How to configure virt-who with encrypted password?

Environment

• virt-who (available from 0.11-5.el7 and above versions)
• subscription-manager

Issue

• How to use encrypted password in virt-who configuration?
• Need to use encrypted password with virt-who.

Resolution

• To generate encrypted password for the virt-who config file, use the virt-who-password utility.
• virt-who-password prompts for password and writes encrypted entered password to the standard output.
• This utility must be executed as root, because the encryption key is written into file that is only readable by root. Note that root can decrypt the password.
• Encryption key is written into file /var/lib/virt-who/key, make sure that this file is only readable and writeable by root.
• IMPORTANT The encrypted password is specific to the machine it was created on, if you use the same service account across multiple virt-who instances on different systems, you will need to create a virt-who password on each system.
• To get an encrypted password string execute the below command.

[root@localhost ~]# virt-who-password
Password: 
Use following as value for encrypted_password key in the configuration file:
<encrypted_password_string>

Note: When prompted for password, enter the password of your ESX Host and note down the encrypted string.

• Create a new configuration file for virt-who inside /etc/virt-who.d/.

[root@localhost ~]# vi /etc/virt-who.d/virt-who.conf
[config]
type=<hypervisor_type>
server=<vcenter/esx host>
username=<vcenter/esx_username>
encrypted_password=<encrypted_password_string>
owner=<owner>
env=Library

Hypervisor Type:

• The hypervisor type can be libvirt, vdsm, esx, rhevm,xen,ahv and hyperv.

Restart virt-who Service:

• Restart the virt-who service after the configuration change.

[root@localhost ~]# service virt-who restart

Note: As a configuration file is created under /etc/virt-who.d/ do not specify the hyper-visor details in /etc/sysconfig/virt-who, however having the parameter VIRTWHO_BACKGROUND=1 in the file /etc/sysconfig/virt-who is mandatory for virt-who service to run in background. For more information refer the man page.

# man virt-who-config

Note: The <owner> column in the /etc/virt-who.d/ configuration file is provided by executing the below command

 [root@localhost ~]# subscription-manager identity
org name : <string>   ------> This is the <owner> value in the above configuration file.

For more KB articles/solutions related to Virt-who and Virtual Datacenter (VDC) Subscriptions Issues, please refer to the Consolidated Troubleshooting Article for Virt-who and Virtual Datacenter (VDC) Subscriptions Issues

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