Administering hosts

This chapter describes creating, registering, administering, and removing hosts.

Creating a host in orcharhino

Creating a host is part of the host provisioning process. There are multiple provisioning methods and each requires different configuration of orcharhino and orcharhino Proxies. For more information, see Provisioning Hosts.

During host provisioning, you have to set a Content Source, a Lifecycle Environment, and a Content View to ensure that your host has access to orcharhino Client for CentOS Stream repositories. Note that you cannot solely set Content Source because provisioning templates expect either no Content Source or values for all three fields.

Cloning hosts

You can clone existing hosts.

Procedure

  1. In the orcharhino management UI, navigate to Hosts > All Hosts.

  2. In the Actions menu, click Clone.

  3. On the Host tab, ensure to provide a Name different from the original host.

  4. On the Interfaces tab, ensure to provide a different IP address.

  5. Click Submit to clone the host.

For more information, see Creating a Host.

Associating a virtual machine with orcharhino from a hypervisor

Procedure

  1. In the orcharhino management UI, navigate to Infrastructure > Compute Resources.

  2. Select a compute resource.

  3. On the Virtual Machines tab, click Associate VMs to associate all VMs or select Associate VM from the Actions menu to associate a single VM.

Changing a module stream for a host

If you have a host running CentOS Stream 8, you can modify the module stream for the repositories you install.

You can enable, disable, install, update, and remove module streams from your host in the orcharhino management UI.

Procedure

  1. In the orcharhino management UI, navigate to Hosts > All Hosts.

  2. Click the name of the host you want to modify.

  3. Click the Content tab, then click the Module streams tab.

  4. Click the vertical ellipsis next to the module and select the action you want to perform. You get a REX job notification once the remote execution job is complete.

Enabling custom repositories on content hosts

You can enable all custom repositories on content hosts using the orcharhino management UI.

Procedure

  1. In the orcharhino management UI, navigate to Hosts > All Hosts and select a host.

  2. Select the Content tab, then select Repository sets.

  3. From the dropdown, you can filter the Repository type column to Custom.

  4. Select the desired number of repositories or click the Select All checkbox to select all repositories, then click the vertical ellipsis, and select Override to Enabled.

Changing the content source of a host

A content source is a orcharhino Proxy that a host consumes content from. Use this procedure to change the content source for a host.

Procedure

  1. In the orcharhino management UI, navigate to Hosts > All Hosts.

  2. Click the name of the host you want to modify.

  3. Click the vertical ellipsis icon next to the Edit button and select Change content source.

  4. Select Content Source, Lifecycle Content View, and Content Source from the lists.

  5. Click Change content source.

    Some lifecycle environments can be unavailable for selection if they are not synced on the selected content source. For more information, see Adding lifecycle environments to orcharhino Proxy Servers in Managing Content.

You can either complete the content source change using remote execution or manually. To update configuration on host using remote execution, click Run job invocation. For more information about running remote execution jobs, see Configuring and setting up remote jobs in Managing Hosts. To update the content source manually, execute the autogenerated commands from Change content source on the host.

Changing the environment of a host

Use this procedure to change the environment of a host.

Procedure

  1. In the orcharhino management UI, navigate to Hosts > All Hosts.

  2. Click the name of the host you want to modify.

  3. On the Content view environment card, click the options icon and select Edit content view environments.

  4. Select the environment.

  5. Select the content view.

  6. Click Save.

Changing the managed status of a host

Hosts provisioned by orcharhino are Managed by default. When a host is set to Managed, you can configure additional host parameters from orcharhino Server. These additional parameters are listed on the Operating System tab. If you change any settings on the Operating System tab, they will not take effect until you set the host to build and reboot it.

If you need to obtain reports about configuration management on systems using an operating system not supported by orcharhino, set the host to Unmanaged.

Procedure

  1. In the orcharhino management UI, navigate to Hosts > All Hosts.

  2. Click the name of the host you want to modify.

  3. Click Edit.

  4. Click Manage host or Unmanage host to change the host’s status.

  5. Click Submit.

Configuring Tracer on a host

You can install Tracer on hosts and access Traces on orcharhino. Tracer displays a list of outdated services and applications that need to be restarted, as well as asks you to restart the host after, for example, a kernel update. Traces is the output generated by Tracer in the orcharhino management UI.

Prerequisites

  • The host is registered to orcharhino.

  • orcharhino Client for CentOS Stream repository for the operating system version of the host is synchronized on orcharhino Server, available in the content view and the lifecycle environment of the host, and enabled for the host.

  • Remote execution is enabled.

Procedure

  1. In the orcharhino management UI, navigate to Hosts > All Hosts.

  2. Select your host.

  3. On the Traces tab, click Enable Traces.

  4. Select the provider to install katello-host-tools-tracer from the list.

  5. Click Enable Tracer. You get a REX job notification after the remote execution job is complete.

  6. If you get a list of applications that need to be restarted, select the ones that you want to restart.

  7. Click Restart app, then click one of these buttons:

    • Restart via remote execution

    • Restart via customized remote execution

      The first option restarts the application immediately, while the second one allows you to examine and customize the REX job.

Restarting applications on a host

Use this procedure to restart applications from the orcharhino management UI.

Procedure

  1. In the orcharhino management UI, navigate to Hosts > All Hosts.

  2. Click the name of the hosts you want to modify.

  3. Select the Traces tab.

  4. Select applications that you want to restart.

  5. Select Restart via remote execution from the Restart app list. You will get a REX job notification once the remote execution job is complete.

Assigning a host to a specific organization

Use this procedure to assign a host to a specific organization. For general information about organizations and how to configure them, see Managing Organizations and Locations.

If your host is already registered with a different organization, you must first unregister the host before assigning it to a new organization. To unregister the host, run subscription-manager unregister on the host. After you assign the host to a new organization, you can re-register the host.
Procedure

  1. In the orcharhino management UI, navigate to Hosts > All Hosts.

  2. Select the checkbox of the host you want to change.

  3. From the Select Action list, select Assign Organization. A new option window opens.

  4. From the Select Organization list, select the organization that you want to assign your host to. Select the checkbox Fix Organization on Mismatch.

    A mismatch happens if there is a resource associated with a host, such as a domain or subnet, and at the same time not associated with the organization you want to assign the host to. The option Fix Organization on Mismatch will add such a resource to the organization, and is therefore the recommended choice. The option Fail on Mismatch will always result in an error message. For example, reassigning a host from one organization to another will fail, even if there is no actual mismatch in settings.

  5. Click Submit.

Assigning a host to a specific location

Use this procedure to assign a host to a specific location. For general information about locations and how to configure them, see Managing Organizations and Locations.

Procedure

  1. In the orcharhino management UI, navigate to Hosts > All Hosts.

  2. Select the checkbox of the host you want to change.

  3. From the Select Action list, select Assign Location. A new option window opens.

  4. Navigate to the Select Location list and choose the location that you want for your host. Select the checkbox Fix Location on Mismatch.

    A mismatch happens if there is a resource associated with a host, such as a domain or subnet, and at the same time not associated with the location you want to assign the host to. The option Fix Location on Mismatch will add such a resource to the location, and is therefore the recommended choice. The option Fail on Mismatch will always result in an error message. For example, reassigning a host from one location to another will fail, even if there is no actual mismatch in settings.

  5. Click Submit.

Switching between hosts

When you are on a particular host in the orcharhino management UI, you can navigate between hosts without leaving the page by using the host switcher. Click ⇄ next to the hostname. This displays a list of hosts in alphabetical order with a pagination arrow and a search bar to find the host you are looking for.

Viewing host details from a content host

Use this procedure to view the host details page from a content host.

Procedure

  1. In the orcharhino management UI, navigate to Hosts > Content Hosts

  2. Click the content host you want to view.

  3. Select the Details tab to see the host details page.

The cards in the Details tab show details for the System properties, BIOS, Networking interfaces, Operating system, Provisioning templates, and Provisioning. Registered content hosts show additional cards for Registration details, Installed products, and HW properties providing information about Model, Number of CPU(s), Sockets, Cores per socket, and RAM.

Selecting host columns

You can select what columns you want to see in the host table on the Hosts > All Hosts page.

It is not possible to deselect the Name column. The Name column serves as a primary identification method of the host.
Procedure

  1. In the orcharhino management UI, navigate to Hosts > All Hosts.

  2. Click Manage columns.

  3. Select columns that you want to display. You can select individual columns or column categories. Selecting or deselecting a category selects or deselects all columns in that category.

    Some columns are included in more than one category, but you can display a column of a specific type only once. By selecting or deselecting a specific column, you select or deselect all instances of that column.
Verification

  • You can now see the selected columns in the host table.

Removing a host from orcharhino

Use this procedure to remove a host from orcharhino. To use the CLI instead of the orcharhino management UI, see the CLI procedure.

Procedure

  1. In the orcharhino management UI, navigate to Hosts > All Hosts or Hosts > Content Hosts. Note that there is no difference from what page you remove a host, from All Hosts or Content Hosts. In both cases, orcharhino removes a host completely.

  2. Select the hosts that you want to remove.

  3. From the Select Action list, select Delete Hosts.

  4. Click Submit to remove the host from orcharhino permanently.

By default, the Destroy associated VM on host delete setting is set to no. If a host record that is associated with a virtual machine is deleted, the virtual machine will remain on the compute resource.

To delete a virtual machine on the compute resource, navigate to Administer > Settings and select the Provisioning tab. Setting Destroy associated VM on host delete to yes deletes the virtual machine if the host record that is associated with the virtual machine is deleted. To avoid deleting the virtual machine in this situation, disassociate the virtual machine from orcharhino without removing it from the compute resource or change the setting.
CLI procedure

  • Delete your host from orcharhino:

    $ hammer host delete \
--id My_Host_ID \
--location-id My_Location_ID \
--organization-id My_Organization_ID

    Alternatively, you can use --name My_Host_Name instead of --id My_Host_ID.

Disassociating a virtual machine from orcharhino without removing it from a hypervisor

Procedure

  1. In the orcharhino management UI, navigate to Hosts > All Hosts.

  2. Select the checkbox to the left of the hosts that you want to disassociate.

  3. From the Select Action list, click Disassociate Hosts.

  4. Optional: Select the checkbox to keep the hosts for future action.

  5. Click Submit.

Installing the Snapshot Management plugin

You can install the Snapshot Management plugin on your orcharhino.

Procedure

  • Install the Snapshot Management plugin on your orcharhino Server:

    $ orcharhino-installer --enable-foreman-plugin-snapshot-management

Creating snapshots of a host

You can use the Snapshot Management plugin to create snapshots of hosts.

Prerequisites
Procedure

  1. In the orcharhino management UI, navigate to Hosts > All Hosts and select a host.

  2. In the Snapshots card, click Create Snapshot.

  3. Enter a Name.

  4. Optional: Enter a Description.

  5. Optional: In the Snapshot Mode field, select Memory if you want to include the RAM in your snapshot or Quiesce if you want to ensure the full state of the VM is written to disk before creating the snapshot.

  6. Click Submit to create a snapshot.

Keeping more than three snapshots per host slows down the creation and rollback process. Consider deleting older snapshots when creating new ones.

The text and illustrations on this page are licensed by ATIX AG under a Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 4.0 International ("CC BY-SA 4.0") license. This page also contains text from the official Foreman documentation which uses the same license ("CC BY-SA 4.0").