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This quickstart guide is for Foreman 2.3, but the latest version is 3.13.
The Foreman installer is a collection of Puppet modules that installs everything required for a full working Foreman setup. It uses native OS packaging (e.g. RPM and .deb packages) and adds necessary configuration for the complete installation.
Components include the Foreman web UI, Smart Proxy, a Puppet server, and optionally Passenger, TFTP, DNS and DHCP servers. It is configurable and the Puppet modules can be read or run in “no-op” mode to see what changes it will make.
These platforms are not tested by automatic installations. They are generally close to supported platforms so the packages may work, but additional work may be needed. For any queries for these platforms raise a question in discourse support section
Other operating systems will need to use alternative installation methods (see the manual).
The installation will require 4GB of memory, see System Requirements for more information.
The Foreman installer uses Puppet (5 or later required) to install Foreman. This guide assumes that you have a newly installed operating system, on which the installer will setup Foreman, a Puppet server, and the Smart Proxy by default. It’s not advisable to follow the steps below on an existing system, since the installer will affect the configuration of several components.
To provide specific installation instructions, please select your operating system:
First, enable the RHEL Optional and SCL repositories:
sudo yum-config-manager --enable rhel-7-server-optional-rpms rhel-server-rhscl-7-rpms
Check the repositories are enabled with yum repolist
after running the above command, as it can silently fail when subscription does not provide those.
Note: The RPM packages are not tested on Scientific Linux or Oracle Linux. The Foreman installation on Scientific Linux or Oracle Linux may or may not work.
Using a recent version of Puppet is recommended, which is available from the Puppet Labs repository. To use Puppet 6.x with Puppet Agent and Puppet server:
sudo yum -y install https://yum.puppet.com/puppet6-release-el-7.noarch.rpm
Using a recent version of Puppet is recommended, which is available from the Puppet Labs repository. To use Puppet 6.x with Puppet Agent and Puppet server:
sudo yum -y install https://yum.puppet.com/puppet6-release-el-8.noarch.rpm
Enable the EPEL (Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux) and the Foreman repositories:
sudo yum -y install https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-7.noarch.rpm
sudo yum -y install https://yum.theforeman.org/releases/2.3/el7/x86_64/foreman-release.rpm
Enable the EPEL (Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux), Foreman and SCL (Software Collections) repositories:
sudo yum-config-manager --enable extras
sudo yum -y install epel-release centos-release-scl-rh
sudo yum -y install https://yum.theforeman.org/releases/2.3/el7/x86_64/foreman-release.rpm
Enable the EPEL (Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux), Foreman and SCL (Software Collections) repositories:
sudo yum -y install https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-7.noarch.rpm
sudo yum -y install https://yum.theforeman.org/releases/2.3/el7/x86_64/foreman-release.rpm
sudo yum -y install https://mirror.centos.org/centos/7/extras/x86_64/Packages/centos-release-scl-rh-2-3.el7.centos.noarch.rpm
Enable the Foreman repositories:
sudo yum -y install https://yum.theforeman.org/releases/2.3/el8/x86_64/foreman-release.rpm
Using Puppet 6.x is recommended, which is available from the Puppet Labs repository. To use Puppet 6.x with Puppet Agent and Puppet server:
sudo apt-get -y install ca-certificates
cd /tmp && wget https://apt.puppet.com/puppet6-release-buster.deb
sudo dpkg -i /tmp/puppet6-release-buster.deb
Enable the Foreman repo:
echo "deb http://deb.theforeman.org/ buster 2.3" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/foreman.list
echo "deb http://deb.theforeman.org/ plugins 2.3" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/foreman.list
sudo apt-get -y install ca-certificates gpg
wget -q https://deb.theforeman.org/pubkey.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -
Using Puppet 6.x is recommended, which is available from the Puppet Labs repository. To use Puppet 6.x with Puppet Agent and Puppet server:
sudo apt-get -y install ca-certificates
cd /tmp && wget https://apt.puppet.com/puppet6-release-bionic.deb
sudo dpkg -i /tmp/puppet6-release-bionic.deb
Enable the Foreman repo:
echo "deb http://deb.theforeman.org/ bionic 2.3" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/foreman.list
echo "deb http://deb.theforeman.org/ plugins 2.3" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/foreman.list
sudo apt-get -y install ca-certificates
wget -q https://deb.theforeman.org/pubkey.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -
sudo yum -y install foreman-installer
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get -y install foreman-installer
ping $(hostname -f)
shows the real IP address, not 127.0.1.1. Change or remove this entry from /etc/hosts if present.
The installation run is non-interactive, but the configuration can be customized by supplying any of the options listed in foreman-installer --help
, or by running foreman-installer -i
for interactive mode. More examples are given in the Installation Options section. Adding -v
will disable the progress bar and display all changes. To run the installer, execute:
sudo foreman-installer
After it completes, the installer will print some details about where to find Foreman and the Smart Proxy. Output should be similar to this:
* Foreman is running at https://theforeman.example.com
Initial credentials are admin / 3ekw5xtyXCoXxS29
* Foreman Proxy is running at https://theforeman.example.com:8443
The full log is at /var/log/foreman-installer/foreman-installer.log
Over the last year, Foreman community members have been open-sourcing Red Hat documentation to make more comprehensive guides available to Foreman users. At the moment, the following guides have been migrated to a work-in-progress Foreman and Katello documentation site. This project is not yet complete, but you might find useful information in some of the following guides:
Continue reading the quickstart guide in the manual:
Or view the quickstart screencasts:
Foreman 3.13.0 has been released! Follow the quick start to install it.
Foreman 3.12.1 has been released! Follow the quick start to install it.