Getting started with Red Hat Lightspeed

Red Hat Lightspeed 1-latest

How to start using Red Hat Lightspeed

Red Hat Customer Content Services

Abstract

This document provides starting points and resources for registering and installing Red Hat Lightspeed on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, OpenShift Container Platform, and Ansible Automation Platform.

Chapter 1. About Red Hat Lightspeed

Red Hat Lightspeed is a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) application included with almost every subscription to Red Hat Enterprise Linux, OpenShift Container Platform, and Ansible Automation Platform.

Red Hat Lightspeed can discover relevant insights, recommend tailored, proactive, next actions, and automate tasks. Using Red Hat Lightspeed, customers benefit from the experience and technical knowledge of Red Hat Certified Engineers, to identify, prioritize and resolve issues for business operations.

As a SaaS offering, located at This content is not included.Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console, Red Hat Lightspeed is regularly updated. Regular updates expand the Red Hat Lightspeed knowledge archive in real time to reflect new IT challenges that can impact the stability of mission-critical systems.

Chapter 2. How data and application security are handled in Red Hat Lightspeed

For information about how Red Hat Lightspeed handles data and application security, see:

2.1. System facts

A data collector is an application or service that regularly sends host information, updates, or system profile data to Red Hat Lightspeed inventory. insights-client is a data collector for Red Hat Lightspeed.

System facts are the metadata that data collectors collect about your RHEL systems. These facts describe runtime configuration, system health, and system performance. insights-client uses the system facts it collects to populate inventory data in Red Hat Lightspeed and to update existing data. Red Hat Lightspeed also uses system facts to analyze system performance and to create recommendations for services such as Advisor or remediations.

Chapter 3. Installing Red Hat Lightspeed on RHEL systems

To register your RHEL systems in Red Hat Lightspeed, you need to install the insights-client and register your systems. This section describes different methods for installing and registering Red Hat Lightspeed on RHEL systems.

You can use other supported methods to register and install Red Hat Lightspeed, too. A registration assistant is also available to guide you through the process of registering and installing Red Hat Lightspeed. You can also use the remote host configuration (RHC) tool. The installation method you choose can depend on several factors, including whether:

  • You are connecting to Red Hat for the first time
  • You use a certain version of RHEL
  • You want to do an automated installation or a manual installation

3.1. Installing Red Hat Lightspeed using the Registration Assistant as an interactive guide

You can use the Registration Assistant as a starting point to help you start using Red Hat Lightspeed. The Registration Assistant provides an interactive guide to help you register and install Red Hat Lightspeed.

To start the Registration Assistant, click or go to:

3.2. Installing Red Hat Lightspeed by using the client configuration guide

You can also get started with Red Hat Lightspeed by following the steps in the product documentation for configuring the insights-client.

To install Red Hat Lightspeed, use the:

3.3. Installing Red Hat Lightspeed on Red Hat Enterprise Linux Satellite-managed hosts

To install Red Hat Lightspeed on Red Hat Enterprise Linux hosts managed by Red Hat Satellite, see:

3.4. Installing Red Hat Lightspeed on existing RHEL systems managed by Red Hat Subscription Manager (RHSM), Red Hat Satellite, or Cloud Access

To install Red Hat Lightspeed on existing RHEL systems managed by Red Hat Subscription Manager, Red Hat Satellite, or Cloud access, see:

3.5. Installing Red Hat Lightspeed on existing RHEL systems purchased from a marketplace and managed by Red Hat

To install Red Hat Lightspeed on existing RHEL systems purchased from a marketplace and managed by Red Hat, see:

3.6. Installing Red Hat Lightspeed on existing RHEL systems purchased from a marketplace, not directly managed by Red Hat

To install Red Hat Lightspeed on existing RHEL systems purchased from a marketplace, not directly managed by Red Hat, see:

Chapter 4. Enabling Red Hat Lightspeed services on OpenShift Container Platform clusters

You can install, operate, and upgrade your Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform clusters from the Hybrid Cloud Console. Some of the capabilities of Red Hat Lightspeed are also available for Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform clusters. To monitor your Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform clusters and receive recommendations from Red Hat Lightspeed to ensure optimal security and performance, you must enable the remote health monitoring feature.

Unlike Red Hat Enterprise Linux, OpenShift Container Platform does not require a separate installation of the Red Hat Lightspeed insights-client. Instead, the platform uses built-in remote health monitoring tools to report telemetry and configuration data to Red Hat. Red Hat Lightspeed analyzes this data to identify potential issues proactively and provide recommendations.

4.1. Understanding remote health monitoring on OpenShift Container Platform

Red Hat Lightspeed relies on data collected by the following components, which are installed and enabled by default in OpenShift Container Platform:

  • Telemeter Client: Gathers and uploads metric values to Red Hat every four minutes and thirty seconds.
  • Insights Operator: Reports configuration data and component failure status every two hours.

For more information on how OpenShift Container Platform gathers data, monitors health, and assists with troubleshooting, see the product documentation links in the Additional resources section.

4.2. Prerequisites

To ensure your system is ready to use the services of Red Hat Lightspeed, enable your OpenShift Container Platform cluster to collect and report data to Red Hat:

  1. Complete the steps in This content is not included.Remote health reporting.
  2. If you intend to use cost optimization features, complete the steps in This content is not included.How to configure cost management to ensure cost management is also configured for your cluster.

4.3. Additional resources

Chapter 5. Installing Red Hat Lightspeed for the Ansible Automation Platform

This chapter provides starting points and resources for registering and installing Red Hat Lightspeed systems that use the Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform.

To install Red Hat Lightspeed on RHEL systems that use the Red Hat Ansible automation, see:

Chapter 6. Connecting your systems to Red Hat Lightspeed

When using Red Hat Lightspeed hosted on the Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console, each system needs to be able to communicate with Red Hat Lightspeed so that Red Hat can provide system analysis. If constraints are in place that prevent your systems from directly accessing the Internet, such as a firewall or other layers of security, additional configuration might be required.

A system can connect to Red Hat Lightspeed in the following ways:

  • Directly
  • Through Red Hat Satellite
  • Through Red Hat Lightspeed proxy
  • Through your own proxy server

Information is provided to help you to connect your systems to Red Hat Lightspeed.

6.1. Connecting to Red Hat Lightspeed through Red Hat Satellite

Important

If you are a Red Hat Satellite user then Satellite is used as the single point of connection in your network with all communications going from the host to the Satellite to Red Hat Lightspeed. Satellite does this automatically so you do not need to configure connectivity.

If you are not a Satellite user then you need to either directly communicate to Red Hat Lightspeed or set up a web proxy.

6.2. Connecting your RHEL systems through the Red Hat Lightspeed proxy

Red Hat Lightspeed proxy provides capabilities and features for securely and efficiently connecting your systems to Red Hat Lightspeed.

To make it simpler and easier for you, Red Hat Lightspeed provides a proxy, which is included with your RHEL subscription. Red Hat Lightspeed proxy routes all Red Hat traffic through the proxy with a config script hosted on the proxy server that you use to configure each host system.

For detailed information about how to install and configure Red Hat Lightspeed proxy, see This content is not included.Connecting your RHEL systems through the Red Hat Lightspeed proxy.

6.3. Connecting to Red Hat Lightspeed through your own proxy

You might choose to use a web proxy of your choice to act as a gateway between the public Internet and your private network, and configure a web config file on each host. This is a good security measure to protect your systems from malicious activity.

To connect your systems to Red Hat Lightspeed you must add hostnames, ports, and allow additional URLs. For guidance about how to connect to Red Hat Lightspeed by using your own proxy, see This content is not included.Connecting to Red Hat Lightspeed through your own proxy.

Chapter 7. Manage user permissions for Red Hat Lightspeed services

Red Hat uses role-based access control (RBAC) to manage user permissions on the Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console. You can use the User Access feature of Hybrid Cloud Console to control which Red Hat Lightspeed applications on the Hybrid Cloud Console your users can view, operate, and administer. Red Hat provides predefined groups and a set of predefined roles to make it easier for Organization Administrators to assign, restrict, and remove user permissions to Red Hat Lightspeed services.

7.1. User Access overview

The User Access feature is based on managing roles, rather than on individually assigning permissions to specific users. In User Access, each role has a specific set of permissions. For example, a role might allow read permission for an application. Another role might allow write permission for an application.

You can also create custom groups and roles to provide more fine-tuned control over specific features of Red Hat Lightspeed to suit the needs of your organization.

If you are an Organization Administrator, you can use the This content is not included.User Access feature under Identity & Access Management in the Hybrid Cloud Console to:

  • Control user permissions and organize roles.
  • Create groups that include roles and their corresponding permissions.
  • Assign users to these groups, allowing them to inherit the permissions associated with their group’s roles.

7.2. Predefined groups in User Access

To make groups and roles easier to manage, the This content is not included.Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console provides two predefined groups: Default access and Default admin access. You can also create your own custom groups to align with specific personas, job functions, or teams in your organization.

7.2.1. The Default access group

By default, the Default access group is assigned many granular predefined roles, such as Remediations viewer and Inventory Hosts viewer, so that group members have basic visibility. Because all users in your organization are members of the Default access group, they inherit all permissions assigned to that group. The Default access group is automatically updated by Red Hat.

Important

If your Organization Administrator modifies the Default access group, for example, by removing roles to restrict access to specific applications or to use the consolidated roles, the group is automatically renamed to Custom default access. Once converted, this group is no longer automatically updated by Red Hat.

7.2.2. The Default admin access group

The Default admin access group contains only users who have Organization Administrator permissions. This group is automatically maintained, and users and roles in this group cannot be changed.

The Default admin access group includes many (but not all) predefined roles that provide update and delete permissions. The roles in this group usually include administrator in their names.

7.3. Predefined roles assigned to groups

The Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console provides predefined roles that bundle permissions across multiple Red Hat Lightspeed applications to align with common user personas. Use the predefined roles if you want to reduce the administrative effort required to manage user permissions, and your use case aligns with the permissions included in these roles.

If you want to have more control over specific features of Red Hat Lightspeed and your use case does not align with the permissions included in the predefined roles, you can create custom roles.

You can also use the predefined roles as a starting point to create custom roles that are tailored to your specific use case. For example, you can use the predefined granular roles to create custom roles that provide more fine-tuned control over specific features of Red Hat Lightspeed.

By default, Red Hat provides a set of consolidated roles and a set of granular roles in the Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console User Access UI. The consolidated roles significantly reduce the administrative effort required to manage user permissions, while the granular roles provide more fine-tuned control over specific features of Red Hat Lightspeed.

You can use the predefined consolidated and granular roles in User Access simultaneously, but using consolidated roles can significantly reduce the administrative effort.

7.3.1. Select from the predefined consolidated roles library

The Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console provides three predefined, consolidated User Access roles to help you manage user permissions to Red Hat Lightspeed applications and services that run on registered Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems. These roles help simplify how the Organization Administrator creates groups and permissions for various levels of access to the Red Hat Lightspeed services. If you want to reduce the administrative effort required to manage user permissions and your use case aligns with the permissions included in these roles, select from the consolidated roles library.

The consolidated roles are as follows:

RHEL viewer: The RHEL viewer role provides users visibility without the ability to make changes. It allows read-only access to Red Hat Lightspeed. You can view system configurations, compliance reports, inventory data, patch information, vulnerabilities, and overall resource states and activities. The only action permitted with this role is to generate activation keys.

RHEL operator: The RHEL operator role allows active management of your Red Hat Lightspeed environment. With this role, you can edit system configurations, inventory details, policies, and notification/integration settings. The RHEL operator role allows many of the RHEL administrator role functions, but it is restricted from editing compliance policies, content source templates, policies, or tasks. In addition, the RHEL operator role cannot execute remediation plans.

RHEL administrator: The RHEL administrator role provides comprehensive administrative privileges across your RHEL systems and Red Hat Lightspeed. With this role, you can manage system configurations, inventory, compliance policies, notifications, patch management, remediations, malware detection, and advisor recommendations. The role can also view and modify all vulnerability settings.

Important

To use the consolidated roles effectively, you might need to remove the granular RHEL roles from the Default access group to prevent permission conflicts. This action automatically changes the name of the predefined Default access group to Custom default access group, after which, it is no longer automatically updated by Red Hat.

See Predefined User Access roles for a list of the roles included in the Default admin access group and a reference table that lists most of the predefined groups and roles that are available in the Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console and the permissions included in each role.

7.3.2. Granular roles

The granular roles are specific roles for individual services that allow for fine-tuned control over specific features of Red Hat Lightspeed, for example, Inventory Hosts administrator or Compliance viewer. If you want to have more control over specific features of Red Hat Lightspeed and your use case does not align with the permissions included in the consolidated roles, use the granular predefined roles.

Tip

Across the Red Hat Lightspeed product documentation, the Prerequisites section for each procedure lists which predefined roles provide the permissions needed to use the features in that procedure. For example, if a procedure requires permissions to view and manage remediations, the Prerequisites section for that procedure lists the Remediations administrator or other valid role as a recommended predefined role to use for that procedure.

7.4. Check your permissions

If you try to access Red Hat Lightspeed applications in the Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console and see a message stating you do not have permission, you can verify your current permissions and the roles or groups you are assigned to.

Note

Only users with the Organization Administrator role can view the permissions of other users in the User Access settings and manage user permissions to Red Hat Lightspeed services. For more information, see the Configure user permissions section.

Prerequisites

  • You are logged in to the Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console.

Procedure

  1. In the Hybrid Cloud Console, click the Settings icon (⚙), then navigate to This content is not included.My User Access.
  2. Optional: If you require additional permissions, use the Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console Virtual Assistant to ask "Contact my Organization Administrator". The assistant sends an email to the Organization Administrator on your behalf.

Results

All of the applications that you have permissions to access are listed on this page and are grouped by product, for example, RHEL, OpenShift Container Platform, and Ansible Automation Platform.

You can also filter your permissions by application, for example, by advisor, cost management, inventory, and remediations.

7.5. Configure user permissions

If you are an Organization Administrator, you can view and manage the permissions of all users in your organization to Red Hat Lightspeed and other Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console services in the User Access section of the Identity & Access Management feature in the Hybrid Cloud Console.

Important

If you are not an Organization Administrator, you will be unable to complete this task. However, you can check your own permissions for different applications by navigating to This content is not included.My User Access. Contact your Organization Administrator to request more permissions.

Prerequisites

  • You are logged in to the Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console as an Organization Administrator, or you have the required administrator User Access role permissions.

Procedure

  1. In the Hybrid Cloud Console, click the Settings icon (⚙), then navigate to This content is not included.Identity & Access Management > User Access.

Results

From here, you can create and manage:

Providing feedback on Red Hat documentation

We appreciate and prioritize your feedback regarding our documentation. Provide as much detail as possible, so that your request can be quickly addressed.

Prerequisites

  • You are logged in to the Red Hat Customer Portal.

Procedure

To provide feedback, perform the following steps:

  1. Click the following link: Content from redhat.atlassian.net is not included.Create Issue
  2. Describe the issue or enhancement in the Summary text box.
  3. Provide details about the issue or requested enhancement in the Description text box.
  4. Type your name in the Reporter text box.
  5. Click the Create button.

This action creates a documentation ticket and routes it to the appropriate documentation team. Thank you for taking the time to provide feedback.

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