Foreman

From Leo's Notes
This page was last edited on 8 June 2018, at 22:48.

Foreman is a host management system for Linux systems.

Foreman in addition to Katello, Pulp, and Candlepin, provides the base system for Red Hat Satellite 6.

Installation

Foreman (with Katello)

Foreman can be installed on most Linux distributions as well as in Docker (though, the image would need to use systemd since the puppet modules depend on it). This section will go over the steps needed to get Foreman running on a server.

On a clean CentOS 7 system: 

## Update system
# yum clean all

## Install repos
# yum -y localinstall http://fedorapeople.org/groups/katello/releases/yum/3.6/katello/el7/x86_64/katello-repos-latest.rpm
# yum -y localinstall http://yum.theforeman.org/releases/1.17/el7/x86_64/foreman-release.rpm
# yum -y localinstall https://yum.puppetlabs.com/puppetlabs-release-pc1-el-7.noarch.rpm
# yum -y localinstall http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-7.noarch.rpm

## Update packages and install new ones
# yum -y update
# yum -y install foreman-release-scl python-django katello tfm-rubygem-foreman_dhcp_browser

Ensure that the server's hostname resolves properly. If it does not (such as if you're doing this in a test environment), add it to the hosts file. For example: 

# cat /etc/hosts
## The FQDN should be first
192.168.154.129    foreman.lab.cpsc.ucalgary.ca foreman
Make sure hostnames are correct
Verify that hostname returns the hostname with no domain and hostname -f returns the full FQDN.

If this isn't the case and you continue with the installation, foreman will glitch out with issues such as:

  • Not being able to add the domain to foreman, with it saying it already exists
  • Adding a new host will cause the domain to be appended to the hostname twice


The foreman-installer will bootstrap the installation process using the puppet modules installed in the previous step. Start the installer by running: 

foreman-installer --scenario katello \
  --foreman-servername foreman \
  --foreman-serveraliases foreman \
  --foreman-initial-organization "U of C" \
  --foreman-initial-location "CPSC" \
  --foreman-db-type postgresql \
  --foreman-db-username foreman \
  --foreman-db-database foreman \
  --foreman-db-password 1GwtY31DEsQFLEVdH0oh \
  --foreman-db-manage true \
  --enable-foreman \
  --enable-foreman-plugin-discovery  \
  --enable-foreman-plugin-default-hostgroup  \
  --enable-foreman-plugin-templates  \
  --enable-foreman-plugin-hooks \
  --enable-foreman-proxy \
  --enable-foreman-proxy-plugin-pulp \
  --enable-katello \
  --enable-puppet

This stage takes a while. Make a note of the user credentials after installation succeeds.

Allow certain ports through the firewall.

TODO: Configure the firewall properly
Add the proper commands to configure the firewall appropriately. 
# systemctl disable firewalld
# systemctl stop firewalld

You may also want to disable SELinux as it might cause issues with Foreman from working properly.

TODO: Verify that this is actually accurate
I think foreman should work with SELinux. Issues I had might be related to the firewall. 
# setenforce 0
# vi /etc/selinux/config

The initial setup will take a while. Once this step is complete, you should be able to access the Foreman web interface using a web browser.

Smart Proxy

A Foreman Smart Proxy provides a RESTful interface that interacts with certain services such as DHCP or DNS. Installing only the Foreman Smart Proxy requires the installation of the foreman-proxy package.

To set up a Smart Proxy that handles DHCP and DNS on a separate server, run: 

## Repositories
# yum -y localinstall http://yum.theforeman.org/releases/1.17/el7/x86_64/foreman-release.rpm
# yum -y localinstall https://yum.puppetlabs.com/puppetlabs-release-pc1-el-7.noarch.rpm
# yum -y localinstall http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-7.noarch.rpm

## Install packages
# yum -y install dhcp bind xinetd  krb5-workstation  foreman-proxy  tftp-server  bind-utils  yum-utils

The smart proxy can be configured by editing files in /etc/foreman-proxy. Each individual service that the smart proxy should handle must be enabled in its corresponding yaml configuration file there.

After the configuration is done, start the proxy.

You can debug the proxy by running the smart proxy manually as well as changing the log_level value to DEBUG in /etc/foreman-proxy/settings.yml.: 

# /usr/share/foreman-proxy/bin/smart-proxy


Plugins

Plugins can be enabled when running foreman-installer.

Additional plugins can also be installed using pre-built packages. For example: 

# yum install tfm-rubygem-foreman_dhcp_browser tfm-rubygem-foreman_salt

Plugins that can be configured will have their configuration files placed in /etc/foreman/plguins.

Configuration

Foreman

A few things that should be done on a clean install:

  1. Add smart proxies
  2. Set up domains. (Infrastructure -> Domains)
    • Set location, organization, smart proxy
  3. Set up subnets. (Infrastructure -> Subnets)
    • Set location, organization, smart proxy
  4. Add kickstart templates
    • Set location, organization
  5. Create an Operating System Media (Hosts -> Installation Media)
  6. Create an Operating System (Hosts -> Operating Systems)
    • Set kickstart template, operating system media, partition table, location, organization
    • Fedora: 28
    • CentOS: 7, 5.1804
  7. Configure Host Groups (Configure -> Host Groups) 
    • CentOS	
CentOS/Servers	
Fedora	
Fedora/Lab	
Fedora/Lab/Graphics	
Fedora/Lab/Pi	
Unmanaged
    • Each with package_groupX


Default PXE Menu

The default PXE menu that is shown is configured by the /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux.cfg/default file. This file is generated by Foreman using the default template "PXELinux default local boot" when you click on the "Build PXE Default" button on the Provisioning Template page on all (?) smart proxies that have been configured with TFTP.

Troubleshooting

Custom Certificates

If using self-signed certificates you may get: 

/Stage[main]/Foreman_proxy::Register/Foreman_smartproxy[foreman-proxy2.lab.cpsc.ucalgary.ca]: Could not evaluate: Exception SSL_connect returned=1 errno=0 state=error: certificate verify failed in get request to: https://foreman.lab.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/api/v2/smart_proxies?search=name=%22foreman-proxy2.lab.cpsc.ucalgary.ca%22
/usr/share/foreman-installer/modules/foreman/lib/puppet/provider/foreman_resource/rest_v3.rb:89:in `rescue in request'
/usr/share/foreman-installer/modules/foreman/lib/puppet/provider/foreman_resource/rest_v3.rb:71:in `request'
/usr/share/foreman-installer/modules/foreman/lib/puppet/provider/foreman_smartproxy/rest_v3.rb:6:in `proxy'
/usr/share/foreman-installer/modules/foreman/lib/puppet/provider/foreman_smartproxy/rest_v3.rb:13:in `id'
/usr/share/foreman-installer/modules/foreman/lib/puppet/provider/foreman_smartproxy/rest_v3.rb:17:in `exists?'

Fix this by adding the self-signed certificate from the foreman server to the foreman proxy system. 

[root@foreman]# cp "/etc/puppetlabs/puppet/ssl/certs/ca.pem" 
[root@foreman-proxy2 anchors]#  cp ca.pem /etc/pki/ca-trust/source/anchors
[root@foreman-proxy2 anchors]# update-ca-trust extract
[root@foreman-proxy2 anchors]# wget -O - https://foreman.lab.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/api/v2/smart_proxies
--2018-06-01 12:45:47--  https://foreman.lab.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/api/v2/smart_proxies
Resolving foreman.lab.cpsc.ucalgary.ca (foreman.lab.cpsc.ucalgary.ca)... 192.168.154.129
Connecting to foreman.lab.cpsc.ucalgary.ca (foreman.lab.cpsc.ucalgary.ca)

DNS Update Failure

If you get... 

D, [2018-06-08T16:03:36.393622 666bc3da] DEBUG -- : Requesting credentials for Kerberos principal foremanproxy/foreman-proxy.lab.cs.ucalgary.ca@LAB.CS.UCALGARY.CA using keytab /etc/foreman-proxy/dns.keytab
E, [2018-06-08T16:03:36.393967 666bc3da] ERROR -- : Failed to initialise credential cache from keytab: krb5_get_init_creds_keytab: Key table entry not found
E, [2018-06-08T16:03:36.394216 666bc3da] ERROR -- : Failed to initailize credentials cache from keytab: krb5_get_init_creds_keytab: Key table entry not found
D, [2018-06-08T16:03:36.394293 666bc3da] DEBUG -- : Failed to initailize credentials cache from keytab: krb5_get_init_creds_keytab: Key table entry not found (RuntimeError)

Then it means your principal name or keytab file is wrong. Fix this by editing the dns_nsupdate_gss.yml so that :dns_tsig_principal: is defined to the proper principal name.

Cannot PXE Boot - PXE-E79

PXE-E79: NBP is too big to fit in free base memory

You're trying to boot a UEFI program while in legacy BIOS mode. You probably selected GRUB2-EFI as the boot loader rather than legacy BIOS when setting up your host.

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