Chapter 5. Monitoring Hosts

In this chapter, you can find information about creating host monitoring reports and monitoring your hosts using Red Hat Insights and creating an Insights plan.

5.1. Generating Host Monitoring Reports

You can use monitoring reports to query registered hosts in Satellite to obtain information such as host status, inventories, applicable errata and subscription details.

Satellite Server uses ERB syntax report templates to generate host monitoring reports.

To view the host monitoring report templates, in the Satellite web UI, navigate to Monitor > Report Templates. You can create a template, or clone a template and edit the clone. For help with the template syntax, click a template and click the Help tab.

To schedule reports, configure a cron job.

Procedure

To generate a host monitoring report, complete the following steps:

  1. In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Monitor > Report Templates.
  2. To the right of the report template that you want to use, click Generate.
  3. Optional: Apply search query filters. To view all available results, do not populate the filter field with any values.
  4. Click Submit. A CSV file that contains the report is downloaded.

For CLI Users

To generate a report, complete the following steps:

  1. List all available report templates: 

    # hammer report-template list

  2. Generate a report: 

    # hammer report-template generate --id template ID

5.2. Using Red Hat Insights with Hosts in Satellite

You can use Red Hat Insights to diagnose systems and downtime related to security exploits, performance degradation and stability failures. You can use the dashboard to quickly identify key risks to stability, security, and performance. You can sort by category, view details of the impact and resolution, and then determine what systems are affected.

To use Red Hat Insights to monitor hosts that you manage with Satellite, you must first install Red Hat Insights on your hosts and register your hosts with Red Hat Insights.

To install and register your host using Puppet, or manually, see Red Hat Insights Getting Started.

Deploying Red Hat Insights using the Ansible Role

You can automate the installation and registration of hosts with Red Hat Insights using the RedHatInsights.insights-client Ansible role. For more information about adding this role to your Satellite, see Managing Ansible Roles.

  1. Add the RedHatInsights.insights-client role to the hosts.

    For new hosts, see Section 2.1, “Creating a Host in Red Hat Satellite”.

    For existing hosts, see Chapter 7, Using Ansible Roles.

  2. To run the RedHatInsights.insights-client role on your host, navigate to Hosts > All Hosts and click the name of the host that you want to use.
  3. Click the Run Ansible roles button.

When the role completes, you can view and work with the host that you add on the Insights > Overview page of the Satellite web UI.

Additional Information

  • To apply any system updates to the Red Hat Insights plug-in, enter httpd restart after updating.
  • To view the logs for Red Hat Insights and all plug-ins, go to /var/log/foreman/production.log.
  • If you have problems connecting to Red Hat Insights, ensure that your certificates are up-to-date. Refresh your subscription manifest to update your certificates.
  • You can change the default schedule for running insights-client by configuring insights-client.timer on a host. For more information, see Changing the insights-client schedule in the Client Configuration Guide for Red Hat Insights.

5.3. Creating an Insights Plan for Hosts

With Satellite 6, you can create a Red Hat Insights remediation plan and run the plan on Satellite hosts.

Procedure

To create the plan, complete the following steps:

  1. In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Insights > Inventory, and select the hosts that you want to include in an Insights plan.
  2. From the Actions list, select Create a new Plan/Playbook.
  3. From the Plan/Playbook Builder window, select Create new plan and enter a name for the plan.
  4. Select whether you want the rule to apply to a specific system, group, or all systems.
  5. Select one or more rules that you want to add to the plan. Use the Filter field to search for specific keywords.
  6. Click Save.
  7. In the Planner window, select Run Playbook.

In the Jobs window, you can view the progress of your plan as the playbook runs.

You can view the Insights plan by navigating to Insights > Planner.