Chapter 1. Preparing your environment for installation
1.1. System requirements
The following requirements apply to the networked base operating system:
- x86_64 architecture
- The latest version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
- 4-core 2.0 GHz CPU at a minimum
- A minimum of 12 GB RAM is required for Capsule Server to function. In addition, a minimum of 4 GB RAM of swap space is also recommended. Capsule running with less RAM than the minimum value might not operate correctly.
- A unique host name, which can contain lower-case letters, numbers, dots (.) and hyphens (-)
- A current Red Hat Satellite subscription
- Administrative user (root) access
- Full forward and reverse DNS resolution using a fully-qualified domain name
Satellite only supports UTF-8 encoding. If your territory is USA and your language is English, set en_US.utf-8 as the system-wide locale settings. For more information about configuring system locale in Red Hat Enterprise Linux, see Configuring System Locale guide.
Your Satellite must have the Red Hat Satellite Infrastructure Subscription manifest in your Customer Portal. Satellite must have satellite-capsule-6.x repository enabled and synced. To create, manage, and export a Red Hat Subscription Manifest in the Customer Portal, see Creating and managing manifests for a connected Satellite Server in Subscription Central.
Satellite Server and Capsule Server do not support shortnames in the hostnames. When using custom certificates, the Common Name (CN) of the custom certificate must be a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) instead of a shortname. This does not apply to the clients of a Satellite.
Before you install Capsule Server, ensure that your environment meets the requirements for installation.
The version of Capsule must match with the version of Satellite installed. It should not be different. For example, the Capsule version 6.15 cannot be registered with the Satellite version 6.14.
Capsule Server must be installed on a freshly provisioned system that serves no other function except to run Capsule Server. The freshly provisioned system must not have the following users provided by external identity providers to avoid conflicts with the local users that Capsule Server creates:
- apache
- foreman-proxy
- postgres
- pulp
- puppet
- redis
For more information on scaling your Capsule Servers, see Capsule Server scalability considerations.
Certified hypervisors
Capsule Server is fully supported on both physical systems and virtual machines that run on hypervisors that are supported to run Red Hat Enterprise Linux. For more information about certified hypervisors, see Certified Guest Operating Systems in Red Hat OpenStack Platform, Red Hat Virtualization, Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization and Red Hat Enterprise Linux with KVM.
SELinux mode
SELinux must be enabled, either in enforcing or permissive mode. Installation with disabled SELinux is not supported.
FIPS mode
You can install Capsule on a Red Hat Enterprise Linux system that is operating in FIPS mode. You cannot enable FIPS mode after the installation of Capsule. For more information, see Installing a RHEL 8 system with FIPS mode enabled in Security hardening.
Satellite supports DEFAULT and FIPS crypto-policies. The FUTURE crypto-policy is not supported for Satellite and Capsule installations. The FUTURE policy is a stricter forward-looking security level intended for testing a possible future policy. For more information, see Using system-wide cryptographic policies in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux guide.
1.2. Storage requirements
The following table details storage requirements for specific directories. These values are based on expected use case scenarios and can vary according to individual environments.
The runtime size was measured with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, 7, and 8 repositories synchronized.
| Directory | Installation Size | Runtime Size |
|---|---|---|
| /var/lib/pulp | 1 MB | 300 GB |
| /var/lib/pgsql | 100 MB | 20 GB |
| /usr | 3 GB | Not Applicable |
| /opt/puppetlabs | 500 MB | Not Applicable |
The size of the PostgreSQL database on your Capsule Server can grow significantly with an increasing number of lifecycle environments, content views, or repositories that are synchronized from your Satellite Server. In the largest Satellite environments, the size of /var/lib/pgsql on Capsule Server can grow to double or triple the size of /var/lib/pgsql on your Satellite Server.
1.3. Storage guidelines
Consider the following guidelines when installing Capsule Server to increase efficiency.
-
If you mount the
/tmpdirectory as a separate file system, you must use theexecmount option in the/etc/fstabfile. If/tmpis already mounted with thenoexecoption, you must change the option toexecand re-mount the file system. This is a requirement for thepuppetserverservice to work. -
Because most Capsule Server data is stored in the
/vardirectory, mounting/varon LVM storage can help the system to scale. -
Use high-bandwidth, low-latency storage for the
/var/lib/pulp/directories. As Red Hat Satellite has many operations that are I/O intensive, using high latency, low-bandwidth storage causes performance degradation. Ensure your installation has a speed in the range 60 – 80 Megabytes per second.
You can use the storage-benchmark script to get this data. For more information on using the storage-benchmark script, see Impact of Disk Speed on Satellite Operations.
File system guidelines
- Do not use the GFS2 file system as the input-output latency is too high.
Log file storage
Log files are written to /var/log/messages/, /var/log/httpd/, and /var/lib/foreman-proxy/openscap/content/. You can manage the size of these files using logrotate. For more information, see How to use logrotate utility to rotate log files.
The exact amount of storage you require for log messages depends on your installation and setup.
SELinux considerations for NFS mount
When the /var/lib/pulp directory is mounted using an NFS share, SELinux blocks the synchronization process. To avoid this, specify the SELinux context of the /var/lib/pulp directory in the file system table by adding the following lines to /etc/fstab:
nfs.example.com:/nfsshare /var/lib/pulp nfs context="system_u:object_r:var_lib_t:s0" 1 2
If NFS share is already mounted, remount it using the above configuration and enter the following command:
# restorecon -R /var/lib/pulp
Duplicated packages
Packages that are duplicated in different repositories are only stored once on the disk. Additional repositories containing duplicate packages require less additional storage. The bulk of storage resides in the /var/lib/pulp/ directory. These end points are not manually configurable. Ensure that storage is available on the /var file system to prevent storage problems.
Symbolic links
You cannot use symbolic links for /var/lib/pulp/.
Synchronized RHEL ISO
If you plan to synchronize RHEL content ISOs to Satellite, note that all minor versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux also synchronize. You must plan to have adequate storage on your Satellite to manage this.
1.4. Supported operating systems
You can install the operating system from a disc, local ISO image, kickstart, or any other method that Red Hat supports. Red Hat Capsule Server is supported on the latest version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 that is available at the time when Capsule Server is installed. Previous versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux including EUS or z-stream are not supported.
The following operating systems are supported by the installer, have packages, and are tested for deploying Satellite:
| Operating System | Architecture | Notes |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | x86_64 only |
Red Hat advises against using an existing system because the Satellite installer will affect the configuration of several components. Red Hat Capsule Server requires a Red Hat Enterprise Linux installation with the @Base package group with no other package-set modifications, and without third-party configurations or software not directly necessary for the direct operation of the server. This restriction includes hardening and other non-Red Hat security software. If you require such software in your infrastructure, install and verify a complete working Capsule Server first, then create a backup of the system before adding any non-Red Hat software.
Do not register Capsule Server to the Red Hat Content Delivery Network (CDN).
Red Hat does not support using the system for anything other than running Capsule Server.
1.5. Port and firewall requirements
For the components of Satellite architecture to communicate, ensure that the required network ports are open and free on the base operating system. You must also ensure that the required network ports are open on any network-based firewalls.
The installation of a Capsule Server fails if the ports between Satellite Server and Capsule Server are not open before installation starts.
Use this information to configure any network-based firewalls. Note that some cloud solutions must be specifically configured to allow communications between machines because they isolate machines similarly to network-based firewalls. If you use an application-based firewall, ensure that the application-based firewall permits all applications that are listed in the tables and known to your firewall. If possible, disable the application checking and allow open port communication based on the protocol.
Integrated Capsule
Satellite Server has an integrated Capsule and any host that is directly connected to Satellite Server is a Client of Satellite in the context of this section. This includes the base operating system on which Capsule Server is running.
Clients of Capsule
Hosts which are clients of Capsules, other than Satellite’s integrated Capsule, do not need access to Satellite Server. For more information on Satellite Topology, see Capsule Networking in Overview, concepts, and deployment considerations.
Required ports can change based on your configuration.
The following tables indicate the destination port and the direction of network traffic:
| Destination Port | Protocol | Service | Source | Required For | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 53 | TCP and UDP | DNS | DNS Servers and clients | Name resolution | DNS (optional) |
| 67 | UDP | DHCP | Client | Dynamic IP | DHCP (optional) |
| 69 | UDP | TFTP | Client | TFTP Server (optional) | |
| 443, 80 | TCP | HTTPS, HTTP | Client | Content Retrieval | Content |
| 443, 80 | TCP | HTTPS, HTTP | Client | Content Host Registration | Capsule CA RPM installation |
| 443 | TCP | HTTPS | Red Hat Satellite | Content Mirroring | Management |
| 443 | TCP | HTTPS | Red Hat Satellite | Capsule API | Smart Proxy functionality |
| 443 | TCP | HTTPS | Client | Content Host registration | Initiation Uploading facts Sending installed packages and traces |
| 1883 | TCP | MQTT | Client | Pull based REX (optional) | Content hosts for REX job notification (optional) |
| 8000 | TCP | HTTP | Client | Provisioning templates | Template retrieval for client installers, iPXE or UEFI HTTP Boot |
| 8000 | TCP | HTTP | Client | PXE Boot | Installation |
| 8140 | TCP | HTTPS | Client | Puppet agent | Client updates (optional) |
| 8443 | TCP | HTTPS | Client | Content Host registration | Deprecated and only needed for Client hosts deployed before upgrades |
| 9090 | TCP | HTTPS | Red Hat Satellite | Capsule API | Capsule functionality |
| 9090 | TCP | HTTPS | Client | Register Endpoint | Client registration with an external Capsule Server |
| 9090 | TCP | HTTPS | Client | OpenSCAP | Configure Client (if the OpenSCAP plugin is installed) |
| 9090 | TCP | HTTPS | Discovered Node | Discovery | Host discovery and provisioning (if the discovery plugin is installed) |
Any host that is directly connected to Satellite Server is a client in this context because it is a client of the integrated Capsule. This includes the base operating system on which a Capsule Server is running.
A DHCP Capsule performs ICMP ping and TCP echo connection attempts to hosts in subnets with DHCP IPAM set to find out if an IP address considered for use is free. This behavior can be turned off using satellite-installer --foreman-proxy-dhcp-ping-free-ip=false.
| Destination Port | Protocol | Service | Destination | Required For | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ICMP | ping | Client | DHCP | Free IP checking (optional) | |
| 7 | TCP | echo | Client | DHCP | Free IP checking (optional) |
| 22 | TCP | SSH | Target host | Remote execution | Run jobs |
| 53 | TCP and UDP | DNS | DNS Servers on the Internet | DNS Server | Resolve DNS records (optional) |
| 53 | TCP and UDP | DNS | DNS Server | Capsule DNS | Validation of DNS conflicts (optional) |
| 68 | UDP | DHCP | Client | Dynamic IP | DHCP (optional) |
| 443 | TCP | HTTPS | Satellite | Capsule | Capsule Configuration management Template retrieval OpenSCAP Remote Execution result upload |
| 443 | TCP | HTTPS | Red Hat Portal | SOS report | Assisting support cases (optional) |
| 443 | TCP | HTTPS | Satellite | Content | Sync |
| 443 | TCP | HTTPS | Satellite | Client communication | Forward requests from Client to Satellite |
| 443 | TCP | HTTPS | Infoblox DHCP Server | DHCP management | When using Infoblox for DHCP, management of the DHCP leases (optional) |
| 623 | Client | Power management | BMC On/Off/Cycle/Status | ||
| 7911 | TCP | DHCP, OMAPI | DHCP Server | DHCP |
The DHCP target is configured using
ISC and |
| 8443 | TCP | HTTPS | Client | Discovery | Capsule sends reboot command to the discovered host (optional) |
ICMP to Port 7 UDP and TCP must not be rejected, but can be dropped. The DHCP Capsule sends an ECHO REQUEST to the Client network to verify that an IP address is free. A response prevents IP addresses from being allocated.
1.6. Enabling connections from Capsule Server to Satellite Server
On Satellite Server, you must enable the incoming connection from Capsule Server to Satellite Server and make this rule persistent across reboots.
Prerequisites
- Ensure that the firewall rules on Satellite Server are configured to enable connections for client to Satellite communication, because Capsule Server is a client of Satellite Server. For more information, see Enabling Connections from a Client to Satellite Server in Installing Satellite Server in a connected network environment.
Procedure
On Satellite Server, enter the following command to open the port for Capsule to Satellite communication:
# firewall-cmd --add-port="5646/tcp"
Make the changes persistent:
# firewall-cmd --runtime-to-permanent
1.7. Enabling connections from Satellite Server and clients to a Capsule Server
On the base operating system on which you want to install Capsule, you must enable incoming connections from Satellite Server and clients to Capsule Server and make these rules persistent across reboots.
Procedure
Open the ports for clients on Capsule Server:
# firewall-cmd \ --add-port="5647/tcp" \ --add-port="8000/tcp" \ --add-port="9090/tcp"
Allow access to services on Capsule Server:
# firewall-cmd \ --add-service=dns \ --add-service=dhcp \ --add-service=tftp \ --add-service=http \ --add-service=https \ --add-service=puppetmaster
Make the changes persistent:
# firewall-cmd --runtime-to-permanent
Verification
Enter the following command:
# firewall-cmd --list-all
For more information, see Using and Configuring firewalld in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 Securing networks.
