1. Preparing your environment for installation

Review the following prerequisites before you install orcharhino Proxy Server.

1.1. System requirements

The following requirements apply to the networked base operating system:

  • x86_64 architecture

  • 4-core 2.0 GHz CPU at a minimum

  • A minimum of 12 GB RAM is required for orcharhino Proxy Server to function. In addition, a minimum of 4 GB RAM of swap space is also recommended. orcharhino Proxy running with less RAM than the minimum value might not operate correctly.

  • Administrative user (root) access

  • Full forward and reverse DNS resolution using a fully-qualified domain name

orcharhino only supports UTF-8 encoding. If your territory is USA and your language is English, set en_US.utf-8 as the system-wide locale settings. For more information about configuring system locale in Enterprise Linux, see Configuring the system locale in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 Configuring basic system settings.

orcharhino Server and orcharhino Proxy Server do not support shortnames in the hostnames. When using custom certificates, the Common Name (CN) of the custom certificate must be a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) instead of a shortname. This does not apply to the clients of a orcharhino.

Before you install orcharhino Proxy Server, ensure that your environment meets the requirements for installation.

Warning

The version of orcharhino Proxy must match with the version of orcharhino installed. It should not be different. For example, the orcharhino Proxy version 7.0 cannot be registered with the orcharhino version 6.11.

orcharhino Proxy Server must be installed on a freshly provisioned system that serves no other function except to run orcharhino Proxy Server. The freshly provisioned system must not have the following users provided by external identity providers to avoid conflicts with the local users that orcharhino Proxy Server creates:

  • apache

  • foreman-proxy

  • postgres

  • pulp

  • puppet

  • redis

Synchronized system clock

The system clock on the base operating system where you are installing your orcharhino Proxy Server must be synchronized across the network. If the system clock is not synchronized, SSL certificate verification might fail.

1.2. Supported operating systems

The following operating systems are supported by the installer, have packages, and are tested for deploying orcharhino:

Table 1. Operating systems supported by foreman-installer

Operating System

Architecture

Notes

Enterprise Linux 9

x86_64 only

EPEL is not supported.

ATIX AG advises against using an existing system because the orcharhino installer will affect the configuration of several components.

1.3. Port and firewall requirements

For the components of orcharhino architecture to communicate, ensure that the required network ports are open and free on the base operating system. You must also ensure that the required network ports are open on any network-based firewalls.

The installation of a orcharhino Proxy Server fails if the ports between orcharhino Server and orcharhino Proxy Server are not open before installation starts.

Use this information to configure any network-based firewalls. Note that some cloud solutions must be specifically configured to allow communications between machines because they isolate machines similarly to network-based firewalls. If you use an application-based firewall, ensure that the application-based firewall permits all applications that are listed in the tables and known to your firewall. If possible, disable the application checking and allow open port communication based on the protocol.

Integrated orcharhino Proxy

orcharhino Server has an integrated orcharhino Proxy and any host that is directly connected to orcharhino Server is a Client of orcharhino in the context of this section. This includes the base operating system on which orcharhino Proxy Server is running.

Clients of orcharhino Proxy

Hosts which are clients of orcharhino Proxies, other than orcharhino’s integrated orcharhino Proxy, do not need access to orcharhino Server. For more information on orcharhino Topology, see orcharhino Proxy networking in Planning for orcharhino.

Required ports can change based on your configuration.

The following tables indicate the destination port and the direction of network traffic:

Table 2. orcharhino Proxy incoming traffic
Destination Port Protocol Service Source Required For Description

53

TCP and UDP

DNS

DNS Servers and clients

Name resolution

DNS (optional)

67

UDP

DHCP

Client

Dynamic IP

DHCP (optional)

69

UDP

TFTP

Client

TFTP Server (optional)

443, 80

TCP

HTTPS, HTTP

Client

Content Retrieval

Content

443, 80

TCP

HTTPS, HTTP

Client

Content Host Registration

orcharhino Proxy CA RPM installation

443

TCP

HTTPS

orcharhino

Content Mirroring

Management

443

TCP

HTTPS

orcharhino

orcharhino Proxy API

Smart Proxy functionality

443

TCP

HTTPS

Client

Content Host registration

Initiation

Uploading facts

Sending installed packages and traces

1883

TCP

MQTT

Client

Pull based REX (optional)

Content hosts for REX job notification (optional)

8000

TCP

HTTP

Client

Provisioning templates

Template retrieval for client installers, iPXE or UEFI HTTP Boot

8000

TCP

HTTP

Client

PXE Boot

Installation

8140

TCP

HTTPS

Client

Puppet agent

Client updates (optional)

8443

TCP

HTTPS

Client

Content Host registration

Deprecated and only needed for Client hosts deployed before upgrades

9090

TCP

HTTPS

orcharhino

orcharhino Proxy API

orcharhino Proxy functionality

9090

TCP

HTTPS

Client

Register Endpoint

Client registration with orcharhino Proxy Servers

9090

TCP

HTTPS

Client

OpenSCAP

Configure Client (if the OpenSCAP plugin is installed)

9090

TCP

HTTPS

Discovered Node

Discovery

Host discovery and provisioning (if the discovery plugin is installed)

9090

TCP

HTTPS

Client

Pull based REX (optional)

Content hosts for REX job notification (optional)

Any host that is directly connected to orcharhino Server is a client in this context because it is a client of the integrated orcharhino Proxy. This includes the base operating system on which a orcharhino Proxy Server is running.

A DHCP orcharhino Proxy performs ICMP ping and TCP echo connection attempts to hosts in subnets with DHCP IPAM set to find out if an IP address considered for use is free. This behavior can be turned off using foreman-installer --foreman-proxy-dhcp-ping-free-ip false.

Table 3. orcharhino Proxy outgoing traffic
Destination Port Protocol Service Destination Required For Description

ICMP

ping

Client

DHCP

Free IP checking (optional)

7

TCP

echo

Client

DHCP

Free IP checking (optional)

22

TCP

SSH

Target host

Remote execution

Run jobs

53

TCP and UDP

DNS

DNS Servers on the Internet

DNS Server

Resolve DNS records (optional)

53

TCP and UDP

DNS

DNS Server

orcharhino Proxy DNS

Validation of DNS conflicts (optional)

68

UDP

DHCP

Client

Dynamic IP

DHCP (optional)

443

TCP

HTTPS

orcharhino

orcharhino Proxy

orcharhino Proxy

Configuration management

Template retrieval

OpenSCAP

Remote Execution result upload

443

TCP

HTTPS

orcharhino

Content

Sync

443

TCP

HTTPS

orcharhino

Client communication

Forward requests from Client to orcharhino

443

TCP

HTTPS

Infoblox DHCP Server

DHCP management

When using Infoblox for DHCP, management of the DHCP leases (optional)

623

Client

Power management

BMC On/Off/Cycle/Status

7911

TCP

DHCP, OMAPI

DHCP Server

DHCP

The DHCP target is configured using --foreman-proxy-dhcp-server and defaults to localhost

ISC and remote_isc use a configurable port that defaults to 7911 and uses OMAPI

8443

TCP

HTTPS

Client

Discovery

orcharhino Proxy sends reboot command to the discovered host (optional)
Note

ICMP to Port 7 UDP and TCP must not be rejected, but can be dropped. The DHCP orcharhino Proxy sends an ECHO REQUEST to the Client network to verify that an IP address is free. A response prevents IP addresses from being allocated.

1.4. Enabling connections from orcharhino Server and clients to a orcharhino Proxy Server

On the base operating system on which you want to install orcharhino Proxy, you must enable incoming connections from orcharhino Server and clients to orcharhino Proxy Server and make these rules persistent across reboots.

Procedure

  1. Open the ports for clients on orcharhino Proxy Server:

    # firewall-cmd \
--add-port="8000/tcp" \
--add-port="9090/tcp"

  2. Allow access to services on orcharhino Proxy Server:

    # firewall-cmd \
--add-service=dns \
--add-service=dhcp \
--add-service=tftp \
--add-service=http \
--add-service=https \
--add-service=puppetmaster

  3. Make the changes persistent:

    # firewall-cmd --runtime-to-permanent
Verification

  • Enter the following command:

    # firewall-cmd --list-all

For more information, see Using and configuring firewalld in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 Configuring firewalls and packet filters.

2. Installing orcharhino Proxy Server

Before you install orcharhino Proxy Server, you must ensure that your environment meets the requirements for installation. For more information, see Preparing your Environment for Installation.

2.1. Configuring repositories

Ensure the repositories required to install orcharhino Proxy Server are enabled on your Enterprise Linux host.

2.2. Optional: Using fapolicyd on orcharhino Proxy Server

By enabling fapolicyd on your orcharhino Server, you can provide an additional layer of security by monitoring and controlling access to files and directories. The fapolicyd daemon uses the RPM database as a repository of trusted binaries and scripts.

You can turn on or off the fapolicyd on your orcharhino Server or orcharhino Proxy Server at any point.

2.2.1. Installing fapolicyd on orcharhino Proxy Server

You can install fapolicyd along with orcharhino Proxy Server or can be installed on an existing orcharhino Proxy Server. If you are installing fapolicyd along with the new orcharhino Proxy Server, the installation process will detect the fapolicyd in your Enterprise Linux host and deploy the orcharhino Proxy Server rules automatically.

Prerequisites

  • Ensure your host has access to the BaseOS repositories of Enterprise Linux.

Procedure

  1. For a new installation, install fapolicyd:

    # dnf install fapolicyd

  2. For an existing installation, install fapolicyd using dnf install:

    # dnf install fapolicyd

  3. Start the fapolicyd service:

    # systemctl enable --now fapolicyd
Verification

  • Verify that the fapolicyd service is running correctly:

    # systemctl status fapolicyd
New orcharhino Server or orcharhino Proxy Server installations

In case of new orcharhino Server or orcharhino Proxy Server installation, follow the standard installation procedures after installing and enabling fapolicyd on your Enterprise Linux host.

Additional resources

For more information on fapolicyd, see Blocking and allowing applications using fapolicyd in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 Security hardening.

2.3. Installing orcharhino Proxy Server packages

Before installing orcharhino Proxy Server packages, you must update all packages that are installed on the base operating system.

Procedure

To install orcharhino Proxy Server, complete the following steps:

2.4. Assigning the correct organization and location to orcharhino Proxy Server in the orcharhino management UI

After installing orcharhino Proxy Server packages, if there is more than one organization or location, you must assign the correct organization and location to orcharhino Proxy to make orcharhino Proxy visible in the orcharhino management UI.

Procedure

  1. Log into the orcharhino management UI.

  2. From the Organization list in the upper-left of the screen, select Any Organization.

  3. From the Location list in the upper-left of the screen, select Any Location.

  4. In the orcharhino management UI, navigate to Hosts > All Hosts and select orcharhino Proxy Server.

  5. From the Select Actions list, select Assign Organization.

  6. From the Organization list, select the organization where you want to assign this orcharhino Proxy.

  7. Click Fix Organization on Mismatch.

  8. Click Submit.

  9. Select orcharhino Proxy Server. From the Select Actions list, select Assign Location.

  10. From the Location list, select the location where you want to assign this orcharhino Proxy.

  11. Click Fix Location on Mismatch.

  12. Click Submit.

  13. In the orcharhino management UI, navigate to Administer > Organizations and click the organization to which you have assigned orcharhino Proxy.

  14. Click orcharhino Proxies tab and ensure that orcharhino Proxy Server is listed under the Selected items list, then click Submit.

  15. In the orcharhino management UI, navigate to Administer > Locations and click the location to which you have assigned orcharhino Proxy.

  16. Click orcharhino Proxies tab and ensure that orcharhino Proxy Server is listed under the Selected items list, then click Submit.

Verification

Optionally, you can verify if orcharhino Proxy Server is correctly listed in the orcharhino management UI.

  1. Select the organization from the Organization list.

  2. Select the location from the Location list.

  3. In the orcharhino management UI, navigate to Hosts > All Hosts.

  4. In the orcharhino management UI, navigate to Infrastructure > orcharhino Proxies.

3. Performing additional configuration on orcharhino Proxy Server

After installation, you can configure additional settings on your orcharhino Proxy Server.

3.1. Configuring orcharhino Proxy for host registration and provisioning

Use this procedure to configure orcharhino Proxy so that you can register and provision hosts using your orcharhino Proxy Server instead of your orcharhino Server.

Procedure

  • On orcharhino Server, add the orcharhino Proxy to the list of trusted proxies.

    This is required for orcharhino to recognize hosts' IP addresses forwarded over the X-Forwarded-For HTTP header set by orcharhino Proxy. For security reasons, orcharhino recognizes this HTTP header only from localhost by default. You can enter trusted proxies as valid IPv4 or IPv6 addresses of orcharhino Proxies, or network ranges.

    Warning

    Do not use a network range that is too broad because that might cause a security risk.

    Enter the following command. Note that the command overwrites the list that is currently stored in orcharhino. Therefore, if you have set any trusted proxies previously, you must include them in the command as well:

    # foreman-installer \
--foreman-trusted-proxies "127.0.0.1/8" \
--foreman-trusted-proxies "::1" \
--foreman-trusted-proxies "My_IP_address" \
--foreman-trusted-proxies "My_IP_range"

    The localhost entries are required, do not omit them.

Verification

  1. List the current trusted proxies using the full help of orcharhino installer:

    # foreman-installer --full-help | grep -A 2 "trusted-proxies"

  2. The current listing contains all trusted proxies you require.

3.2. Configuring pull-based transport for remote execution

By default, remote execution uses push-based SSH as the transport mechanism for the Script provider. If your infrastructure prohibits outgoing connections from orcharhino Proxy Server to hosts, you can use remote execution with pull-based transport instead, because the host initiates the connection to orcharhino Proxy Server. The use of pull-based transport is not limited to those infrastructures.

The pull-based transport comprises pull-mqtt mode on orcharhino Proxies in combination with a pull client running on hosts.

Note

The pull-mqtt mode works only with the Script provider. Ansible and other providers will continue to use their default transport settings.

The mode is configured per orcharhino Proxy Server. Some orcharhino Proxy Servers can be configured to use pull-mqtt mode while others use SSH. If this is the case, it is possible that one remote job on a given host will use the pull client and the next job on the same host will use SSH. If you wish to avoid this scenario, configure all orcharhino Proxy Servers to use the same mode.

Procedure

  1. Enable the pull-based transport on your orcharhino Proxy Server:

    # foreman-installer --foreman-proxy-plugin-remote-execution-script-mode pull-mqtt

  2. Configure the firewall to allow the MQTT service on port 1883:

    # firewall-cmd --add-service=mqtt

  3. Make the changes persistent:

    # firewall-cmd --runtime-to-permanent

  4. In pull-mqtt mode, hosts subscribe for job notifications to either your orcharhino Server or any orcharhino Proxy Server through which they are registered. Ensure that orcharhino Server sends remote execution jobs to that same orcharhino Server or orcharhino Proxy Server:

    1. In the orcharhino management UI, navigate to Administer > Settings.

    2. On the Content tab, set the value of Prefer registered through orcharhino Proxy for remote execution to Yes.

Next steps

3.3. Enabling OpenSCAP on orcharhino Proxy Servers

On orcharhino Server and the integrated orcharhino Proxy of your orcharhino Server, OpenSCAP is enabled by default. To use the OpenSCAP plugin and content on external orcharhino Proxies, you must enable OpenSCAP on each orcharhino Proxy.

Procedure

  • To enable OpenSCAP, enter the following command:

    # foreman-installer \
--enable-foreman-proxy-plugin-openscap \
--foreman-proxy-plugin-openscap-ansible-module true \
--foreman-proxy-plugin-openscap-puppet-module true

    If you want to use Puppet to deploy compliance policies, you must enable it first. For more information, see Configuring hosts by using Puppet.

3.4. Adding lifecycle environments to orcharhino Proxy Servers

If your orcharhino Proxy Server has the content functionality enabled, you must add an environment so that orcharhino Proxy can synchronize content from orcharhino Server and provide content to host systems.

Do not assign the Library lifecycle environment to your orcharhino Proxy Server because it triggers an automated orcharhino Proxy sync every time the CDN updates a repository. This might consume multiple system resources on orcharhino Proxies, network bandwidth between orcharhino and orcharhino Proxies, and available disk space on orcharhino Proxies.

You can use Hammer CLI on orcharhino Server or the orcharhino management UI.

Procedure

  1. In the orcharhino management UI, navigate to Infrastructure > orcharhino Proxies, and select the orcharhino Proxy that you want to add a lifecycle to.

  2. Click Edit and click the Lifecycle Environments tab.

  3. From the left menu, select the lifecycle environments that you want to add to orcharhino Proxy and click Submit.

  4. To synchronize the content on the orcharhino Proxy, click the Overview tab and click Synchronize.

  5. Select either Optimized Sync or Complete Sync.

    For definitions of each synchronization type, see Recovering a Repository.

CLI procedure

  1. To display a list of all orcharhino Proxy Servers, on orcharhino Server, enter the following command:

    # hammer proxy list

    Note the orcharhino Proxy ID of the orcharhino Proxy to which you want to add a lifecycle.

  2. Using the ID, verify the details of your orcharhino Proxy:

    # hammer proxy info \
--id My_orcharhino_Proxy_ID

  3. To view the lifecycle environments available for your orcharhino Proxy Server, enter the following command and note the ID and the organization name:

    # hammer proxy content available-lifecycle-environments \
--id My_orcharhino_Proxy_ID

  4. Add the lifecycle environment to your orcharhino Proxy Server:

    # hammer proxy content add-lifecycle-environment \
--id My_orcharhino_Proxy_ID \
--lifecycle-environment-id My_Lifecycle_Environment_ID
--organization "My_Organization"

    Repeat for each lifecycle environment you want to add to orcharhino Proxy Server.

  5. Synchronize the content from orcharhino to orcharhino Proxy.

    • To synchronize all content from your orcharhino Server environment to orcharhino Proxy Server, enter the following command:

      # hammer proxy content synchronize \
--id My_orcharhino_Proxy_ID

    • To synchronize a specific lifecycle environment from your orcharhino Server to orcharhino Proxy Server, enter the following command:

      # hammer proxy content synchronize \
--id My_orcharhino_Proxy_ID \
--lifecycle-environment-id My_Lifecycle_Environment_ID

    • To synchronize all content from your orcharhino Server to your orcharhino Proxy Server without checking metadata:

      # hammer proxy content synchronize \
--id My_orcharhino_Proxy_ID \
--skip-metadata-check true

      This equals selecting Complete Sync in the orcharhino management UI.

3.5. Enabling power management on hosts

To perform power management tasks on hosts using the intelligent platform management interface (IPMI) or a similar protocol, you must enable the baseboard management controller (BMC) module on orcharhino Proxy Server.

Prerequisites
Procedure

  • To enable BMC, enter the following command:

    # foreman-installer \
--foreman-proxy-bmc "true" \
--foreman-proxy-bmc-default-provider "freeipmi"

Appendix A: orcharhino Proxy Server scalability considerations when managing Puppet clients

orcharhino Proxy Server scalability when managing Puppet clients depends on the number of CPUs, the run-interval distribution, and the number of Puppet managed resources. orcharhino Proxy Server has a limitation of 100 concurrent Puppet agents running at any single point in time. Running more than 100 concurrent Puppet agents results in a 503 HTTP error.

For example, assuming that Puppet agent runs are evenly distributed with less than 100 concurrent Puppet agents running at any single point during a run-interval, a orcharhino Proxy Server with 4 CPUs has a maximum of 1250 – 1600 Puppet clients with a moderate workload of 10 Puppet classes assigned to each Puppet client. Depending on the number of Puppet clients required, the orcharhino installation can scale out the number of orcharhino Proxy Servers to support them.

If you want to scale your orcharhino Proxy Server when managing Puppet clients, the following assumptions are made:

  • There are no external Puppet clients reporting directly to your orcharhino Server.

  • All other Puppet clients report directly to orcharhino Proxy Servers.

  • There is an evenly distributed run-interval of all Puppet agents.

Note

Deviating from the even distribution increases the risk of overloading orcharhino Server. The limit of 100 concurrent requests applies.

The following table describes the scalability limits using the recommended 4 CPUs.

Table 4. Puppet scalability using 4 CPUs
Puppet Managed Resources per Host Run-Interval Distribution

1

3000 – 2500

10

2400 – 2000

20

1700 – 1400

The following table describes the scalability limits using the minimum 2 CPUs.

Table 5. Puppet scalability using 2 CPUs
Puppet Managed Resources per Host Run-Interval Distribution

1

1700 – 1450

10

1500 – 1250

20

850 – 700