Red Hat Training

A Red Hat training course is available for RHEL 8

Chapter 2. Deploying Session Recording on RHEL web console

This section describes how to deploy the Session Recording solution on the Red Hat Enterprise Linux web console.

To be able to deploy the Session Recording solution you need to have the following packages installed:

  • tlog
  • SSSD
  • cockpit-session-recording

2.1. Installing tlog

Install the tlog packages.

Procedure

  • Use the following command: 

    # yum install tlog

2.2. Installing cockpit-session-recording

The basic web console packages are a part of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 by default. To be able to use the Session Recording solution, you have to install the cockpit-session-recording packages and start or enable the web console on your system:

Procedure

  1. Install cockpit-session-recording. 

    # yum install cockpit-session-recording

  2. Start or enable the web console on your system: 

    # systemctl start cockpit.socket
# systemctl enable cockpit.socket

    or 

    # systemctl enable cockpit.socket --now

2.3. Enabling session recording for users and groups with SSSD from the CLI

If you use SSSD for authentication, you can configure session recording for users and groups from the command line.

Procedure

  • Open the sssd-session-recording.conf configuration file: 

    # vi /etc/sssd/conf.d/sssd-session-recording.conf
    Note

    The sssd-session-recording.conf file is created automatically once you have opened the configuration page in the web console interface.

    1. To specify the scope of session recording, enter one of the following values for the scope option:
  • none to record no sessions.
  • some to record only specified sessions.

  • all to record all sessions.

    1. (Optional) If you set the scope as some add the names of users and groups in comma-separated lists.

Example 2.1. SSSD configuration

In the following example users example1 and example2, and group examples have session recording enabled. 

[session_recording]
scope = some
users = example1, example2
groups = examples

2.4. Enabling session recording for users and groups with SSSD from the web UI

If you use SSSD for authentication, you can configure session recording for users and groups in the RHEL 8 web console.

Procedure

  1. Connect to the RHEL 8 web console locally by entering localhost:9090 or by entering your IP address <IP_ADDRESS>:9090 into your browser.

  2. Log in to the RHEL 8 web console.

    Important

    Your user has to have administrator privileges to be able to view recorded sessions.

  3. Go to the Session Recording page in the menu on the left.

  4. Click on the gear button in the right top corner.

    SSSD Configuration button

  5. Set your parameters in the SSSD Configuration table. Separate the lists of users and groups with commas.

    Example 2.2. Configuration of recorded users with SSSD

    SSSD Configuration

2.5. Enabling session recording for users without SSSD

Important

Red Hat does not recommend this option. The preferred option is to configure your recorded users via SSSD either from the command-line interface or directly from the RHEL 8 web console.

If you choose to manually change the user’s shell, their working shell will be the one that is listed in the tlog-rec-session.conf configuration file.

If you do not want to use SSSD for specifying recorded user or user groups it is possible to directly change the shell of the user you want to record to /usr/bin/tlog-rec-session:

  1. Change the shell. 

    # sudo usermod -s /usr/bin/tlog-rec-session <user_name>

2.6. Exporting recorded sessions to a file

You can export your recorded sessions and their logs and copy them.

The following procedure shows how to export recorded sessions on a local system.

Prerequisites

  • Install the systemd-journal-remote package. 

    # yum install systemd-journal-remote

Procedure

  1. Create a directory to store exported recording sessions, such as `/tmp/dir: 

    # mkdir /tmp/dir

  2. Run the journalctl -o export command to export system journal entries related to tlog recordings: 

    # journalctl _COMM=tlog-rec _COMM=tlog-rec-sessio -o export | /usr/lib/systemd/systemd-journal-remote -o /tmp/dir/example.journal -
    Note

    The COMM=tlog-rec-sessio COMM name is shortened due to a 15 character limit.