Fedora 24+

Beginning with Fedora 24, Pulp is included in the Fedora project, however we recommend to install the upstream repository anyway, which is usually more up to date.

$ sudo dnf config-manager --add-repo https://repos.fedorapeople.org/repos/pulp/pulp/fedora-pulp.repo

Database Server

You must provide a running MongoDB instance for Pulp to use. You can use the same host that you will run Pulp on, or you can give MongoDB its own separate host if you like. You can even use MongoDB replica sets if you’d like to have higher availability.

$ sudo dnf install mongodb-server

You need mongodb-server with version >= 2.4 installed for Pulp server. It is highly recommended that you configure MongoDB to use SSL. If you are using Mongo’s authorization feature, you will need to grant the readWrite and dbAdmin roles to the user you provision for Pulp to use. The dbAdmin role allows Pulp to create collections and install indices on them.

After installing MongoDB, you should configure it to start at boot and start it:

$ sudo systemctl enable mongod
$ sudo systemctl start mongod

Warning

On new MongoDB installations, MongoDB takes some time to preallocate large files and will not accept connections until it finishes. When this happens, Pulp will wait for MongoDB to become available before starting.

Message Broker

You must also provide a message broker for Pulp to use. Pulp will work with Qpid or RabbitMQ, but is tested with Qpid and uses Qpid by default. This can be on the same host that you will run Pulp on, or elsewhere as you please.

qpidd

To install qpidd, run this command on the host you wish to be the message broker:

$ sudo dnf install qpid-cpp-server qpid-cpp-server-linearstore

Pulp uses the ANONYMOUS Qpid authentication mechanism by default. To enable username/password-based PLAIN broker authentication, you will need to configure SASL with a username/password, and then configure Pulp to use that username/password. Refer to the Qpid docs on how to configure username/password authentication using SASL. Once the broker is configured, configure Pulp according to the docs on using Pulp with Qpid and username/password authentication.

The server can be optionally configured so that it will connect to the broker using SSL by following the steps defined in the Qpid SSL Configuration Guide. By default, Pulp does not expect to use SSL and will connect to the broker using a plain TCP connection to localhost.

After installing and configuring Qpid, you should configure it to start at boot and start it:

$ sudo systemctl enable qpidd
$ sudo systemctl start qpidd

RabbitMQ

On the host you wish to use as your message broker, run this command To install RabbitMQ:

$ sudo dnf install rabbitmq-server

After installing and configuring RabbitMQ, you should configure it to start at boot and start it:

$ sudo systemctl enable rabbitmq-server
$ sudo systemctl start rabbitmq-server

Pulp Server

Now we are ready to install and configure the Pulp server!

  1. Install the Pulp server, task workers, and dependencies. You can get the packages you need by simply installing the plugins you want to use and they will pull in the needed dependencies. The following example installs all currently supported plugins, but feel free to season to taste:

    $ sudo dnf install pulp-rpm-plugins pulp-docker-plugins pulp-ostree-plugins pulp-puppet-plugins pulp-python-plugins
    
  2. Install the gofer adapter you need for the type of message broker you chose. For qpidd:

    $ sudo dnf install python-gofer-qpid qpid-tools
    

    For RabbitMQ:

    $ sudo dnf install python-gofer-amqp
    
  3. Edit /etc/pulp/server.conf. Most defaults will work, but these are sections you might consider looking at before proceeding. Each section is documented in-line.

    • email if you intend to have the server send email (off by default)
    • database if your database resides on a different host or port. It is strongly recommended that you set ssl and verify_ssl to True.
    • messaging if your message broker for communication between Pulp components is on a different host or if you want to use SSL. For more information on this section refer to the Pulp Broker Settings Guide.
    • tasks if your message broker for asynchronous tasks is on a different host or if you want to use SSL. For more information on this section refer to the Pulp Broker Settings Guide.
    • server if you want to change the server’s URL components, hostname, or default credentials
  4. Generate RSA key pair and SSL CA certificate:

    $ sudo pulp-gen-key-pair
    $ sudo pulp-gen-ca-certificate
    
  5. Initialize Pulp’s database. It is important that the broker is running before initializing Pulp’s database. It is also important to do this before starting Apache or any Pulp services. The database initialization needs to be run as the apache user, which can be done by running:

    $ sudo -u apache pulp-manage-db
    

    Note

    If Apache or Pulp services are already running, restart them after running the pulp-manage-db command.

    Warning

    It is recommended that you configure your web server to refuse SSLv3.0. In Apache, you can do this by editing /etc/httpd/conf.d/ssl.conf and configuring the SSLProtocol directive like this:

    SSLProtocol all -SSLv2 -SSLv3
    

    Warning

    It is recommended that the web server only serve Pulp services.

  6. Start Apache httpd and set it to start on boot.:

    $ sudo systemctl enable httpd
    $ sudo systemctl start httpd
    
  7. Pulp has a distributed task system that uses Celery. Begin by configuring, enabling and starting the Pulp workers. To configure the workers, edit /etc/default/pulp_workers. That file has inline comments that explain how to use each setting. After you’ve configured the workers, it’s time to enable and start them:

    $ sudo systemctl enable pulp_workers
    $ sudo systemctl start pulp_workers
    

    Note

    The pulp_workers systemd unit does not actually correspond to the workers, but it runs a script that dynamically generates units for each worker, based on the configured concurrency level. You can check on the status of those generated workers by using the systemctl status command. The workers are named with the template pulp_worker-<number>, and they are numbered beginning with 0 and up to PULP_CONCURRENCY - 1. For example, you can use sudo systemctl status pulp_worker-1 to see how the second worker is doing.

  8. There are two more services that need to be running.

    On some Pulp system, configure, start and enable the Celerybeat process. This process performs a job similar to a cron daemon for Pulp. Edit /etc/default/pulp_celerybeat to your liking, and then enable and start it. Multiple instances of pulp_celerybeat may run concurrently, which will make the Pulp installation more failure tolerant.

    $ sudo systemctl enable pulp_celerybeat
    $ sudo systemctl start pulp_celerybeat
    

    Lastly, a pulp_resource_manager process must be running in the installation. This process acts as a task router, deciding which worker should perform certain types of tasks. As with pulp_celerybeat, multiple instances of pulp_resource_manager may be run concurrently on separate hosts to increase fault tolerance, however, only one instance will ever be active at a time. Should the active instance become unavailable, another instance will take over after some delay.

    Edit /etc/default/pulp_resource_manager to your liking. Then:

    $ sudo systemctl enable pulp_resource_manager
    $ sudo systemctl start pulp_resource_manager
    

Admin Client

The Pulp Admin Client is used for administrative commands on the Pulp server, such as the manipulation of repositories and content. The Pulp Admin Client can be run on any machine that can access the Pulp server’s REST API, including the server itself. It is not a requirement that the admin client be run on a machine that is configured as a Pulp consumer.

Pulp admin commands are accessed through the pulp-admin script.

  1. Install the Pulp admin client extentions for the plugin types you wish to use. They depend on pulp-admin itself so you will get that along with them. The following example installs all the currently available admin extensions, feel free to season to taste:

    $ sudo dnf install pulp-docker-admin-extensions pulp-puppet-admin-extensions pulp-rpm-admin-extensions pulp-ostree-admin-extensions pulp-python-admin-extensions
    
  2. Update the admin client configuration to point to the Pulp server. Keep in mind that because of SSL verification this should be the fully qualified name of the server, even if it is the same machine (localhost will not work with the default apache generated SSL certificate). Regardless, the “host” setting below must match the “CN” value of the server’s HTTP SSL certificate. This change is made globally to the /etc/pulp/admin/admin.conf file, or for one user in ~/.pulp/admin.conf:

    [server]
    host = localhost.localdomain
    

Consumer Client and Agent

The Pulp Consumer Client is present on all systems that wish to act as a consumer of a Pulp server. The Pulp Consumer Client provides the means for a system to register and configure itself with a Pulp server. Additionally, the Pulp Consumer Client runs an agent that will receive messages and commands from the Pulp server.

Pulp consumer commands are accessed through the pulp-consumer script. This script must be run as root to permit access to add references to the Pulp server’s repositories.

  1. Install the Gofer bindings for the message broker you are using. For qpidd:

    $ sudo dnf install python-gofer-qpid
    

    For RabbitMQ:

    $ sudo dnf install python-gofer-amqp
    
  2. Install the consumer client extensions you wish to use. At the time of this writing, only the RPM and Puppet plugins support the Pulp Agent.

    $ sudo dnf install pulp-puppet-consumer-extensions pulp-rpm-consumer-extensions
    
  3. Update the consumer client configuration to point to the Pulp server. Keep in mind that because of the SSL verification this should be the fully qualified name of the server, even if it is the same machine (localhost will not work with the default Apache generated SSL certificate). Regardless, the “host” setting below must match the “CN” value of the server’s HTTP SSL certificate. This change is made to the /etc/pulp/consumer/consumer.conf file:

    [server]
    host = localhost.localdomain
    
  4. The agent may be configured so that it will connect to the Qpid broker using SSL by following the steps defined in the Qpid SSL Configuration Guide. By default, the agent will connect using a plain TCP connection.

  5. Set the agent to start at boot:

    $ sudo systemctl enable goferd
    $ sudo systemctl start goferd
    

Extra Configuration

You are now ready to proceed to Extra Configuration.