Chapter 9. Registering clients to the load balancer


To balance the load of network traffic from clients, you must register the clients to the load balancer.

To consume container content from a load balancer regardless of client registration, use the load balancer hostname with the container client of choice. For example, use podman login loadbalancer.example.com to log in.

You can configure Satellite to register clients through a load balancer when using the host registration feature.

You will be able to register hosts to the load balancer instead of Capsule. The load balancer will decide through which Capsule to register the host at the time of request. Upon registration, the subscription manager on the host will be configured to manage content through the load balancer.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. On all Capsule Servers, set the registration and template URLs using satellite-installer:

    # satellite-installer \
    --foreman-proxy-registration-url "https://loadbalancer.example.com:9090" \
    --foreman-proxy-template-url "http://loadbalancer.example.com:8000"
  2. In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Infrastructure > Capsules.
  3. For each Capsule, click the dropdown menu in the Actions column and select Refresh.

After setting the load balancer for host registration, you can register a host to the load balancer.

Procedure

  1. In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Hosts > Register Host.
  2. From the Capsule dropdown list, select your Capsule Server configured for load balancing.
  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.

After setting the load balancer for host registration, you can register a host to the load balancer.

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.

After setting the load balancer for host registration, you can register a host to a load-balanced Capsule.

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.

To register clients, enter the following command on the client. You must complete the registration procedure for each client.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  • On Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, enter the following command:

    # /usr/libexec/platform-python bootstrap.py \
    --activationkey="My_Activation_Key" \
    --enablerepos=satellite-client-6-for-rhel-8-<arch>-rpms \
    --force \
    --hostgroup="My_Host_Group" \
    --location="My_Location" \
    --login=admin \
    --organization="My_Organization" \
    --puppet-ca-port 8141 \
    --server loadbalancer.example.com

    The options used in the command include the following:

    enablerepos
    Replace <arch> with the client architecture, for example x86.
    --force
    Include the --force option to register the client that has been previously registered to a standalone Capsule.
    --puppet-ca-port
    Include the --puppet-ca-port 8141 option if you use Puppet.
  • On Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, enter the following command:

    # python bootstrap.py --login=admin \
    --activationkey="My_Activation_Key" \
    --enablerepos=rhel-7-server-satellite-client-6-rpms \
    --force \
    --hostgroup="My_Host_Group" \
    --location="My_Location" \
    --organization="My_Organization" \
    --puppet-ca-port 8141 \
    --server loadbalancer.example.com

    The options used in the command include the following:

    --force
    Include the --force option to register the client that has been previously registered to a standalone Capsule.
    --puppet-ca-port

    Include the --puppet-ca-port 8141 option if you use Puppet.

    The script prompts for the password corresponding to the Satellite user name you entered with the --login option.

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