Top Resources

What is Red Hat Insights?

Red Hat Insights is a proactive operational efficiency and security risk management solution in Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) subscriptions for versions 6.4 and higher, as well as public cloud versions of RHEL. It helps identify, prioritize, and resolve risks to security, compliance, performance, availability, and stability before they become urgent issues. Insights also enables users to monitor for adherence to internal policies and understand configuration changes over time.

We have added new services within Insights. The Policies service allows you to define your own internal policies and receive alerts when environments do not align. The Patch service analyzes Red Hat product advisories that apply to your RHEL environments to help you stay up to date. Compliance, Vulnerability, and Drift services are also now included in Insights. When combined, all of these services provide a more comprehensive management solution for RHEL environments.

Key Benefits

Avoid unplanned downtime and better manage security risks

See through complexity to pinpoint risks and resolve them before an outage or breach occurs.

Understand where to focus attention

Understand crucial areas that need to be addressed, even with large and complex RHEL environments, to better manage operations and avoid “firefighting.”

Resolve potential problems quickly

Use included remediation guidance for each risk identified, without time-consuming research or trial and error efforts.

Ease administration with a single tool

Only Red Hat Insights codifies Red Hat’s expertise and makes it available to you when and where you need it on the public cloud, private cloud, or on-premises.

Featured Resources

Insights-client Configuration Options for Red Hat Insights

This reference guide for Red Hat Insights will be updated with any client configuration parameter changes as they are made available.

How Red Hat customers use Red Hat Insights to identify issues in Linux environments

This webinar recording explains how Red Hat Insights helps Linux administrators identify key security and performance issues.

Get Started with Red Hat Insights

Register

Register your systems by following the instructions below or with our Insights registration assistant.

Launch Registration Assistant

Review

Identify systems with security, compliance, and configuration risks across your environments.

Learn more

Remediate

Remediate issues at scale with Ansible Automation Platform and Smart Management.

Learn more

Red Hat Insights on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

Guidance for installing Insights on RHEL systems managed by Red Hat Subscription Manager (RHSM)

Preinstallation checks:

  • You must register all Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) systems with Red Hat Subscription Manager to receive  necessary updates and to resolve software dependencies. 
    [root@server ~]# subscription-manager register --auto-attach

Data collection and controls

Red Hat Insights provides a mechanism for users to obtain actionable intelligence regarding suggested improvements to deployed Red Hat software.

Learn more

  1. 1

    Install the Red Hat Insights client and register your systems to Insights

    Use the automated installation tools to install and register on many systems, or use the manual installation instructions for single-system installations.

    • Automated Installation

      Use a configuration management tool to automate installation and registration.
      Note: You can automate the installation and registration of systems with Ansible, included with your Red Hat Enterprise Linux entitlement.

      Ansible
      1. Download the Insights-client playbook: Download
      2. Install Ansible and get started
      3. Configure the Insights-playbook
      Puppet

      If you are using Red Hat Satellite’s configuration management provided by Puppet this process can be automated by applying the preinstalled Puppet class access_insights_clients. This class can be imported from the Puppet Master into the appropriate Puppet environment and applied to hosts that you wish to subscribe to Red Hat Insights.

      Download Insights-client puppet module

    • Manual Installation 

      Perform the following steps to install the client on a RHEL system and register the system to Red Hat Insights:

      RHEL 8+

      Register the system to Red Hat Insights. 

      ​​[root@server ~]# insights-client --register
      ​​
      Note: For RHEL 8.2, Insights can be enabled at install time. Refer to the release notes for more information.

      RHEL 7 & 6
      1. Install the client on the RHEL system. 
        [root@server ~]# yum install insights-client
      2. Register the system to Red Hat Insights. 
        ​​[root@server ~]# insights-client --register

      Note: Red Hat Insights can be used on all Red Hat-supported versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, version 6.4 and later.

  2. 2

    View your results

    After registration, the Red Hat Insights client will initiate its first upload to Insights for analysis. You can view the results for a single system, and for your infrastructure of registered systems, in the Insights dashboard.

    GO TO INSIGHTS DASHBOARD

Additional Information

The Compliance service relies on OpenSCAP scans and reporting. This requires you to install OpenSCAP and the SCAP Security Guide, as detailed below.

Users who are new to OpenSCAP should perform the following actions, at a minimum, in order to use the Compliance service:
1. Install the Openscap-scanner and the SCAP security guide:

​​sudo yum install openscap-scanner -y
​​sudo yum install scap-security-guide -y

Note: For more information about OpenSCAP scanner installation, see the OpenSCAP Getting Started guide.

2. Once you have policies created within Compliance, for each system, run the following command each time you wish to run a scan:

​​sudo insights-client --compliance

Note: Only the RHEL SCAP Security Guide (SSG) versions for RHEL 6, 7, and 8 are supported. The upstream SSGs are not currently supported. Red Hat recommends using the SSG version that comes preinstalled with RHEL to ensure compatibility and accurate reporting.

Red Hat Insights on Satellite Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

Guidance for installing Insights on RHEL systems managed by Satellite

Preinstallation checks:

  • Subscribe hosts to Satellite server
    • This step is typically already performed as part of Satellite host configuration. Only RHEL hosts registered to the particular Satellite server will have reports available in the Satellite UI.
  • Verify Satellite server connection to Red Hat Insights
    • In the Satellite UI, navigate to Insights > Manage
    • Verify under Insights Engine Connection that the status is Connected and the Account Number field displays the correct information for your organization
  • Satellite organizations with Red Hat Insights must be operating in Connected mode. Any firewalls or proxies through which the Satellite server communicates to Red Hat must allow https communications to https://cert-api.access.redhat.com.

Data collection and controls:

Red Hat Insights provides a mechanism for users to obtain actionable intelligence regarding suggested improvements to deployed Red Hat software.

Learn more

  1. 1

    Install the Insights RPM and register your system to Red Hat Insights

    There are multiple ways to automate this process. We've provided several options for popular configuration management tools below:

    • Automated Installation:

      Ansible

      Deploying Red Hat Insights using the Ansible Role included with your Smart Management entitlement

      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 8, 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.
      4. See host on the Insights > Overview page of the Satellite web UI
      Puppet

      Deploy Red Hat Insights using Puppet in Satellite

      If you are using Red Hat Satellite’s configuration management provided by Puppet this process can be automated by applying the preinstalled Puppet class access_insights_clients. This class can be imported from the Puppet Master into the appropriate Puppet environment and applied to hosts that you wish to subscribe to Red Hat Insights.

      Download Insights-client puppet module

    • Manual Installation:

      Perform the following steps to install the client on a RHEL system and register the system to Red Hat Insights:

      RHEL 8+

      Register the system to Red Hat Insights. 

      ​​[root@server ~]# insights-client --register
      ​​
      Note: For RHEL 8.2, Insights can be enabled at install time. Refer to the release notes for more information.

      RHEL 7 & 6
      1. Install the client on the RHEL system. 
        [root@server ~]# yum install insights-client
      2. Register the system to Red Hat Insights. 
        ​​[root@server ~]# insights-client --register

      Note: Red Hat Insights can be used on all Red Hat-supported versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, version 6.4 and later.

  2. 2

    View your results

    After registration, the Insights client will initiate its first upload to Red Hat Insights for analysis. You can view your systems and the results of the Red Hat Insights analysis via the Insights tab within Satellite or in the Insights dashboard.

    GO TO INSIGHTS DASHBOARD

Additional Information

Assign Red Hat Insights roles to users

By default, only administrators can view Insights Report and Configuration screens. However, you can give non-administrator users access to the Insights screens by assigning them the appropriate roles as follows:

  • To give users access to all Insights screens, including the Manage screen, assign them the Insights Admin role. Users must also be granted the view_content_host permission.
  • To give users Insights report and rule viewing access, assign them the Insights Viewer role. These users must also be granted the view_content_host permission.

    • For more information on roles, refer to the official Satellite 6 documentation.

Red Hat Insights on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) in the Public Cloud

Guidance for installing Insights on RHEL systems hosted on a Red Hat Certified Cloud and Service Provider (CCSP)

Preinstallation checks:

  • You must have a Red Hat account. If you’ve used RHEL on-demand through a public cloud marketplace but have never interacted with Red Hat directly, you can create an account by following these instructions.
  • If you’re using a Red Hat subscription to entitle your RHEL system, you must enable the subscription for Red Hat Cloud Access. Learn how in the Cloud Access documentation.
  • You must have a Red Hat account in order to use Red Hat Insights. If you have only purchased Red Hat Enterprise Linux through a public cloud marketplace, you may not have an account yet. You may create a Red Hat account by following these instructions.

Data collection and controls:

Red Hat Insights provides a mechanism for users to obtain actionable intelligence regarding suggested improvements to deployed Red Hat software.

Learn more

  1. 1

    Deploying Red Hat Insights on existing RHEL systems managed by Red Hat Update Infrastructure (RHUI)

    The following guidance is for users who wish to deploy Red Hat Insights on an existing Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) system managed by Red Hat Update Infrastructure (RHUI). This includes on-demand, hourly systems purchased from CCSP marketplace, as well as systems deployed from Red Hat Gold Images in AWS. This procedure involves the following tasks:

    • Install the client on the RHEL system. 
      [root@server ~]# yum install insights-client

      Note: Install the client package on each system. If you’re using RHEL 8+, the Insights client is installed by default.

    • Configure basic authentication in /etc/insights-client/insights-client.conf.
      • Modify the auto_config= value to FALSE.
      • Add your Red Hat SSO username to username=
      • Add your Red Hat SSO password to password=
      • Save the configuration.

        Note: To read more about using Red Hat Insights with basic authentication and recommended best practices, visit our documentation.

    • Register the system to Insights. 
      ​​[root@server ~]# insights-client --register

      Note:

  2. 2

    View your results

    After registration, the Red Hat Insights client will initiate its first upload to Insights for analysis. You can view the results for a single system, and for your infrastructure of registered systems, in the Insights dashboard.

    GO TO INSIGHTS DASHBOARD

Creating a new Red Hat Account

If you are already using Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) on-demand through a public cloud marketplace, but have never interacted with Red Hat directly before, please follow these steps to establish an account with us to start using Red Hat Insights.

Preinstallation checks:

  1. 1

    Create a Red Hat SSO account

    In order to use Red Hat Insights, you will need to create a Red Hat SSO account if you do not already have one setup. If your organization already has a Red Hat account, you should contact your Organization Administrator to be added to the appropriate account.

    CREATE A RED HAT ACCOUNT

  2. 2

    Establish your Account

    Once an account has been created, the account must be initialized for use with Red Hat Insights. Please visit and complete the Red Hat Insights evaluation form. 

    The initialization of this account may take a couple of minutes or up to an hour before systems can be registered for use. If any errors occur during registration of the Insights client, or usage of cloud.redhat.com redirects to the evaluation form, please attempt again at a later time as account initialization may still be in progress.

    Note: This form refers to this process as an “evaluation” as this step is needed to initialize the new account. Red Hat Insights is included as part of Red Hat Enterprise Linux for use and will continue to be free to use after this evaluation expires.

  3. 3

    Verify access to cloud.redhat.com

    To ensure your account has been set up correctly, log into the Red Hat Insights console. 

    Note: If the account is still initializing after filling out the Red Hat Insights evaluation form outlined in the previous step, you may be redirected to the evaluation form; revisit cloud.redhat.com/insights later to verify the account has been established.

  4. 4

Browse all Red Hat Insights Knowledge

Topics

Introduction to Red Hat Insights

Introduction

More than a monitoring system, Insights pinpoint security and configuration risks and enables security and IT teams to resolve problems before downtime results, now with the ability to define and alert for non-compliance with internal policies. Insights' updated platform provides Red Hat expertise-as-a-service across Red Hat Enterprise Linux deployed to physical, virtual, containers and private and public cloud environments.

Featured Resources

Additional Resources

Red Hat Insights demo: Security and compliance risk management

This demo shows how the vulnerability and compliance capabilities in Red Hat Insights can help you replace firefighting with analytics-driven processes.

Blog post: Red Hat Insights Guidelines for Deployment at Scale

Highlights features Red Hat has in place to assist with large deployments.

Set up and use Cloud Connector with Insights and Smart Management

Cloud Connector is used to integrate Red Hat Insights with Red Hat Satellite 6.7 infrastructure and enables remediation of any issues directly from the Insights console.

Red Hat Insights Technical FAQ

Answers to common technical questions about Red Hat Insights.

How can we help you?

Support Cases

Get answers quickly by opening a support case with us.

View Open Cases

Open New Case

Live Chat

Directly access our support engineers during weekday business hours.

Learn more

Call or Email

Speak directly with a Red Hat support expert by phone or through email.

Contact Us