Table

of Contents
Satellite 6 1.1
Installation 1.2
Base Install 1.2.1
Registration 1.2.2
Attach Entitlements 1.2.3
Installation 1.2.4
Initial Setup 1.2.5
Initial Configuration, adding Red Hat Repos 1.3
Creating the Manifest 1.3.1
Prepare for Manifest Import 1.3.2
Importing the Manifest 1.3.3
Adding Red Hat Repositories 1.3.4
Synchronising Repositories 1.3.5
Lifecycle Environments 1.4
Content Views 1.5
Defining Content Views 1.5.1
Capsules / Smart Proxies 1.6
Configure the Server for Provisioning 1.7
Architectures 1.7.1
Domains 1.7.2
Activation Keys 1.7.3
Partition Tables 1.7.4
Subnets 1.7.5
Provisioning Templates 1.7.6
Operating systems 1.7.7
Host Groups 1.8
Defining Host Groups 1.8.1
Host Creation 1.9
Troubleshooting 1.10
Locations and Organisations 1.10.1

2
 Capsules / Proxies 1.10.2
Tasks 1.10.3
Next Steps 1.11

3
Satellite 6

Getting Started with Satellite 6

NOTE: This book was originally written for Satellite 6.0 but has now been updated for
Satellite 6.1 and Satellite 6.2 beta.

Introduction
Red Hats latest version of their Lifecycle Management tool, Red Hat Satellite 6, is a big
change from earlier versions

Version 5 was based on the upstream, open source project called Spacewalk, which also
included the Cobbler project, where as the latest version is a combination of a few other
open source projects - Katello & Foreman.

Foreman itself is also a combination of open source code written by themselves and and
open source project called Puppet (by Puppet Labs). While Katello is also a combination of
Candlepin and Pulp

As such, while the latest version has the potential to do much more and scale far beyond
earlier versions, with this comes some more complexity.

About the book

This book aims to get you up and running with Satellite 6.0 in the quickest possible time, so
that you can start experiencing the benefits it brings as soon as possible. It does not aim at
being an in depth reference guide.

We shall use defaults where-ever possible

About you
You are someone who is familiar with administering Linux. You will hopefully have some
experience of installing/provisioning and Knowledge of Puppet would also be beneficial but
not essential

Note
The book covers Satellite 6.0, 6.1 and the 6.2 beta. The sister book (Getting started with
Hammer) has been updated to 6.1

4
Satellite 6

Authors
Adrian Bradshaw (abradsha@redhat.com)

Calvin Hartwell (cjh@redhat.com)

5
Installation

Installation

Pre-Requisites
Before we start, you need

vanilla install of RHEL. (we will be using RHEL6, but RHEL7 is also supported)
valid entitlement for RHEL and entitlement for Satellite
a login to access.redat.com (for creating and downloading the manifest)

Firewall configuration
Its worth getting the firewall configured at this stage, so that we dont forget later. I shall
assume a default firewall config exists. Configure the firewall any way you feel confortable,
there is a quick option below.

RHEL 6 Firewall

iptables -F
iptables -I INPUT -m state --state NEW -p tcp --dport 443 -j ACCEPT
iptables -I INPUT -m state --state NEW -p tcp --dport 5671 -j ACCEPT
iptables -I INPUT -m state --state NEW -p tcp --dport 80 -j ACCEPT
iptables -I INPUT -m state --state NEW -p tcp --dport 8140 -j ACCEPT
iptables -I INPUT -m state --state NEW -p tcp --dport 9090 -j ACCEPT
iptables -I INPUT -m state --state NEW -p tcp --dport 22 -j ACCEPT
# And for the Capsule services
iptables -I INPUT -m state --state NEW -p tcp --dport 53 -j ACCEPT
iptables -I INPUT -m state --state NEW -p udp --dport 53 -j ACCEPT
iptables -I INPUT -m state --state NEW -p udp --dport 67 -j ACCEPT
iptables -I INPUT -m state --state NEW -p udp --dport 68 -j ACCEPT
iptables -I INPUT -m state --state NEW -p udp --dport 69 -j ACCEPT
service iptables save

RHEL 7 Firewall
RHEL 7 uses firewalld, which is new to all of us. Below are some simple steps to get the
firewall setup as we need it

Start off by verifying what the default zone is

firewall-cmd --get-active-zones

6
Installation

You should see something like this that indicates its active zone is public

public
interfaces: eth0

If the active zones list is empty, its probably because the NIC has not been assigned to a
group:

firewall-cmd --zone=public \
--change-interface=nicInterfaceName

OK, now we have verified that, lets take a look at the default rules in place

firewall-cmd --zone=public --list-all

...
(output omited)

Of course this is not what we require, so lets add in all the ports we require including the
ones for the additional capsules (DNS & DHCP)

firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=public \

--add-service=RH-Satellite-6 --add-service=dhcp \
--add-service=dns --add-service=tftp

Now run that command again.

firewall-cmd --zone=public --list-all

public (default, active)
interfaces: eth0
sources:
services: RH-Satellite-6 dhcp dhcpv6-client dns ssh tftp
ports:
masquerade: no
forward-ports:
icmp-blocks:
rich rules:

As I have used --permanent above, we will have to restart the firewall for this to take effect.
We use firewall-cmd --reload as it will keep the existing state information. See the man
page for more details

firewall-cmd --reload

7
Installation

More information on what each of these ports are for can be found here (Satellite 6.0):
Installation Guide Prerequisites

More information on what each of these ports are for can be found here (Satellite 6.1):
Installation Guide Prerequisites

More information on what each of these ports are for can be found here (Satellite 6.2 Beta -
Section 2.4): Installation Guide Prerequisites

8
Base Install

Base Install
Start with a fresh installation of RHEL 6.6, which was installed via ISO. I prefer this, over
templates or machines deployed by Satellite/Foreman as it keeps it as clean as possible and
there is no existing puppet configuration, might have lead to problems later on.

NOTE: I am currently working back through this book and adding in any RHEL7 specific
steps

When installing, be sure to just use "Base" as the installation type.

Once installed, we will register the machine to Red Hat, and fully update it. Then we will
change its Satellite version, add some subscriptions and download its manifest file and get
the Satellite software installed

9
Registration

Registration
I like to follow a very precise way of registering the box, one that I have worked out over
many installation methods. While its not the way currently mentioned in the official
documentation, it works for me 100% of the time.

From a command prompt type the following

subscription-manager register --type=satellite

You will then be prompted for your credentials, enter them and the system should be
correctly registered, but not attached/consuming entitlements

At this point its important to logon to the Red Hat Customer Portal and set the version of
Satellite to 6.0 (or higher depending on what version you are using).

10
Attach Entitlements

Attach Entitlements
OK, lets get a list of whats availble to you, you are specifically looking for the Pool IDs here

subscription-manager list --available --all|less

This will give you a quicker output if you don't want to browse each one:

subscription-manager list --all --available | grep Satellite -A 10

Search for the Satellite Subscription, as a Red Hat employee, some of the output I see is as
follows, yours will look a little different

Subscription Name: Red Hat Satellite Subscription

Provides: Red Hat Software Collections (for RHEL Server)
Red Hat Satellite Capsule
Red Hat Satellite
....

SKU: SER---US
Pool ID: aaaabbbbccccddddeeeeffffgggghhh
Available: 17
Suggested: 1
Service Level: Self-Support
Service Type: L1-L3
Multi-Entitlement: No
Ends: 01/01/22
System Type: Physical

You are interested in the Pool ID of the subscription

You can attach this to your server as follows

subscription-manager attach --pool=aaaabbbbccccddddeeeeffffgggghhh

11
Attach Entitlements

NOTE: If you're looking to install the Satellite 6.2 Beta or a newer version of the
product, make sure you use the subscription which provides Satellite 6 Beta.

NOTE: If you get an error that reads like this

Too many content sets for certificate Red Hat Satellite

Employee Subscription.
A newer client may be available to address this problem.
See kbase https://access.redhat.com/knowledge/node/129003 for
more information.

then make sure you log on to Red Hat and select the verison of Satellite, as mentioned
in the previous section. Be sure to click the update button

You will then be able to attach to that pool. However, depending on your entitlemenmts, the
pool you have atached to may not have Software Collections. If this is the case, use
subscription manager to list all availble pools and attach one that contains Software
Collections

This may enable too many repositories. The Satellite documentation makes clear which
repositories you will need, and shows how to disable the ones you dont.

RHEL 6 Repos for Satellite 6.0

subscription-manager repos --disable "*"

subscription-manager repos --enable rhel-6-server-rpms \

--enable rhel-server-rhscl-6-rpms \
--enable rhel-6-server-satellite-6.0-rpms

RHEL 6 Repos for Satellite 6.1

subscription-manager repos --disable "*"

subscription-manager repos --enable rhel-6-server-rpms \

--enable rhel-server-rhscl-6-rpms \
--enable rhel-6-server-satellite-6.1-rpms

RHEL 6 Repos for Satellite 6.2 Beta and newer:

12
Attach Entitlements

subscription-manager repos --disable "*"

subscription-manager repos --enable rhel-6-server-rpms \

--enable rhel-server-rhscl-6-rpms \
--enable rhel-6-server-satellite-6-beta-rpms

Once done, check that you have access to **exactly** three repos

yum repolist
...

rhel-6-server-rpms Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Server (RPMs) 12,913 rhel-6-server-satellite-

6.0-rpms Red Hat Satellite 6.0 (for RHEL 6 Server) (RPMs) 345 rhel-server-rhscl-6-rpms
Red Hat Software Collections RPMs for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Server 1,269

### RHEL 7 Repos for Satellite 6.0

subscription-manager repos --disable "*"

subscription-manager repos --enable rhel-7-server-rpms \ --enable rhel-server-rhscl-7-rpms \

--enable rhel-7-server-satellite-6.0-rpms

### RHEL 7 Repos for Satellite 6.1

subscription-manager repos --disable "*"

subscription-manager repos --enable rhel-7-server-rpms \ --enable rhel-server-rhscl-7-rpms \

--enable rhel-7-server-satellite-6.1-rpms

### RHEL 7 Repos for Satellite 6.2 Beta and newer versions of the product.

subscription-manager repos --disable "*"

subscription-manager repos --enable rhel-7-server-rpms \ --enable rhel-server-rhscl-7-rpms \

--enable rhel-7-server-satellite-6-beta-rpms

Once done, check that you have access to **exactly** three repos

13
Attach Entitlements

yum repolist
...

rhel-7-server-rpms/7Server/x86_64 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Server (RPMs) 5,326 rhel-7-

server-satellite-6.0-rpms/7Server/x86_64 Red Hat Satellite 6.0 (for RHEL 7 Server) (RPMs)
478 rhel-server-rhscl-7-rpms/7Server/x86_64 Red Hat Software Collections RPMs for Red
Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Server 1,939 ```

Once you have confirmed that you have access to exactly those three repositories, carry on
to the next part.

14
Installation

Installation
Now we have the correct repos configured, update the server with the latest updates from
Red Hat.

yum -y update -y

Next we perform the actual installation:

Satellite 6.0 and Satellite 6.1 installation:

yum install katello

Satellite 6.2 and beyond installation:

yum install satellite

15
Initial Setup

Initial Setup for Satellite 6.0/6.1:

The katello-installer is used to perform the initial setup and any future changes to the
existing config. Its a puppet based installation and so can be re-run without overiding the
previous settings.

We will create an "all-in-one" deployment, meaning that the Satellite will have the additional
roles of TFTP proxy, DHCP server and DNS server added at install time.

katello-installer --capsule-dns true --capsule-dns-forwarders \

8.8.8.8 --capsule-dns-interface eth0 --capsule-dns-zone \
example.com --capsule-dns-reverse 30.16.172.in-addr.arpa \
--capsule-dhcp true --capsule-dhcp-interface eth0 \
--capsule-dhcp-gateway 172.16.30.1 --capsule-tftp true

Note: It is highly recommended that you set an initial organisation and location before
installing the product. The organisation should be the company using the product such
as Redhat. The Location should be the datacenter location at which the product is
installed (such as Europe, West Europe or EMEA).

Note: forwarders are stored in /etc/named/options.conf should you wish to change

them later.

Note: if you omit --capsule-dhcp-nameservers then a default nameservers option will be

created in the dhcp config for the satellite servers own address, meaning that the DHCP
server will advertise the satellite as the DNS server. If this is not what you want, you
can add something like --capsule-dhcp-nameservers 10.0.0.1, 10.0.0.2 to the main
katello-installer options above

A full list of other katello-setup options are available via

katello installer --help

Once the installer has finished, you should be able to login by pointing your browser to
https://<servername> (assuming you have made the necessary firewall changes).

The installer can be re-run to enable missing options or options that have been
misconfigured. It can also be used if the admin password has been lost.

Initial Setup for Satellite 6.2 and higher:

16
Initial Setup

The katello-installer has been replaced in Satellite 6.2 and above with foreman-installer. To
find the full list of options available for the foreman-installer run the command:

foreman-installer --help

Note: It is highly recommended that you set an initial organisation and location before
installing the product. The organisation should be the company using the product such
as Redhat. The Location should be the datacenter location at which the product is
installed (such as Europe, West Europe or EMEA).

Next, run the installer:

foreman-installer --scenario katello \

--foreman-initial-organisation "Redhat" \
--foreman-initial-location "EMEA" \

The installer can be re-run to enable missing options or options that have been
misconfigured. It can also be used if the admin password has been lost.

17
Initial Configuration, adding Red Hat Repos

Initial Configuration, adding Red Hat

Repos
The following sections will cover adding different repositories (or repos) to the Satellite
server, starting with the official Red Hat repos.

Each type of repo can either be synchronised on demand or alternatively can be scheduled
to synchronise on a regular basis.

Before we can add Red Hat repositories, we need to create an organisation and location
then create and import a manifest file however.

18
Creating the Manifest

Creating the Manifest

Login to access.redhat.com to generate our manifest file.

Locate the system, within access.redhat.com.

Be sure to re-set the Version, if it has become unset (as in the screenshot below) and hit
Update

NOTE: If the version of satellite you are not using isn't available in the list try using the
previous version. For example, the Satellite 6.2 beta will accept a 6.1 manifest, though
it will error, it will work fine.

Then locate the "Attach a subscription" (bottom right in the screenshot below).

Navigate to the subscription you wish to add, select the checkbox on the left and enter a
quantity on the right before selecting Attach Selected

It may take some time to attach the subscription, as it will say on the screen (see screenshot
below).

19
Creating the Manifest

Hit refresh from time to time until it completes and then click on the Download Manifest
button and save the manifest somewhere safe

20
Prepare for Manifest Import

Prepare for Manifest Import

Once the manifest has been created, we simple need to import it into our Satellite server.

NOTE: If you added the initial-organization and initial-location options to the installer
you don't need to perform these steps unless you want to create additional locations or
organisations. Also note that organisations and locations can be nested such as
EMEA/UK or EMEA/Spain.

However, first we must create our Organization and Location

Login to the Satellite web interface and select the Manage Organisation menu item

Click on the New Organisation button

and fill in the entries on the first page and hit submit

21
Prepare for Manifest Import

This takes you to the second page (seen below). Here it is asking where to assign the
existing node (the Satellite server itself)

22
Prepare for Manifest Import

Click the green Assign All

Now you will see that your new organisation has been created

Follow a similar process to create a location. I created a location called Europe

23
Prepare for Manifest Import

24
Importing the Manifest

Importing the Manifest

Now that we have out Organisation and Location created, we should switch to them in order
to import our manifest to the correct place

In the first drop down menu, select your Organisation and Location In my case these were
"Example Org" and "Europe"

The left side of your menu bar should look like this

Select Red Hat Subscriptions from the Content menu

Use the Browse and Upload buttons to locate and upload the manifest you downloaded
earlier

25
Importing the Manifest

Once that has imported successfully, you can proceed to selecting the Red Hat Repositories
you wish to synchronise.

26
Adding Red Hat Repositories

Adding Red Hat Repositories

Once the manifest file has been imported, the repositories required need to be selected and
synchronised.

You will need three repositories at the very least to be selected:

NOTE: I shall focus on provisioning RHEL 6.5 hosts in my example but if you prefer to
stick with the latest version, its better to use the 6Server repository. The RHEL7
repositories have t

NOTE: The 6Server or 7Server offer a rolling release repository. It is highly

recommended to sync the kickstarts even if you're not using them.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Server Kickstart

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Server RPMs

27
Adding Red Hat Repositories

RH Common RPMs

28
Adding Red Hat Repositories

29
Synchronising Repositories

Syncronising Repositories
As mentioned at the earlier, repositories syncronisation can either be manually syncronised
or configured to syncronise on a schedule

NOTE: It is highly recommended that you use a sync plan to regularly syncronise
repositories.

At this stage lets get the Red Hat repositories, that we need for provisioning to work,
downloaded.

Select Sync Status from the Content menu

Click on the Expand All and Select All links and click on the Synchronise Now button

We will leave other Repsoitory types until later but there is no need to wait for those
repositories to sync, we can proceed to Lifecycle Environments next

30
Synchronising Repositories

31
Lifecycle Environments

Lifecycle Environments
Satellite 6 has the concept of Lifecycle Environments. These should generally match the
names of your tiers, such as Crash, Development, QA, Production etc etc

The idea is that your hosts or clients will exist in one of these tiers. A Content View
describing how the host should be configured is defined and pushed or promoted to the first
tier (Crash in our example) where it is tested and refined before it is promoted to the next
environment for the next team to test. We will discuss Content Views in another section

Creating Lifecycle Environments is easy, simple select Lifecycle Environments from the
Content Menu and click on New Environment Path

Here is an example I created for the book, by default all repositories download to the built-in
Library Environment.

In this book we shall be using the Library environment for simplicity. In reality you should be
promoting content to other environments.

32
Content Views

Content Views
At this point we will have to wait for our Red Hat Repositories to be syncronised before we
define content views.

Content views contain RPM packages from repos as well as puppet modules from puppet
repos. Everything needed in order to correctly configure the hosts.

Once defined, your content views will be published to the appropriate Lifecycle
Environment

33
Defining Content Views

Defining Content Views

Once the repositories that we need are synchronised, we can get our content view created.
The content view will create a frozen view of the repositories until further updates are added
to it and published

Click on the Content > Content Views menu

Fill in the Name and Label fields and click Save

On the Content tab, selected the repositories that you want to add to this view and click
Add Repositories

As a bare minimum, for provisioning you will need (or the RHEL7 equivalent):

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Server Kickstart x86_64 6.5

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Server - RH Common RPMs x86_64

Depending on if you have changed the Provision Template you may also need

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Server RPMs x86_64 6.5

If you want to include some Puppet Repositories, feel free, but for now we can leave those
out. They will be covered later on.

Now we need to Publish a new version of our Content View so that we can use it. Simply
click the Publish New Version

34
Defining Content Views

The process will take time, progress can be tracked on the Tasks tab

35
Capsules / Smart Proxies

Capsules / Smart Proxies

Satellite 6 has the concept of Capsules which are analogous to Smart Proxies in Foreman

A Capsule provides functionality to the Satellite server. Examples of Capsules are

DHCP Capsule - enabling Satellite 6 to reserve IP addresses on a DHCP server,

including all the options necessary for a PXE boot
DNS Capsule - enabling the Satellite to create, update and remove forward and reverse
DNS records
Realm Capsule - enabling Satellite to create Kerberos Host Principles on a Kerberos
Server
TFTP Capsule - enabling the Satellite server to place files required for PXE booting a
Host
Puppet Capsule - Providing Puppet functionality to Satellite (usually the Satellite server
itself)

These are usually, but not always, on remote servers and not on the main Satellite server
itself. However, that said, in this introductory session we configured our Satellite to have
multiple local Capsules.

We chose to run TFTP,DHCP & DNS Capsules on our main Satellite server

Capsules can be found via the Infrastructure menu

36
Configure the Server for Provisioning

Configure the Server for Provisioning

There are a number of things that need to be defined before we can add a new host to be
provisioned.

The following items need to be defined

Architecture
Domain
Activation Key
Partition Table
Subnet
DHCP Proxy
DNS Proxy
Realm Proxy
TFTP Proxy
Provisioning Templates
Operating Systems

Each will be discussed in its own section

37
Architectures

Architectures
First we will check that out architectures are present and visible in out Org/Location

Select your organisation and location from the menu, then go to

Hosts > Architectures

and confirm that you see x86_64

If its not visible go to the "Any Organisation" and see if its there, if it is, click on it and make
sure that you add the correct Location and Oragisation to it. Then switch back to your
organisation again

38
Domains

Domains
Next we do the same for Domains. The first domain should have been setup by the installer.
With your orgainisation and location selected, go to
Infrastructure > Domains

and check that your domain is visible.

If its not visible go to the "Any Organisation" and see if its there, if it is, click on it and make
sure that you add the correct Location and Organisation to it. Then switch back to your
organisation again.

39
Activation Keys

Activation Keys
Now we shall create an Activation Key.

NOTE Unfortunately the version of subscription manager shipped in RHEL6.5 (and

below) does not function correctly with Activation Keys. The default
subscription_manager_registration snippet has a fix to ensure that the RH Common
repo is included, so that provisioning should work fine. RHEL6.6 and RHEL7 do work
correctly.

NOTE Satellite can provision and update RHEL5 machines as well as RHEL6/7 but just
like RHEL6.5, subscription-manager wasn't introduced until around RHEL 5.7

Before doing this step, make sure your Content View has finished publishing

To create an activation key - click

Content > Activation Keys

followed by the New Activation Key button. Fill in the Name, select the Lifecycle
Environment and Content View and click Save

Once the key is created, make sure that the Release Version is set

and then go to the Subscriptions tab, to add your subscriptions.

40
Activation Keys

Optionally, take a look on the Product Content to see if you you want change any of the
defaults

41
Partition Tables

Partition Tables
Next we check that our Partition tables are visible in our Org/Location. This should have
been setup by the installer.

With your orgainisation and location selected, go to

Hosts > Partition Tables

and check that you can see Kickstart Default in there

42
Subnets

Subnets
The next stop is to verify that our subnet is visible under our Org/Location. Navigate to
Infrastructrue > Subnets

If you cant see any, swicth to Any Organisation / Any Location and see if its there. If it is,
then make sure that you move it to your Org/Location

If you cant see it, then maybe we need to Import Subnets from our Capsule

Navigate to

Infrastructure > Capsules and use the pull down menu on your severs entry to Import
Subnets

This will open up the Import subnets dialog. Fill in the details that are appropriate to your
network segment

43
Subnets

Once its created, click on it again and verify that its visible to your Location / Organisation.

While we are there, we will link our Domain to our Subnet from the Domains tab, by ticking
the box

Next we will set our Capsules from the Capsule tab

44
Subnets

Finally we hit Submit

45
Provisioning Templates

Provisioning Templates
One of the changes from the beta version is that now, copies of provisioning templates are
copied to your location and organisation, but they are read only copies. You can see this
from the small padlocks in the Locked Column

This is a nice last minute change (from the beta) as editing one template no longer affects
other orgs.

If you want to change one of them, then you will need to clone it

The two that we require for provisioning are Kickstart default PXELinux and Satellite
Kickstart Default. The later brings in the subscription_manager_registration snippet also

Only one change is required at this point. For both Kickstart default PXELinux and
Satellite Kickstart Default click on them and go to the Association tab and associate them
to the Operating System - in this case RHEL Server 6.5

46
Provisioning Templates

47
Operating systems

Operating systems
Next we configure the Operating Systems. As my Satellite is running RHEL 6.5, the
installation has already created one entry for me, but we need to make the following
changes. Go to

Hosts > Operating Systems

On the first tab, ensure that the Architectures entry has x86_64 ticked

On the Partition Table make sure that Kickstart Default is ticked

On the Templates tab, select the provisioning templates I mentioned earlier

and then hit Submit

48
Host Groups

Host Groups
Rather than applying settings to an individual host, Satellite 6 uses hostgroups.

Multiple HostGroups can be added and they can also be nested in a hierarchical manner.

Examples

DC North
Applications
Database
PostgSQL
MariaDB
Infrastructure
Online

DC South
Applications
Database
Oracle
Mongo
Infrastructure
Online
Webservers

The above hierarchy would look like this in the UI

Configuration can be applied at any level.

For example, your DNS servers can be set at the top level (DC North/DC South) where as
mail server settings may be defined lower down the hierarchy

49
Host Groups

50
Defining Host Groups

Defining Host Groups

There are many things to set when you create a Host Group but this saves you having to
define them for each host that you create later on. Below is the process for creating a Host
Group called DC North

Start off by going to

Configure > Host Groups

and click on New Host Group

Configure your Host Group as follows

Host Group

Puppet Classes - skip for now

Network

51
Defining Host Groups

Operating System

Parameters - skip

Locations Verify your location is set

Organisations verify you organisation is set

Activation Keys

remember to hit Submit

52
Host Creation

Host Creation
So, finally, we are in a position to get our first host provisioned.

From
Hosts > New Host

Enter the hostname (without the domain name) of your new host. The Organisation and
Location fields should be correct already. Select the Host Group from the dropdown, most
other entries will now auto populate, with the exception of Content Source. Select the
Content Source

Now over on the Network tab, check that the Domain is correct (leave Realm empty) and
paste in the MAC address of the host you are provisioning. (check that IP is auto suggetsed
- if not see troubleshooting section)

Verify that, on the Operating System Tab, that Architecture, Operating system, Media and
Partition table are set and hit Submit

After a few seconds a screen like this should appear

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Host Creation

Now power on the host to be provisioned.

The build should progress in these distinct stages

The initial Anaconda package install stage

Next the post section will run, switching you to VT3 so that you can follow.

First it will register, via subscription-manager, to the Satellite

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Host Creation

Next it will install the katello-agent

This will be followed by a yum update

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Host Creation

After the full update, the final install will happen, it will install puppet

Finally, once puppet installs, it will configure puppet and inform the Satellite server that it is
built

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Host Creation

Back on the Satellite Server, under Hosts > All Hosts , you will see the new host initally
has a blue A (Active) next to it. This simply means that puppet has made changes during its
initial run. It will change to a green O (no changes) next time puppet runs -in about 30 mins
time.

Also on the Satellite Server, check the status of the Content Hosts Hosts > Content Hosts

Click on the Content Host to see more details

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Host Creation

58
Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting
Its quite possible, with all the configuration that we have just done, that we missed
something or that a bug (this is a *.0 release after all) has meant that we are unable to
provision.

In this section I will give you a few places to check that have been common issues with my
own Satellite configuration.

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Locations and Organisations

Locations and Organisations

These are relatively new in the development lifecycle, and while the GA is better than the
beta, there is still room for improvement.

One of the quickest ways to ensure that everything you need is available in your
Organisation and Location is to go to Manage Organisations in the first menu.

Select your Organisation and scroll down until you see a list on the left of each of the
components. Click on each one and verify that it is in the Selected Items panel

Do exactly the same from the Manage Locations interface

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Locations and Organisations

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Capsules / Proxies

Capsules / Proxies
If you are using DHCP / TFTP / DNS proxies, its always worth double-checking your
definitions.

Subnet
Go to you Subnet definition (Infrastructure > Subnets), and make sure that the Capsules
page has the correct entries on it.

Domains
If you are using a DNS proxy, also verify the Domain entry (Infrastructure > Domains) has
the DNS Capsule correctly set

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Tasks

Tasks
From time to time a task with either get stuck or fail. The steps listed on this upstream
webpage can be very useful to help on these occasions

http://www.katello.org/docs/user_guide/troubleshooting/index.html

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Next Steps

Next Steps
In the next book in the series, Next Steps with Satellite 6, I will cover

Adding Other Repositories

Third Party RPM Repositories
Puppet Repositories
Adding Existing Hosts to Satellite
Backing Up the Satellite
Working with Capsules

The sister book this one, Getting Started with Satellite 6 Command line is aimed to achieving
the same results as this book but by using only the command line interface, called Hammer

Other Books
Here are details of other books I have planned.

Getting Started with Satellite 6 (this book)

Getting Started with Satellite 6 Command line (sister book, partially completed)
Next Steps with Satellite 6 (Working on the outline)

Next Steps with Satellite 6 Command line (sister to the above book, not started)
Doing More with Satellite 6 (not started)
Doing More with Satellite 6 Command line (not started)

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