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Chapter 4. Creating a virt-who configuration

Use this procedure to create a virt-who configuration. Red Hat products and Microsoft Hyper-V require one configuration for each hypervisor that runs Red Hat Enterprise Linux virtual machines. VMware vSphere requires one configuration for each vCenter Server.

Most values in this procedure are added to an /etc/virt-who.d/conf_name.conf file and apply only to the specified hypervisor or virtualization manager. Interval, Enable debugging output, HTTP Proxy, and Ignore Proxy are global values stored in the /etc/sysconfig/virt-who file. Global configuration values apply to all virt-who configurations on the same server, and are overwritten each time a new virt-who configuration is deployed on that server.

Every virt-who configuration creates a virt_who_reporter_[id] user and assigns it the Virt-who Reporter role, which provides minimal permissions for virt-who reporting to Satellite Server. This user cannot be manually configured or used to log in to Satellite Server.

Prerequisites

  • If you are creating a virt-who configuration for a Red Hat hypervisor (Red Hat Enterprise Linux or Red Hat Virtualization Host), register the hypervisor to Red Hat Satellite.

  • Create a read-only virt-who user on the hypervisor or virtualization manager:

    • For Red Hat products and Microsoft Hyper-V, create a virt-who user on each hypervisor that runs Red Hat Enterprise Linux virtual machines.
    • For VMware vSphere, create a virt-who user on the vCenter Server. The virt-who user requires at least read-only access to all objects in the vCenter Data Center.

Procedure

  1. In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Infrastructure > Virt-who configurations.
  2. Click Create Config. In the New Virt-who Config window, you can click the help icons for more information about each field.
  3. Enter a Name for the configuration.

  4. From the Hypervisor Type list, select your virtualization platform:

    • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Virtualization (KVM), Red Hat Virtualization, or Red Hat OpenStack Platform: libvirt
    • VMware vSphere: esx
    • Microsoft Hyper-V: hyperv
    • Note that the rhevm and xen hypervisor types are not supported, and the kubevirt hypervisor type is provided as a Technology Preview only.
  5. In the Hypervisor Server field, enter the FQDN or IP address of the server this configuration applies to. For VMware vSphere, use the vCenter Server’s FQDN or IP address. For all other products, use the hypervisor’s FQDN or IP address.
  6. In the Hypervisor Username field, enter the name of the virt-who user that you created on the hypervisor or virtualization manager.
  7. In the Hypervisor Password field, enter the password for the virt-who user. This password is encrypted when you deploy the configuration. This field is not required when using the libvirt type.
  8. From the Interval list, select how often virt-who requests new or updated virtual machine information. Because the virtual machines are granted temporary subscriptions for up to seven days, frequent queries are not required; you can select an interval that suits the size of your environment. Every 24 hours is suitable for most environments.
  9. Enter the Satellite server FQDN.
  10. From the Hypervisor ID list, select whether to identify the hypervisors in Satellite Server by their host name or UUID.

  11. Select a Filtering option:

    • The default is Unlimited. All hypervisors covered by this configuration are queried by virt-who. Use this option if you do not have to limit which hypervisors are queried.
    • You can Whitelist or Blacklist hypervisors. For example, if some hypervisors only run Microsoft Windows Server virtual machines, those hypervisors do not need to be reported by virt-who.
  12. If you selected Whitelist or Blacklist: In the Filter hosts or Exclude hosts field, enter a comma-separated list of hypervisors according to the selected Hypervisor ID. For example, if hypervisors are identified by their host name, they must be included or excluded by their host name. If a hypervisor’s name contains special characters, enclose it in quotation marks. Wildcards and regular expressions are supported. Note that when using regular expressions, backslashes must be escaped.

  13. If you selected the esx type and Whitelist or Blacklist: In the Filter host parents or Exclude host parents field, enter a comma-separated list of cluster IDs. For more information, see Using the "Filter Host Parents" and "Exclude Host Parents" Attributes with VMware Clusters in the Red Hat Knowledgebase.

    Hypervisors in an allowed cluster are reported by virt-who. Hypervisors in an excluded cluster are not reported by virt-who. If a cluster name contains special characters, enclose it in quotation marks. Wildcards and regular expressions are supported. Note that when using regular expressions, backslashes must be escaped.

  14. Optional: Select the Enable debugging output check box if you require debugging output for troubleshooting.

  15. Optional: Enter an HTTP Proxy to use for communication between the server where virt-who is deployed and the hypervisors or virtualization managers. For example, http://proxy.example.com:3128.

    To use no proxy, leave this field blank; this has the same result as entering * in the Ignore Proxy field.

  16. Optional: In the Ignore Proxy field, enter a comma-separated list of host names, IP addresses, or domains to bypass existing proxy settings.
  17. Click Submit.

For CLI users

  • On Satellite Server, enter the hammer virt-who-config create command. For more information about the options, enter hammer virt-who-config create --help.

    This example creates a virt-who configuration for a Red Hat Enterprise Linux hypervisor: 

    # hammer virt-who-config create \
--name rhel.example.com \
--organization "Example Company" \
--interval 720 \ 1
--filtering-mode none \ 2
--hypervisor-id hostname \ 3
--hypervisor-type libvirt \ 4
--hypervisor-server rhel.example.com \ 5
--hypervisor-username virt-who \ 6
--proxy 'http://proxy.example.com:3128' \ 7
--satellite-url satellite.example.com
1
Choose how often, in minutes, virt-who queries the virtualization platform. Because the virtual machines are granted temporary subscriptions for up to seven days, frequent queries are not required; you can select an interval that suits the size of your environment. Once a day (1440) is suitable for most environments.
2
Choose whether to filter hypervisors. Use none if you do not have to limit which hypervisors are queried. Alternatively, you can whitelist or blacklist hypervisors. For example, if some hypervisors only run Microsoft Windows Server virtual machines, those hypervisors do not need to be reported by virt-who.
3
Choose how to identify the hypervisor (or hypervisors) this configuration applies to. Use hostname to provide meaningful host names in the Satellite web UI. Alternatively, you can use uuid to avoid duplication if a hypervisor is renamed. hwuuid can be used only if this configuration applies to a virtualization manager instead of an individual hypervisor, and must not be changed to another option after virt-who starts running because this causes duplicate entries in Subscription Manager.
4
Specify the supported type for your virtualization platform:
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Virtualization (KVM), Red Hat Virtualization, or Red Hat OpenStack Platform: libvirt
  • VMware vSphere: esx
  • Microsoft Hyper-V: hyperv
  • Note that the rhevm and xen hypervisor types are not supported, and the kubevirt hypervisor type is provided as a Technology Preview only.
5
Specify the FQDN or IP address of the server this configuration applies to. For VMware vSphere, use the vCenter Server’s FQDN or IP address. For all other products, use the hypervisor’s FQDN or IP address.
6
Specify the read-only virt-who user that you created on the hypervisor or virtualization manager. You do not need to specify a password when using the libvirt type. For other types, you must specify the virt-who user’s password with the --hypervisor-password option.
7
Optional: Enter an HTTP proxy to use for communication between the server where virt-who is deployed and the hypervisors or virtualization managers.
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