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Logging in to a RHEL host machine to debug

Logging in to a RHEL host machine to debug

You might need to log in to your host machine to debug a host issue further.

You can SSH into the host machine if you did not assign the host to a cluster, or if the assignment failed. Otherwise, Satellite disables the ability to log in to the host by using SSH for security purposes. You can remove the host and reload the operating system to restore the ability to SSH into the host machine.

  1. Log in to the host machine.

    ssh root@<IP_address>

  2. Check the various log output files from the host registration and host bootstrapping processes. Replace <filepath> with the following files to check in order. Depending on the issue, certain log files might or might not files be present on the host.

    1. The nohup.out logs from the host registration attempt.

    2. The /var/log/firstboot.log for the first bootstrapping attempt. If the host registration failed, you do not have this file.

    3. The /tmp/bootstrap/bootstrap_base.log for the base bootstrapping process, if the first boot was unsuccessful. If the host registration failed, you do not have this file.

      tail <filepath>

  3. Run the journalctl commands when you attempt to attach your host again to log the systemd service that is causing the issue.

    journalctl -u ibm-host-agent --no-pager

    journalctl -u ibm-firstboot --no-pager

    journalctl -u ibm-host-attach --no-pager

  4. Review the logs for errors. See the following sections for more details.

First boot did not complete successfully

You receive output similar to the following messages.

export HOME=/root
HOME=/root
'[' '!' -f /var/log/firstboot.flag ']'
~

The first boot did not complete successfully. Check the /tmp/bootstrap/bootstrap_base.log file and continue looking for errors.

Host registration script fails

You receive output similar to the following messages. Note that the package name might be replaced with another package name.

No package matching '\''container-selinux'\'' found available, installed or updated
No package rh-python36 available. Error: Nothing to do

For more information about these messages, see Host registration script fails.

Machine cannot be reached on the network

You receive output similar to the following messages.

curl: (6) Could not resolve host: <URL>.com; Unknown error
tar -xvf bootstrap.tar
tar: This does not look like a tar archive
tar: Exiting with failure status due to previous errors
[[ -n ‘’ ]]
echo ‘Failed to untar bootstrap.tar’
Failed to untar bootstrap.tar` \n `+ rm -rf /tmp/bootstrap

The machine cannot be reached on the network. Check that your machine meets the minimum requirements for network connectivity, remove the host, and try to add and assign the host again. Alternatively, the infrastructure provider network might have issues, such as a failed connection. Consult the infrastructure provider documentation for further debugging steps.

Host is attempting to register with the location

You receive output similar to the following message.

kubectl --kubeconfig=/tmp/bootstrap/priveledgedcertdir/privledged-kubeconfig

The host is attempting to register with the location.

  1. Find the Satellite control plane endpoint.

    ibmcloud sat location get --location <LOCATION_ID>

  2. Find the Public Service Endpoint URL field, for example, https://c103-e.containers.cloud.ibm.com:12345.

  3. Confirm your connection exists by running nc -z -v <ENDPOINT> from your host. For example,

    nc -z -v c103-e.containers.cloud.ibm.com 12345

  4. Repeat the previous step to verify that your host can connect to each of the required outbound hostnames for your region.