Katello: Import CentOS Errata into Pulp

Working with Katello – part 2. We will be importing CentOS errata into Pulp.

This article is part of the Homelab Project with KVM, Katello and Puppet series.

Homelab

We have Katello installed on a CentOS 7 server:

katello.hl.local (10.11.1.4) – see here for installation instructions

See the image below to identify the homelab part this article applies to.

Credits

This is possible thanks to the following sites:

1. https://cefs.steve-meier.de/ – CEFS: CentOS Errata for Spacewalk
2. https://github.com/rdrgmnzs/pulp_centos_errata_import – the script that imports CentOS errata into Pulp/Katello

Installation

Install the following packages:

# yum install git \
  pulp-admin-client \
  pulp-rpm-admin-extensions \
  pulp-rpm-consumer-extensions \
  pulp-rpm-handlers \
  pulp-rpm-yumplugins \
  pulp-rpm-admin-extensions \
  pulp-consumer-client \
  python-pulp-agent-lib \
  perl-Text-Unidecode \
  perl-XML-Simple \
  perl-XML-Parser

Configure CentOS Errata Import

Make sure that the CentOS repositories have been synced. We’ve done this in the previous article.

Clone the repository:

# cd /opt && git clone https://github.com/rdrgmnzs/pulp_centos_errata_import.git
# cd ./pulp_centos_errata_import

Download the latest errata archive and extract the file:

# wget -N https://cefs.steve-meier.de/errata.latest.xml.bz2
# bunzip2 ./errata.latest.xml.bz2

Configure Pulp authetication:

# mkdir -m0700 ~/.pulp

# cat /etc/pki/katello/certs/pulp-client.crt /etc/pki/katello/private/pulp-client.key > ~/.pulp/user-cert.pem

# chmod 0400 ~/.pulp/user-cert.pem

Import CentOS Errata into Pulp

Chances are that we won’t know which repository IDs to use when importing CentOS errata, therefore we can run the following command without specifying any (it may take longer):

# perl ./errata_import.pl --errata=errata.latest.xml

Alternatively, we can view a list of Pulp repositories by using following command:

# pulp-admin repo list | less

And then import errata into repositories required, e.g.:

# perl ./errata_import.pl \
  --errata=errata.latest.xml \
  --include-repo=83418f8f-e069-4b24-8e67-4b07af5e87d2 \
  --include-repo=0abbd033-67cc-4e42-bff0-237d52f1bcdb

There was a case when we got the error saying “Skipping errata […] — No packages found”. If that happens, try passing the repository ID you want to load the errata for with the –include-repo flag.

After importing errata, use the mighty Hammer to force post-sync actions (Katello 3.0 and up):

# hammer settings set \
  --name "force_post_sync_actions" \
  --value "true"

We have to sync the repositories so that errata is published (and visible in the Katello interface).

# hammer repository synchronize \
  --name "base_x86_64" \
  --product "el7_repos"

If all goes well, we should see some errata:

# hammer repository info \
  --name "base_x86_64" \
  --product "el7_repos"
ID:                 1
Name:               base_x86_64
Label:              base_x86_64
Organisation:       Lisenet
Red Hat Repository: no
Content Type:       yum
Checksum Type:      sha256
Mirror on Sync:     no
URL:                http://mirror.centos.org/centos/7/os/x86_64/
Publish Via HTTP:   yes
Published At:       http://katello.hl.local/pulp/repos/lisenet/Library/custom/el7_repos/base_x86_64/
Relative Path:      lisenet/Library/custom/el7_repos/base_x86_64
Download Policy:    on_demand
Product:            
    ID:   1
    Name: el7_repos
GPG Key:            
    ID:   1
    Name: RPM-GPG-KEY-CentOS-7
Sync:               
    Status:         Success
    Last Sync Date: 28 days
Created:            2018/02/20 20:56:52
Updated:            2018/02/21 23:16:44
Content Counts:     
    Packages:       9591
    Package Groups: 84
    Errata:         830

Note how “Mirror on Sync” is set to “no”. This is to prevent loaded errata from being cleared on next sync.

Here is some info for a randomly selected errata ID:

# hammer erratum info --id 4191
ID:          4191
Errata ID:   CESA-2018:0260
Title:       CentOS systemd Security Update
Type:        security
Severity:    Moderate
Issued:      2018-02-01
Updated:     2018-02-01
Description: Not available
Summary:     
Solution: