Configuring Basic Authentication for Red Hat Insights
Abstract
Chapter 1. Basic authentication overview
Red Hat Insights for Red Hat Enterprise Linux can use two types of authentication to validate system access to the Insights for Red Hat Enterprise Linux services. The default authentication method is through certificates. Certificates are generated when you register a system with Red Hat Subscription Manager (RHSM) or when your system is managed by Red Hat Network Satellite system management.
An alternative authentication method is through SSO credentials. A valid Red Hat SSO credential is created when you have a valid Red Hat Customer Portal user name. In order to use SSO credentials with Red Hat Insights for Red Hat Enterprise Linux, you must configure your system to use basic authentication.
1.1. When to use basic authentication
You must use basic authentication in any of the following situations:
- Your RHEL system is not registered with Red Hat Subscription Manager (RHSM).
- Your Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) system is not managed by Red Hat Network Satellite services.
- Your RHEL system is provisioned through a Red Hat Certified Cloud and Service Provider and is updated by Red Hat Update Infrastructure (RHUI).
- Your RHEL system is from a cloud marketplace provider and not obtained through Red Hat Cloud Access program.
If you have valid RHEL subscriptions for your system, you can switch between the default certificate-based authentication for Insights for Red Hat Enterprise Linux and the basic authentication for Insights for Red Hat Enterprise Linux. If you are configuring basic authentication on a new RHEL system, you must complete the basic authentication procedures before you can register the Insights for Red Hat Enterprise Linux client application.
1.2. Configuration requirements for basic authentication
When you configure your system to use single sign-on (SSO) credentials for basic authentication instead of the default certificate-based authentication for Red Hat Insights for Red Hat Enterprise Linux, you provide Red Hat SSO credentials. SSO credentials are a valid Red Hat Customer Portal user name and password.
To configure basic authentication, a plain-text username and password is stored in the configuration file. As a best practice, create a Red Hat Customer Portal account with SSO credentials that are used only for Red Hat Insights for Red Hat Enterprise Linux basic authentication. This action avoids exposing the SSO credentials of individual users.
1.3. How to know if you must configure basic authentication
The following messages might appear when you attempt to register a system that does not have a Red Hat authentication certificate. If you see === End Upload URL Connection Test: FAILURE ===, configure your system for basic authentication.
insights-client --register Running connection test... Connection test config: === Begin Certificate Chain Test === depth=1 verify error:num=0 verify return:1 depth=0 verify error:num=0 verify return:1 === End Certificate Chain Test: SUCCESS === === Begin Upload URL Connection Test === HTTP Status Code: 401 HTTP Status Text: Unauthorized HTTP Response Text: Connection failed === End Upload URL Connection Test: FAILURE === === Begin API URL Connection Test === HTTP Status Code: 200 HTTP Status Text: OK HTTP Response Text: lub-dub Successfully connected to: https://cert-api.access.redhat.com/r/insights/ === End API URL Connection Test: SUCCESS === Connectivity tests completed with some errors See /var/log/insights-client/insights-client.log for more details.
Chapter 2. Configuring basic authentication
Insights client configuration is managed in /etc/insights-client/insights-client.conf. This file provides a configuration template for setting up basic authentication. The default configuration for certificate-based authentication is as follows:
auto_config=TRUE authmethod=BASIC username=<your customer portal username> password=<your customer portal password>
Prerequisites
- You have a Red Hat SSO username and SSO password that can be stored in clear text.
-
You have read/write permissions in the directory
/etc/insights-client/. -
The
insights-clientpackage is installed on your system.
Procedure
-
Use a text editor to open the file
/etc/insights-client/insights-client.conf -
Change
auto_config=TRUEvalue toauto_config=FALSE. -
Replace
<your customer portal username>with a Red Hat SSO username. -
Replace
<your customer portal password>with a Red Hat SSO password. - Save the configuration and exit the editor.
Register the system.
# insights-client --register
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