notified if you attempt to use unsupported options in TASK-Filter.

If you receive an Invalid Options error, run --help using foreman-tasks-cleanup.sh and foreman-tasks-export.sh to see the corrected execution command.

Cloud Connector configuration updated
With this release, the Cloud Connector configuration method is updated with a procedure to re-enable Cloud Connector. This update is applicable to Satellite Server 6.11 and later.
Improved adoption of Red Hat Insights
You can receive a link to the recommendation rule for each recommendation line provided by Red Hat Insights. You can also receive a Knowledgebase article link for all recommendation lines with an article available.
Virt-who configuration process improvement

With this release, Satellite’s Virt-who configuration is enhanced. This change facilitates the configuration of virtual machine subscriptions for Nutanix AHV.

For more information, see Creating a Virt-who Configuration.

New Content View Versions page
With this release, you can view the content types present in a Content View on the Content View Versions page.
Convert2RHEL data preparation automation

With Red Hat Satellite 6.11, you can use the Convert2RHEL Ansible role to automate the process of preparing the data for converting Centos and Oracle Linux servers to Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

The role uploads the manifests, prepares the repositories, creates products, creates hostgroups to share the configuration across hosts, and sets up activation keys.

For more information, see Converting a Host to Red Hat Enterprise Linux with Convert2RHEL.

1.3. Technology previews

The following features are available as Technology Previews in Red Hat Satellite 6.11:

New Hosts Page

Red Hat Satellite 6.11 introduces a new Hosts page that provides host information as a Technology Preview. Plug-ins extend the page with cards and the option to provide a tab page for the plug-in. The new Hosts page allows you to rebuild, clone, or delete the host.

You can reach the new Hosts page by clicking the New UI tab on the existing Host details page.

You can set default behavior to display either the new Hosts page or the existing Hosts page. Set this behavior by navigating to Administer > Settings and on the General tab page, change the value of new host details

The new Hosts page includes:

  • Host details
  • Networking information
  • Power operations
  • Host status management
  • Recent jobs
  • Recent audits
  • Ansible
  • Insights
Job invocation wizard

This release introduces a job invocation wizard in the Lab Features menu as a Technology Preview.

Options from the previous job invocation form remain the same in the job invocation wizard, and there are also new search options.

Note that the wizard is not enabled by default. You can enable it in settings by going to Administer > Settings > Show Experimental Lab.

OpenShift Virtualization plugin
You can provision virtual machines using the OpenShift Virtualization compute resource as a Technology Preview.

1.4. Known issues

The following known issues exist in Red Hat Satellite 6.11 at this time:

Trusted proxies cannot be configured using the Satellite installer

If you use Capsule for host registration or provisioning, you must add the IP address of your Capsule to the list of trusted proxies on Satellite Server. However, the installer option to set the trusted proxies is not available.

BZ#(2221794)

This issue is resolved in Satellite 6.12 and newer.

Disabled Puppet with all data removed cannot be re-enabled

If the Puppet plug-in was disabled with the -f, --remove-all-data argument and you attempt to enable it again, Satellite maintain fails.

BZ#(2087067)

Information from host group is not completely inherited when provisioning a discovered host in the Satellite web UI

When you provision a discovered host, after selecting a host group and trying to customize the host entry, many critical pieces of information are missing. This results in a failed deployment attempt.

As a workaround, perform one of the following actions:

  • Provision the host using hammer: 

    # hammer discovery provision --name discovered_host_name \
--hostgroup-id your_hostgroup_id \
--organization-id your_organization_id \
--location-id your_location_id \
--new-name new_host_name\
--build true

    For more information, see hammer discovery provision in Hammer CLI Guide.

  • Configure discovery rules and enable auto-provisioning so that no manual intervention is required to provision a discovered host. For more information, see Creating Discovery Rules in Provisioning Hosts.

BZ#(2069324)

RHEL 8 FIPS mode failure with foreman-discovery-image package installation

When installing the foreman-discovery-image package on RHEL 8 with FIPS mode enabled, the package installation fails with the following error message: does not verify: no digest.

As a workaround, extract the ISO manually using the rpm2cpio foreman-discovery-image-XYZ.rpm | cpio -idmv command. Then convert the ISO to PXE files using the following procedure:

  1. ln -snf foreman-discovery-image-XYZ.iso fdi.iso
  2. discovery-iso-to-pxe fdi.iso
  3. mkdir -p /var/lib/tftpboot/boot/fdi-image
  4. cp ./tftpboot/vmlinuz0 /var/lib/tftpboot/boot/fdi-image/vmlinuz
  5. cp ./tftpboot/initrd0.img /var/lib/tftpboot/boot/fdi-image/initrd0.img
  6. chown -R foreman-proxy:root /var/lib/tftpboot/boot/fdi-image

  7. restorecon -RFv /var/lib/tftpboot/boot/fdi-image

    BZ#(2053913)

RHEL 9 as Guest OS is not available on VMware

You can select the RHEL version as the Guest OS while deploying a host with Red Hat Satellite’s VMWare compute resource. While the RHEL 9 Guest OS is available as an option, it is not currently configurable via Red Hat Satellite with VMware compute resource because RHEL 9 is not yet added to the underlying VMware library.

BZ#(2057314)

Local boot in UEFI provisioning on virtual machines defaults to "Print warning and power off"

Due to issues with newer virtual hardware versions in VMware, the local boot from disk is temporarily suspended as the default boot entry for UEFI provisioning when using the PXEGrub2 default local boot template. As a result, this disrupts the automated workflow that would normally work if you use virtual hardware version 15 or lower in VMWare or other compute resources than VMware to provision virtual machines.

As a workaround, force booting from disk in the global settings. In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Administer > Settings > Provisioning and set the value of Default PXE local template entry to force_local_chain_hd0.

BZ#(2112436)

In-place upgrades fail to run installer in environments with insufficient resources

If you attempt an in-place upgrade from RHEL 7 to RHEL 8 on a Satellite Server with insufficient resources, your upgrade fails.

As a workaround, run the foreman-installer --disable-system-checks command after the RHEL 8 system has booted and logs indicate the installer has not run correctly.

BZ#(2092122)

In-place upgrades fail to resolve Ansible dependencies on RHEL 8.6

In-place upgrades from RHEL 7 to RHEL 8 fail to resolve Ansible dependencies on RHEL 8.6.

To work around this issue, run the rpm -e ansible ansible-test --nodeps command prior to the in-place upgrade.

This known issue was fixed in 6.11.2.

BZ#(2089303)

Leapp utility does not properly enable the Satellite module

The Leapp utility does not properly enable the Satellite module.

To work around this issue, run the following commands prior to the upgrade:

  • # subscription-manager repo-override --repo=satellite-6.11-for-rhel-8-x86_64-rpms --add=module_hotfixes:1 (for Satellite Server)

  • # subscription-manager repo-override --repo=satellite-capsule-6.11-for-rhel-8-x86_64-rpms --add=module_hotfixes:1(for Capsule Server)

    This known issue was fixed in 6.11.2.

    BZ#(2091995)

Installing the Leapp utility does not work with the foreman-protector locking plug-in

As of the current release, you cannot install the Leapp utility using the yum install leapp command simultaneously with the foreman-protector locking plug-in.

To install the Leapp utility under these conditions, run the satellite-maintain packages install leapp command.

BZ#(2095506)

Host remediation issue during an upgrade to Red Hat Satellite 6.11

Remediating hosts that meet specific criteria via the Cloud Connector is not possible during the upgrade to Red Hat Satellite 6.11. The issue affects only the hosts that have at least one organization with a manifest imported from an account that is different than the account under which the Satellite Server is registered.

To work around this issue, do not click the Configure Cloud Connector button in the Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console during the upgrade to Red Hat Satellite 6.11.

As a result, your systems will be upgraded to Red Hat Satellite 6.11 with the receptor-based version, where multi-account support works as expected.

BZ#(2095598)

Provisioning of Grub 2 UEFI host fails with Capsule Servers running on RHEL 8.5 and later versions

Due to changes in the grub2-efi package, the base directory where Grub 2 searches for configuration files has changed. Consequently, attempts to provision a Grub 2 UEFI host from Capsule Servers running on Red Hat Enterpise Linux (RHEL) 8.5 or later versions of RHEL 8 fail.

To work around the issue, create relative symlinks in the /var/lib/tftpboot directory as follows:

/var/lib/tftpboot/EFI/redhat ../../grub2

BZ#(2101818)

Large repositories do not synchronize on limited or slow networks

In environments with limited network or system speeds, attempts to synchronize large repositories fail with the following error: Katello::Errors::Pulp3Error: Response payload is not completed.

BZ#(2093028)

Creation of the virt-who configuration on the nutanix environment occasionally fails

During the creation of the virt-who configuration on the nutanix environment, the following error message occurs occasionally: Invalid option for hypervisor [ahv] for ui/CLI/API.

As a workaround, restart both the Satellite Servers and the virt-who service.

BZ#(2095187)

Non-enabled repository types appear occasionally in API documentation and examples

Because the apipie cache is generated statically rather than with a running instance of Red Hat Satellite 6.11, non-enabled repository types, such as deb and python, appear in the API documentation and examples occasionally.

BZ#(2043126)

Updates of foreman-protector packages on RHEL 8 fail when run with yum command

Attempts to update the foreman-maintain packages using the yum command fail on RHEL 8.

As a workaround, use the dnf command instead.

BZ#(2091900)

Shortname usage might cause breakages
Shortname usage on a Satellite Server or Capsule Server might cause breakages in certain workflows.

1.5. Deprecated functionality

The items in this section are either no longer supported or will no longer be supported in a future release:

Foreman Hooks
Foreman Hooks functionality has been deprecated and will be removed in a future release. The functionality will be replaced by the new Foreman Webhooks feature that will be documented with its release.
Provisioning on Red Hat Virtualization
The integration of Red Hat Virtualization (RHV) with Satellite is deprecated and will be removed in a future release. All the existing compute resources of RHV type will be removed and the hosts associated with RHV will be disconnected.
Bootstrap.py
The bootstrap.py script used to register a host to Satellite or Capsule Server has been replaced with the curl command created with the global registration template.
Entitlements

Entitlement-based Subscription Management is deprecated and will be removed in a future release.

It is recommended to use Simple Content Access, which simplifies the entitlement experience for administrators in regards to subscriptions as a substitute.

Katello-agent
Katello-agent is deprecated and will be removed in a future release. Transition your workloads to use the Remote Execution feature.
Katello-ca-consumer package
The katello-ca-consumer package is deprecated and will be removed in a future release. Use the global registration template for registering a host to Red Hat Satellite.
:unattended: Setting
Previously, Red Hat Satellite has supported the :unattended setting in the settings.yaml file, but this has been deprecated and a future release will remove this setting. Red Hat Satellite will default to the true setting in the future.

1.6. Removed functionality

Puppet run API
Puppet run API has been removed in Red Hat Satellite 6.11.
Red Hat Satellite content ISOs
Red Hat Satellite content ISOs are not updated on the Customer Portal with this release. Use a connected Red Hat Satellite instance to generate an export dump to be imported on a disconnected instance of Red Hat Satellite.
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