Chapter 2. Preparing Capsule Servers for load balancing


Satellite does not support configuring existing Capsule Servers for load balancing. You must create a new Capsule Server for this purpose.

2.1. Registering to Satellite Server

Use this procedure to register the base operating system on which you want to install Capsule Server to Satellite Server.

Red Hat subscription manifest prerequisites

  • On Satellite Server, a manifest must be installed and it must contain the appropriate repositories for the organization you want Capsule to belong to.
  • The manifest must contain repositories for the base operating system on which you want to install Capsule, as well as any clients that you want to connect to Capsule.
  • The repositories must be synchronized.

For more information on manifests and repositories, see Managing Red Hat Subscriptions in Managing content.

Proxy and network prerequisites

  • The Satellite Server base operating system must be able to resolve the host name of the Capsule base operating system and vice versa.
  • Ensure HTTPS connection using client certificate authentication is possible between Capsule Server and Satellite Server. HTTP proxies between Capsule Server and Satellite Server are not supported.
  • You must configure the host and network-based firewalls accordingly. For more information, see Port and firewall requirements in Installing Capsule Server. You can register hosts with Satellite using the host registration feature in the Satellite web UI, Hammer CLI, or the Satellite API. For more information, see Registering hosts and setting up host integration in Managing hosts.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Hosts > Register Host.
  2. From the Capsule dropdown list, select the load balancer.
  3. Select Force to register a host that has been previously registered to a Capsule Server.
  4. From the Activation Keys list, select the activation keys to assign to your host.
  5. Click Generate to create the registration command.
  6. Click on the files icon to copy the command to your clipboard.
  7. Connect to your host using SSH and run the registration command.
  8. Check the /etc/yum.repos.d/redhat.repo file and ensure that the appropriate repositories have been enabled.

CLI procedure

  1. Generate the host registration command using the Hammer CLI:

    # hammer host-registration generate-command \
    --activation-keys "My_Activation_Key"

    If your hosts do not trust the SSL certificate of Satellite Server, you can disable SSL validation by adding the --insecure flag to the registration command.

    # hammer host-registration generate-command \
    --activation-keys "My_Activation_Key" \
    --insecure true

    Include the --smart-proxy-id My_Capsule_ID option. You can use the ID of any Capsule Server that you configured for host registration load balancing. Satellite will apply the load balancer to the registration command automatically.

    Include the --force option to register a host that has been previously registered to a Capsule Server.

  2. Connect to your host using SSH and run the registration command.
  3. Check the /etc/yum.repos.d/redhat.repo file and ensure that the appropriate repositories have been enabled.

API procedure

  1. Generate the host registration command using the Satellite API:

    # curl -X POST https://satellite.example.com/api/registration_commands \
    --user "My_User_Name" \
    -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
    -d '{ "registration_command": { "activation_keys": ["My_Activation_Key_1, My_Activation_Key_2"] }}'

    If your hosts do not trust the SSL certificate of Satellite Server, you can disable SSL validation by adding the --insecure flag to the registration command.

    # curl -X POST https://satellite.example.com/api/registration_commands \
    --user "My_User_Name" \
    -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
    -d '{ "registration_command": { "activation_keys": ["My_Activation_Key_1, My_Activation_Key_2"], "insecure": true }}'

    Use an activation key to simplify specifying the environments. For more information, see Managing Activation Keys in Managing content.

    Include { "smart_proxy_id": My_Capsule_ID }. You can use the ID of any Capsule Server that you configured for host registration load balancing. Satellite will apply the load balancer to the registration command automatically.

    Include { "force": true } to register a host that has been previously registered to a Capsule Server.

    To enter a password as a command line argument, use username:password syntax. Keep in mind this can save the password in the shell history. Alternatively, you can use a temporary personal access token instead of a password. To generate a token in the Satellite web UI, navigate to My Account > Personal Access Tokens.

  2. Connect to your host using SSH and run the registration command.
  3. Check the /etc/yum.repos.d/redhat.repo file and ensure that the appropriate repositories have been enabled.

2.2. Configuring repositories

Prerequisite

  • If you are installing Capsule Server as a virtual machine hosted on Red Hat Virtualization, you must also enable the Red Hat Common repository and then install Red Hat Virtualization guest agents and drivers. For more information, see Installing the Guest Agents and Drivers on Red Hat Enterprise Linux in the Virtual Machine Management Guide.

Procedure

Select the operating system and version you are installing on:

2.2.1. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9

  1. Disable all repositories:

    # subscription-manager repos --disable "*"
  2. Enable the following repositories:

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

Verification

  • Verify that the required repositories are enabled:

    # dnf repolist enabled

2.2.2. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8

  1. Disable all repositories:

    # subscription-manager repos --disable "*"
  2. Enable the following repositories:

    # subscription-manager repos \
    --enable=rhel-8-for-x86_64-baseos-rpms \
    --enable=rhel-8-for-x86_64-appstream-rpms \
    --enable=satellite-capsule-6.16-for-rhel-8-x86_64-rpms \
    --enable=satellite-maintenance-6.16-for-rhel-8-x86_64-rpms
  3. Enable the module:

    # dnf module enable satellite-capsule:el8

Verification

  • Verify that the required repositories are enabled:

    # dnf repolist enabled

Additional Resources

2.3. Installing Capsule Server packages

Before installing Capsule Server packages, you must update all packages that are installed on the base operating system.

Procedure

To install Capsule Server, complete the following steps:

  1. Update all packages:

    # dnf upgrade
  2. Install the Satellite Server packages:

    # dnf install satellite-capsule

2.4. Additional resources

Red Hat logoGithubRedditYoutubeTwitter

Learn

Try, buy, & sell

Communities

About Red Hat Documentation

We help Red Hat users innovate and achieve their goals with our products and services with content they can trust.

Making open source more inclusive

Red Hat is committed to replacing problematic language in our code, documentation, and web properties. For more details, see the Red Hat Blog.

About Red Hat

We deliver hardened solutions that make it easier for enterprises to work across platforms and environments, from the core datacenter to the network edge.

© 2024 Red Hat, Inc.