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gitea-pages/rhel8/packages.md

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Package Management for RHEL 8

How to add packages and package repositories and what repositories are available is documented here.

Package Installation

Install Packages with Hiera Package Groups

The packages automatically installed onto a system by Puppet are managed in the Hiera list base::package_groups. It contains the names of the package groups to be installed. Items can be added at all levels of the Hiera hierarchy and are merged.

The package groups itself are Hieara lists named base::pkg_group::$USE_CASE. Here list all the packages you want to install.

Currently there exist the following package groups in the main common.yaml:

  • base::pkg_group::system_tools (installed by default)
  • base::pkg_group::daq_buffer
  • base::pkg_group::desktop_settings
  • base::pkg_group::dev
  • base::pkg_group::login_server
  • base::pkg_group::qt5
  • base::pkg_group::root

but further ones can be created in Hiera at lower hierachies and added to base::package_groups, for example

base::pkg_group::java:
    - 'java-1.8.0-openjdk'
    - 'java-11-openjdk'
    - 'java-17-openjdk'

base::package_groups:
    - 'java'

Install a Group of Packages

To add a RedHat predefined group of packages (checkout out dnf grouplist --hidden) prepend the name of it with a @, e.g. for "Java Platform" it would be @Java Platform:

base::pkg_group::java:
    - '@Java Platform'

Install Latest Package Version

To ensure that always the latest available package version is installed, append the :latest tag to the package name in the package group:

base::pkg_group::java:
    - 'java-1.8.0-openjdk'
    - 'java-11-openjdk'
    - 'java-17-openjdk:latest'

Install Packages only on Given OS Version

implemented only in rhel8_preprod branch

Certain packages are only used on a given OS Version, so a os= with the OS name and the major version selects a package only for given OS, where as a os! will filter away given package on hosts with given OS, so they are not installed there.

base::pkg_group::java:
    - 'java-1.8.0-openjdk:os=redhat7'
    - 'java-11-openjdk'
    - 'java-17-openjdk:os!redhat7'

Note that this tag can be combined with the latest and absent tag.

Remove Packages

To remove an already installed package, append the :absent tag to the package name in the package group:

base::pkg_group::java:
    - 'java-1.8.0-openjdk:absent'
    - 'java-11-openjdk'
    - 'java-17-openjdk'

Ignore Packages

To make packages unavailable for installation, even though provided by the package repositories, add them in Hiera to the list base::package_exclude:

base::package_exclude:
    - 'epics-base-7.0.6*'

This list is merged over the full Hiera hierachy, so there is no need to copy exclusions from higher levels when creating an exclusion on a low level.

Legacy Package Installation

The legacy Hiera lists for package groups is yum_client::pkg_group::$USE_CASE and supports the latest and absent tag, but not the filtering by operating system version.

Then yum_client::package_groups is the Hiera list to contain the package groups to be installed.

Please migrate them to the equivalent base::* list. You can have both of them available at the same time, with possibly the same content.

Management of Package Repositories

Package Repository Lists

Also for configuring package repositories our configuration management works with lists containing the names of the repositories to be installed. The default list (except for nodes with the bootpc and appliances::lenovo::* Puppet roles) is rpm_repos::default (legacy: yum_client::repositories).

If repositories are managed in Hiera, feel free to add them to rpm_repos::default like

rpm_repos::default:
    - 'gfa'

Note that repositories for different versions of RHEL can be added and only the fitting ones will be configured on the node.

If the package repositories are managed by a Puppet module, then it is good practice is to define a specific package repository list in common.yaml and then to install it only when needed. An example is profile::telegraf which only installes the repositories listed in rpm_repos::influx when needed.

Package Repository Definition

An individual package repository is configured in Hiera within the namespace rpm_repos::repo::*, like following example:

rpm_repos::repo::epel_rhel8:
    name: 'epel'
    descr: "Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 8"
    baseurl: 'https://repo01.psi.ch/el8/tags/$pli_repo_tag/epel/'
    gpgkey: 'https://repo01.psi.ch/el8/keys/RPM-GPG-KEY-EPEL-8'
    disable: false
    gpgcheck: true
    osversion: 8
    exclude:
        - "slurm*"

The legacy namespace yum_client::repo::* is currently used for RHEL7 repositories to be backward compatible as some Hiera configuration with higher precedence overwrites certain stuff.

Package Repository Name

The reference name used in Hiera (the part after rpm_repos::repo:: should be globally unique. An unfortunate practice is to use the same name for different package repositories. A current example is the gfa repository which has different URLs on different sysdb environments.

Note for name attribute, that only has to be unique on the machine where they are installed. So if there are two repositories defined to provide the same software for two different OS versions, then it is fine to have the same name there.

Package Repository URL

Overriding the URL of a package repository definition on a stricter scope is considered bad practice. The URL defines the actual "identiy" of the package repository definition. It is confusing if it gets different meanings at different places. It is like one passport which will identify different persons in different countries.

If different sources are needed, define and name them appropriately. They point to one given repository and the package repository lists are the place to select what should be applied on a given node.

Also feel free to define all your package repositories in common.yaml.

Select Package Repository by OS Version

Usually a package repository only serves packages for one major OS version. This can be stated by the osversion attribute. When a package repository list is installed, only the repositories fitting the version of the OS installed on the node are selected and configured.

If the osversion attribute is not set, then it is always installed.

Package Repository GPG Verification

GPG verification is optional, so gpgkey may not be defined and gpgcheck is false by default. But ideally the packages are signed and checked for tampering and corruption.

Exclude Packages

If certain packages provided by given repository should be ignored on the nodes, then add them to the exclude list.

Using Specific Package Repository Snapshot

Most of the externally sourced package repositories on repo00.psi.ch (RHEL7) and repo01.psi.ch (RHEL 8) have snapshots which can be used to freeze the available package versions to a given date.

The tags are different per major OS version and are definied in the Hiera hash rpm_repos::tag, below you see the default:

yum_client::repo_tag: 'prod'

rpm_repos::tag:
    redhat7: "%{lookup('yum_client::repo_tag')}"
    redhat8: 'rhel-8'

So for RHEL 7 the default is prod and can be overriden on yum_client::repo_tag (backwards compatibility) or on the redhat7 attribute of rpm_repos::tag.

To fix to a specific snapshot on RHEL 8, the redhat8 attribute has to be set on rpm_repos::tag, the default is rhel-8 which points to the latest snapshot.

The available tags your find at

Package Repositories made Available by the Linux Group

Availabe on all systems are:

  • RedHat BaseOS, AppStream and CodeReady repositories
  • Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux (EPEL) repositories
  • Puppet 7 repository
  • Auristor repository for YFS and AFS related packages
  • Google Chrome repository
  • pli-misc (not tagged for RHEL7, but on RHEL 8)
  • Code (Visual Studio Code from Microsoft)
  • Microsoft Teams
  • PowerScript et. al. (Microsoft)
  • HashiCorp (vault, terraform, vagrant, ...)
  • Oracle Instant Client 19 and 21

Predefined and used when needed are:

  • Influx (influxdb, telegraf, ...)
  • CUDA
  • Nomachine

To be added/defined in common.yaml?

  • GPFS
  • Epics (available for RHEL7)

pli-misc Repository

A small list of packages managed by the Linux Team.

  • make v4.3 from CentOS as v4.2.1 has been reported to to make trouble
  • latest Zoom client
  • latest Webex client
  • latest Slack client
  • latest Real VNC Viewer, recommended for VNC remote access to Windows machines
  • pli-assets containing the PSI and the Customer Self Service logo, any hints about the source rpm are welcome
  • mod_gearman v4.0.1
  • lightdm-gtk v2.0.8-3.pli, a patched lightdm-gtk-greeter (SRPM, PR) which allows to limit the presented keyboard layouts
  • Code Beamer Office pluging v9.5.0 managed by Gilles Martin
  • storecli 007.2007.0000.0000 managed by Marc Caubet Serrabou

Package Repositories made Available by other PSI Groups

  • tivoli, IBM backup software for Arema, managed by Datacenter and DB Services, AIT
  • nxserver for NoMachine NX

Automated Package Updates

The automatic updates are controlled in Hiera:

Hiera key default comments
base::automatic_updates::interval weekly valid are daily, weekly and never which disables the automatic updates
base::automatic_updates::type security security installs only security updates whereas all installs all updates
base::automatic_updates::exclude [] list of packages not to update, wildcards like "*" are allowed
base::automatic_updates::kernel false define if new kernel packages also should be installed automatically

Note that the updates run on midnight, for weekly from Sunday to Monday. There is no automatic reboot, e.g. for kernel updates.

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