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Administering Red Hat Satellite

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Red Hat Satellite 6.16

Administer users and permissions, manage organizations and locations, back up and restore Satellite, maintain Satellite, and more

Red Hat Satellite Documentation Team

Abstract

This guide provides instructions on how to configure and administer a Red Hat Satellite 6 Server. Before continuing with this workflow you must have successfully installed a Red Hat Satellite 6 Server and any required Capsule Servers.

Providing feedback on Red Hat documentation

We appreciate your feedback on our documentation. Let us know how we can improve it.

Use the Create Issue form in Red Hat Jira to provide your feedback. The Jira issue is created in the Red Hat Satellite Jira project, where you can track its progress.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Click the following link: Create Issue. If Jira displays a login error, log in and proceed after you are redirected to the form.
  2. Complete the Summary and Description fields. In the Description field, include the documentation URL, chapter or section number, and a detailed description of the issue. Do not modify any other fields in the form.
  3. Click Create.

Chapter 1. Starting and stopping Red Hat Satellite

Satellite provides the satellite-maintain service command to manage Satellite services from the command line. This is useful when creating a backup of Satellite. For more information on creating backups, see Chapter 10, Backing up Satellite Server and Capsule Server.

After installing Satellite with the satellite-installer command, all Satellite services are started and enabled automatically. View the list of these services by executing: 

# satellite-maintain service list

To see the status of running services, execute: 

# satellite-maintain service status

To stop Satellite services, execute: 

# satellite-maintain service stop

To start Satellite services, execute: 

# satellite-maintain service start

To restart Satellite services, execute: 

# satellite-maintain service restart

Chapter 2. Cloning Satellite Server

You can clone your Satellite Server to create instances to test upgrades and migration of instances to a different machine or operating system. This is an optional step to provide more flexibility during the upgrade or migration.

You cannot use the Satellite clone tool on a Capsule Server. Instead, you must backup the existing Capsule Server, restore it on the target server, and then reconfigure Capsule Server.

Note

If you create a new instance of the Satellite Server, decommission the old instances after restoring the backup. Cloned instances are not supposed to run in parallel in a production environment.

Terminology

Ensure that you understand the following terms:

Source server
The origin of the clone.
Target server
The new server that you copy files to and clone the source server to.

2.1. Cloning process overview

  1. Back up the source server.
  2. Clone the source server to the target server.
  3. Power off the source server.
  4. Update the network configuration on the target server to match the target server’s IP address with its new host name.
  5. Test the new target server.

2.2. Prerequisites

To clone Satellite Server, ensure that you have the following resources available:

  • A minimal install of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 to become the target server. Do not install Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 software groups or third-party applications. Ensure that your server complies with all the required specifications. For more information, see Preparing your Environment for Installation in Installing Satellite Server in a connected network environment.
  • A backup of your Satellite Server that you make using the satellite-maintain backup script. You can use a backup with or without Pulp data.
  • A Satellite subscription for the target server.

Before you begin cloning, ensure the following conditions exist:

  • The target server is on an isolated network. This avoids unwanted communication with Capsule Servers and hosts.
  • The target server has at least the same storage capacity as the source server.

Customized configuration files

If you have any customized configurations on your source server that are not managed by the satellite-installer tool or Satellite backup process, you must manually back up these files.

2.3. Pulp data considerations

You can clone Satellite server without including Pulp data. However, for your cloned environment to work, you do require Pulp data. If the target server does not have Pulp data. it is not a fully working Satellite.

To transfer Pulp data to a target server, you have two options:

  • Clone using backup with Pulp data
  • Clone using backup without Pulp data and copy /var/lib/pulp manually from the source server.

If your pulp_data.tar file is greater than 500 GB, or if you use a slow storage system, such as NFS, and your pulp_data.tar file is greater than 100 GB, do not include pulp_data.tar in the backup because this can cause memory errors during extraction. Copy the pulp_data.tar file from the source server to the target server.

To back up without Pulp data

Follow the steps in the procedure in Section 2.4, “Cloning Satellite Server” and replace the steps that involve cloning with Pulp data with the following steps:

  1. Perform a backup with PostgreSQL databases active excluding the Pulp data: 

    # satellite-maintain backup offline --skip-pulp-content \
--assumeyes /var/backup

  2. Stop and disable Satellite services: 

    # satellite-maintain service stop
# satellite-maintain service disable

  3. Copy the Pulp data to the target server: 

    # rsync --archive --partial --progress --compress \
/var/lib/pulp/ target_server.example.com:/var/lib/pulp/

Proceed to Section 2.4.2, “Cloning to the target server”.

2.4. Cloning Satellite Server

Use the following procedures to clone Satellite Server. Note that because of the high volume of data that you must copy and transfer as part of these procedures, it can take a significant amount of time to complete.

2.4.1. Preparing the source server for cloning

On the source server, complete the following steps:

  1. Determine the size of the Pulp data: 

    # du -sh /var/lib/pulp/

  2. If you have less than 500 GB of Pulp data, perform a backup with PostgreSQL databases active including the Pulp data. If you have more than 500 GB of Pulp data, skip the following steps and complete the steps in Section 2.3, “Pulp data considerations” before you continue. 

    # satellite-maintain backup offline --assumeyes /var/backup

  3. Stop and disable Satellite services: 

    # satellite-maintain service stop
# satellite-maintain service disable

Proceed to Section 2.4.2, “Cloning to the target server”.

2.4.2. Cloning to the target server

To clone your server, complete the following steps on your target server:

  1. The satellite-clone tool defaults to using /backup/ as the backup folder. If you copy to a different folder, update the backup_dir variable in the /etc/satellite-clone/satellite-clone-vars.yml file.
  2. Place the backup files from the source Satellite in the /backup/ folder on the target server. You can either mount the shared storage or copy the backup files to the /backup/ folder on the target server.
  3. Power off the source server.

  4. Register your instance to the Red Hat Customer Portal and enable only the required repositories:

    • If the target server runs Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9, enter the following commands: 

      # subscription-manager register
# subscription-manager repos --disable=*
# subscription-manager repos --enable=rhel-9-for-x86_64-appstream-rpms \
--enable=rhel-9-for-x86_64-baseos-rpms \
--enable=satellite-maintenance-6.16-for-rhel-9-x86_64-rpms

    • If the target server runs Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, enter the following commands: 

      # subscription-manager register
# subscription-manager repos --disable=*
# subscription-manager repos --enable=rhel-8-for-x86_64-appstream-rpms \
--enable=rhel-8-for-x86_64-baseos-rpms \
--enable=satellite-maintenance-6.16-for-rhel-8-x86_64-rpms
# dnf module enable satellite-maintenance:el8

  5. Install the satellite-clone package: 

    # dnf install satellite-clone

    After you install the satellite-clone tool, you can adjust any configuration to suit your own deployment in the /etc/satellite-clone/satellite-clone-vars.yml file.

  6. Run the satellite-clone tool: 

    # satellite-clone
  7. Reconfigure DHCP, DNS, TFTP, and remote execution services. The cloning process disables these services on the target Satellite Server to avoid conflict with the source Satellite Server.
  8. Reconfigure and enable DHCP, DNS, and TFTP in the Satellite web UI. For more information, see Configuring External Services on Satellite Server in Installing Satellite Server in a connected network environment.
  9. Log in to the Satellite web UI, with the username admin and the password changeme. Immediately update the admin password to secure credentials.
  10. Ensure that the correct organization is selected.
  11. In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Content > Subscriptions.
  12. Click Manage Manifest.
  13. Click Refresh and then click Close to return to the list of subscriptions.
  14. Verify that the available subscriptions are correct.
  15. Follow the instructions in the /usr/share/satellite-clone/logs/reassociate_capsules.txt file to restore the associations between Capsules and their lifecycle environments.
  16. Update your network configuration, for example, DNS, to match the target server’s IP address with its new host name. The satellite-clone tool changes the host name to the source server’s host name. If you want to change the host name to something different, you can use the satellite-change-hostname tool. For more information, see Renaming Satellite Server in Administering Red Hat Satellite.
  17. If the source server uses the virt-who daemon, install and configure it on the target server. Copy all the virt-who configuration files in the /etc/virt-who.d/ directory from the source server to the same directory on the target server. For more information, see Configuring virtual machine subscriptions. After you perform an upgrade using the following chapters, you can safely decommission the source server.

Chapter 3. Tuning Satellite Server with predefined profiles

If your Satellite deployment includes more than 5000 hosts, you can use predefined tuning profiles to improve performance of Satellite.

Note that you cannot use tuning profiles on Capsules.

You can choose one of the profiles depending on the number of hosts your Satellite manages and available hardware resources.

The tuning profiles are available in the /usr/share/foreman-installer/config/foreman.hiera/tuning/sizes directory.

When you run the satellite-installer command with the --tuning option, deployment configuration settings are applied to Satellite in the following order:

  1. The default tuning profile defined in the /usr/share/foreman-installer/config/foreman.hiera/tuning/common.yaml file
  2. The tuning profile that you want to apply to your deployment and is defined in the /usr/share/foreman-installer/config/foreman.hiera/tuning/sizes/ directory
  3. Optional: If you have configured a /etc/foreman-installer/custom-hiera.yaml file, Satellite applies these configuration settings.

Note that the configuration settings that are defined in the /etc/foreman-installer/custom-hiera.yaml file override the configuration settings that are defined in the tuning profiles.

Therefore, before applying a tuning profile, you must compare the configuration settings that are defined in the default tuning profile in /usr/share/foreman-installer/config/foreman.hiera/tuning/common.yaml, the tuning profile that you want to apply and your /etc/foreman-installer/custom-hiera.yaml file, and remove any duplicated configuration from the /etc/foreman-installer/custom-hiera.yaml file.

default

Number of hosts: 0 – 5000

RAM: 20G

Number of CPU cores: 4

medium

Number of hosts: 5001 – 10000

RAM: 32G

Number of CPU cores: 8

large

Number of hosts: 10001 – 20000

RAM: 64G

Number of CPU cores: 16

extra-large

Number of hosts: 20001 – 60000

RAM: 128G

Number of CPU cores: 32

extra-extra-large

Number of hosts: 60000+

RAM: 256G

Number of CPU cores: 48+

Procedure

  1. Optional: If you have configured the custom-hiera.yaml file on Satellite Server, back up the /etc/foreman-installer/custom-hiera.yaml file to custom-hiera.original. You can use the backup file to restore the /etc/foreman-installer/custom-hiera.yaml file to its original state if it becomes corrupted: 

    # cp /etc/foreman-installer/custom-hiera.yaml \
/etc/foreman-installer/custom-hiera.original
  2. Optional: If you have configured the custom-hiera.yaml file on Satellite Server, review the definitions of the default tuning profile in /usr/share/foreman-installer/config/foreman.hiera/tuning/common.yaml and the tuning profile that you want to apply in /usr/share/foreman-installer/config/foreman.hiera/tuning/sizes/. Compare the configuration entries against the entries in your /etc/foreman-installer/custom-hiera.yaml file and remove any duplicated configuration settings in your /etc/foreman-installer/custom-hiera.yaml file.

  3. Enter the satellite-installer command with the --tuning option for the profile that you want to apply. For example, to apply the medium tuning profile settings, enter the following command: 

    # satellite-installer --tuning medium

Chapter 4. Migrating from internal Satellite databases to external databases

When you install Red Hat Satellite, the satellite-installer command installs PostgreSQL databases on the same server as Satellite. If you are using the default internal databases but want to start using external databases to help with the server load, you can migrate your internal databases to external databases.

To confirm whether your Satellite Server has internal or external databases, you can query the status of your databases:

For PostgreSQL, enter the following command: 

# satellite-maintain service status --only postgresql

Red Hat does not provide support or tools for external database maintenance. This includes backups, upgrades, and database tuning. You must have your own database administrator to support and maintain external databases.

To migrate from the default internal databases to external databases, you must complete the following procedures:

  1. Section 4.2, “Preparing a host for external databases”. Prepare a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 server to host the external databases.
  2. Section 4.3, “Installing PostgreSQL”. Prepare PostgreSQL with databases for Satellite, Pulp and Candlepin with dedicated users owning them.
  3. Section 4.4, “Migrating to external databases”. Edit the parameters of satellite-installer to point to the new databases, and run satellite-installer.

4.1. PostgreSQL as an external database considerations

Foreman, Katello, and Candlepin use the PostgreSQL database. If you want to use PostgreSQL as an external database, the following information can help you decide if this option is right for your Satellite configuration. Satellite supports PostgreSQL version 13.

Advantages of external PostgreSQL

  • Increase in free memory and free CPU on Satellite
  • Flexibility to set shared_buffers on the PostgreSQL database to a high number without the risk of interfering with other services on Satellite
  • Flexibility to tune the PostgreSQL server’s system without adversely affecting Satellite operations

Disadvantages of external PostgreSQL

  • Increase in deployment complexity that can make troubleshooting more difficult
  • The external PostgreSQL server is an additional system to patch and maintain
  • If either Satellite or the PostgreSQL database server suffers a hardware or storage failure, Satellite is not operational
  • If there is latency between the Satellite server and database server, performance can suffer

If you suspect that the PostgreSQL database on your Satellite is causing performance problems, use the information in Satellite 6: How to enable postgres query logging to detect slow running queries to determine if you have slow queries. Queries that take longer than one second are typically caused by performance issues with large installations, and moving to an external database might not help. If you have slow queries, contact Red Hat Support.

4.2. Preparing a host for external databases

Install a freshly provisioned system with the latest Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 or Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 to host the external databases.

Subscriptions for Red Hat Enterprise Linux do not provide the correct service level agreement for using Satellite with external databases. You must also attach a Satellite subscription to the base operating system that you want to use for the external databases.

Prerequisites

Procedure

Select the operating system and version you are installing external database on:

4.2.1. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9

  1. Disable all repositories: 

    # subscription-manager repos --disable "*"

  2. Enable the following repositories: 

    # subscription-manager repos \
--enable=satellite-6.16-for-rhel-9-x86_64-rpms \
--enable=satellite-maintenance-6.16-for-rhel-9-x86_64-rpms \
--enable=rhel-9-for-x86_64-baseos-rpms \
--enable=rhel-9-for-x86_64-appstream-rpms

Verification

  • Verify that the required repositories are enabled: 

    # dnf repolist enabled

4.2.2. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8

  1. Disable all repositories: 

    # subscription-manager repos --disable "*"

  2. Enable the following repositories: 

    # subscription-manager repos \
--enable=satellite-6.16-for-rhel-8-x86_64-rpms \
--enable=satellite-maintenance-6.16-for-rhel-8-x86_64-rpms \
--enable=rhel-8-for-x86_64-baseos-rpms \
--enable=rhel-8-for-x86_64-appstream-rpms

  3. Enable the following module: 

    # dnf module enable satellite:el8
    Note

    Enablement of the module satellite:el8 warns about a conflict with postgresql:10 and ruby:2.5 as these modules are set to the default module versions on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8. The module satellite:el8 has a dependency for the modules postgresql:12 and ruby:2.7 that will be enabled with the satellite:el8 module. These warnings do not cause installation process failure, hence can be ignored safely. For more information about modules and lifecycle streams on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, see Red Hat Enterprise Linux Application Streams Lifecycle.

Verification

  • Verify that the required repositories are enabled: 

    # dnf repolist enabled

4.3. Installing PostgreSQL

You can install only the same version of PostgreSQL that is installed with the satellite-installer tool during an internal database installation. Satellite supports PostgreSQL version 12.

Procedure

  1. To install PostgreSQL, enter the following command: 

    # dnf install postgresql-server postgresql-evr postgresql-contrib

  2. To initialize PostgreSQL, enter the following command: 

    # postgresql-setup initdb

  3. Edit the /var/lib/pgsql/data/postgresql.conf file: 

    # vi /var/lib/pgsql/data/postgresql.conf

    Note that the default configuration of external PostgreSQL needs to be adjusted to work with Satellite. The base recommended external database configuration adjustments are as follows:

    • checkpoint_completion_target: 0.9
    • max_connections: 500
    • shared_buffers: 512MB
    • work_mem: 4MB

  4. Remove the # and edit to listen to inbound connections: 

    listen_addresses = '*'

  5. Add the following line to the end of the file to use SCRAM for authentication: 

    password_encryption=scram-sha-256

  6. Edit the /var/lib/pgsql/data/pg_hba.conf file: 

    # vi /var/lib/pgsql/data/pg_hba.conf

  7. Add the following line to the file: 

      host  all   all   Satellite_ip/32   scram-sha-256

  8. To start, and enable PostgreSQL service, enter the following commands: 

    # systemctl enable --now postgresql

  9. Open the postgresql port on the external PostgreSQL server: 

    # firewall-cmd --add-service=postgresql

  10. Make the changes persistent: 

    # firewall-cmd --runtime-to-permanent

  11. Switch to the postgres user and start the PostgreSQL client: 

    $ su - postgres -c psql

  12. Create three databases and dedicated roles: one for Satellite, one for Candlepin, and one for Pulp: 

    CREATE USER "foreman" WITH PASSWORD 'Foreman_Password';
CREATE USER "candlepin" WITH PASSWORD 'Candlepin_Password';
CREATE USER "pulp" WITH PASSWORD 'Pulpcore_Password';
CREATE DATABASE foreman OWNER foreman;
CREATE DATABASE candlepin OWNER candlepin;
CREATE DATABASE pulpcore OWNER pulp;

  13. Connect to the Pulp database: 

    postgres=# \c pulpcore
You are now connected to database "pulpcore" as user "postgres".

  14. Create the hstore extension: 

    pulpcore=# CREATE EXTENSION IF NOT EXISTS "hstore";
CREATE EXTENSION

  15. Exit the postgres user: 

    # \q

  16. From Satellite Server, test that you can access the database. If the connection succeeds, the commands return 1. 

    # PGPASSWORD='Foreman_Password' psql -h postgres.example.com  -p 5432 -U foreman -d foreman -c "SELECT 1 as ping"
# PGPASSWORD='Candlepin_Password' psql -h postgres.example.com -p 5432 -U candlepin -d candlepin -c "SELECT 1 as ping"
# PGPASSWORD='Pulpcore_Password' psql -h postgres.example.com -p 5432 -U pulp -d pulpcore -c "SELECT 1 as ping"

4.4. Migrating to external databases

Back up and transfer existing data, then use the satellite-installer command to configure Satellite to connect to an external PostgreSQL database server.

Prerequisites

  • You have installed and configured a PostgreSQL server on a Red Hat Enterprise Linux server.

Procedure

  1. On Satellite Server, stop all Satellite services except for PostgreSQL: 

    # satellite-maintain service stop --exclude postgresql

  2. Back up the internal databases: 

    # satellite-maintain backup online \
--preserve-directory \
--skip-pulp-content \
/var/migration_backup

  3. Transfer the data to the new external databases: 

    PGPASSWORD='Foreman_Password' pg_restore -h postgres.example.com -U foreman -d foreman < /var/migration_backup/foreman.dump
PGPASSWORD='Candlepin_Password' pg_restore -h postgres.example.com -U candlepin -d candlepin < /var/migration_backup/candlepin.dump
PGPASSWORD='Pulpcore_Password' pg_restore -h postgres.example.com -U pulp -d pulpcore < /var/migration_backup/pulpcore.dump

  4. Use the satellite-installer command to update Satellite to point to the new databases: 

    # satellite-installer \
--katello-candlepin-manage-db false \
--katello-candlepin-db-host postgres.example.com \
--katello-candlepin-db-name candlepin \
--katello-candlepin-db-user candlepin \
--katello-candlepin-db-password Candlepin_Password \
--foreman-proxy-content-pulpcore-manage-postgresql false \
--foreman-proxy-content-pulpcore-postgresql-host postgres.example.com \
--foreman-proxy-content-pulpcore-postgresql-db-name pulpcore \
--foreman-proxy-content-pulpcore-postgresql-user pulp \
--foreman-proxy-content-pulpcore-postgresql-password Pulpcore_Password \
--foreman-db-manage false \
--foreman-db-host postgres.example.com \
--foreman-db-database foreman \
--foreman-db-username foreman \
--foreman-db-password Foreman_Password

  5. Remove the PostgreSQL package on Satellite Server: 

    # satellite-maintain packages remove postgresql-server

  6. Remove the PostgreSQL data directory: 

    # rm -fr /var/lib/pgsql/data

Chapter 5. Managing Satellite with Ansible collections

Satellite Ansible Collections is a set of Ansible modules that interact with the Satellite API. You can manage and automate many aspects of Satellite with Satellite Ansible collections.

5.1. Installing the Satellite Ansible modules

Use this procedure to install the Satellite Ansible modules.

Procedure

  • Install the package using the following command: 

    # satellite-maintain packages install ansible-collection-redhat-satellite

5.2. Viewing the Satellite Ansible modules

You can view the installed Satellite Ansible modules by running: 

# ansible-doc -l redhat.satellite

Alternatively, you can also see the complete list of Satellite Ansible modules and other related information at Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform.

All modules are in the redhat.satellite namespace and can be referred to in the format redhat.satellite._module_name_. For example, to display information about the activation_key module, enter the following command: 

$ ansible-doc redhat.satellite.activation_key

Chapter 6. Managing organizations

Organizations divide Red Hat Satellite resources into logical groups based on ownership, purpose, content, security level, or other divisions. You can create and manage multiple organizations through Red Hat Satellite, then divide and assign your Red Hat subscriptions to each individual organization. This provides a method of managing the content of several individual organizations under one management system.

6.1. Examples of using organizations in Satellite

Single Organization

Using a single organization is well suited for a small business with a simple system administration chain.

In this case, you create a single organization for the business and assign content to it. You can also use the Default Organization for this purpose.

Multiple Organizations

Using multiple organizations is well suited for a large company that owns several smaller business units. For example, a company with separate system administration and software development groups.

In this case, you create one organization for the company and then an organization for each of the business units it owns. You then assign content to each organization based on its needs.

External Organizations

Using external organizations is well suited for a company that manages external systems for other organizations. For example, a company offering cloud computing and web hosting resources to customers.

In this case, you create an organization for the company’s own system infrastructure and then an organization for each external business. You then assign content to each organization where necessary.

6.2. Creating an organization

Use this procedure to create an organization. To use the CLI instead of the Satellite web UI, see the CLI procedure.

Procedure

  1. In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Administer > Organizations.
  2. Click New Organization.
  3. In the Name field, enter a name for the organization.
  4. In the Label field, enter a unique identifier for the organization. This is used for creating and mapping certain assets, such as directories for content storage. Use letters, numbers, underscores, and dashes, but no spaces.
  5. Optional: In the Description field, enter a description for the organization.
  6. Click Submit.
  7. If you have hosts with no organization assigned, select the hosts that you want to add to the organization, then click Proceed to Edit.
  8. In the Edit page, assign the infrastructure resources that you want to add to the organization. This includes networking resources, installation media, Kickstart templates, and other parameters. You can return to this page at any time by navigating to Administer > Organizations and then selecting an organization to edit.
  9. Click Submit.

CLI procedure

  1. To create an organization, enter the following command: 

    # hammer organization create \
--name "My_Organization" \
--label "My_Organization_Label" \
--description "My_Organization_Description"

  2. Optional: To edit an organization, enter the hammer organization update command. For example, the following command assigns a compute resource to the organization: 

    # hammer organization update \
--name "My_Organization" \
--compute-resource-ids 1

6.3. Creating an organization debug certificate

If you require a debug certificate for your organization, use the following procedure.

Procedure

  1. In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Administer > Organizations.
  2. Select an organization that you want to generate a debug certificate for.
  3. Click Generate and Download.
  4. Save the certificate file in a secure location.

Debug certificates for provisioning templates

Debug Certificates are automatically generated for provisioning template downloads if they do not already exist in the organization for which they are being downloaded.

6.4. Browsing repository content using an organization debug certificate

You can view an organization’s repository content using a web browser or using the API if you have a debug certificate for that organization.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Split the private and public keys from the certificate into two files.

    1. Open the X.509 certificate, for example, for the default organization: 

      $ vi 'Default Organization-key-cert.pem'
    2. Copy the contents of the file from -----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY----- to -----END RSA PRIVATE KEY-----, into a key.pem file.
    3. Copy the contents of the file from -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----- to -----END CERTIFICATE-----, into a cert.pem file.
  2. To use a browser, you must first convert the X.509 certificate to a format your browser supports and then import the certificate.

For Firefox users

  1. Convert the certificate into the PKCS12 format using the following command: 

    $ openssl pkcs12 -keypbe PBE-SHA1-3DES -certpbe PBE-SHA1-3DES -export -in cert.pem -inkey key.pem -out My_Organization_Label.pfx -name My_Organization
  2. In the Firefox browser, navigate to Edit > Preferences > Advanced Tab.
  3. Select View Certificates and click the Your Certificates tab.
  4. Click Import and select the .pfx file to load.

  5. Enter the following URL in the address bar to browse the accessible paths for all the repositories and check their contents: 

    https://satellite.example.com/pulp/content/

For CURL users

  • To use the organization debug certificate with CURL, enter the following command: 

    $ curl -k --cert cert.pem --key key.pem \
https://satellite.example.com/pulp/content/My_Organization_Label/Library/content/dist/rhel/server/7/7Server/x86_64/os/

    Ensure that the paths to cert.pem and key.pem are the correct absolute paths otherwise the command fails silently. Pulp uses the organization label, therefore, you must enter the organization label into the URL.

6.5. Deleting an organization

You can delete an organization if the organization is not associated with any lifecycle environments or host groups. If there are any lifecycle environments or host groups associated with the organization you are about to delete, remove them by navigating to Administer > Organizations and clicking the relevant organization.

Important

Do not delete Default Organization created during installation because the default organization is a placeholder for any unassociated hosts in your Satellite environment. There must be at least one organization in the environment at any given time.

Procedure

  1. In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Administer > Organizations.
  2. From the list to the right of the name of the organization you want to delete, select Delete.
  3. Click OK to delete the organization.

CLI procedure

  1. Enter the following command to retrieve the ID of the organization that you want to delete: 

    # hammer organization list

    From the output, note the ID of the organization that you want to delete.

  2. Enter the following command to delete an organization: 

    # hammer organization delete --id Organization_ID

Chapter 7. Managing locations

Locations function similar to organizations: they provide a method to group resources and assign hosts. Organizations and locations have the following conceptual differences:

  • Locations are based on physical or geographical settings.
  • Locations have a hierarchical structure.

7.1. Creating a location

Use this procedure to create a location so that you can manage your hosts and resources by location. To use the CLI instead of the Satellite web UI, see the CLI procedure.

Procedure

  1. In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Administer > Locations.
  2. Click New Location.
  3. Optional: From the Parent list, select a parent location. This creates a location hierarchy.
  4. In the Name field, enter a name for the location.
  5. Optional: In the Description field, enter a description for the location.
  6. Click Submit.
  7. If you have hosts with no location assigned, add any hosts that you want to assign to the new location, then click Proceed to Edit.
  8. Assign any infrastructure resources that you want to add to the location. This includes networking resources, installation media, Kickstart templates, and other parameters. You can return to this page at any time by navigating to Administer > Locations and then selecting a location to edit.
  9. Click Submit to save your changes.

CLI procedure

  • Enter the following command to create a location: 

    # hammer location create \
--description "My_Location_Description" \
--name "My_Location" \
--parent-id "My_Location_Parent_ID"

7.2. Creating multiple locations

The following example Bash script creates three locations – London, Munich, Boston – and assigns them to the Example Organization. 

ORG="Example Organization"
LOCATIONS="London Munich Boston"

for LOC in ${LOCATIONS}
do
  hammer location create --name "${LOC}"
  hammer location add-organization --name "${LOC}" --organization "${ORG}"
done

7.3. Setting the location context

A location context defines the location to use for a host and its associated resources.

Procedure

The location menu is the second menu item in the menu bar, on the upper left of the Satellite web UI. If you have not selected a current location, the menu displays Any Location. Click Any location and select the location to use.

CLI procedure

While using the CLI, include either --location "My_Location" or --location-id "My_Location_ID" as an option. For example: 

# hammer host list --location "My_Location"

This command lists hosts associated with the My_Location location.

7.4. Deleting a location

You can delete a location if the location is not associated with any lifecycle environments or host groups. If there are any lifecycle environments or host groups associated with the location you are about to delete, remove them by navigating to Administer > Locations and clicking the relevant location. Do not delete the default location created during installation because the default location is a placeholder for any unassociated hosts in the Satellite environment. There must be at least one location in the environment at any given time.

Procedure

  1. In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Administer > Locations.
  2. Select Delete from the list to the right of the name of the location you want to delete.
  3. Click OK to delete the location.

CLI procedure

  1. Enter the following command to retrieve the ID of the location that you want to delete: 

    # hammer location list

    From the output, note the ID of the location that you want to delete.

  2. Enter the following command to delete the location: 

    # hammer location delete --id Location ID

Chapter 8. Managing users and roles

A User defines a set of details for individuals who use the system. Users can be associated with organizations and environments, so that when they create new entities, the default settings are automatically used. Users can also have one or more roles attached, which grants them rights to view and manage organizations and environments. See Section 8.1, “Managing users” for more information on working with users.

You can manage permissions of several users at once by organizing them into user groups. User groups themselves can be further grouped to create a hierarchy of permissions. For more information on creating user groups, see Section 8.4, “Creating and managing user groups”.

Roles define a set of permissions and access levels. Each role contains one on more permission filters that specify the actions allowed for the role. Actions are grouped according to the Resource type. Once a role has been created, users and user groups can be associated with that role. This way, you can assign the same set of permissions to large groups of users. Satellite provides a set of predefined roles and also enables creating custom roles and permission filters as described in Section 8.5, “Creating and managing roles”.

8.1. Managing users

As an administrator, you can create, modify and remove Satellite users. You can also configure access permissions for a user or a group of users by assigning them different roles.

8.1.1. Creating a user

Use this procedure to create a user. To use the CLI instead of the Satellite web UI, see the CLI procedure.

Procedure

  1. In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Administer > Users.
  2. Click Create User.
  3. Enter the account details for the new user.
  4. Click Submit to create the user.

The user account details that you can specify include the following:

  • On the User tab, select an authentication source from the Authorized by list:

    • INTERNAL: to manage the user inside Satellite Server.
    • EXTERNAL: to manage the user with external authentication. For more information, see Configuring External Authentication in Installing Satellite Server in a connected network environment.

  • On the Organizations tab, select an organization for the user. Specify the default organization Satellite selects for the user after login from the Default on login list.

    Important

    If a user is not assigned to an organization, their access is limited.

CLI procedure

  • Create a user: 

    # hammer user create \
--auth-source-id My_Authentication_Source \
--login My_User_Name \
--mail My_User_Mail \
--organization-ids My_Organization_ID_1,My_Organization_ID_2 \
--password My_User_Password

    The --auth-source-id 1 setting means that the user is authenticated internally, you can specify an external authentication source as an alternative. Add the --admin option to grant administrator privileges to the user. Specifying organization IDs is not required.

    You can modify the user details later by using the hammer user update command.

Additional resources

  • For more information about creating user accounts by using Hammer, enter hammer user create --help.

8.1.2. Assigning roles to a user

Use this procedure to assign roles to a user. To use the CLI instead of the Satellite web UI, see the CLI procedure.

Procedure

  1. In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Administer > Users.

  2. Click the username of the user to be assigned one or more roles.

    Note

    If a user account is not listed, check that you are currently viewing the correct organization. To list all the users in Satellite, click Default Organization and then Any Organization.

  3. Click the Locations tab, and select a location if none is assigned.
  4. Click the Organizations tab, and check that an organization is assigned.
  5. Click the Roles tab to display the list of available roles.

  6. Select the roles to assign from the Roles list.

    To grant all the available permissions, select the Administrator checkbox.

  7. Click Submit.

To view the roles assigned to a user, click the Roles tab; the assigned roles are listed under Selected items. To remove an assigned role, click the role name in Selected items.

CLI procedure

  • To assign roles to a user, enter the following command: 

    # hammer user add-role --id user_id --role role_name

8.1.3. Impersonating a different user account

Administrators can impersonate other authenticated users for testing and troubleshooting purposes by temporarily logging on to the Satellite web UI as a different user. When impersonating another user, the administrator has permissions to access exactly what the impersonated user can access in the system, including the same menus.

Audits are created to record the actions that the administrator performs while impersonating another user. However, all actions that an administrator performs while impersonating another user are recorded as having been performed by the impersonated user.

Prerequisites

  • Ensure that you are logged on to the Satellite web UI as a user with administrator privileges for Satellite.

Procedure

  1. In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Administer > Users.
  2. To the right of the user that you want to impersonate, from the list in the Actions column, select Impersonate.

When you want to stop the impersonation session, in the upper right of the main menu, click the impersonation icon.

8.1.4. Creating an API-only user

You can create users that can interact only with the Satellite API.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Log in to your Satellite as admin.
  2. Navigate to Administer > Users and select a user.

  3. On the User tab, set a password. Do not save or communicate this password with others. You can create pseudo-random strings on your console: 

    # openssl rand -hex 32
  4. Create a Personal Access Token for the user. For more information, see Section 8.3.1, “Creating a Personal Access Token”.

8.2. Managing SSH keys

Adding SSH keys to a user allows deployment of SSH keys during provisioning. For information on deploying SSH keys during provisioning, see Deploying SSH Keys during Provisioning in Provisioning hosts.

For information on SSH keys and SSH key creation, see Using SSH-based Authentication in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 Configuring basic system settings.

8.2.1. Managing SSH keys for a user

Use this procedure to add or remove SSH keys for a user. To use the CLI instead of the Satellite web UI, see the CLI procedure.

Prerequisites

  • Ensure that you are logged in to the Satellite web UI as an Admin user of Red Hat Satellite or a user with the create_ssh_key permission enabled for adding SSH key and destroy_ssh_key permission for removing a key.

Procedure

  1. In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Administer > Users.
  2. From the Username column, click on the username of the required user.

  3. Click on the SSH Keys tab.

    • To Add SSH key

      1. Prepare the content of the public SSH key in a clipboard.
      2. Click Add SSH Key.
      3. In the Key field, paste the public SSH key content from the clipboard.
      4. In the Name field, enter a name for the SSH key.
      5. Click Submit.

    • To Remove SSH key

      1. Click Delete on the row of the SSH key to be deleted.
      2. Click OK in the confirmation prompt.

CLI procedure

To add an SSH key to a user, you must specify either the path to the public SSH key file, or the content of the public SSH key copied to the clipboard.

  • If you have the public SSH key file, enter the following command: 

    # hammer user ssh-keys add \
--user-id user_id \
--name key_name \
--key-file ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

  • If you have the content of the public SSH key, enter the following command: 

    # hammer user ssh-keys add \
--user-id user_id \
--name key_name \
--key ecdsa-sha2-nistp256 AAAAE2VjZHNhLXNoYTItbmlzdHAyNTYAAAAIbmlzdHAyNtYAAABBBHHS2KmNyIYa27Qaa7EHp+2l99ucGStx4P77e03ZvE3yVRJEFikpoP3MJtYYfIe8k 1/46MTIZo9CPTX4CYUHeN8= host@user

To delete an SSH key from a user, enter the following command: 

# hammer user ssh-keys delete --id key_id --user-id user_id

To view an SSH key attached to a user, enter the following command: 

# hammer user ssh-keys info --id key_id --user-id user_id

To list SSH keys attached to a user, enter the following command: 

# hammer user ssh-keys list --user-id user_id

8.3. Managing Personal Access Tokens

Personal Access Tokens allow you to authenticate API requests without using your password. You can set an expiration date for your Personal Access Token and you can revoke it if you decide it should expire before the expiration date.

8.3.1. Creating a Personal Access Token

Use this procedure to create a Personal Access Token.

Procedure

  1. In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Administer > Users.
  2. Select a user for which you want to create a Personal Access Token.
  3. On the Personal Access Tokens tab, click Add Personal Access Token.
  4. Enter a Name for you Personal Access Token.
  5. Optional: Select the Expires date to set an expiration date. If you do not set an expiration date, your Personal Access Token will never expire unless revoked.

  6. Click Submit. You now have the Personal Access Token available to you on the Personal Access Tokens tab.

    Important

    Ensure to store your Personal Access Token as you will not be able to access it again after you leave the page or create a new Personal Access Token. You can click Copy to clipboard to copy your Personal Access Token.

Verification

  1. Make an API request to your Satellite Server and authenticate with your Personal Access Token: 

    # curl https://satellite.example.com/api/status --user My_Username:My_Personal_Access_Token

  2. You should receive a response with status 200, for example: 

    {"satellite_version":"6.16.0","result":"ok","status":200,"version":"3.5.1.10","api_version":2}

    If you go back to Personal Access Tokens tab, you can see the updated Last Used time next to your Personal Access Token.

8.3.2. Revoking a Personal Access Token

Use this procedure to revoke a Personal Access Token before its expiration date.

Procedure

  1. In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Administer > Users.
  2. Select a user for which you want to revoke the Personal Access Token.
  3. On the Personal Access Tokens tab, locate the Personal Access Token you want to revoke.
  4. Click Revoke in the Actions column next to the Personal Access Token you want to revoke.

Verification

  1. Make an API request to your Satellite Server and try to authenticate with the revoked Personal Access Token: 

    # curl https://satellite.example.com/api/status --user My_Username:My_Personal_Access_Token

  2. You receive the following error message: 

    {
  "error": {"message":"Unable to authenticate user My_Username"}
}

8.4. Creating and managing user groups

8.4.1. User groups

With Satellite, you can assign permissions to groups of users. You can also create user groups as collections of other user groups. If you use an external authentication source, you can map Satellite user groups to external user groups as described in Configuring External User Groups in Installing Satellite Server in a connected network environment.

User groups are defined in an organizational context, meaning that you must select an organization before you can access user groups.

8.4.2. Creating a user group

Use this procedure to create a user group.

Procedure

  1. In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Administer > User Groups.
  2. Click Create User group.

  3. On the User Group tab, specify the name of the new user group and select group members:

    • Select the previously created user groups from the User Groups list.
    • Select users from the Users list.
  4. On the Roles tab, select the roles you want to assign to the user group. Alternatively, select the Admin checkbox to assign all available permissions.
  5. Click Submit.

CLI procedure

  • To create a user group, enter the following command: 

    # hammer user-group create \
--name My_User_Group_Name \
--role-ids My_Role_ID_1,My_Role_ID_2 \
--user-ids My_User_ID_1,My_User_ID_2

8.4.3. Removing a user group

Use the following procedure to remove a user group from Satellite.

Procedure

  1. In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Administer > User Groups.
  2. Click Delete to the right of the user group you want to delete.
  3. Click Confirm to delete the user group.

8.5. Creating and managing roles

Satellite provides a set of predefined roles with permissions sufficient for standard tasks, as listed in Section 8.6, “Predefined roles available in Satellite”. It is also possible to configure custom roles, and assign one or more permission filters to them. Permission filters define the actions allowed for a certain resource type. Certain Satellite plugins create roles automatically.

8.5.1. Creating a role

Use this procedure to create a role.

Procedure

  1. In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Administer > Roles.
  2. Click Create Role.
  3. Provide a Name for the role.
  4. Click Submit to save your new role.

CLI procedure

  • To create a role, enter the following command: 

    # hammer role create --name My_Role_Name

To serve its purpose, a role must contain permissions. After creating a role, proceed to Section 8.5.3, “Adding permissions to a role”.

8.5.2. Cloning a role

Use the Satellite web UI to clone a role.

Procedure

  1. In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Administer > Roles and select Clone from the drop-down menu to the right of the required role.
  2. Provide a Name for the role.
  3. Click Submit to clone the role.
  4. Click the name of the cloned role and navigate to Filters.
  5. Edit the permissions as required.
  6. Click Submit to save your new role.

8.5.3. Adding permissions to a role

Use this procedure to add permissions to a role. To use the CLI instead of the Satellite web UI, see the CLI procedure.

Procedure

  1. In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Administer > Roles.
  2. Select Add Filter from the drop-down list to the right of the required role.
  3. Select the Resource type from the drop-down list. The (Miscellaneous) group gathers permissions that are not associated with any resource group.
  4. Click the permissions you want to select from the Permission list.
  5. Depending on the Resource type selected, you can select or deselect the Unlimited and Override checkbox. The Unlimited checkbox is selected by default, which means that the permission is applied on all resources of the selected type. When you disable the Unlimited checkbox, the Search field activates. In this field you can specify further filtering with use of the Satellite search syntax. For more information, see Section 8.7, “Granular permission filtering”. When you enable the Override checkbox, you can add additional locations and organizations to allow the role to access the resource type in the additional locations and organizations; you can also remove an already associated location and organization from the resource type to restrict access.
  6. Click Next.
  7. Click Submit to save changes.

CLI procedure

  1. List all available permissions: 

    # hammer filter available-permissions

  2. Add permissions to a role: 

    # hammer filter create \
--permission-ids My_Permission_ID_1,My_Permission_ID_2 \
--role My_Role_Name

For more information about roles and permissions parameters, enter the hammer role --help and hammer filter --help commands.

8.5.4. Viewing permissions of a role

Use the Satellite web UI to view the permissions of a role.

Procedure

  1. In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Administer > Roles.
  2. Click Filters to the right of the required role to get to the Filters page.

The Filters page contains a table of permissions assigned to a role grouped by the resource type. It is also possible to generate a complete table of permissions and actions that you can use on your Satellite system. For more information, see Section 8.5.5, “Creating a complete permission table”.

8.5.5. Creating a complete permission table

Use the Satellite CLI to create a permission table.

Procedure

  1. Start the Satellite console with the following command: 

    # foreman-rake console

  2. Insert the following code into the console: 

    f = File.open('/tmp/table.html', 'w')

result = Foreman::AccessControl.permissions {|a,b| a.security_block <=> b.security_block}.collect do |p|
      actions = p.actions.collect { |a| "<li>#{a}</li>" }
      "<tr><td>#{p.name}</td><td><ul>#{actions.join('')}</ul></td><td>#{p.resource_type}</td></tr>"
end.join("\n")

f.write(result)

    The above syntax creates a table of permissions and saves it to the /tmp/table.html file.

  3. Press Ctrl + D to exit the Satellite console.

  4. Insert the following text at the first line of /tmp/table.html: 

    <table border="1"><tr><td>Permission name</td><td>Actions</td><td>Resource type</td></tr>

  5. Append the following text at the end of /tmp/table.html: 

    </table>
  6. Open /tmp/table.html in a web browser to view the table.

8.5.6. Removing a role

Use the following procedure to remove a role from Satellite.

Procedure

  1. In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Administer > Roles.
  2. Select Delete from the drop-down list to the right of the role to be deleted.
  3. Click Confirm to delete the role.

8.6. Predefined roles available in Satellite

The following table provides an overview of permissions that predefined roles in Satellite grant to a user.

For a complete set of predefined roles and the permissions they grant, log in to Satellite web UI as the privileged user and navigate to Administer > Roles. For more information, see Section 8.5.4, “Viewing permissions of a role”.

Predefined rolePermissions the role providesAdditional information

Auditor

View the Audit log.

 

Default role

View tasks and jobs invocations.

Satellite automatically assigns this role to every user in the system.

Manager

View and edit global settings.

 

Organization admin

All permissions except permissions for managing organizations.

An administrator role defined per organization. The role has no visibility into resources in other organizations.

By cloning this role and assigning an organization, you can delegate administration of that organization to a user.

Site manager

View permissions for various items.

Permissions to manage hosts in the infrastructure.

A restrained version of the Manager role.

System admin

Edit global settings in Administer > Settings.

View, create, edit, and destroy users, user groups, and roles.

View, create, edit, destroy, and assign organizations and locations but not view resources within them.

Users with this role can create users and assign all roles to them. Give this role only to trusted users.

Viewer

View the configuration of every element of the Satellite structure, logs, reports, and statistics.

 

8.7. Granular permission filtering

As mentioned in Section 8.5.3, “Adding permissions to a role”, Red Hat Satellite provides the ability to limit the configured user permissions to selected instances of a resource type. These granular filters are queries to the Satellite database and are supported by the majority of resource types.

8.7.1. Creating a granular permission filter

Use this procedure to create a granular filter. To use the CLI instead of the Satellite web UI, see the CLI procedure.

Satellite does not apply search conditions to create actions. For example, limiting the create_locations action with name = "Default Location" expression in the search field does not prevent the user from assigning a custom name to the newly created location.

Procedure

Specify a query in the Search field on the Edit Filter page. Deselect the Unlimited checkbox for the field to be active. Queries have the following form: 

field_name operator value
  • field_name marks the field to be queried. The range of available field names depends on the resource type. For example, the Partition Table resource type offers family, layout, and name as query parameters.
  • operator specifies the type of comparison between field_name and value. See Section 8.7.3, “Supported operators for granular search” for an overview of applicable operators.
  • value is the value used for filtering. This can be for example a name of an organization. Two types of wildcard characters are supported: underscore (_) provides single character replacement, while percent sign (%) replaces zero or more characters.

For most resource types, the Search field provides a drop-down list suggesting the available parameters. This list appears after placing the cursor in the search field. For many resource types, you can combine queries using logical operators such as and, not and has operators.

CLI procedure

  • To create a granular filter, enter the hammer filter create command with the --search option to limit permission filters, for example: 

    # hammer filter create \
--permission-ids 91 \
--search "name ~ ccv*" \
--role qa-user

This command adds to the qa-user role a permission to view, create, edit, and destroy content views that only applies to content views with name starting with ccv.

8.7.2. Examples of using granular permission filters

As an administrator, you can allow selected users to make changes in a certain part of the environment path. The following filter allows you to work with content while it is in the development stage of the application lifecycle, but the content becomes inaccessible once is pushed to production.

8.7.2.1. Applying permissions for the host resource type

The following query applies any permissions specified for the Host resource type only to hosts in the group named host-editors. 

hostgroup = host-editors

The following query returns records where the name matches XXXX, Yyyy, or zzzz example strings: 

name ^ (XXXX, Yyyy, zzzz)

You can also limit permissions to a selected environment. To do so, specify the environment name in the Search field, for example: 

Dev

You can limit user permissions to a certain organization or location with the use of the granular permission filter in the Search field. However, some resource types provide a GUI alternative, an Override checkbox that provides the Locations and Organizations tabs. On these tabs, you can select from the list of available organizations and locations. For more information, see Section 8.7.2.2, “Creating an organization-specific manager role”.

8.7.2.2. Creating an organization-specific manager role

Use the Satellite web UI to create an administrative role restricted to a single organization named org-1.

Procedure

  1. In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Administer > Roles.
  2. Clone the existing Organization admin role. Select Clone from the drop-down list next to the Filters button. You are then prompted to insert a name for the cloned role, for example org-1 admin.
  3. Click the desired locations and organizations to associate them with the role.
  4. Click Submit to create the role.
  5. Click org-1 admin, and click Filters to view all associated filters. The default filters work for most use cases. However, you can optionally click Edit to change the properties for each filter. For some filters, you can enable the Override option if you want the role to be able to access resources in additional locations and organizations. For example, by selecting the Domain resource type, the Override option, and then additional locations and organizations using the Locations and Organizations tabs, you allow this role to access domains in the additional locations and organizations that is not associated with this role. You can also click New filter to associate new filters with this role.

8.7.3. Supported operators for granular search

Table 8.1. Logical operators

Operator

Description

and

Combines search criteria.

not

Negates an expression.

has

Object must have a specified property.

Table 8.2. Symbolic operators

Operator

Description

=

Is equal to. An equality comparison that is case-sensitive for text fields.

!=

Is not equal to. An inversion of the = operator.

~

Like. A case-insensitive occurrence search for text fields.

!~

Not like. An inversion of the ~ operator.

^

In. An equality comparison that is case-sensitive search for text fields. This generates a different SQL query to the Is equal to comparison, and is more efficient for multiple value comparison.

!^

Not in. An inversion of the ^ operator.

>, >=

Greater than, greater than or equal to. Supported for numerical fields only.

<, ⇐

Less than, less than or equal to. Supported for numerical fields only.

Chapter 9. Configuring email notifications

Email notifications are created by Satellite Server periodically or after completion of certain events. The periodic notifications can be sent daily, weekly or monthly.

For an overview of available notification types, see Section 9.1, “Email notification types”.

Users do not receive any email notifications by default. An administrator can configure users to receive notifications based on criteria such as the type of notification, and frequency.

Important

Satellite Server does not enable outgoing emails by default, therefore you must review your email configuration. For more information, see Configuring Satellite Server for Outgoing Emails in Installing Satellite Server in a connected network environment.

9.1. Email notification types

Satellite can create the following email notifications:

Audit summary
A summary of all activity audited by Satellite Server.
Capsule sync failure
A notification sent after Capsule synchronization fails.
Compliance policy summary
A summary of OpenSCAP policy reports and their results.
Content view promote failure
A notification sent after content view promotion fails.
Content view publish failure
A notification sent after content view publication fails.
Host built
A notification sent after a host is built.
Host errata advisory
A summary of applicable and installable errata for hosts managed by the user.
Promote errata
A notification sent only after a content view promotion. It contains a summary of errata applicable and installable to hosts registered to the promoted content view. This allows a user to monitor what updates have been applied to which hosts.
Repository sync failure
A notification sent after repository synchronization fails.
Sync errata
A notification sent only after synchronizing a repository. It contains a summary of new errata introduced by the synchronization.

For a complete list of email notification types, navigate to Administer > Users in the Satellite web UI, click the Username of the required user, and select the Email Preferences tab.

9.2. Configuring email notification preferences

You can configure Satellite to send email messages to individual users registered to Satellite. Satellite sends the email to the email address that has been added to the account, if present. Users can edit the email address by clicking on their name in the top-right of the Satellite web UI and selecting My account.

Configure email notifications for a user from the Satellite web UI.

Note

If you want to send email notifications to a group email address instead of an individual email address, create a user account with the group email address and minimal Satellite permissions, then subscribe the user account to the desired notification types.

Prerequisites

  • The user you are configuring to receive email notifications has a role with this permission: view_mail_notifications.

Procedure

  1. In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Administer > Users.
  2. Click the Username of the user you want to edit.
  3. On the User tab, verify the value of the Mail field. Email notifications will be sent to the address in this field.
  4. On the Email Preferences tab, select Mail Enabled.

  5. Select the notifications you want the user to receive using the drop-down menus next to the notification types.

    Note

    The Audit Summary notification can be filtered by entering the required query in the Mail Query text box.

  6. Click Submit.

    The user will start receiving the notification emails.

9.3. Testing email delivery

To verify the delivery of emails, send a test email to a user. If the email gets delivered, the settings are correct.

Procedure

  1. In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Administer > Users.
  2. Click on the username.

  3. On the Email Preferences tab, click Test email.

    A test email message is sent immediately to the user’s email address.

If the email is delivered, the verification is complete. Otherwise, you must perform the following diagnostic steps:

  1. Verify the user’s email address.
  2. Verify Satellite Server’s email configuration.
  3. Examine firewall and mail server logs.

  4. If your Satellite Server uses the Postfix service for email delivery, the test email might be held in the queue. To verify, enter the mailq command to list the current mail queue. If the test email is held in the queue, mailq displays the following message: 

    postqueue: warning: Mail system is down -- accessing queue directly
-Queue ID-  --Size-- ----Arrival Time---- -Sender/Recipient-------
BE68482A783    1922 Thu Oct  3 05:13:36  satellite-noreply@example.com

    To fix the problem, start the Postfix service on your Satellite Server: 

    # systemctl start postfix

9.4. Testing email notifications

To verify that users are correctly subscribed to notifications, trigger the notifications manually.

Procedure

  • To trigger the notifications, execute the following command: 

    # foreman-rake reports:_My_Frequency_

    Replace My_Frequency with one of the following:

  • daily
  • weekly
  • monthly

This triggers all notifications scheduled for the specified frequency for all the subscribed users. If every subscribed user receives the notifications, the verification succeeds.

Note

Sending manually triggered notifications to individual users is currently not supported.

9.5. Changing email notification settings for a host

Satellite can send event notifications for a host to the host’s registered owner. You can configure Satellite to send email notifications either to an individual user or a user group. When set to a user group, all group members who are subscribed to the email type receive a message.

Receiving email notifications for a host can be useful, but also overwhelming if you are expecting to receive frequent errors, for example, because of a known issue or error you are working around.

Procedure

  1. In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Hosts > All Hosts, locate the host that you want to view, and click Edit in the Actions column.
  2. Go to the Additional Information tab. If the checkbox Include this host within Satellite reporting is checked, then the email notifications are enabled on that host.

  3. Optional: Toggle the checkbox to enable or disable the email notifications.

    Note

    If you want to receive email notifications, ensure that you have an email address set in your user settings.

Chapter 10. Backing up Satellite Server and Capsule Server

You can back up your Satellite deployment to ensure the continuity of your Red Hat Satellite deployment and associated data in the event of a disaster. If your deployment uses custom configurations, you must consider how to handle these custom configurations when you plan your backup and disaster recovery policy.

Note

If you create a new instance of the Satellite Server, decommission the old instances after restoring the backup. Cloned instances are not supposed to run in parallel in a production environment.

To create a backup of your Satellite Server or Capsule Server and all associated data, use the satellite-maintain backup command. Backing up to a separate storage device on a separate system is highly recommended.

Satellite services are unavailable during the backup. Therefore, you must ensure that no other tasks are scheduled by other administrators. You can schedule a backup by using cron. For more information, see the Section 10.5, “Example of a weekly full backup followed by daily incremental backups”.

During offline backups, the services are inactive and Satellite is in a maintenance mode. All the traffic from outside on port 443 is rejected by a firewall to ensure there are no modifications triggered.

A backup contains sensitive information from the /root/ssl-build directory. For example, it can contain hostnames, ssh keys, request files and SSL certificates. You must encrypt or move the backup to a secure location to minimize the risk of damage or unauthorized access to the hosts.

Conventional backup methods

You can also use conventional backup methods. For more information, see Recovering and restoring a system in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 Configuring basic system settings.

Note

If you plan to use the satellite-maintain backup command to create a backup, do not stop Satellite services.

  • When creating a snapshot or conventional backup, you must stop all services as follows: 

    # satellite-maintain service stop

  • Start the services after creating a snapshot or conventional backup: 

    # satellite-maintain service start

10.1. Estimating the size of a backup

The full backup creates uncompressed archives of PostgreSQL and Pulp database files, and Satellite configuration files. Compression occurs after the archives are created to decrease the time when Satellite services are unavailable.

A full backup requires space to store the following data:

  • Uncompressed Satellite database and configuration files
  • Compressed Satellite database and configuration files
  • An extra 20% of the total estimated space to ensure a reliable backup

Procedure

  1. Enter the du command to estimate the size of uncompressed directories containing Satellite database and configuration files: 

    # du -sh /var/lib/pgsql/data /var/lib/pulp
100G    /var/lib/pgsql/data
100G	/var/lib/pulp

# du -csh /var/lib/tftpboot /etc /root/ssl-build \
/var/www/html/pub /opt/puppetlabs
16M   /var/lib/tftpboot
37M   /etc
900K  /root/ssl-build
100K  /var/www/html/pub
2M    /opt/puppetlabs
942M  total

  2. Calculate how much space is required to store the compressed data.

    The following table describes the compression ratio of all data items included in the backup:

    Table 10.1. Backup data compression ratio
    Data typeDirectoryRatioExample results

    PostgreSQL database files

    /var/lib/pgsql/data

    80 – 85%

    100 GB → 20 GB

    Pulp RPM files

    /var/lib/pulp

    (not compressed)

    100 GB

    Configuration files

    /var/lib/tftpboot
    /etc
    /root/ssl-build
    /var/www/html/pub
    /opt/puppetlabs

    85%

    942 MB → 141 MB

    In this example, the compressed backup data occupies 120 GB in total.

  3. To calculate the amount of available space you require to store a backup, calculate the sum of the estimated values of compressed and uncompressed backup data, and add an extra 20% to ensure a reliable backup.

    This example requires 201 GB plus 120 GB for the uncompressed and compressed backup data, 321 GB in total. With 64 GB of extra space, 385 GB must be allocated for the backup location.

10.2. Performing a full backup of Satellite Server or Capsule Server

Red Hat Satellite uses the satellite-maintain backup command to make backups.

There are two main methods of backing up Satellite Server:

  • Offline backup

    All Satellite services are shut down during an offline backup.

  • Online backup

    Only Satellite services that affect the consistency of the backup are shut down while the backup process is running. Online backups check for consistency and require more time than offline backups.

For more information about each of these methods, you can view the usage statements for each backup method.

Offline backups

# satellite-maintain backup offline --help

Online backups

# satellite-maintain backup online --help

Directory creation

The satellite-maintain backup command creates a time-stamped subdirectory in the backup directory that you specify. The satellite-maintain backup command does not overwrite backups, therefore you must select the correct directory or subdirectory when restoring from a backup or an incremental backup. The satellite-maintain backup command stops and restarts services as required.

When you run the satellite-maintain backup offline command, the following default backup directories are created:

  • satellite-backup on Satellite
  • foreman-proxy-backup on Capsule

If you want to set a custom directory name, add the --preserve-directory option and add a directory name. The backup is then stored in the directory you provide in the command line. If you use the --preserve-directory option, no data is removed if the backup fails.

Note that if you use a local PostgreSQL database, the postgres user requires write access to the backup directory.

Remote databases

You can use the satellite-maintain backup command to back up remote databases.

You can use both online and offline methods to back up remote databases, but if you use offline method, the satellite-maintain backup command performs a database dump.

Backing up to a remote NFS share

To enable Satellite to save the backup to an NFS share, ensure that the root user of your Satellite Server or Capsule Server can write to the NFS share. NFS export options such as root_squash and all_squash are known to prevent this.

For more information, see Red Hat Enterprise Linux Configuring and using network files services and Red Hat Enterprise Linux Securing network services.

Prerequisites

Warning

Request other users of Satellite Server or Capsule Server to save any changes and warn them that Satellite services are unavailable for the duration of the backup. Ensure no other tasks are scheduled for the same time as the backup.

Procedure

  • On Satellite Server, enter the following command: 

    # satellite-maintain backup offline /var/satellite-backup

  • On Capsule Server, enter the following command: 

    # satellite-maintain backup offline /var/foreman-proxy-backup

10.3. Performing a backup without Pulp content

You can perform an offline backup that excludes the contents of the Pulp directory. The backup without Pulp content is useful for debugging purposes and is only intended to provide access to configuration files without backing up the Pulp database. For production usecases, do not restore from a directory that does not contain Pulp content.

Warning

Request other users of Satellite Server or Capsule Server to save any changes and warn them that Satellite services are unavailable for the duration of the backup. Ensure no other tasks are scheduled for the same time as the backup.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  • To perform an offline backup without Pulp content, enter the following command: 

    # satellite-maintain backup offline --skip-pulp-content /var/backup_directory

10.4. Performing an incremental backup

Use this procedure to perform an offline backup of any changes since a previous backup.

To perform incremental backups, you must perform a full backup as a reference to create the first incremental backup of a sequence. Keep the most recent full backup and a complete sequence of incremental backups to restore from.

Warning

Request other users of Satellite Server or Capsule Server to save any changes and warn them that Satellite services are unavailable for the duration of the backup. Ensure no other tasks are scheduled for the same time as the backup.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. To perform a full offline backup, enter the following command: 

    # satellite-maintain backup offline /var/backup_directory

  2. To create a directory within your backup directory to store the first incremental back up, enter the satellite-maintain backup command with the --incremental option: 

    # satellite-maintain backup offline --incremental /var/backup_directory/full_backup /var/backup_directory

  3. To create the second incremental backup, enter the satellite-maintain backup command with the --incremental option and include the path to the first incremental backup to indicate the starting point for the next increment. This creates a directory for the second incremental backup in your backup directory: 

    # satellite-maintain backup offline --incremental /var/backup_directory/first_incremental_backup /var/backup_directory

  4. Optional: If you want to point to a different version of the backup, and make a series of increments with that version of the backup as the starting point, you can do this at any time. For example, if you want to make a new incremental backup from the full backup rather than the first or second incremental backup, point to the full backup directory: 

    # satellite-maintain backup offline --incremental /var/backup_directory/full_backup /var/backup_directory

10.5. Example of a weekly full backup followed by daily incremental backups

The following script performs a full backup on a Sunday followed by incremental backups for each of the following days. A new subdirectory is created for each day that an incremental backup is performed. The script requires a daily cron job. 

#!/bin/bash -e
PATH=/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
DESTINATION=/var/backup_directory
if [[ $(date +%w) == 0 ]]; then
  satellite-maintain backup offline --assumeyes $DESTINATION
else
  LAST=$(ls -td -- $DESTINATION/*/ | head -n 1)
  satellite-maintain backup offline --assumeyes --incremental "$LAST" $DESTINATION
fi
exit 0

Note that the satellite-maintain backup command requires /sbin and /usr/sbin directories to be in PATH and the --assumeyes option is used to skip the confirmation prompt.

10.6. Performing an online backup

Perform an online backup only for debugging purposes.

Risks associated with online backups

When performing an online backup, if there are procedures affecting the Pulp database, the Pulp part of the backup procedure repeats until it is no longer being altered. Because the backup of the Pulp database is the most time consuming part of backing up Satellite, if you make a change that alters the Pulp database during this time, the backup procedure keeps restarting.

For production environments, use the offline method. For more information, see Section 10.2, “Performing a full backup of Satellite Server or Capsule Server”. If you want to use the online backup method in production, proceed with caution and ensure that no modifications occur during the backup.

Warning

Request other users of Satellite Server or Capsule Server to save any changes and warn them that Satellite services are unavailable for the duration of the backup. Ensure no other tasks are scheduled for the same time as the backup.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  • To perform an online backup, enter the following command: 

    # satellite-maintain backup online /var/backup_directory

10.7. Skipping steps when performing backups

A backup using the satellite-maintain backup command proceeds in a sequence of steps. To skip part of the backup, add the --whitelist option to the command and the step label that you want to omit.

Procedure

  • To display a list of available step labels, enter the following command: 

    # satellite-maintain advanced procedure run -h

  • To skip a step of the backup, enter the satellite-maintain backup command with the --whitelist option. For example: 

    # satellite-maintain backup online \
--whitelist backup-metadata \
/var/backup_directory

Chapter 11. Restoring Satellite Server or Capsule Server from a backup

You can restore Satellite Server or Capsule Server from the backup data that you create as part of Chapter 10, Backing up Satellite Server and Capsule Server. This process outlines how to restore the backup on the same server that generated the backup, and all data covered by the backup is deleted on the target system. If the original system is unavailable, provision a system with the same configuration settings and host name.

11.1. Restoring from a full backup

Use this procedure to restore Red Hat Satellite or Capsule Server from a full backup. When the restore process completes, all processes are online, and all databases and system configuration revert to the state at the time of the backup.

Prerequisites

  • Ensure that you are restoring to the correct instance. The Red Hat Satellite instance must have the same host name, configuration, and be the same minor version (X.Y) as the original system.
  • Ensure that you have an existing target directory. The target directory is read from the configuration files contained within the archive.

  • Ensure that you have enough space to store this data on the base system of Satellite Server or Capsule Server as well as enough space after the restoration to contain all the data in the /etc/ and /var/ directories contained within the backup.

    To check the space used by a directory, enter the following command: 

    # du -sh /var/backup_directory

    To check for free space, enter the following command: 

    # df -h /var/backup_directory

    Add the --total option to get a total of the results from more than one directory.

  • Ensure that all SELinux contexts are correct. Enter the following command to restore the correct SELinux contexts: 

    # restorecon -Rv /

Procedure

  1. Choose the appropriate method to install Satellite or Capsule:

  2. Copy the backup data to Satellite Server’s local file system. Use /var/ or /var/tmp/.

  3. Run the restoration script. 

    # satellite-maintain restore /var/backup_directory

    Where backup_directory is the time-stamped directory or subdirectory containing the backed-up data.

    The restore process can take a long time to complete, because of the amount of data to copy.

Additional resources

  • For troubleshooting, you can check /var/log/foreman/production.log and /var/log/messages.

11.2. Restoring from incremental backups

Use this procedure to restore Satellite or Capsule Server from incremental backups. If you have multiple branches of incremental backups, select your full backup and each incremental backup for the branch you want to restore, in chronological order.

When the restore process completes, all processes are online, and all databases and system configuration revert to the state at the time of the backup.

Procedure

  1. Restore the last full backup using the instructions in Section 11.1, “Restoring from a full backup”.
  2. Remove the full backup data from Satellite Server’s local file system, for example, /var/ or /var/tmp/.
  3. Copy the incremental backup data to Satellite Server’s local file system, for example, /var/ or /var/tmp/.

  4. Restore the incremental backups in the same sequence that they are made: 

    # satellite-maintain restore /var/backup_directory/FIRST_INCREMENTAL
# satellite-maintain restore /var/backup_directory/SECOND_INCREMENTAL

Additional resources

  • For troubleshooting, you can check /var/log/foreman/production.log and /var/log/messages.

11.3. Backup and restore Capsule Server by using a virtual machine snapshot

If your Capsule Server is a virtual machine, you can restore it from a snapshot. Creating weekly snapshots to restore from is recommended. In the event of failure, you can install, or configure a new Capsule Server, and then synchronize the database content from Satellite Server.

If required, deploy a new Capsule Server, ensuring the host name is the same as before, and then install the Capsule certificates. You may still have them on Satellite Server, the package name ends in -certs.tar, alternately create new ones. Follow the procedures in Installing Capsule Server until you can confirm, in the Satellite web UI, that Capsule Server is connected to Satellite Server. Then use the procedure Section 11.3.1, “Synchronizing content from Satellite Server to Capsule Servers” to synchronize from Satellite.

11.3.1. Synchronizing content from Satellite Server to Capsule Servers

Use this procedure to synchronize content from your Satellite Server to your Capsule Server.

Prerequisites

  • Ensure that you either select the relevant organization and location context of your Capsule Server or choose Any Organization and Any Location.

Procedure

  1. In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Infrastructure > Capsules.
  2. Select your Capsule Server.

  3. On the Overview tab, click Synchronize.

    • Select Optimized Sync to synchronize content from your Satellite Server to your Capsule Server that bypasses unnecessary steps to speed up performance.
    • Select Complete Sync to perform a complete sync from your Satellite Server to your Capsule Server that synchronizes content even if the metadata has not changed.

Chapter 12. Renaming Satellite Server or Capsule Server

To rename Satellite Server or Capsule Server, use the satellite-change-hostname script.

Important

If you change the domain name of your Satellite Server or Capsule Server, you must update the hostname by using the satellite-change-hostname script to avoid networking issues.

12.1. Renaming Satellite Server

The host name of Satellite Server is used by Satellite Server components, all Capsule Servers, and hosts registered to it for communication. This procedure ensures that in addition to renaming Satellite Server, you also update all references to point to the new host name.

Warning

Renaming your Satellite Server host shuts down all Satellite services on that host. The services restart after the renaming is complete.

Prerequisites

  • Back up your Satellite Server before changing its host name. If you fail to successfully rename it, restore it from the backup. For more information, see Chapter 10, Backing up Satellite Server and Capsule Server.

  • Run the hostname and hostname -f commands on Satellite Server. If both commands do not return the FQDN of Satellite Server, the satellite-change-hostname script will fail to complete.

    If the hostname command returns the shortname of Satellite Server instead of the FQDN, use hostnamectl set-hostname My_Old_FQDN to set the old FQDN correctly before using the satellite-change-hostname script.

  • If Satellite Server has a custom SSL certificate installed, obtain a new certificate for the new FQDN of the host. For more information, see Configuring Satellite Server with a Custom SSL Certificate in Installing Satellite Server in a connected network environment.

Procedure

  1. On Satellite Server, run the satellite-change-hostname script, and provide the new host name. Choose one of the following methods:

    • If your Satellite Server is installed with the default self-signed SSL certificates: 

      # satellite-change-hostname new-satellite \
--username My_Username \
--password My_Password

    • If your Satellite Server is installed with custom SSL certificates: 

      # satellite-change-hostname new-satellite \
--username My_Username \
--password My_Password \
--custom-cert "/root/ownca/test.com/test.com.crt" \
--custom-key "/root/ownca/test.com/test.com.key"
  2. If you have created a custom SSL certificate for the new Satellite Server host name, run the Satellite installation script to install the certificate. For more information about installing a custom SSL certificate, see Deploying a Custom SSL Certificate to Satellite Server in Installing Satellite Server in a connected network environment.
  3. Reregister all hosts and Capsule Servers that are registered to Satellite Server. For more information, see Registering Hosts in Managing hosts.

  4. On all Capsule Servers, run the Satellite installation script to update references to the new host name: 

    # satellite-installer \
--foreman-proxy-foreman-base-url https://new-satellite.example.com \
--foreman-proxy-trusted-hosts new-satellite.example.com

  5. On Satellite Server, list all Capsule Servers: 

    # hammer capsule list

  6. On Satellite Server, synchronize content for each Capsule Server: 

    # hammer capsule content synchronize \
--id My_capsule_ID
  7. If you use the virt-who agent, update the virt-who configuration files with the new host name. For more information, see Modifying a virt-who Configuration in Configuring virtual machine subscriptions.
  8. If you use external authentication, reconfigure Satellite Server for external authentication after you run the satellite-change-hostname script. For more information, see Configuring External Authentication in Installing Satellite Server in a connected network environment.

12.2. Renaming Capsule Server

The host name of Capsule Server is referenced by Satellite Server components and all hosts registered to it. This procedure ensures that in addition to renaming Capsule Server, you also update all references to the new host name.

Warning

Renaming your Capsule Server host shuts down all Satellite services on that host. The services restart after the renaming is complete.

Prerequisites

  • Back up your Capsule Server before renaming. If you fail to successfully rename it, restore it from the backup. For more information, see Chapter 10, Backing up Satellite Server and Capsule Server.

  • Run the hostname and hostname -f commands on Capsule Server. If both commands do not return the FQDN of Capsule Server, the satellite-change-hostname script will fail to complete.

    If the hostname command returns the shortname of Capsule Server instead of the FQDN, use hostnamectl set-hostname My_Old_FQDN to set the old FQDN correctly before attempting to use the satellite-change-hostname script.

Procedure

  1. On your Satellite Server, generate a new certificates archive file for your Capsule Server.

    • If you are using the default SSL certificate, regenerate the default SSL certificates: 

      # capsule-certs-generate \
--certs-tar /root/new-capsule.example.com-certs.tar \
--foreman-proxy-fqdn new-capsule.example.com

      Ensure that you enter the full path to the .tar file.

    • If you are using a custom SSL certificate, create a new SSL certificate for your Capsule Server. For more information, see Configuring Capsule Server with a Custom SSL Certificate in Installing Capsule Server.

  2. On your Satellite Server, copy the certificates archive file to your Capsule Server. For example, to copy the archive file to the root user’s home directory: 

    # scp /root/new-capsule.example.com-certs.tar root@capsule.example.com:

  3. On your Capsule Server, run the satellite-change-hostname script and provide the host’s new name, Satellite credentials, and certificates archive file name. 

    # satellite-change-hostname new-capsule.example.com \
--certs-tar /root/new-capsule.example.com-certs.tar \
--password My_Password \
--username My_Username

    Ensure that you enter the full path to the .tar file.

  4. If you have created a custom certificate for your Capsule Server, deploy the certificate to your Capsule Server by entering the satellite-installer command that the capsule-certs-generate command returned in a previous step. For more information, see Deploying a Custom SSL Certificate to Capsule Server in Installing Capsule Server.
  5. Reregister all hosts that are registered to your Capsule Server. For more information, see Registering hosts and setting up host integration in Managing hosts.

  6. Update the Capsule host name in the Satellite web UI.

    1. In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Infrastructure > Capsules.
    2. Locate Capsule Server in the list, and click Edit.
    3. Edit the Name and URL fields to match Capsule Server’s new host name, then click Submit.
    4. On your DNS server, add a record for the new hostname of your Capsule Server, and delete the record of the previous host name.

Chapter 13. Maintaining Satellite Server

This chapter provides information on how to maintain a Satellite Server, including information on how to work with audit records, how to clean unused tasks, and how to recover Pulp from a full disk.

13.1. Deleting audit records manually

You can use the foreman-rake audits:expire command to remove audit records at any time.

Procedure

  • Delete the audit records using the foreman-rake audits:expire command: 

    # foreman-rake audits:expire days=Number_Of_Days

    This command deletes all audit records older than Number_Of_Days.

13.2. Deleting audit records automatically

You can automatically delete audit records using the Saved audits interval setting. This setting is empty by default, meaning Satellite does not automatically delete the audit records.

Procedure

  1. In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Administer > Settings.
  2. On the General tab, find the Saved audits interval setting.
  3. Set the value of the setting to the number of days after which you want Satellite to delete the audit records.

13.3. Anonymizing audit records

You can use the foreman-rake audits:anonymize command to remove any user account or IP information while maintaining the audit records in the database. You can also use a cron job to schedule anonymizing the audit records at the set interval that you want.

By default, using the foreman-rake audits:anonymize command anonymizes audit records that are older than 90 days. You can specify the number of days to keep the audit records by adding the days option and add the number of days.

For example, if you want to anonymize audit records that are older than seven days, enter the following command: 

# foreman-rake audits:anonymize days=7

13.4. Deleting report records

Report records are created automatically in Satellite. You can use the foreman-rake reports:expire command to remove reports at any time. You can also use a cron job to schedule report record deletions at the set interval that you want.

By default, using the foreman-rake reports:expire command removes report records that are older than 90 days. You can specify the number of days to keep the report records by adding the days option and add the number of days.

For example, if you want to delete report records that are older than seven days, enter the following command: 

# foreman-rake reports:expire days=7

13.5. Configuring the cleaning unused tasks feature

Satellite performs regular cleaning to reduce disc space in the database and limit the rate of disk growth. As a result, Satellite backup completes faster and overall performance is higher.

By default, Satellite executes a cron job that cleans tasks every day at 19:45. Satellite removes the following tasks during the cleaning:

  • Tasks that have run successfully and are older than thirty days
  • All tasks that are older than a year

You can configure the cleaning unused tasks feature using these options:

  • To configure the time at which Satellite runs the cron job, set the --foreman-plugin-tasks-cron-line parameter to the time you want in cron format. For example, to schedule the cron job to run every day at 15:00, enter the following command: 

    # satellite-installer --foreman-plugin-tasks-cron-line "00 15 * * *"
  • To configure the period after which Satellite deletes the tasks, edit the :rules: section in the /etc/foreman/plugins/foreman-tasks.yaml file.

  • To disable regular task cleanup on Satellite, enter the following command: 

    # satellite-installer --foreman-plugin-tasks-automatic-cleanup false

  • To reenable regular task cleanup on Satellite, enter the following command: 

    # satellite-installer --foreman-plugin-tasks-automatic-cleanup true

13.6. Deleting task records

Task records are created automatically in Satellite. You can use the foreman-rake foreman_tasks:cleanup command to remove tasks at any time. You can also use a cron job to schedule Task record deletions at the set interval that you want.

For example, if you want to delete task records from successful repository synchronizations, enter the following command: 

# foreman-rake foreman_tasks:cleanup TASK_SEARCH='label = Actions::Katello::Repository::Sync' STATES='stopped'

13.7. Deleting a task by ID

You can delete tasks by ID, for example if you have submitted confidential data by mistake.

Procedure

  1. Connect to your Satellite Server using SSH: 

    # ssh root@satellite.example.com

  2. Optional: View the task: 

    # hammer task info --id My_Task_ID

  3. Delete the task: 

    # foreman-rake foreman_tasks:cleanup TASK_SEARCH="id=My_Task_ID"

  4. Optional: Ensure the task has been removed from Satellite Server: 

    # hammer task info --id My_Task_ID

    Note that because the task is deleted, this command returns a non-zero exit code.

13.8. Recovering from a full disk

The following procedure describes how to resolve the situation when a logical volume (LV) with the Pulp database on it has no free space.

Procedure

  1. Let running Pulp tasks finish but do not trigger any new ones as they can fail due to the full disk.

  2. Ensure that the LV with the /var/lib/pulp directory on it has sufficient free space. Here are some ways to achieve that:

    1. Remove orphaned content: 

      # foreman-rake katello:delete_orphaned_content RAILS_ENV=production

      This is run weekly so it will not free much space.

    2. Change the download policy from Immediate to On Demand for as many repositories as possible and remove already downloaded packages. See the Red Hat Knowledgebase solution How to change syncing policy for Repositories on Satellite from "Immediate" to "On-Demand" on the Red Hat Customer Portal for instructions.

    3. Grow the file system on the LV with the /var/lib/pulp directory on it. For more information, see Growing a logical volume and file system in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 Configuring and managing logical volumes.

      Note

      If you use an untypical file system (other than for example ext3, ext4, or xfs), you might need to unmount the file system so that it is not in use. In that case, complete the following steps:

      1. Stop Satellite services: 

        # satellite-maintain service stop
      2. Grow the file system on the LV.

      3. Start Satellite services: 

        # satellite-maintain service start
  3. If some Pulp tasks failed due to the full disk, run them again.

13.9. Managing packages on the base operating system of Satellite Server or Capsule Server

To install and update packages on the Satellite Server or Capsule Server base operating system, you must enter the satellite-maintain packages command. Satellite prevents users from installing and updating packages with yum because yum might also update the packages related to Satellite Server or Capsule Server and result in system inconsistency.

Important

The satellite-maintain packages command restarts some services on the operating system where you run it because it runs the satellite-installer command after installing packages.

You can manage packages using satellite-maintain packages command as follows:

  • To install packages on Satellite Server or Capsule Server: 

    # satellite-maintain packages install package_1 package_2

  • To check for available package updates on Satellite Server or Capsule Server: 

    # satellite-maintain packages check-update

  • To update all packages on Satellite Server or Capsule Server: 

    # satellite-maintain packages update

  • To update specific packages on Satellite Server or Capsule Server: 

    # satellite-maintain packages update package_1 package_2

Updating packages individually can lead to package inconsistencies on Satellite Server or Capsule Server. For more information about updating packages on Satellite Server, see Updating Satellite Server to the Next Patch Version in Updating Red Hat Satellite.

13.10. Reclaiming PostgreSQL space

The PostgreSQL database can use a large amount of disk space especially in heavily loaded deployments. Use this procedure to reclaim some of this disk space on Satellite.

Procedure

  1. Stop all services, except for the postgresql service: 

    # satellite-maintain service stop --exclude postgresql

  2. Switch to the postgres user and reclaim space on the database: 

    # su - postgres -c 'vacuumdb --full --all'

  3. Start the other services when the vacuum completes: 

    # satellite-maintain service start

13.11. Reclaiming space from on demand repositories

If you set the download policy to on demand, Satellite downloads packages only when the clients request them. You can clean up these packages to reclaim space.

Note

Space reclamation requires an existing repository. For deleted repositories, wait for the next scheduled orphan cleanup or remove orphaned content manually: 

# foreman-rake katello:delete_orphaned_content

For a single repository

  • In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Content > Products.
  • Select a product.
  • On the Repositories tab, click the repository name.
  • From the Select Actions list, select Reclaim Space.

For multiple repositories

  • In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Content > Products.
  • Select the product name.
  • On the Repositories tab, select the checkbox of the repositories.
  • Click Reclaim Space at the top right corner.

For Capsules

  • In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Infrastructure > Capsules.
  • Select the Capsule Server.
  • Click Reclaim space.

Chapter 14. Renewing certificates

You can renew the CA certificate on Satellite Server or the custom SSL certificate on Satellite Server as well as on Capsule Server.

14.1. Planning for self-signed CA certificate renewal

If you need to update the Certification Authority (CA) certificate on your Satellite Server, add the new CA certificate and use a temporary dual CA certificate file to retain the HTTPS connections to your Satellite Server during the renewal.

Procedure

  1. Add the new SSL certificate to the CA certificate file on Satellite Server and keep the old SSL certificate.
  2. Renew the certificates on Satellite Server and any Capsule Servers.
  3. Deploy the dual CA certificate on hosts.
  4. Remove the old certificate from the CA certificates file on Satellite Server, so the CA certificate file contains only the new SSL certificate.
  5. Renew the certificates on Satellite Server and any Capsule Servers.
  6. Deploy the new CA certificate on hosts.

Additional resources

14.2. Renewing a custom SSL certificate on Satellite Server

Use this procedure to update your custom SSL certificate for Satellite Server.

Prerequisites

  • You must create a new Certificate Signing Request (CSR) and send it to the Certificate Authority to sign the certificate. Refer to the Configuring Satellite Server with a Custom SSL Certificate guide before creating a new CSR because the Server certificate must have X.509 v3 Key Usage and Extended Key Usage extensions with required values. In return, you will receive the Satellite Server certificate and CA bundle.

Procedure

  • Before deploying a renewed custom certificate on your Satellite Server, validate the custom SSL input files. Note that for the katello-certs-check command to work correctly, Common Name (CN) in the certificate must match the FQDN of Satellite Server: 

    # katello-certs-check -t satellite \
-b /root/satellite_cert/ca_cert_bundle.pem \
-c /root/satellite_cert/satellite_cert.pem \
-k /root/satellite_cert/satellite_cert_key.pem

    If the command is successful, it returns the following satellite-installer command. You can use this command to deploy the renewed CA certificates to Satellite Server: 

    # satellite-installer --scenario satellite \
--certs-server-cert "/root/satellite_cert/satellite_cert.pem" \
--certs-server-key "/root/satellite_cert/satellite_cert_key.pem" \
--certs-server-ca-cert "/root/satellite_cert/ca_cert_bundle.pem" \
--certs-update-server \
--certs-update-server-ca
Important

Do not delete the certificate files after you deploy the certificate. They are required when upgrading Satellite Server.

Verification

  1. Access the Satellite web UI from your local machine. For example, https://satellite.example.com.
  2. In your browser, view the certificate details to verify the deployed certificate.

Next steps

14.3. Renewing a custom SSL certificate on Capsule Server

Use this procedure to update your custom SSL certificate for Capsule Server. The satellite-installer command, which the capsule-certs-generate command returns, is unique to each Capsule Server. You cannot use the same command on more than one Capsule Server.

Prerequisites

  • You must create a new Certificate Signing Request and send it to the Certificate Authority to sign the certificate. Refer to the Configuring Satellite Server with a Custom SSL Certificate guide before creating a new CSR because the Satellite Server certificate must have X.509 v3 Key Usage and Extended Key Usage extensions with required values. In return, you will receive the Capsule Server certificate and CA bundle.

Procedure

  1. On your Satellite Server, validate the custom SSL certificate input files: 

    # katello-certs-check -t capsule \
-b /root/capsule_cert/ca_cert_bundle.pem \
-c /root/capsule_cert/capsule_cert.pem \
-k /root/capsule_cert/capsule_cert_key.pem

  2. On your Satellite Server, generate the certificate archive file for your Capsule Server: 

    # capsule-certs-generate \
--certs-tar "/root/My_Certificates/capsule.example.com-certs.tar" \
--certs-update-server \
--foreman-proxy-fqdn "capsule.example.com" \
--server-ca-cert "/root/My_Certificates/ca_cert_bundle.pem" \
--server-cert "/root/My_Certificates/capsule_cert.pem" \
--server-key "/root/My_Certificates/capsule_cert_key.pem"

  3. On your Satellite Server, copy the certificate archive file to your Capsule Server: 

    # scp /root/My_Certificates/capsule.example.com-certs.tar user@capsule.example.com:

    You can move the copied file to the applicable path if required.

  4. Retain a copy of the satellite-installer command that the capsule-certs-generate command returns for deploying the certificate to your Capsule Server.

  5. Deploy the certificate on your Capsule Server using the satellite-installer command returned by the capsule-certs-generate command: 

    # satellite-installer --scenario capsule \
--certs-tar-file "/root/My_Certificates/capsule.example.com-certs.tar" \
--certs-update-server \
--foreman-proxy-foreman-base-url "https://satellite.example.com" \
--foreman-proxy-register-in-foreman "true"
Important

Do not delete the certificate archive file on the Capsule Server after you deploy the certificate. They are required when upgrading Capsule Server.

Next steps

Chapter 15. Synchronizing template repositories

In Satellite, you can synchronize repositories of job templates, provisioning templates, report templates, and partition table templates between Satellite Server and a version control system or local directory. In this chapter, a Git repository is used for demonstration purposes.

This section details the workflow for installing and configuring the Template Sync plugin and performing exporting and importing tasks.

15.1. Using repository sources

You can use existing repositories or local directories to synchronize templates with your Satellite Server.

15.1.1. Synchronizing templates with an existing repository

Use this procedure to synchronize templates between your Satellite Server and an existing repository.

Procedure

  1. If you want to use HTTPS to connect to the repository and you use a self-signed certificate authority (CA) on your Git server:

    1. Create a new directory under the /usr/share/foreman/ directory to store the Git configuration for the certificate: 

      # mkdir --parents /usr/share/foreman/.config/git

    2. Create a file named config in the new directory: 

      # touch /usr/share/foreman/.config/git/config

    3. Allow the foreman user access to the .config directory: 

      # chown --recursive foreman /usr/share/foreman/.config

    4. Update the Git global configuration for the foreman user with the path to your self-signed CA certificate: 

      # sudo --user foreman git config --global http.sslCAPath Path_To_CA_Certificate

  2. If you want to use SSH to connect to the repository:

    1. Create an SSH key pair if you do not already have it. Do not specify a passphrase. 

      # sudo --user foreman ssh-keygen
    2. Configure your version control server with the public key from your Satellite, which resides in /usr/share/foreman/.ssh/id_rsa.pub.

    3. Accept the Git SSH host key as the foreman user: 

      # sudo --user foreman ssh git.example.com

  3. Configure the Template Sync plugin settings on a Template Sync tab.

    1. Change the Branch setting to match the target branch on a Git server.
    2. Change the Repo setting to match the Git repository. For example, for the repository located in git@git.example.com/templates.git set the setting into git@git.example.com/templates.git.

15.1.2. Synchronizing templates with a local directory

Synchronizing templates with a local directory is useful if you have configured a version control repository in the local directory. That way, you can edit templates and track the history of edits in the directory. You can also synchronize changes to Satellite Server after editing the templates.

Prerequisites

  • Each template must contain the location and organization that the template belongs to. This applies to all template types. Before you import a template, ensure that you add the following section to the template: 

    <%#
kind: provision
name: My_Provisioning_Template
oses:
- My_first_OS
- My_second_OS
locations:
- My_first_Location
- My_second_Location
organizations:
- My_first_Organization
- My_second_Organization
%>

Procedure

  1. In /var/lib/foreman, create a directory for storing templates: 

    # mkdir /var/lib/foreman/My_Templates_Dir
    Note

    You can place your templates to a custom directory outside /var/lib/foreman, but you have to ensure that the Foreman service can read its contents. The directory must have the correct file permissions and the foreman_lib_t SELinux label.

  2. Change the owner of the new templates directory to the foreman user: 

    # chown foreman /var/lib/foreman/My_Templates_Dir
  3. Change the Repo setting on the Template Sync tab to match the /var/lib/foreman/My_Templates_Dir/ directory.

15.2. Importing and exporting templates

You can import and export templates by using the Satellite web UI, Hammer CLI, or Satellite API. Satellite API calls use the role-based access control system, which enables the tasks to be executed as any user. You can synchronize templates with a version control system, such as Git, or a local directory.

15.2.1. Importing templates

You can import templates from a repository of your choice. You can use different protocols to point to your repository, for example /tmp/dir, git://example.com, https://example.com, and ssh://example.com.

Note

The templates provided by Satellite are locked and you cannot import them by default. To overwrite this behavior, change the Force import setting in the Template Sync menu to yes or add the force parameter -d '{ "force": "true" }' to the import command.

Prerequisites

  • Each template must contain the location and organization that the template belongs to. This applies to all template types. Before you import a template, ensure that you add the following section to the template: 

    <%#
kind: provision
name: My_Provisioning_Template
oses:
- My_first_OS
- My_second_OS
locations:
- My_first_Location
- My_second_Location
organizations:
- My_first_Organization
- My_second_Organization
%>

To use the CLI instead of the Satellite web UI, see the ]. To use the API, see the xref:api_Importing_Templates_admin[.

Procedure

  1. In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Hosts > Templates > Sync Templates.
  2. Click Import.
  3. Each field is populated with values configured in Administer > Settings > Template Sync. Change the values as required for the templates you want to import. For more information about each field, see Section A.3, “Template sync settings”.
  4. Click Submit.

The Satellite web UI displays the status of the import. The status is not persistent; if you leave the status page, you cannot return to it.

CLI procedure

  • To import a template from a repository, enter the following command: 

    $ hammer import-templates \
--branch "My_Branch" \
--filter '.*Template Name$' \
--organization "My_Organization" \
--prefix "[Custom Index] " \
--repo "https://git.example.com/path/to/repository"

    For better indexing and management of your templates, use --prefix to set a category for your templates. To select certain templates from a large repository, use --filter to define the title of the templates that you want to import. For example --filter '.*Ansible Default$' imports various Ansible Default templates.

API procedure

  1. Send a POST request to api/v2/templates/import: 

    # curl -H "Accept:application/json" \
-H "Content-Type:application/json" \
-u login:password \
-k https://satellite.example.com/api/v2/templates/import \
-X POST

    If the import is successful, you receive {"message":"Success"}.

15.2.2. Exporting templates

Use this procedure to export templates to a git repository.

To use the CLI instead of the Satellite web UI, see the ]. To use the API, see the xref:api_Exporting_Templates_admin[.

Procedure

  1. In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Hosts > Templates > Sync Templates.
  2. Click Export.
  3. Each field is populated with values configured in Administer > Settings > Template Sync. Change the values as required for the templates you want to export. For more information about each field, see Section A.3, “Template sync settings”.
  4. Click Submit.

The Satellite web UI displays the status of the export. The status is not persistent; if you leave the status page, you cannot return to it.

CLI procedure

  1. To export the templates to a repository, enter the following command: 

    # hammer export-templates \
--organization "My_Organization" \
--repo "https://git.example.com/path/to/repository"
    Note

    This command clones the repository, makes changes in a commit, and pushes back to the repository. You can use the --branch "My_Branch" option to export the templates to a specific branch.

API procedure

  1. Send a POST request to api/v2/templates/export: 

    # curl -H "Accept:application/json" \
-H "Content-Type:application/json" \
-u login:password \
-k https://satellite.example.com/api/v2/templates/export \
-X POST

    If the export is successful, you receive {"message":"Success"}.

Note

You can override default API settings by specifying them in the request with the -d parameter. The following example exports templates to the git.example.com/templates repository: 

# curl -H "Accept:application/json" \
-H "Content-Type:application/json" \
-u login:password \
-k https://satellite.example.com/api/v2/templates/export \
-X POST \
-d "{\"repo\":\"git.example.com/templates\"}"

Chapter 16. Logging and reporting problems

The following sections describe the most commonly used log files and debugging tools available in Satellite.

16.1. Increasing logging levels to help with debugging

You can increase the logging level of Satellite components to troubleshoot Satellite. Increasing the logging level to debug provides the most detailed information. The default logging level is info.

16.1.1. Increasing the logging level for the Foreman application

To increase logging for the Foreman application:

  1. Set the logging level to debug: 

    # satellite-installer --foreman-logging-level debug

  2. After you complete debugging, reset the logging level to the default value: 

    # satellite-installer --reset-foreman-logging-level

For more information about Satellite logging settings, use satellite-installer with the --full-help option: 

# satellite-installer --full-help | grep logging

16.1.2. Increasing the logging level for Hammer

You can find the log in ~/.hammer/log/hammer.log.

Procedure

  • In /etc/hammer/cli_config.yml, set the :log_level: option to debug: 
:log_level: 'debug'

16.1.3. Increasing the logging level for Capsule

You can find the log in /var/log/foreman-proxy/proxy.log.

To increase logging for Capsule:

  1. Set the logging level to debug: 

    # satellite-installer --foreman-proxy-log-level DEBUG

  2. After you complete debugging, reset the logging level to the default value: 

    # satellite-installer --reset-foreman-proxy-log-level
Note

Running satellite-installer will revert the setting back to default.

16.1.4. Increasing the logging level for Candlepin

You can find the logs in /var/log/candlepin/candlepin.log and /var/log/candlepin/error.log.

To increase logging for Candlepin:

  1. Set the logging level to DEBUG: 

    # satellite-installer --katello-candlepin-loggers log4j.logger.org.candlepin:DEBUG

If the candlepin log files are too verbose, you can decrease the default debug level: 

# satellite-installer \
--katello-candlepin-loggers log4j.logger.org.candlepin:DEBUG \
--katello-candlepin-loggers log4j.logger.org.candlepin.resource.ConsumerResource:WARN \
--katello-candlepin-loggers log4j.logger.org.candlepin.resource.HypervisorResource:WARN

  1. After you complete debugging, reset the logging level to the default value: 

    # satellite-installer --reset-katello-candlepin-loggers

16.1.5. Increasing the logging level for Redis

You can find the log for Redis in /var/log/redis/redis.log.

To increase logging for Redis:

  1. In /etc/redis.conf, set the logging level to debug: 

    loglevel debug

  2. Restart the Redis service: 

    # systemctl restart redis
Note

Running satellite-installer will revert the setting to default.

16.1.6. Increasing the logging level for Satellite installer

You can find the log files in /var/log/foreman-installer/.

To increase the logging level of the Satellite installer, add the --verbose-log-level debug option during the installation: 

# satellite-installer --verbose-log-level debug

16.1.7. Increasing the logging level for Pulp

By default, Pulp logs to syslog. You can view the log in /var/log/messages or with journalctl.

To increase logging for Pulp:

  1. In /etc/pulp/settings.py, set the logging level to DEBUG: 

    LOGGING = {"dynaconf_merge": True, "loggers": {'': {'handlers': ['console'], 'level': 'DEBUG'}}}

  2. Restart the Pulp services: 

    # systemctl restart \
pulpcore-api \
pulpcore-content \
pulpcore-resource-manager \
pulpcore-worker@1 \
pulpcore-worker@2 \
redis

16.1.8. Increasing the logging level for Puppet agent

You can find the logs in /var/log/puppetlabs/puppet/.

To increase logging for Puppet agent:

  1. Ensure Puppet is enabled in your Satellite. For more information, see Enabling Puppet Integration with Satellite in Managing configurations by using Puppet integration.

  2. Set the logging level to debug: 

    # satellite-installer --puppet-agent-additional-settings log_level:debug

16.1.9. Increasing the logging level for Puppet server

You can find the logs in /var/log/puppetlabs/puppetserver/.

To increase logging for Puppet server:

  1. Ensure Puppet is enabled in your Satellite. For more information, see Enabling Puppet Integration with Satellite in Managing configurations by using Puppet integration.

  2. Set the logging level to debug: 

    # satellite-installer --puppet-server-additional-settings log_level:debug

  3. Restart the Puppet server: 

    # satellite-maintain service restart --only puppetserver

16.2. Configuring logging levels with Hammer CLI

You can use Hammer to log debugging information for various Satellite components. The default logging level is INFO.

  • To list the components whose logging level you can change by using hammer: 

    # hammer admin logging --list

  • To set DEBUG level logging for all components: 

    # hammer admin logging --all --level-debug
# satellite-maintain service restart

  • To set PRODUCTION level logging for all components: 

    # hammer admin logging --all --level-production
# satellite-maintain service restart

  • To set DEBUG level logging for a specific component: 

    # hammer admin logging --components My_Component --level-debug
# satellite-maintain service restart

  • To list all available logging options: 

    # hammer admin logging --help

Additional resources

16.3. Configuring logging type and layout

By default, Satellite uses file-based logging. You can use satellite-installer to change the logging type and logging layout.

Procedure for configuring logging with journal

  1. Enter the following satellite-installer command to configure logging to the journald service: 

    # satellite-installer \
--foreman-logging-type journald \
--foreman-proxy-log JOURNAL

  2. Optional: To inspect the log messages, use the journalctl utility. For example:

    • journalctl --unit foreman and journalctl --unit foreman-proxy show messages for the foreman and foreman-proxy units
    • journalctl REQUEST=request_ID shows messages for a specified request

Procedure for configuring file-based logging

  1. Enter the following satellite-installer command to configure file-based logging: 

    # satellite-installer \
--reset-foreman-logging-type \
--reset-foreman-proxy-log

  2. Optional: To inspect the log messages, view these files:

    • /var/log/foreman/production.log
    • /var/log/foreman-proxy.log

Procedure for configuring logging to JSON output

  1. On your Satellite Server, enable logging to JSON output for satellite-installer: 

    # satellite-installer \
--foreman-logging-layout json \
--foreman-logging-type file

  2. Optional: Inspect the log messages using jq: 

    # cat /var/log/foreman/production.log | jq

Additional resources

For more information about Journal, see Viewing logs using the command line in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 Configuring basic system settings.

16.4. Selective debugging with individual loggers

You can enable individual loggers for selective debugging.

Procedure

  1. Enable the required individual loggers. For example, to enable sql and ldap loggers, enter the following command: 

    # satellite-installer \
--foreman-loggers ldap:true \
--foreman-loggers sql:true

  2. Optional: Reset all loggers to their default values: 

    # satellite-installer --reset-foreman-loggers

16.5. Overview of individual loggers

The following list provides an overview of selected loggers. You can find the complete list of loggers with their default values in /usr/share/foreman/config/application.rb under Foreman::Logging.add_loggers.

app

Logs web requests and all general application messages.

Default value: true.

audit

Logs additional fact statistics, numbers of added, updated, and removed facts.

Default value: true.

background
Logs information from the background processing component.
blob

Logs contents of rendered templates for auditing purposes.

Important

The blob logger might contain sensitive data.

dynflow
Logs information from the Dynflow process.
ldap

Logs high level LDAP queries and LDAP operations.

Default value: false.

notifications
Logs information from the notifications component.
permissions

Logs queries to user roles, filters, and permissions when loading pages.

Default value: false.

sql

Logs SQL queries made through Rails ActiveRecord.

Default value: false.

telemetry
Logs debugging information from telemetry.
templates
Logs information from the template renderer component.

16.6. Retrieving the status of services

Satellite uses a set of back-end services. When troubleshooting, you can check the status of Satellite services.

Procedure

  • In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Administer > About.

    • On the Smart Proxies tab, view the status of all Capsules.
    • On the Compute Resources tab, view the status of attached compute resource providers.
    • In the Backend System Status table, view the status of all back-end services.

CLI procedure

  • Get information from the database and Satellite services: 

    # hammer ping

  • Check the status of the services running in systemd: 

    # satellite-maintain service status

    Run satellite-maintain service --help for more information.

  • Perform a health check: 

    $ satellite-maintain health check

    Run satellite-maintain health --help for more information.

16.7. Restarting services

Satellite uses a set of back-end services. When troubleshooting, you can restart the services if needed.

Procedure

  • Restart Satellite services: 

    # satellite-maintain service restart

16.8. Utilities for processing log information

You can collect information from log files to troubleshoot Satellite.

sosreport

The sos report command collects configuration and diagnostic information from a Linux system, such as the running kernel version, loaded modules, running services, and system and service configuration files. Additionally, it collects information about Red Hat Satellite, such as its back-end services and tasks. This output is stored in a tar file located at /var/tmp/sosreport-XXX-20171002230919.tar.xz.

For more information, run sos report --help or see What is a sosreport and how can I create one? in the Red Hat Knowledgebase.

Important

The sos report command removes security information such as passwords, tokens, and keys while collecting information. However, the tar files can still contain sensitive information about the Satellite Server. Send the tar files directly to the intended recipient and not to a public target.

foreman-tail

The foreman-tail command displays Satellite logs in real time.

For more information, see the foreman-tail(8) man page.

16.9. Log file directories

The following table provides an overview of selected log directories on Satellite Server:

Log file directoryDescription of log file content

/var/log/candlepin/

Subscription management

/var/log/foreman-installer/

Installer

/var/log/foreman-maintain/

Foreman maintain

/var/log/foreman-proxy/

Foreman proxy

/var/log/foreman/

Foreman

/var/log/httpd/

Apache HTTP server

/var/log/messages/

Various other log messages

/var/log/puppetlabs/puppet/

Puppet

/var/log/tomcat/

Candlepin web service logs

16.10. System journal metadata

The following table lists metadata that the journald service uses in Satellite. You can use this metadata to filter your queries.

AUDIT_ACTION

Audit action performed

Example: Create, update, or delete

AUDIT_TYPE

Audit resource type

Example: Host, Subnet, or ContentView

AUDIT_ID
Audit resource database ID as a number
AUDIT_ATTRIBUTE
Audit resource field or an updated database column
AUDIT_FIELD_OLD
Old audit value of an update action
AUDIT_FIELD_NEW
New audit value of an update action
AUDIT_ID
Record database ID of the audit subject
AUDIT_ATTRIBUTE

Attribute name or column on which an action was performed

Example: Name or description

EXCEPTION_MESSAGE
Exception message when error is logged
EXCEPTION_CLASS
Exception Ruby class when error is logged
EXCEPTION_BACKTRACE
Exception backtrace as a multiline string when error is logged
LOC_ID
Location database ID
LOC_NAME
Location name
LOC_LABEL
Location label
LOGGER

Logger name

To see the current list of loggers enabled by default, enter this command: 

# awk '/add_loggers/,/^$/' /usr/share/foreman/config/application.rb
ORG_ID
Organization database ID
ORG_NAME
Organization name
ORG_LABEL
Organization label
REMOTE_IP
Remote IP address of a client
REQUEST
Request ID generated by the Action Dispatch module
SESSION
Random ID generated per session or a request for a sessionless request
TEMPLATE_NAME
Template name
TEMPLATE_DIGEST
Digest (SHA256) of rendered template contents
TEMPLATE_HOST_NAME
Host name for a rendered template if present
TEMPLATE_HOST_ID
Host database ID for a rendered template if present
USER_LOGIN
User login name

Chapter 17. Monitoring resources

The following chapter details how to configure monitoring and reporting for managed systems. This includes host configuration, content views, compliance, registered hosts, promotions, and synchronization.

17.1. Using the Red Hat Satellite content dashboard

The Red Hat Satellite content dashboard contains various widgets which provide an overview of the host configuration, content views, compliance reports, and hosts currently registered, promotions and synchronization, and a list of the latest notifications.

In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Monitor > Dashboard to access the content dashboard. The dashboard can be rearranged by clicking on a widget and dragging it to a different position. The following widgets are available:

Host Configuration Status

An overview of the configuration states and the number of hosts associated with it during the last reporting interval. The following table shows the descriptions of the possible configuration states.

Table 17.1. Host configuration states
IconStateDescription

host state config okay

Hosts that had performed modifications without error

Host that successfully performed modifications during the last reporting interval.

host state config error

Hosts in error state

Hosts on which an error was detected during the last reporting interval.

host state config report

Good host reports in the last 35 minutes

Hosts without error that did not perform any modifications in the last 35 minutes.

host state config pending

Hosts that had pending changes

Hosts on which some resources would be applied but Puppet was configured to run in the noop mode.

host state config outofsync

Out of sync hosts

Hosts that were not synchronized and the report was not received during the last reporting interval.

host state config noreport

Hosts with no reports

Hosts for which no reports were collected during the last reporting interval.

host state config noalert

Hosts with alerts disabled

Hosts which are not being monitored.

Click the particular configuration status to view hosts associated with it.

Host Configuration Chart
A pie chart shows the proportion of the configuration status and the percentage of all hosts associated with it.
Latest Events

A list of messages produced by hosts including administration information, product changes, and any errors.

Monitor this section for global notifications sent to all users and to detect any unusual activity or errors.

Run Distribution (last 30 minutes)
A graph shows the distribution of the running Puppet agents during the last puppet interval which is 30 minutes by default. In this case, each column represents a number of reports received from clients during 3 minutes.
New Hosts
A list of the recently created hosts. Click the host for more details.
Task Status
A summary of all current tasks, grouped by their state and result. Click the number to see the list of corresponding tasks.
Latest Warning/Error Tasks
A list of the latest tasks that have been stopped due to a warning or error. Click a task to see more details.
Discovered Hosts
A list of all bare-metal hosts detected on the provisioning network by the Discovery plugin.
Latest Errata
A list of all errata available for hosts registered to Satellite.
Content Views
A list of all content views in Satellite and their publish status.
Sync Overview
An overview of all products or repositories enabled in Satellite and their synchronization status. All products that are in the queue for synchronization, are unsynchronized or have been previously synchronized are listed in this section.
Host Collections
A list of all host collections in Satellite and their status, including the number of content hosts in each host collection.
Virt-who Configuration Status

An overview of the status of reports received from the virt-who daemon running on hosts in the environment. The following table shows the possible states.

Table 17.2. virt-who configuration states
StateDescription

No Reports

No report has been received because either an error occurred during the virt-who configuration deployment, or the configuration has not been deployed yet, or virt-who cannot connect to Satellite during the scheduled interval.

No Change

No report has been received because hypervisor did not detect any changes on the virtual machines, or virt-who failed to upload the reports during the scheduled interval. If you added a virtual machine but the configuration is in the No Change state, check that virt-who is running.

OK

The report has been received without any errors during the scheduled interval.

Total Configurations

A total number of virt-who configurations.

Click the configuration status to see all configurations in this state.

The widget also lists the three latest configurations in the No Change state under Latest Configurations Without Change.

Latest Compliance Reports
A list of the latest compliance reports. Each compliance report shows a number of rules passed (P), failed (F), or othered (O). Click the host for the detailed compliance report. Click the policy for more details on that policy.
Compliance Reports Breakdown
A pie chart shows the distribution of compliance reports according to their status.
Red Hat Insights Actions
Red Hat Insights is a tool embedded in Satellite that checks the environment and suggests actions you can take. The actions are divided into 4 categories: Availability, Stability, Performance, and Security.
Red Hat Insights Risk Summary

A table shows the distribution of the actions according to the risk levels. Risk level represents how critical the action is and how likely it is to cause an actual issue. The possible risk levels are: Low, Medium, High, and Critical.

Note

It is not possible to change the date format displayed in the Satellite web UI.

17.1.1. Managing tasks

Red Hat Satellite keeps a complete log of all planned or performed tasks, such as repositories synchronised, errata applied, and content views published. To review the log, navigate to Monitor > Satellite Tasks > Tasks.

In the Task window, you can search for specific tasks, view their status, details, and elapsed time since they started. You can also cancel and resume one or more tasks.

The tasks are managed using the Dynflow engine. Remote tasks have a timeout which can be adjusted as needed.

To adjust timeout settings

  1. In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Administer > Settings.
  2. Enter %_timeout in the search box and click Search. The search should return four settings, including a description.
  3. In the Value column, click the icon next to a number to edit it.
  4. Enter the desired value in seconds, and click Save.
Note

Adjusting the %_finish_timeout values might help in case of low bandwidth. Adjusting the %_accept_timeout values might help in case of high latency.

When a task is initialized, any back-end service that will be used in the task, such as Candlepin or Pulp, will be checked for correct functioning. If the check fails, you will receive an error similar to the following one: 

There was an issue with the backend service candlepin: Connection refused – connect(2).

If the back-end service checking feature turns out to be causing any trouble, it can be disabled as follows.

To disable checking for services

  1. In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Administer > Settings.
  2. Enter check_services_before_actions in the search box and click Search.
  3. In the Value column, click the icon to edit the value.
  4. From the drop-down menu, select false.
  5. Click Save.

17.2. Configuring RSS notifications

To view Satellite event notification alerts, click the Notifications icon in the upper right of the screen.

By default, the Notifications area displays RSS feed events published in the Red Hat Satellite Blog.

The feed is refreshed every 12 hours and the Notifications area is updated whenever new events become available.

You can configure the RSS feed notifications by changing the URL feed. The supported feed format is RSS 2.0 and Atom. For an example of the RSS 2.0 feed structure, see the Red Hat Satellite Blog feed. For an example of the Atom feed structure, see the Foreman blog feed.

To configure RSS feed notifications

  1. In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Administer > Settings and select the Notifications tab.
  2. In the RSS URL row, click the edit icon in the Value column and type the required URL.
  3. In the RSS enable row, click the edit icon in the Value column to enable or disable this feature.

17.3. Monitoring Satellite Server

Audit records list the changes made by all users on Satellite. This information can be used for maintenance and troubleshooting.

Procedure

  1. In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Monitor > Audits to view the audit records.

  2. To obtain a list of all the audit attributes, use the following command: 

    # foreman-rake audits:list_attributes

17.4. Monitoring Capsule Server

The following section shows how to use the Satellite web UI to find Capsule information valuable for maintenance and troubleshooting.

17.4.1. Viewing general Capsule information

In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Infrastructure > Capsules to view a table of Capsule Servers registered to Satellite Server. The information contained in the table answers the following questions:

Is Capsule Server running?
This is indicated by a green icon in the Status column. A red icon indicates an inactive Capsule, use the service foreman-proxy restart command on Capsule Server to activate it.
What services are enabled on Capsule Server?
In the Features column you can verify if Capsule for example provides a DHCP service or acts as a Pulp mirror. Capsule features can be enabled during installation or configured in addition. For more information, see Installing Capsule Server.
What organizations and locations is Capsule Server assigned to?

A Capsule Server can be assigned to multiple organizations and locations, but only Capsules belonging to the currently selected organization are displayed. To list all Capsules, select Any Organization from the context menu in the top left corner.

After changing the Capsule configuration, select Refresh from the drop-down menu in the Actions column to ensure the Capsule table is up to date.

Click the Capsule name to view further details. At the Overview tab, you can find the same information as in the Capsule table. In addition, you can answer to the following questions:

Which hosts are managed by Capsule Server?
The number of associated hosts is displayed next to the Hosts managed label. Click the number to view the details of associated hosts.
How much storage space is available on Capsule Server?
The amount of storage space occupied by the Pulp content in /var/lib/pulp is displayed. Also the remaining storage space available on the Capsule can be ascertained.

17.4.2. Monitoring services

In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Infrastructure > Capsules and click the name of the selected Capsule. At the Services tab, you can find basic information on Capsule services, such as the list of DNS domains, or the number of Pulp workers. The appearance of the page depends on what services are enabled on Capsule Server. Services providing more detailed status information can have dedicated tabs at the Capsule page. For more information, see Section 17.4.3, “Monitoring Puppet”.

17.4.3. Monitoring Puppet

In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Infrastructure > Capsules and click the name of the selected Capsule. At the Puppet tab you can find the following:

  • A summary of Puppet events, an overview of latest Puppet runs, and the synchronization status of associated hosts at the General sub-tab.
  • A list of Puppet environments at the Environments sub-tab.

At the Puppet CA tab you can find the following:

  • A certificate status overview and the number of autosign entries at the General sub-tab.
  • A table of CA certificates associated with the Capsule at the Certificates sub-tab. Here you can inspect the certificate expiry data, or cancel the certificate by clicking Revoke.
  • A list of autosign entries at the Autosign entries sub-tab. Here you can create an entry by clicking New or delete one by clicking Delete.
Note

The Puppet and Puppet CA tabs are available only if you have Puppet enabled in your Satellite.

Additional resources

Chapter 18. Using webhooks

A webhook is a way for a web page or web application to provide other applications with information in real time. Webhooks are only triggered after an event occurs. The request usually contains details of the event. An event triggers callbacks, such as sending an e-mail confirming a host has been provisioned. You can use webhooks to define a call to an external API based on Satellite internal event by using a fire-and-forget message exchange pattern. The application sending the request does not wait for the response, or ignores it.

Payload of a webhook is created from webhook templates. Webhook templates use the same ERB syntax as Provisioning templates. Available variables:

  • @event_name: Name of an event.
  • @webhook_id: Unique event ID.
  • @payload: Payload data, different for each event type. To access individual fields, use @payload[:key_name] Ruby hash syntax.
  • @payload[:object]: Database object for events triggered by database actions (create, update, delete). Not available for custom events.
  • @payload[:context]: Additional information as hash like request and session UUID, remote IP address, user, organization and location.

Because webhooks use HTTP, no new infrastructure needs be added to existing web services.

The typical use case for webhooks in Satellite is making a call to a monitoring system when a host is created or deleted.

Webhooks are useful where the action you want to perform in the external system can be achieved through its API. Where it is necessary to run additional commands or edit files, the shellhooks plugin for Capsules is available. The shellhooks plugin enables you to define a shell script on the Capsule that can be executed through the API.

You can use webhooks successfully without installing the shellhooks plugin.

For a list of available events, see Available webhook events.

18.1. Migrating to webhooks

The legacy foreman_hooks plugin provided full access to model objects that the webhooks plugin does not intentionally provide.

The scope of what is available is limited by the safemode and all objects and macros are both subject to an API stability promise and are fully documented.

The number of events triggered by webhooks is substantially fewer than with foreman_hooks.

Webhooks are processed asynchronously so there is minimal risk of tampering with internals of the system. It is not possible to migrate from foreman_hooks without creating payloads for each individual webhook script. However, the webhooks plugin comes with several example payload templates. You can also use the example payloads with shellhooks to simplify migration.

Both script and payload templates must be customized to achieve similar results.

18.2. Creating a webhook template

Webhook templates are used to generate the body of HTTP request to a configured target when a webhook is triggered. Use the following procedure to create a webhook template in the Satellite web UI.

Procedure

  1. In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Administer > Webhook > Webhook Templates.
  2. Click Clone an existing template or Create Template.
  3. Enter a name for the template.

  4. Use the editor to make changes to the template payload.

    A webhook HTTP payload must be created using Satellite template syntax. The webhook template can use a special variable called @object that can represent the main object of the event. @object can be missing in case of certain events. You can determine what data are actually available with the @payload variable.

    For more information, see Template Writing Reference in Managing hosts and for available template macros and methods, visit /templates_doc on Satellite Server.

  5. Optional: Enter the description and audit comment.
  6. Assign organizations and locations.
  7. Click Submit.

Examples

When creating a webhook template, you must follow the format of the target application for which the template is intended. For example, an application can expect a "text" field with the webhook message. Refer to the documentation of your target application to find more about how your webhook template format should look like.

Running remote execution jobs

This webhook template defines a message with the ID and result of a remote execution job. The webhook which uses this template can be subscribed to events such as Actions Remote Execution Run Host Job Succeeded or Actions Remote Execution Run Host Job Failed. 

{
    "text": "job invocation <%= @object.job_invocation_id %> finished with result <%= @object.task.result %>"
}
Creating users

This webhook template defines a message with the login and email of a created user. The webhook which uses this template should be subscribed to the User Created event. 

{
    "text": "user with login <%= @object.login %> and email <%= @object.mail %> created"
}

18.3. Creating a webhook

You can customize events, payloads, HTTP authentication, content type, and headers through the Satellite web UI.

Use the following procedure to create a webhook in the Satellite web UI.

Procedure

  1. In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Administer > Webhook > Webhooks.
  2. Click Create new.
  3. From the Subscribe to list, select an event.
  4. Enter a Name for your webhook.
  5. Enter a Target URL. Webhooks make HTTP requests to pre-configured URLs. The target URL can be a dynamic URL.
  6. Click Template to select a template. Webhook templates are used to generate the body of the HTTP request to Satellite Server when a webhook is triggered.
  7. Enter an HTTP method.
  8. Optional: If you do not want activate the webhook when you create it, uncheck the Enabled flag.
  9. Click the Credentials tab.
  10. Optional: If HTTP authentication is required, enter User and Password.
  11. Optional: Uncheck Verify SSL if you do not want to verify the server certificate against the system certificate store or Satellite CA.
  12. On the Additional tab, enter the HTTP Content Type. For example, application/json, application/xml or text/plain on the payload you define. The application does not attempt to convert the content to match the specified content type.
  13. Optional: Provide HTTP headers as JSON. ERB is also allowed.

When configuring webhooks with endpoints with non-standard HTTP or HTTPS ports, an SELinux port must be assigned, see Configuring SELinux to Ensure Access to Satellite on Custom Ports in Installing Satellite Server in a connected network environment.

18.4. Available webhook events

The following table contains a list of webhook events that are available from the Satellite web UI. Action events trigger webhooks only on success, so if an action fails, a webhook is not triggered.

For more information about payload, go to Administer > About > Support > Templates DSL. A list of available types is provided in the following table. Some events are marked as custom, in that case, the payload is an object object but a Ruby hash (key-value data structure) so syntax is different.

Event nameDescriptionPayload

Actions Katello Content View Promote Succeeded

A content view was successfully promoted.

Actions::Katello::ContentView::Promote

Actions Katello Content View Publish Succeeded

A repository was successfully synchronized.

Actions::Katello::ContentView::Publish

Actions Remote Execution Run Host Job Succeeded

A generic remote execution job succeeded for a host. This event is emitted for all Remote Execution jobs, when complete.

Actions::RemoteExecution::RunHostJob

Actions Remote Execution Run Host Job Katello Errata Install Succeeded

Install errata using the Katello interface.

Actions::RemoteExecution::RunHostJob

Actions Remote Execution Run Host Job Katello Group Install Succeeded

Install package group using the Katello interface.

Actions::RemoteExecution::RunHostJob

Actions Remote Execution Run Host Job Katello Package Install Succeeded

Install package using the Katello interface.

Actions::RemoteExecution::RunHostJob

Actions Remote Execution Run Host Job Katello Group Remove

Remove package group using the Katello interface.

Actions::RemoteExecution::RunHostJob

Actions Remote Execution Run Host Job Katello Package Remove Succeeded

Remove package using the Katello interface.

Actions::RemoteExecution::RunHostJob

Actions Remote Execution Run Host Job Katello Service Restart Succeeded

Restart Services using the Katello interface.

Actions::RemoteExecution::RunHostJob

Actions Remote Execution Run Host Job Katello Group Update Succeeded

Update package group using the Katello interface.

Actions::RemoteExecution::RunHostJob

Actions Remote Execution Run Host Job Katello Package Update Succeeded

Update package using the Katello interface.

Actions::RemoteExecution::RunHostJob

Actions Remote Execution Run Host Job Foreman OpenSCAP Run Scans Succeeded

Run OpenSCAP scan.

Actions::RemoteExecution::RunHostJob

Actions Remote Execution Run Host Job Ansible Run Host Succeeded

Runs an Ansible Playbook containing all the roles defined for a host.

Actions::RemoteExecution::RunHostJob

Actions Remote Execution Run Host Job Ansible Run Capsule Upgrade Succeeded

Upgrade Capsules on given Capsule Servers.

Actions::RemoteExecution::RunHostJob

Actions Remote Execution Run Host Job Ansible Configure Cloud Connector Succeeded

Configure Cloud Connector on given hosts.

Actions::RemoteExecution::RunHostJob

Actions Remote Execution Run Host Job Ansible Run Insights Plan Succeeded

Runs a given maintenance plan from Red Hat Access Insights given an ID.

Actions::RemoteExecution::RunHostJob

Actions Remote Execution Run Host Job Ansible Run Playbook Succeeded

Run an Ansible Playbook against given hosts.

Actions::RemoteExecution::RunHostJob

Actions Remote Execution Run Host Job Ansible Enable Web Console Succeeded

Run an Ansible Playbook to enable the web console on given hosts.

Actions::RemoteExecution::RunHostJob

Actions Remote Execution Run Host Job Puppet Run Host Succeeded

Perform a single Puppet run.

Actions::RemoteExecution::RunHostJob

Actions Remote Execution Run Host Job Katello Module Stream Action Succeeded

Perform a module stream action using the Katello interface.

Actions::RemoteExecution::RunHostJob

Actions Remote Execution Run Host Job Leapp Pre-upgrade Succeeded

Upgradeability check for RHEL 7 host.

Actions::RemoteExecution::RunHostJob

Actions Remote Execution Run Host Job Leapp Remediation Plan Succeeded

Run Remediation plan with Leapp.

Actions::RemoteExecution::RunHostJob

Actions Remote Execution Run Host Job Leapp Upgrade Succeeded

Run Leapp upgrade job for RHEL 7 host.

Actions::RemoteExecution::RunHostJob

Build Entered

A host entered the build mode.

Custom event: @payload[:id] (host id), @payload[:hostname] (host name).

Build Exited

A host build mode was canceled, either it was successfully provisioned or the user canceled the build manually.

Custom event: @payload[:id] (host id), @payload[:hostname] (host name).

Content View Created/Updated/Destroyed

Common database operations on a content view.

Katello::ContentView

Domain Created/Updated/Destroyed

Common database operations on a domain.

Domain

Host Created/Updated/Destroyed

Common database operations on a host.

Host

Hostgroup Created/Updated/Destroyed

Common database operations on a hostgroup.

Hostgroup

Model Created/Updated/Destroyed

Common database operations on a model.

Model

Status Changed

Global host status of a host changed.

Custom event: @payload[:id] (host id), @payload[:hostname], @payload[:global_status] (hash)

Subnet Created/Updated/Destroyed

Common database operations on a subnet.

Subnet

Template Render Performed

A report template was rendered.

Template

User Created/Updated/Destroyed

Common database operations on a user.

User

18.5. Shellhooks

With webhooks, you can only map one Satellite event to one API call. For advanced integrations, where a single shell script can contain multiple commands, you can install a Capsule shellhooks plug-in that exposes executables by using a REST HTTP API.

You can then configure a webhook to reach out to a Capsule API to run a predefined shellhook. A shellhook is an executable script that can be written in any language provided that it can be executed. The shellhook can for example contain commands or edit files.

You must place your executable scripts in /var/lib/foreman-proxy/shellhooks with only alphanumeric characters and underscores in their name.

You can pass input to shellhook script through the webhook payload. This input is redirected to standard input of the shellhook script. You can pass arguments to shellhook script by using HTTP headers in format X-Shellhook-Arg-1 to X-Shellhook-Arg-99. For more information on passing arguments to shellhook script, see:

The HTTP method must be POST. An example URL would be: https://capsule.example.com:9090/shellhook/My_Script.

Note

Unlike the shellhooks directory, the URL must contain /shellhook/ in singular to be valid.

You must enable Capsule Authorization for each webhook connected to a shellhook to enable it to authorize a call.

Standard output and standard error output are redirected to the Capsule logs as messages with debug or warning levels respectively.

The shellhook HTTPS calls do not return a value.

For an example on creating a shellhook script, see Section 18.9, “Creating a shellhook to print arguments”.

18.6. Installing the shellhooks plugin

Optionally, you can install and enable the shellhooks plugin on each Capsule used for shellhooks.

Procedure

  • Run the following command: 

    # satellite-installer --enable-foreman-proxy-plugin-shellhooks

18.7. Passing arguments to shellhook script using webhooks

Use this procedure to pass arguments to a shellhook script using webhooks.

Procedure

  • When creating a webhook, on the Additional tab, create HTTP headers in the following format: 

    {
  "X-Shellhook-Arg-1": "VALUE",
  "X-Shellhook-Arg-2": "VALUE"
}

    Ensure that the headers have a valid JSON or ERB format. Only pass safe fields like database ID, name, or labels that do not include new lines or quote characters.

    For more information, see Section 18.3, “Creating a webhook”.

Example

{
  "X-Shellhook-Arg-1": "<%= @object.content_view_version_id %>",
  "X-Shellhook-Arg-2": "<%= @object.content_view_name %>"
}

18.8. Passing arguments to shellhook script using curl

Use this procedure to pass arguments to a shellhook script using curl.

Procedure

  • When executing a shellhook script using curl, create HTTP headers in the following format: 

    "X-Shellhook-Arg-1: VALUE"
"X-Shellhook-Arg-2: VALUE"

Example

$ curl \
--data "" \
--header "Content-Type: text/plain" \
--header "X-Shellhook-Arg-1: Version 1.0" \
--header "X-Shellhook-Arg-2: My content view" \
--request POST \
--show-error \
--silent \
https://capsule.example.com:9090/shellhook/My_Script

18.9. Creating a shellhook to print arguments

Create a simple shellhook script that prints Hello World! when you run a remote execution job.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Modify the /var/lib/foreman-proxy/shellhooks/print_args script to print arguments to standard error output so you can see them in the Capsule logs: 

    #!/bin/sh
#
# Prints all arguments to stderr
#
echo "$@" >&2
  2. In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Administer > Webhook > Webhooks.
  3. Click Create new.
  4. From the Subscribe to list, select Actions Remote Execution Run Host Job Succeeded.
  5. Enter a Name for your webhook.

  6. In the Target URL field, enter the URL of your Capsule Server followed by :9090/shellhook/print_args: 

    https://capsule.example.com:9090/shellhook/print_args

    Note that shellhook in the URL is singular, unlike the shellhooks directory.

  7. From the Template list, select Empty Payload.
  8. On the Credentials tab, check Capsule Authorization.

  9. On the Additional tab, enter the following text in the Optional HTTP headers field: 

    {
    "X-Shellhook-Arg-1": "Hello",
    "X-Shellhook-Arg-2": "World!"
}
  10. Click Submit. You now have successfully created a shellhook that prints "Hello World!" to Capsule logs every time you a remote execution job succeeds.

Verification

  1. Run a remote execution job on any host. You can use time as a command. For more information, see Executing a Remote Job in Managing hosts.

  2. Verify that the shellhook script was triggered and printed "Hello World!" to Capsule Server logs: 

    # tail /var/log/foreman-proxy/proxy.log

    You should find the following lines at the end of the log: 

    [I] Started POST /shellhook/print_args
[I] Finished POST /shellhook/print_args with 200 (0.33 ms)
[I] [3520] Started task /var/lib/foreman-proxy/shellhooks/print_args\ Hello\ World\!
[W] [3520] Hello World!

Chapter 19. Searching and bookmarking

Satellite features powerful search functionality on most pages of the Satellite web UI. It enables you to search all kinds of resources that Satellite manages. Searches accept both free text and syntax-based queries, which can be built by using input prediction. Search queries can be saved as bookmarks for future reuse.

19.1. Building search queries

As you start typing a search query, a list of valid options to complete the current part of the query appears. You can either select an option from the list and keep building the query by using the prediction, or continue typing. To learn how free text is interpreted by the search engine, see Section 19.2, “Using free text search”.

19.1.1. Query syntax

parameter operator value

Available fields, resources to search, and the way the query is interpreted all depend on context, that is, the page where you perform the search. For example, the field "hostgroup" on the Hosts page is equivalent to the field "name" on the Host Groups page. The field type also determines available operators and accepted values.

For a list of all operators, see Operators. For descriptions of value formats, see Values.

19.1.2. Query operators

All operators that can be used between parameter and value are listed in the following table. Other symbols and special characters that might appear in a prediction-built query, such as colons, do not have special meaning and are treated as free text.

Table 19.1. Comparison operators accepted by search
OperatorShort NameDescriptionExample

=

EQUALS

Accepts numerical, temporal, or text values. For text, exact case sensitive matches are returned.

hostgroup = RHEL7

!=

NOT EQUALS

~

LIKE

Accepts text or temporal values. Returns case insensitive matches. Accepts the following wildcards: _ for a single character, % or * for any number of characters including zero. If no wildcard is specified, the string is treated as if surrounded by wildcards: %rhel7%

hostgroup ~ rhel%

!~

NOT LIKE

>

GREATER THAN

Accepts numerical or temporal values. For temporal values, the operator > is interpreted as "later than", and < as "earlier than". Both operators can be combined with EQUALS: >= <=

registered_at > 10-January-2017
The search will return hosts that have been registered after the given date, that is, between 10th January 2017 and now.

registered_at <= Yesterday
The search will return hosts that have been registered yesterday or earlier.

<

LESS THAN

^

IN

Compares an expression against a list of values, as in SQL. Returns matches that contain or not contain the values, respectively.

release_version !^ 7

!^

NOT IN

HAS or set?

 

Returns values that are present or not present, respectively.

has hostgroup or set? hostgroup
On the Puppet Classes page, the search will return classes that are assigned to at least one host group.

not has hostgroup or null? hostgroup
On the Dashboard with an overview of hosts, the search will return all hosts that have no assigned host group.

NOT HAS or null?

 

Simple queries that follow the described syntax can be combined into more complex ones using logical operators AND, OR, and NOT. Alternative notations of the operators are also accepted:

Table 19.2. Logical operators accepted by search
OperatorAlternative NotationsExample

and

&

&&

<whitespace>

class = motd AND environment ~ production

or

|

||

 

errata_status = errata_needed || errata_status = security_needed

not

–

!

 

hostgroup ~ rhel7 not status.failed

19.1.3. Query values

Text Values

Text containing whitespaces must be enclosed in quotes. A whitespace is otherwise interpreted as the AND operator.

Examples:

hostgroup = "Web servers"

The search will return hosts with assigned host group named "Web servers".

hostgroup = Web servers

The search will return hosts in the host group Web with any field matching %servers%.

Temporal Values

Many date and time formats are accepted, including the following:

  • "10 January 2017"
  • "10 Jan 2017"
  • 10-January-2017
  • 10/January/2017
  • "January 10, 2017"
  • Today, Yesterday, and the like.
Warning

Avoid ambiguous date formats, such as 02/10/2017 or 10-02-2017.

19.2. Using free text search

When you enter free text, it will be searched for across multiple fields. For example, if you type "64", the search will return all hosts that have that number in their name, IP address, MAC address, and architecture.

Note

Multi-word queries must be enclosed in quotes, otherwise the whitespace is interpreted as the AND operator.

Because of searching across all fields, free text search results are not very accurate and searching can be slow, especially on a large number of hosts. For this reason, we recommend that you avoid free text and use more specific, syntax-based queries whenever possible.

19.3. Managing bookmarks

You can save search queries as bookmarks for reuse. You can also delete or modify a bookmark.

Bookmarks appear only on the page on which they were created. On some pages, there are default bookmarks available for the common searches, for example, all active or disabled hosts.

19.3.1. Creating bookmarks

This section details how to save a search query as a bookmark. You must save the search query on the relevant page to create a bookmark for that page, for example, saving a host related search query on the Hosts page.

Procedure

  1. In the Satellite web UI, navigate to the page where you want to create a bookmark.
  2. In the Search field, enter the search query you want to save.
  3. Select the arrow to the right of the Search button and then select Bookmark this search.
  4. In the Name field, enter a name for the new bookmark.
  5. In the Search query field, ensure your search query is correct.

  6. Ensure the Public checkbox is set correctly:

    • Select the Public checkbox to set the bookmark as public and visible to all users.
    • Clear the Public checkbox to set the bookmark as private and only visible to the user who created it.
  7. Click Submit.

To confirm the creation, either select the arrow to the right of the Search button to display the list of bookmarks, or navigate to Administer > Bookmarks and then check the Bookmarks list for the name of the bookmark.

19.3.2. Deleting bookmarks

You can delete bookmarks on the Bookmarks page.

Procedure

  1. In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Administer > Bookmarks.
  2. On the Bookmarks page, click Delete for the Bookmark you want to delete.
  3. When the confirmation window opens, click OK to confirm the deletion.

To confirm the deletion, check the Bookmarks list for the name of the bookmark.

19.4. Using keyboard shortcuts

You can use keyboard shortcuts to quickly focus search bars.

  • To focus the vertical navigation search bar, press Ctrl + Shift + F.
  • To focus the page search bar, press /.

Appendix A. Administration settings

This section contains information about settings that you can edit in the Satellite web UI by navigating to Administer > Settings.

A.1. General settings

SettingDefault ValueDescription

Administrator email address

 

The default administrator email address

Satellite URL

 

URL where your Satellite instance is reachable. See also Provisioning > Unattended URL.

Entries per page

20

Number of records shown per page in Satellite

Fix DB cache

No

Satellite maintains a cache of permissions and roles. When set to Yes, Satellite recreates this cache on the next restart.

DB pending seed

No

Should the foreman-rake db:seed be executed on the next run of the installer modules?

Capsule request timeout

60

Open and read timeout for HTTP requests from Satellite to Capsule (in seconds).

Login page footer text

 

Text to be shown in the login-page footer.

HTTP(S) proxy

 

Set a proxy for outgoing HTTP(S) connections from the Satellite product. System-wide proxies must be configured at the operating system level.

HTTP(S) proxy except hosts

[]

Set hostnames to which requests are not to be proxied. Requests to the local host are excluded by default.

Show Experimental Labs

No

Whether or not to show a menu to access experimental lab features (requires reload of page).

Display FQDN for hosts

Yes

If set to Yes, Satellite displays names of hosts as fully qualified domain names (FQDNs).

Out of sync interval

30

Hosts report periodically, and if the time between reports exceeds this duration in minutes, hosts are considered out of sync. You can override this on your hosts by adding the outofsync_interval parameter, per host, at Hosts > All hosts > $host > Edit > Parameters > Add Parameter.

Satellite UUID

 

Satellite instance ID. Uniquely identifies a Satellite instance.

Default language

 

The UI for new users uses this language.

Default timezone

 

The timezone to use for new users.

Instance title

 

The instance title is shown on the top navigation bar (requires a page reload).

Saved audits interval

 

Duration in days to preserve audit data. Leave empty to disable the audits cleanup.

New host details UI

Yes

Satellite loads the new UI for host details.

A.2. Satellite task settings

SettingDefault ValueDescription

Sync task timeout

120

Number of seconds to wait for a synchronous task to finish before an exception is raised.

Enable dynflow console

Yes

Enable the dynflow console (/foreman_tasks/dynflow) for debugging.

Require auth for dynflow console

Yes

The user must be authenticated as having administrative rights before accessing the dynflow console.

Capsule action retry count

4

Number of attempts permitted to start a task on the Capsule before failing.

Capsule action retry interval

15

Time in seconds between retries.

Allow Capsule batch tasks

Yes

Enable batch triggering of tasks on the Capsule.

Capsule tasks batch size

100

Number of tasks included in one request to the Capsule if foreman_tasks_proxy_batch_trigger is enabled.

Tasks troubleshooting URL

 

URL pointing to the task troubleshooting documentation. It should contain a %{label} placeholder that is replaced with a normalized task label (restricted to only alphanumeric characters)). A %{version} placeholder is also available.

Polling intervals multiplier

1

Polling multiplier used to multiply the default polling intervals. You can use this to prevent polling too frequently for long running tasks.

A.3. Template sync settings

SettingDefault ValueDescription

Associate

New

Associate templates with OS, organization and location.

Branch

 

Default branch in Git repo.

Commit message

Templates export made by a Satellite user

Custom commit message for exported templates.

Dirname

/

The directory within the Git repo containing the templates.

Filter

 

Import or export of names matching this regex. Case-insensitive. Snippets are not filtered.

Force import

No

If set to Yes, locked templates are overwritten during an import.

Lock templates

Keep, do not lock new

How to handle lock for imported templates.

Metadata export mode

Refresh

Default metadata export mode.

Possible options:

refresh re-renders metadata.

keep keeps existing metadata.

remove exports the template without metadata.

Negate

No

Negate the filter for import or export.

Prefix

 

A string added as a prefix to imported templates.

Repo

 

Target path from where to import or export templates. Different protocols can be used, for example:

/tmp/dir

git://example.com

https://example.com

ssh://example.com

When exporting to /tmp, note that production deployments may be configured to use private tmp.

Verbosity

No

Choose verbosity for Rake task importing templates.

A.4. Discovery settings

SettingDefault ValueDescription

Discovery location

 

Indicates the default location to place discovered hosts in.

Discovery organization

 

Indicates the default organization to which discovered hosts are added.

Interface fact

discovery_bootif

Fact name to use for primary interface detection.

Create bond interfaces

No

Automatically create a bond interface if another interface is detected on the same VLAN using LLDP.

Clean all facts

No

Clean all reported facts (except discovery facts) during provisioning.

Hostname facts

discovery_bootif

List of facts to use for the hostname (comma separated, first wins).

Auto provisioning

No

Use the provisioning rules to automatically provision newly discovered hosts.

Reboot

Yes

Automatically reboot or kexec discovered hosts during provisioning.

Hostname prefix

mac

The default prefix to use for the hostname. Must start with a letter.

Fact columns

 

Extra facter columns to show in host lists (comma separated).

Highlighted facts

 

Regex to organize facts for highlights section – e.g. ^(abc|cde)$.

Storage facts

 

Regex to organize facts for the storage section.

Software facts

 

Regex to organize facts for the software section.

Hardware facts

 

Regex to organize facts for the hardware section.

Network facts

 

Regex to organize facts for the network section.

IPMI facts

 

Regex to organize facts for the Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) section.

Lock PXE

No

Automatically generate a Preboot Execution Environment (PXE) configuration to pin a newly discovered host to discovery.

Locked PXELinux template name

pxelinux_discovery

PXELinux template to be used when pinning a host to discovery.

Locked PXEGrub template name

pxegrub_discovery

PXEGrub template to be used when pinning a host to discovery.

Locked PXEGrub2 template name

pxegrub2_discovery

PXEGrub2 template to be used when pinning a host to discovery.

Force DNS

Yes

Force the creation of DNS entries when provisioning a discovered host.

Error on existing NIC

No

Do not permit to discover an existing host matching the MAC of a provisioning Network Interface Card (NIC) (errors out early).

Type of name generator

Fact + prefix

Discovery hostname naming pattern.

Prefer IPv6

No

Prefer IPv6 to IPv4 when calling discovered nodes.

A.5. Boot disk settings

SettingDefault ValueDescription

iPXE directory

/usr/share/ipxe

Path to directory containing iPXE images.

ISOLINUX directory

/usr/share/syslinux

Path to directory containing ISOLINUX images.

SYSLINUX directory

/usr/share/syslinux

Path to directory containing SYSLINUX images.

Grub2 directory

/var/lib/tftpboot/grub2

Path to directory containing grubx64.efi and shimx64.efi.

Host image template

Boot disk iPXE - host

iPXE template to use for host-specific boot disks.

Generic image template

Boot disk iPXE - generic host

iPXE template to use for generic host boot disks.

Generic Grub2 EFI image template

Boot disk Grub2 EFI - generic host

Grub2 template to use for generic Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) host boot disks.

ISO generation command

genisoimage

Command to generate ISO image, use genisoimage or mkisofs.

Installation media caching

Yes

Installation media files are cached for full host images.

Allowed bootdisk types

[generic, host, full_host, subnet]

List of permitted bootdisk types. Leave blank to disable it.

A.6. Red Hat Cloud settings

SettingDefault ValueDescription

Automatic inventory upload

Yes

Enable automatic upload of your host inventory to the Red Hat cloud.

Synchronize recommendations Automatically

No

Enable automatic synchronization of Insights recommendations from the Red Hat cloud.

Obfuscate host names

No

Obfuscate hostnames sent to the Red Hat cloud.

Obfuscate host ipv4 addresses

No

Obfuscate IPv4 addresses sent to the Red Hat cloud.

ID of the RHC daemon

*****

RHC daemon id.

A.7. Content settings

SettingDefault ValueDescription

Default HTTP Proxy

 

Default HTTP Proxy for syncing content.

Default synced OS provisioning template

Kickstart default

Default provisioning template for operating systems created from synced content.

Default synced OS finish template

Kickstart default finish

Default finish template for new operating systems created from synced content.

Default synced OS user-data

Kickstart default user data

Default user data for new operating systems created from synced content.

Default synced OS PXELinux template

Kickstart default PXELinux

Default PXELinux template for new operating systems created from synced content.

Default synced OS PXEGrub template

Kickstart default PXEGrub

Default PXEGrub template for new operating systems created from synced content.

Default synced OS PXEGrub2 template

Kickstart default PXEGrub2

Default PXEGrub2 template for new operating systems created from synced content.

Default synced OS iPXE template

Kickstart default iPXE

Default iPXE template for new operating systems created from synced content.

Default synced OS partition table

Kickstart default

Default partitioning table for new operating systems created from synced content.

Default synced OS kexec template

Discovery Red Hat kexec

Default kexec template for new operating systems created from synced content.

Default synced OS Atomic template

Atomic Kickstart default

Default provisioning template for new atomic operating systems created from synced content.

Manifest refresh timeout

1200

Timeout when refreshing a manifest (in seconds).

Subscription connection enabled

Yes

Can communicate with the Red Hat Portal for subscriptions.

Installable errata from Content View

No

Calculate errata host status based only on errata in a host’s content view and lifecycle environment.

Restrict Composite Content View promotion

No

If this is enabled, a composite content view cannot be published or promoted, unless the content view versions that it includes exist in the target environment.

Check services before actions

Yes

Check the status of backend services such as pulp and candlepin before performing actions?

Batch size to sync repositories in

100

How many repositories should be synced concurrently on a Capsule. A smaller number may lead to longer sync times. A larger number will increase dynflow load.

Sync Capsules after Content View promotion

Yes

Whether or not to auto sync Capsules after a content view promotion.

Default Custom Repository download policy

immediate

Default download policy for custom repositories. Either immediate or on_demand.

Default Red Hat Repository download policy

on_demand

Default download policy for enabled Red Hat repositories. Either immediate or on_demand.

Default Capsule download policy

on_demand

Default download policy for Capsule syncs. Either inherit, immediate, or on_demand.

Pulp export destination filepath

/var/lib/pulp/katello-export

On-disk location for exported repositories.

Pulp 3 export destination filepath

/var/lib/pulp/exports

On-disk location for Pulp 3 exported repositories.

Pulp client key

/etc/pki/katello/private/pulp-client.key

Path for SSL key used for Pulp server authentication.

Pulp client cert

/etc/pki/katello/certs/pulp-client.crt

Path for SSL certificate used for Pulp server authentication.

Sync Connection Timeout

300

Total timeout in seconds for connections when syncing.

Delete Host upon unregister

No

When unregistering a host using subscription-manager, also delete the host record. Managed resources linked to the host such as virtual machines and DNS records might also be deleted.

Subscription manager name registration fact

 

When registering a host using subscription-manager, force use the specified fact for the host name (in the form of fact.fact).

Subscription manager name registration fact strict matching

No

If this is enabled, and register_hostname_fact is set and provided, registration looks for a new host by name only using that fact, and skips all hostname matching.

Default Location subscribed hosts

Default Location

Default location where new subscribed hosts are stored after registration.

Expire soon days

120

The number of days remaining in a subscription before you are reminded about renewing it.

Content View Dependency Solving Default

No

The default dependency solving value for new content views.

Host Duplicate DMI UUIDs

[]

If hosts fail to register because of duplicate Desktop Management Interface (DMI) UUIDs, add their comma-separated values here. Subsequent registrations generate a unique DMI UUID for the affected hosts.

Host Profile Assume

Yes

Enable new host registrations to assume registered profiles with matching hostname if the registering DMI UUID is not used by another host.

Host Profile Can Change In Build

No

Enable host registrations to bypass Host Profile Assume if the host is in build mode.

Host Can Re-Register Only In Build

No

Enable hosts to re-register only when they are in build mode.

Host Tasks Workers Pool Size

5

Number of workers in the pool to handle the execution of host-related tasks. When set to 0, the default queue is used. Restart of the dynflowd/foreman-tasks service is required.

Applicability Batch Size

50

Number of host applicability calculations to process per task.

Autosearch

Yes

For pages that support it, automatically perform the search while typing in search input.

Autosearch delay

500

If Autosearch is enabled, delay in milliseconds before executing searches while typing.

Pulp bulk load size

2000

The number of items fetched from a single paged Pulp API call.

Upload profiles without Dynflow

Yes

Enable Katello to update host installed packages, enabled repositories, and module inventory directly instead of wrapped in Dynflow tasks (try turning off if Puma processes are using too much memory).

Orphaned Content Protection Time

1440

Time in minutes to consider orphan content as orphaned.

Prefer registered through Capsule for remote execution

No

Prefer using a proxy to which a host is registered when using remote execution.

Allow deleting repositories in published content views

Yes

Enable removal of repositories that the user has previously published in one or more content view versions.

A.8. Authentication settings

SettingDefault ValueDescription

OAuth active

Yes

Satellite will use OAuth for API authorization.

OAuth consumer key

*****

OAuth consumer key.

OAuth consumer secret

*****

OAuth consumer secret.

OAuth map users

No

Satellite maps users by username in the request-header. If this is disabled, OAuth requests have administrator rights.

Failed login attempts limit

30

Satellite blocks user logins from an incoming IP address for 5 minutes after the specified number of failed login attempts. Set to 0 to disable brute force protection.

Restrict registered Capsules

Yes

Only known Capsules can access features that use Capsule authentication.

Require SSL for capsules

Yes

Client SSL certificates are used to identify Capsules (:require_ssl should also be enabled).

Trusted hosts

[]

List of hostnames, IPv4, IPv6 addresses or subnets to be trusted in addition to Capsules for access to fact/report importers and ENC output.

SSL certificate

/etc/foreman/client_cert.pem

SSL Certificate path that Satellite uses to communicate with its proxies.

SSL CA file

/etc/foreman/proxy_ca.pem

SSL CA file path that Satellite uses to communicate with its proxies.

SSL private key

/etc/foreman/client_key.pem

SSL Private Key path that Satellite uses to communicate with its proxies.

SSL client DN env

HTTP_SSL_CLIENT_S_DN

Environment variable containing the subject DN from a client SSL certificate.

SSL client verify env

HTTP_SSL_CLIENT_VERIFY

Environment variable containing the verification status of a client SSL certificate.

SSL client cert env

HTTP_SSL_CLIENT_CERT

Environment variable containing a client’s SSL certificate.

Server CA file

 

SSL CA file path used in templates to verify the connection to Satellite.

Websockets SSL key

etc/pki/katello/private/katello-apache.key

Private key file path that Satellite uses to encrypt websockets.

Websockets SSL certificate

/etc/pki/katello/certs/katello-apache.crt

Certificate path that Satellite uses to encrypt websockets.

Websockets encryption

Yes

VNC/SPICE websocket proxy console access encryption (websockets_ssl_key/cert setting required).

Login delegation logout URL

 

Redirect your users to this URL on logout. Enable Authorize login delegation also.

Authorize login delegation auth source user autocreate

External

Name of the external authentication source where unknown externally authenticated users (see Authorize login delegation) are created. Empty means no autocreation.

Authorize login delegation

No

Authorize login delegation with REMOTE_USER HTTP header.

Authorize login delegation API

No

Authorize login delegation with REMOTE_USER HTTP header for API calls too.

Idle timeout

60

Log out idle users after the specified number of minutes.

BCrypt password cost

9

Cost value of bcrypt password hash function for internal auth-sources (4 – 30). A higher value is safer but verification is slower, particularly for stateless API calls and UI logins. A password change is needed to affect existing passwords.

BMC credentials access

Yes

Permits access to BMC interface passwords through ENC YAML output and in templates.

OIDC JWKs URL

 

OpenID Connect JSON Web Key Set (JWKS) URL. Typically https://keycloak.example.com/auth/realms/<realm name>/protocol/openid-connect/certs when using Keycloak as an OpenID provider.

OIDC Audience

[]

Name of the OpenID Connect Audience that is being used for authentication. In the case of Keycloak this is the Client ID.

OIDC Issuer

 

The issuer claim identifies the principal that issued the JSON Web tokens (JWT), which exists at a /.well-known/openid-configuration in case of most of the OpenID providers.

OIDC Algorithm

 

The algorithm used to encode the JWT in the OpenID provider.

A.9. Email settings

SettingDefault ValueDescription

Email reply address

 

Email reply address for emails that Satellite is sending.

Email subject prefix

 

Prefix to add to all outgoing email.

Send welcome email

No

Send a welcome email including username and URL to new users.

Delivery method

Sendmail

Method used to deliver email.

SMTP enable StartTLS auto

Yes

SMTP automatically enables StartTLS.

SMTP OpenSSL verify mode

Default verification mode

When using TLS, you can set how OpenSSL checks the certificate.

SMTP address

 

SMTP address to connect to.

SMTP port

25

SMTP port to connect to.

SMTP HELO/EHLO domain

 

HELO/EHLO domain.

SMTP username

 

Username to use to authenticate, if required.

SMTP password

*****

Password to use to authenticate, if required.

SMTP authentication

none

Specify authentication type, if required.

Sendmail arguments

-i

Specify additional options to sendmail. Only used when the delivery method is set to sendmail.

Sendmail location

/usr/sbin/sendmail

The location of the sendmail executable. Only used when the delivery method is set to sendmail.

A.10. Notifications settings

SettingDefault ValueDescription

RSS enable

Yes

Pull RSS notifications.

RSS URL

https://www.redhat.com/en/rss/blog/channel/red-hat-satellite

URL from which to fetch RSS notifications.

A.11. Provisioning settings

SettingDefault ValueDescription

Host owner

 

Default owner on provisioned hosts, if empty Satellite uses the current user.

Root password

*****

Default encrypted root password on provisioned hosts.

Unattended URL

 

URL that hosts retrieve templates from during the build. When it starts with https, unattended, or userdata, controllers cannot be accessed using HTTP.

Safemode rendering

Yes

Enables safe mode rendering of provisioning templates. The default and recommended option Yes denies access to variables and any object that is not listed in Satellite.

When set to No, any object may be accessed by a user with permission to use templating features, either by editing templates, parameters or smart variables. This permits users full remote code execution on Satellite Server, effectively disabling all authorization. This is not a safe option, especially in larger companies.

Access unattended without build

No

Enable access to unattended URLs without build mode being used.

Query local nameservers

No

Satellite queries the locally configured resolver instead of the SOA/NS authorities.

Installation token lifetime

360

Time in minutes that installation tokens should be valid for. Set to 0 to disable the token.

SSH timeout

120

Time in seconds before SSH provisioning times out.

Libvirt default console address

0.0.0.0

The IP address that should be used for the console listen address when provisioning new virtual machines using libvirt.

Update IP from built request

No

Satellite updates the host IP with the IP that made the build request.

Use short name for VMs

No

Satellite uses the short hostname instead of the FQDN for creating new virtual machines.

DNS timeout

[5, 10, 15, 20]

List of timeouts (in seconds) for DNS lookup attempts such as the dns_lookup macro and DNS record conflict validation.

Clean up failed deployment

Yes

Satellite deletes the virtual machine if the provisioning script ends with a non-zero exit code.

Type of name generator

Random-based

Specifies the method used to generate a hostname when creating a new host.

The default Random-based option generates a unique random hostname which you can but do not have to use. This is useful for users who create many hosts and do not know how to name them.

The MAC-based option is for bare-metal hosts only. If you delete a host and create it later on, it receives the same hostname based on the MAC address. This can be useful for users who recycle servers and want them to always get the same hostname.

The Off option disables the name generator function and leaves the hostname field blank.

Default PXE global template entry

 

Default PXE menu item in a global template – local, discovery or custom, use blank for template default.

Default PXE local template entry

 

Default PXE menu item in local template – local, local_chain_hd0, or custom, use blank for template default.

iPXE intermediate script

iPXE intermediate script

Intermediate iPXE script for unattended installations.

Destroy associated VM on host delete

No

Destroy associated VM on host delete. When enabled, VMs linked to hosts are deleted on Compute Resource. When disabled, VMs are unlinked when the host is deleted, meaning they remain on Compute Resource and can be re-associated or imported back to Satellite again. This does not automatically power off the VM

Maximum structured facts

100

Maximum number of keys in structured subtree, statistics stored in satellite::dropped_subtree_facts.

Default Global registration template

Global Registration

Global Registration template.

Default 'Host initial configuration' template

Linux host_init_config default

Default 'Host initial configuration' template, automatically assigned when a new operating system is created.

Global default PXEGrub2 template

PXEGrub2 global default

Global default PXEGrub2 template. This template is deployed to all configured TFTP servers. It is not affected by upgrades.

Global default PXELinux template

PXELinux global default

Global default PXELinux template. This template is deployed to all configured TFTP servers. It is not affected by upgrades.

Global default PXEGrub template

PXEGrub global default

Global default PXEGrub template. This template is deployed to all configured TFTP servers. It is not affected by upgrades.

Global default iPXE template

iPXE global default

Global default iPXE template. This template is deployed to all configured TFTP servers. It is not affected by upgrades.

Local boot PXEGrub2 template

PXEGrub2 default local boot

Template that is selected as PXEGrub2 default for local boot.

Local boot PXELinux template

PXELinux default local boot

Template that is selected as PXELinux default for local boot.

Local boot PXEGrub template

PXEGrub default local boot

Template that is selected as PXEGrub default for local boot.

Local boot iPXE template

iPXE default local boot

Template that is selected as iPXE default for local boot.

Manage PuppetCA

Yes

Satellite automates certificate signing upon provision of a new host.

Use UUID for certificates

No

Satellite uses random UUIDs for certificate signing instead of hostnames.

Show unsupported provisioning templates

No

Show unsupported provisioning templates. When enabled, all the available templates are shown. When disabled, only Red Hat supported templates are shown.

A.12. Facts settings

SettingDefault ValueDescription

Create new host when facts are uploaded

Yes

Satellite creates the host when new facts are received.

Location fact

satellite_location

Hosts created after a Puppet run are placed in the location specified by this fact.

Organization fact

satellite_organization

Hosts created after a Puppet run are placed in the organization specified by this fact. The content of this fact should be the full label of the organization.

Default location

Default Location

Hosts created after a Puppet run that did not send a location fact are placed in this location.

Default organization

Default Organization

Hosts created after a Puppet run that did not send an organization fact are placed in this organization.

Update hostgroup from facts

Yes

Satellite updates a host’s hostgroup from its facts.

Ignore facts for operating system

No

Stop updating operating system from facts.

Ignore facts for domain

No

Stop updating domain values from facts.

Update subnets from facts

None

Satellite updates a host’s subnet from its facts.

Ignore interfaces facts for provisioning

No

Stop updating IP and MAC address values from facts (affects all interfaces).

Ignore interfaces with matching identifier

[lo, en*v*, usb*, vnet*, macvtap*, ;vdsmdummy;, veth*, tap*, qbr*, qvb*, qvo*, qr-*, qg-*, vlinuxbr*, vovsbr*, br-int]

Skip creating or updating host network interfaces objects with identifiers matching these values from incoming facts. You can use a * wildcard to match identifiers with indexes, e.g. macvtap*. The ignored interface raw facts are still stored in the database, see the Exclude pattern setting for more details.

Exclude pattern for facts stored in Satellite

[lo, en*v*, usb*, vnet*, macvtap*, ;vdsmdummy;, veth*, tap*, qbr*, qvb*, qvo*, qr-*, qg-*, vlinuxbr*, vovsbr*, br-int, load_averages::*, memory::swap::available*, memory::swap::capacity, memory::swap::used*, memory::system::available*, memory::system::capacity, memory::system::used*, memoryfree, memoryfree_mb, swapfree, swapfree_mb, uptime_hours, uptime_days]

Exclude pattern for all types of imported facts (Puppet, Ansible, rhsm). Those facts are not stored in the satellite database. You can use a * wildcard to match names with indexes, e.g. ignore* filters out ignore, ignore123 as well as a::ignore or even a::ignore123::b.

A.13. Configuration management settings

SettingDefault ValueDescription

Create new host when report is uploaded

Yes

Satellite creates the host when a report is received.

Matchers inheritance

Yes

Satellite matchers are inherited by children when evaluating smart class parameters for hostgroups, organizations, and locations.

Default parameters lookup path

[fqdn, hostgroup, os, domain]

Satellite evaluates host smart class parameters in this order by default.

Interpolate ERB in parameters

Yes

Satellite parses ERB in parameters value in the ENC output.

Always show configuration status

No

All hosts show a configuration status even when a Puppet Capsule is not assigned.

A.14. Remote execution settings

SettingDefault ValueDescription

Fallback to Any Capsule

No

Search the host for any proxy with Remote Execution. This is useful when the host has no subnet or the subnet does not have an execution proxy.

Enable Global Capsule

Yes

Search for Remote Execution proxy outside of the proxies assigned to the host. The search is limited to the host’s organization and location.

SSH User

root

Default user to use for SSH. You can override per host by setting the remote_execution_ssh_user parameter.

Effective User

root

Default user to use for executing the script. If the user differs from the SSH user, su or sudo is used to switch the user.

Effective User Method

sudo

The command used to switch to the effective user. One of [sudo, dzdo, su]

Effective user password

*****

Effective user password. See Effective User.

Sync Job Templates

Yes

Whether to sync templates from disk when running db:seed.

SSH Port

22

Port to use for SSH communication. Default port 22. You can override per host by setting the remote_execution_ssh_port parameter.

Connect by IP

No

Whether the IP addresses on host interfaces are preferred over the FQDN. It is useful when the DNS is not resolving the FQDNs properly. You can override this per host by setting the remote_execution_connect_by_ip parameter. For dual-stacked hosts, consider the remote_execution_connect_by_ip_prefer_ipv6 setting.

Prefer IPv6 over IPv4

No

When connecting using an IP address, are IPv6 addresses preferred? If no IPv6 address is set, it falls back to IPv4 automatically. You can override this per host by setting the remote_execution_connect_by_ip_prefer_ipv6 parameter. By default and for compatibility, IPv4 is preferred over IPv6.

Default SSH password

*****

Default password to use for SSH. You can override per host by setting the remote_execution_ssh_password parameter.

Default SSH key passphrase

*****

Default key passphrase to use for SSH. You can override per host by setting the remote_execution_ssh_key_passphrase parameter.

Workers pool size

5

Number of workers in the pool to handle the execution of the remote execution jobs. Restart of the dynflowd/satellite-tasks service is required.

Cleanup working directories

Yes

Whether working directories are removed after task completion. You can override this per host by setting the remote_execution_cleanup_working_dirs parameter.

Cockpit URL

 

Where to find the Cockpit instance for the Web Console button. By default, no button is shown.

Form Job Template

Run Command - SSH Default

Choose a job template that is pre-selected in job invocation form.

Job Invocation Report Template

Jobs - Invocation report template

Select a report template used for generating a report for a particular remote execution job.

Time to pickup

86400

Time in seconds within which the host has to pick up a job. If the job is not picked up within this limit, the job will be cancelled. Applies only to pull-mqtt based jobs. Defaults to one day.

A.15. Ansible settings

SettingDefault ValueDescription

Private Key Path

 

Use this to supply a path to an SSH Private Key that Ansible uses instead of a password. Override with the ansible_ssh_private_key_file host parameter.

Connection type

ssh

Use this connection type by default when running Ansible Playbooks. You can override this on hosts by adding the ansible_connection parameter.

WinRM cert Validation

validate

Enable or disable WinRM server certificate validation when running Ansible Playbooks. You can override this on hosts by adding the ansible_winrm_server_cert_validation parameter.

Default verbosity level

Disabled

Satellite adds this level of verbosity for additional debugging output when running Ansible Playbooks.

Post-provision timeout

360

Timeout (in seconds) to set when Satellite triggers an Ansible roles task playbook after a host is fully provisioned. Set this to the maximum time you expect a host to take until it is ready after a reboot.

Ansible report timeout

30

Timeout (in minutes) when hosts should have reported.

Ansible out of sync disabled

No

Disable host configuration status turning to out of sync for Ansible after a report does not arrive within the configured interval.

Default Ansible inventory report template

Ansible - Ansible Inventory

Satellite uses this template to schedule the report with Ansible inventory.

Ansible roles to ignore

[]

The roles to exclude when importing roles from Capsule. The expected input is comma separated values and you can use * wildcard metacharacters. For example: foo*, *b*, *bar.

Capsule tasks batch size for Ansible

 

Number of tasks which should be sent to the Capsule in one request if satellite_tasks_proxy_batch_trigger is enabled. If set, it overrides satellite_tasks_proxy_batch_size setting for Ansible jobs.

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