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Chapter 14. Maintaining Satellite Server

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

14.1. Deleting audit records manually
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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
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    This command deletes all audit records older than Number_Of_Days.

14.2. Deleting audit records automatically
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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.

14.3. Anonymizing audit records
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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
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14.4. Deleting report records
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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
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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 * * *"
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  • 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
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  • To reenable regular task cleanup on Satellite, enter the following command: 

    # satellite-installer --foreman-plugin-tasks-automatic-cleanup true
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14.6. Deleting task records
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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'
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14.7. Deleting a task by ID
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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
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  2. Optional: View the task: 

    $ hammer task info --id My_Task_ID
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  3. Delete the task: 

    # foreman-rake foreman_tasks:cleanup TASK_SEARCH="id=My_Task_ID"
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  4. Optional: Ensure the task has been removed from Satellite Server: 

    $ hammer task info --id My_Task_ID
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    Note that because the task is deleted, this command returns a non-zero exit code.

14.8. Recovering from a full disk
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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
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      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 9 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
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      2. Grow the file system on the LV.

      3. Start Satellite services: 

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

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

    # su - postgres -c 'vacuumdb --full --all'
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  3. Start the other services when the vacuum completes: 

    # satellite-maintain service start
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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
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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.
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