Install Foreman 311 katello rocky9

1 VM SETUP

• CPU: 4
• MEM: 20G
• DISK: 200G
• Host IP: eg: 1.2.3.4

1.1 DNS requirements

I use this, because i also stand behind a firewall with loadbalancer and want to use letsencrypt cert for public

• A-Record: eg: foreman01.domain.tld
• CNAME: eg: foreman.domain.tld
• Cert Location: /etc/pki/letsencrypt #keep this place restricted: root.root 0640

2 LINKS

• https://docs.theforeman.org/3.11/Quickstart/index-katello.html

3 OUTSIDE CONNECTIVITY NEEDS

• https://cdn.redhat.com
• https://yum.theforeman.org
• http://yum.puppetlabs.com

4 Install

dnf clean all
dnf -y install https://yum.theforeman.org/releases/3.11/el9/x86_64/foreman-release.rpm
dnf -y install https://yum.theforeman.org/katello/4.13/katello/el9/x86_64/katello-repos-latest.rpm
dnf -y install https://yum.puppet.com/puppet7-release-el-9.noarch.rpm
dnf repolist enabled


dnf -y upgrade
dnf -y install foreman-installer-katello


dnf -y install firewalld

systemctl enable firewalld --now

firewall-cmd \
--add-port="80/tcp" --add-port="443/tcp" \
--add-port="5647/tcp" \
--add-port="8000/tcp" --add-port="9090/tcp" \
--add-port="8140/tcp" \
#--add-port="53/udp" --add-port="53/tcp" \
#--add-port="67/udp" \
#--add-port="69/udp"

firewall-cmd --runtime-to-permanent

firewall-cmd --list-all
   public (active)
     services: cockpit dhcpv6-client ssh
     ports: 80/tcp 443/tcp 5647/tcp 8000/tcp 9090/tcp 8140/tcp

ping -c1 localhost
ping -c1 `hostname -f`

echo "1.2.3.4 foreman01.domain.tld" >> /etc/hosts
echo "1.2.3.4 foreman.domain.tld" >> /etc/hosts

hostnamectl set-hostname `hostname -f`

dnf clean all
dnf makecache
dnf -y upgrade

yum -y install chrony
systemctl start chronyd
systemctl enable chronyd

echo sources | chronyc

reboot

5 Setup Foreman

foreman-installer --scenario katello \
 --foreman-servername foreman.domain.tld \
 --foreman-foreman-url https://foreman.domain.tld \
 --foreman-proxy-foreman-base-url https://foreman.domain.tld \
 --foreman-proxy-registered-name foreman.domain.tld \
 --foreman-initial-organization "BITBULL" \
 --foreman-initial-location "Core" \
 --foreman-initial-admin-username admin \
 --foreman-initial-admin-password admin \
 --enable-foreman-cli-ansible \
 --enable-foreman-cli \
 --enable-foreman-cli-katello \
 --enable-foreman-plugin-ansible \
 --enable-foreman-plugin-statistics \
 --enable-foreman-plugin-tasks \
 --certs-server-cert "/etc/pki/letsencrypt/cert.pem" \
 --certs-server-key "/etc/pki/letsencrypt/key.pem" \
 --certs-server-ca-cert "/etc/pki/letsencrypt/ca.pem" 



foreman-installer --scenario katello --foreman-initial-organization "BITBULL" --foreman-initial-location "Verwaltung" --foreman-initial-admin-username admin --foreman-initial-admin-password admin --enable-foreman-cli-ansible --enable-foreman-cli --enable-foreman-cli-katello --enable-foreman-plugin-ansible --enable-foreman-plugin-remote-execution --enable-foreman-plugin-remote-execution-cockpit --enable-foreman-plugin-statistics --enable-foreman-plugin-tasks
# --skip-checks-i-know-better --tuning development

6 Foreman Content Management - Menu Overview

7 Manage Repos with Foreman

• https://opensource.com/article/21/9/centos-stream-foreman
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsCi9Jy2lGs&t=3s

8 Create Content

8.1 Sync Plan

• Content > Sync Plans

Create Sync Plan > Daily

8.2 Products/Repos

• Content > Products > Repo Discovery

• Type: Yum Repositories
• URL to Discover: https://mirror.puzzle.ch/rockylinux/
• Filter: /9/AppStream/x86_64/os/
• Filter: /9/BaseOS/x86_64/os/
• Name: Rocky Linux
• Run Repository Creation

• Products > Rocky Linux

• Sync Plan: Daily

• Products > Rocky Linux > Repositories: ALL
• Restrict to architecture: x86_64
• Restrict to OS version: rhel-9

8.3 Lifecycle Environment

• Content > Lifecycle Environment > Create

TestLcEnv > ProdLcEnv

8.4 Content View

• Content > Content views > Create

• Name: cv_rocky9
• Solve dependencies: TRUE

• Content > Content views > cv_rocky9 > Publish new version

• Promote: TRUE
• Version: 1.0
• Env: TestLcEnv + ProdLcEnv

8.5 Activation Keys

• Content > Activation Keys > Create

• Name: ak_rocky9_test
• Environment: TestLcEnv
• Content View: cv_rocky9
• Repository Sets: Disable all but needed

• Content > Activation Keys > Create

• Name: ak_rocky9_prod
• Environment: ProdLcEnv
• Content View: cv_rocky9
• Repository Sets: Disable all but needed

9 Patch Cycle Ideas Brainstorming

9.1 Prerequisites

• Daily Sync of all Foreman Libraries (Product upstream Repos)
• Working Repos as mentioned above
• Systems are grouped and registered in Lifecycle Environments

• TEST
• TEST-LATE
• PROD
• PROD-LATE

The meaning of "LATE" is to patch this systems later to avoid production issues (eg: half of the systems of a Cluster (DNS, Web, ...)

9.2 Patch Cycle

• All systems get patched at least every 4 weeks

• A Rundeck Job does update the Content Views on a regular base.

EXAMPLE:
----------------------------------
KW01 -> "Library" (daily sync) into "TEST" Content View as Version "KW01"
KW02 -> Version "KW01" into "TEST-LATE" Content View
KW03 -> Version "KW01" into "PROD" Content View
KW04 -> Version "KW01" into "PROD-LATE" Content View
KW05 -> "Library" (daily sync) into "TEST" Content View as Version "KW05"
KW06 -> Version "KW05" into "TEST-LATE" Content View
KW07 -> Version "KW05" into "PROD" Content View
KW08 -> Version "KW05" into "PROD-LATE" Content View
...

9.3 Emergency Patching

Due security needs, it may be necessary to apply patches immediatly. For that, you have several options

9.3.1 Add Packages to Conent View

• Create a custom Repository eg. "Rocky9 Custom"
• Add RPMS, which are newer and needed for emergency patching to this repo
• They get applied with Ansible on a daily base during patch cycle
• Once they get obsolete (regular Repo gets updated) you can purge them out of the repo

9.3.2 Update Conent View

Easiest way to update repos but may apply more updates than needed for security reason

• Needs to pause the automated "Content View" update in Rundeck

9.3.3 Manual Update

Manually Update custom packages with yum/dnf on affected systems

• least prefered, due missing overview

10 TIPPS AND TRICKS

• Push Host Package State to Foreman

subscription-manager repos --list