Red Hat System Administration I
Objectives
After completing this section, you should be able to describe key resources available through the Red Hat Customer Portal and use them to find information from Red Hat documentation and the Knowledgebase.
Accessing Support Resources on the Red Hat Customer Portal
The Red Hat Customer Portal (https://access.redhat.com) provides customers access to documentation, downloads, tools, and technical expertise. Customers can search for solutions, FAQs, and articles through the Knowledgebase. From the Customer Portal, you can:
Access official product documentation.
Submit and manage support tickets.
Manage software subscriptions and entitlements.
Obtain software downloads, updates, and evaluations.
Consult tools that can help you optimize the configuration of your systems.
Parts of the site are accessible to everyone, and other areas are only available to customers with active subscriptions. Get help accessing the Customer Portal at https://access.redhat.com/help/.
Getting Oriented to the Customer Portal
You can access the Red Hat Customer Portal through a web browser. This section introduces the Customer Portal Tour. The tour can be found at https://access.redhat.com/start.
The tour is a very useful tool for discovering all the portal has to offer and how to get the most out of your Red Hat subscription. After you have logged in to the Red Hat Customer Portal, click .
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The WELCOME TO THE RED HAT CUSTOMER PORTAL window opens with two options: and . Click to start the tour. This is the first of a sequence of windows that highlight different parts of the interface.
The Top Navigation Bar
The first three stops on the Customer Portal Tour can be found on the top navigation bar of the Red Hat Customer Portal website:
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opens a new page where you can manage your registered systems and your subscriptions and entitlements usage. It lists information about errata that apply and allows you to create activation keys that you can use when registering systems to ensure they get entitlements from the correct subscriptions. Note that if you are part of an organization, your Organization Administrator can limit your access to this page.
opens a new page which gives you access to your product downloads and to request evaluation entitlements for products for which you do not have entitlements.
opens a new page which provides access to create, track, and manage your support cases through the Case Management system, assuming that your organization has authorized that level of access.
Your name is the title for the , which allows you to manage your account, accounts for which you are Organization Administrator, your personal profile, and options for email notifications of new content that is available.
The globe icon opens the menu to specify your language preferences for Customer Portal.
Topics Menus
Underneath the top navigation bar on the Customer Portal's main page are menus that you can use to navigate to four major categories of resources available on the site.
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provides access to the Product Hubs, pages that provide access to product-specific evaluations, overviews, getting started guides, and other product support information. You can also access documentation for Red Hat products, direct links to the Knowledgebase of support articles, and information on support policies and how to contact Red Hat Support.
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The menu provides links to tools to help you succeed with Red Hat products. The Solution Engine section provides you with an efficient way to search for solutions to your problems quickly, by product, and opening a support ticket if you do not find a satisfactory solution. The Customer Portal Labs section provides a collection of web-based applications and tools to help you improve performance, diagnose issues, identify security problems, and optimize your configurations. For example, the Product Life Cycle Checker allows you to select a particular product and view its support life cycle schedule. Another tool, the Rescue Mode Assistant, helps you reset the root password of a system, generate diagnostic reports, or fix boot-time problems with file systems. But there are many other tools available at that site.
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The Security section provides access to the Red Hat Product Security Center at https://access.redhat.com/security/. This section also provides information about high-profile security issues, access to the Red Hat CVE Database, the Security channel of the Red Hat Blog, and resources about Red Hat's security response process and how we rate issues and resolve them.
Finally, the Community section is a place where Red Hat experts, customers, and partners can communicate and collaborate. Discussion forums, blogs, and information about upcoming events in your area are available here.
Note
You should complete the entire tour at Getting Started with Red Hat, including the sections on how to personalize your Customer Portal experience and exploring the benefits of your Red Hat subscription, to get the full story about the Customer Portal. You will need at least one active subscription on your Customer Portal account to access this page.
Searching the Knowledgebase with the Red Hat Support Tool
The Red Hat Support Tool utility, redhat-support-tool, provides a text-based interface that allows you to search Knowledgebase articles and to file support cases on the Customer Portal from your system's command line. The tool does not have a graphical interface and, because it interacts with the Red Hat Customer Portal, it requires internet access. Run the redhat-support-tool command using any terminal or SSH connection.
The redhat-support-tool command may be used in an interactive mode or invoked as a command with options and arguments. The tool's syntax is identical for both methods. By default, the program launches in interactive mode. Use the help subcommand to see all available commands. Interactive mode supports tab completion and the ability to call programs in the parent shell.
[user@host ~]$redhat-support-toolWelcome to the Red Hat Support Tool. Command (? for help):
When first invoked, redhat-support-tool prompts for Red Hat Customer Portal subscriber login information.
To avoid repetitively supplying this information, the tool asks to store account information in the user's home directory (~/.redhat-support-tool/redhat-support-tool.conf).
If issues are all filed through a particular Red Hat Customer Portal account, the --global option can save account information to /etc/redhat-support-tool.conf, along with other system-wide configuration.
The tool's config command modifies tool configuration settings.
The redhat-support-tool command allows subscribers to search and display Knowledgebase content from the Red Hat Customer Portal. The Knowledgebase permits keyword searches, similar to the man command. You can enter error codes, syntax from log files, or any mix of keywords to produce a list of relevant solution documents.
The following is an initial configuration and basic search demonstration:
[user@host ~]$redhat-support-toolWelcome to the Red Hat Support Tool. Command (? for help):search How to manage system entitlements with subscription-managerPlease enter your RHN user ID:subscriberSave the user ID in /home/student/.redhat-support-tool/redhat-support-tool.conf (y/n):yPlease enter the password for subscriber:passwordSave the password for subscriber in /home/student/.redhat-support-tool/redhat-support-tool.conf (y/n):y
After prompting the user for the required user configuration, the tool continues with the original search request:
Type the number of the solution to view or 'e' to return to the previous menu.
1 [ 253273:VER] How to register and subscribe a system to the Red Hat Customer
Portal using Red Hat Subscription-Manager
2 [ 265523:VER] Enabling or disabling a repository using Red Hat Subscription
Management
3 [ 100423:VER] Why does subscription-manager list return: "No Installed
Products found" ?
...output omitted...
Select a Solution: 1Select article number 1 as above and you are prompted to select the section of the document to read. Finally, use the Q key to quit the section you are in, or use it repeatedly to quit the redhat-support-tool command.
Select a Solution:1Type the number of the section to view or 'e' to return to the previous menu. 1 Title 2 Issue 3 Environment 4 Resolution 5 Display all sections End of options. Section:1Title =============================================================================== How to register and subscribe a system to the Red Hat Customer Portal using Red Hat Subscription-Manager URL: https://access.redhat.com/solutions/253273 Created On: None Modified On: 2017-11-29T15:33:51Z (END)qSection: Section:qSelect a Solution:qCommand (? for help):q[user@hosts ~]#
Accessing Knowledgebase Articles by Document ID
Locate online articles directly using the tool's kb command with the Knowledgebase document ID. A returned document scrolls on the screen without pagination, but you can redirect it to a file to save it and use less to scroll through it a screen at a time.
[user@host ~]$redhat-support-tool kb 253273Title =============================================================================== How to register and subscribe a system to the Red Hat Customer Portal using Red Hat Subscription-Manager URL: https://access.redhat.com/solutions/253273 Created On: None Modified On: 2017-11-29T15:33:51Z Issue =============================================================================== * How to register a new `Red Hat Enterprise Linux` system to the Customer Portal using `Red Hat Subscription-Manager` ...output omitted...
Managing Support Cases with Red Hat Support Tool
One benefit of a product subscription is access to technical support through the Red Hat Customer Portal.
Depending on the system's subscription support level, Red Hat may be contacted through online tools or by phone.
See https://access.redhat.com/site/support/policy/support_process for detailed information.
Preparing a Bug report
Before contacting Red Hat Support, it is important to gather relevant information for a bug report.
Define the problem. Be able to clearly state the problem and its symptoms. Be as specific as possible. Detail the steps that will reproduce the problem.
Gather background information. Which product and version is affected? Be ready to provide relevant diagnostic information. This can include output of sosreport, discussed later in this section. For kernel problems, this could include the system's kdump crash dump or a digital photo of the kernel backtrace displayed on the monitor of a crashed system.
Determine the severity level.
Red Hat uses four severity levels to classify issues.
Urgent and High severity problem reports should be followed by a phone call to the relevant local support center (see https://access.redhat.com/site/support/contact/technicalSupport).
| Severity | Description |
|---|---|
| Urgent (Severity 1) | A problem that severely impacts your use of the software in a production environment. This includes loss of production data or malfunctioning production systems. The situation halts your business operations and no procedural workaround exists. |
| High (Severity 2) | A problem where the software is functioning but use in a production environment is severely reduced. The situation is causing a high impact to your business operations and no procedural workaround exists. |
| Medium (Severity 3) | A problem that involves partial, non critical loss of use of the software in a production environment or development environment. For production environments, there is a medium to low impact on your business. Business continues to function using a procedural workaround. For development environments, the situation is causing problems migrating your project into production. |
| Low (Severity 4) | A general usage question, reporting of a documentation error, or recommendation for a future product enhancement or modification. For production environments, there is low to no impact on your business or the performance or functionality of your system. For development environments, there is a medium to low impact on your business, but your business continues to function using a procedural workaround. |
Managing a Bug Report with redhat-support-tool
You can create, view, modify, and close Red Hat Support cases using redhat-support-tool.
When support cases are in an opened or maintained status, users may attach files or documentation, such as diagnostic reports (sosreport).
The tool uploads and attaches files to cases.
Case details including the product name, version, summary, description, severity, and case group may be assigned with command options or letting the tool prompt for required information.
In the following example, a new case is opened.
The --product and --version options are specified.
[user@host ~]$redhat-support-toolWelcome to the Red Hat Support Tool. Command (? for help):opencase --product="Red Hat Enterprise Linux" --version="7.0"Please enter a summary (or 'q' to exit): System fails to run without power Please enter a description (Ctrl-D on an empty line when complete): When the server is unplugged, the operating system fails to continue. 1 Urgent 2 High 3 Normal 4 Low Please select a severity (or 'q' to exit):4Would you like to assign a case group to this case (y/N)?NWould see if there is a solution to this problem before opening a support case? (y/N)N------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Support case 01034421 has successfully been opened.
If the --product and --version options are not specified the redhat-support-tool provides a list of choices for those options.
[user@host ~]$redhat-support-toolWelcome to the Red Hat Support Tool. Command (? for help):opencaseDo you want to use the default product - "Red Hat Enterprise Linux" (y/N)?:y...output omitted... 29 7.4 30 7.5 31 7.6 32 8.0 Beta Please select a version (or 'q' to exit):32Please enter a summary (or 'q' to exit):yum fails to install apachePlease enter a description (Ctrl-D on an empty line when complete):yum cannot find correct repo1 Urgent 2 High 3 Normal 4 Low Please select a severity (or 'q' to exit):4Would you like to use the default (Ungrouped Case) Case Group (y/N)? :yWould you like to see if there's a solution to this problem before opening a support case? (y/N)N------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Support case 010355678 has successfully been opened.
Attaching Diagnostic Information to a Support Case
Including diagnostic information can lead to a quicker resolution. Attach the sosreport when the case is opened. The sosreport command generates a compressed tar archive of diagnostic information gathered from the running system. The redhat-support-tool prompts to include one if an archive has been created previously:
Please attach a SoS report to support case 01034421. Create a SoS report as
the root user and execute the following command to attach the SoS report
directly to the case:
redhat-support-tool addattachment -c 01034421 path to sosreport
Would you like to attach a file to 01034421 at this time? (y/N) N
Command (? for help): If a current SoS report does not exist, an administrator can generate and attach one later. Use the redhat-support-tool addattachment command to attach the report.
Support cases can also be viewed, modified, and closed by the subscriber:
Command (? for help):listcasesType the number of the case to view or 'e' to return to the previous menu. 1 [Waiting on Red Hat] System fails to run without power No more cases to display Select a Case:1Type the number of the section to view or 'e' to return to the previous menu. 1 Case Details 2 Modify Case 3 Description 4 Recommendations 5 Get Attachment 6 Add Attachment 7 Add Comment End of options. Option:qSelect a Case:qCommand (? for help):q[user@host ~]$redhat-support-tool modifycase --status=Closed 01034421Successfully updated case 01034421[user@host ~]$
The Red Hat Support Tool has advanced application diagnostic and analytic capabilities. Using kernel crash dump core files, redhat-support-tool can create and extract a backtrace. A backtrace is a report of the active stack frames at the point of a crash dump and provides onsite diagnostics. One of the options of the redhat-support-tool is to open a support case.
The tool also provides log file analysis. Using the tool's analyze command, log files of many types, including operating system, JBoss, Python, Tomcat, and oVirt, can be parsed to recognize problem symptoms. The log files can be viewed and diagnosed individually. Providing preprocessed analysis, as opposed to raw data such as crash dump or log files, allows support cases to be opened and made available to engineers more quickly.
Joining Red Hat Developer
One other useful resource available from Red Hat is Red Hat Developer. Hosted at https://developer.redhat.com, this program provides subscription entitlements to Red Hat software for development purposes, documentation, and premium books from our experts on microservices, serverless computing, Kubernetes, and Linux. A blog, links to information about upcoming events and training, and other help resources are also available, as well as links to Red Hat Customer Portal.
Registration is free, and can be completed at https://developer.redhat.com/register.
References
sosreport(1) man page
Red Hat Access: Red Hat Support Tool
Red Hat Support Tool First Use
