Chapter 4. Migrating Hosts From Katello Agent to Remote Execution

Remote Execution is the preferred way to manage package content on hosts. The Katello Agent is deprecated and will be removed in a future Satellite version. Follow these steps to switch to Remote Execution.

Prerequisites

  • You have enabled the Satellite Client 6 repository on Satellite Server. For more information, see Enabling the Satellite Client 6 Repository in Installing Satellite Server in a Connected Network Environment.
  • You have synchronized the Satellite Client 6 repository on Satellite Server. For more information, see Synchronizing the Satellite Client 6 Repository in Installing Satellite Server in a Connected Network Environment.
  • You have previously installed the katello-agent package on content hosts.

Procedure

  1. If you have Remote Execution configured to use ssh mode, distribute the remote execution SSH keys to the hosts. For more information, see Section 12.14, “Distributing SSH Keys for Remote Execution”.
  2. If you have Remote Execution configured to use pull-mqtt mode, deploy the remote execution pull client to the hosts. For more information, see Section 12.5, “Configuring a Host to Use the Pull Client”.

  3. Stop the goferd service on content hosts: 

    # systemctl stop goferd

  4. Disable the goferd service on content hosts: 

    # systemctl disable goferd

  5. Remove the Katello agent on content hosts:

    Warning

    If your host is installed on Red Hat Virtualization version 4.4 or lower, do not remove the katello-agent package because the removed dependencies corrupt the host. 

    # dnf remove katello-agent
  6. In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Administer > Settings.
  7. Select the Content tab.
  8. Set the Use remote execution by default parameter to Yes.

The Satellite server now uses host management by remote execution instead of Katello Agent.

The following table shows the remote execution equivalent commands to perform specific package actions. See hammer job-invocation create --help to learn how to specify search queries to determine the target hosts or host collections.

Table 4.1. Hammer Commands

ActionKatello AgentRemote Execution

Install a package

hammer host package install

hammer job-invocation create --feature katello_package_install

Install a package (host collection)

hammer host-collection package install

hammer job-invocation create --feature katello_package_install

Remove a package

hammer host package remove

hammer job-invocation create --feature katello_package_remove

Remove a package (host collection)

hammer host-collection package remove

hammer job-invocation create --feature katello_package_remove

Update a package

hammer host package upgrade

hammer job-invocation create --feature katello_package_update

Update a package (host collection)

hammer host-collection package update

hammer job-invocation create --feature katello_package_update

Update all packages

hammer host package update

hammer job-invocation create --feature katello_package_update

Install errata

hammer host errata apply

hammer job-invocation create --feature katello_errata_install

Install errata (host collection)

hammer host-collection errata install

hammer job-invocation create --feature katello_errata_install

Install a package group

hammer host package-group install

hammer job-invocation create --feature katello_group_install

Install a package group (host collection)

hammer host-collection package-group install

hammer job-invocation create --feature katello_group_install

Remove a package group

hammer host package-group remove

hammer job-invocation create --feature katello_group_remove

Remove a package group (host collection)

hammer host-collection package-group remove

hammer job-invocation create --feature katello_group_remove

Update a package group

hammer host package-group update

hammer job-invocation create --feature katello_group_update

Update a package group (host collection)

hammer host-collection package-group update

hammer job-invocation create --feature katello_group_update