The following instructions assume use of RHEL/Fedora (tested on EL5/6 and Fedora 20/21). It maybe be possible to install on other distributions by adapting the steps as necessary.

PostgreSQL

Install PostgresSQL.

$ sudo yum install -y postgresql-server postgresql

Initialize PostgreSQL.

$ sudo postgresql-setup initdb  # Fedora

$ sudo /sbin/service postgresql initdb  # RHEL/CentOS

Update /var/lib/pgsql/data/pg_hba.conf to be trust instead of ident:

# TYPE  DATABASE    USER        CIDR-ADDRESS          METHOD
local   all         all                               trust
host    all         all         127.0.0.1/32          trust
host    all         all         ::1/128               trust

Enable and start the PostgreSQL server.

$ sudo chkconfig postgresql on
$ sudo /sbin/service postgresql start

Candlepin

Configure the yum repo,

$ wget -O /etc/yum.repos.d/fedora-candlepin.repo http://repos.fedorapeople.org/repos/candlepin/candlepin/fedora-candlepin.repo

$ wget -O /etc/yum.repos.d/epel-candlepin.repo http://repos.fedorapeople.org/repos/candlepin/candlepin/epel-candlepin.repo

Enable EPEL repository. Note: this step is necessary only at RedHat/CentOS.
```
$ sudo yum -y install epel-release
```
Install Candlepin
```
$ sudo yum install candlepin-tomcat6
```
Make sure you have OpenJDK 1.6 java configured as the default system-wide java platform using java -version. If not set it as the default:
```
$ sudo update-alternatives --config java
```

Create the candlepin user:

$ sudo su - postgres -c 'createuser -dls candlepin'

Setup candlepin
```
$ sudo /usr/share/candlepin/cpsetup
```

Verify Candlepin is running:

$ curl -k -u admin:admin https://localhost:8443/candlepin/status

Troubleshooting

For the most part, cpsetup should JUST WORK (TM), here is an example of a successful run of cpsetup:

# /usr/share/candlepin/cpsetup
Dropping candlepin database
Creating candlepin database
Loading candlepin schema
Writing configuration file
Creating CA private key password
Creating CA private key
Creating CA public key
Creating CA certificate
Waiting for tomcat to restart...
Candlepin has been configured.

There are occasions where you might run into some problems. Below is a set of common problems you might experience.

PostgreSQL isn’t running

If you see this error:

Dropping candlepin database

########## ERROR ############
Error running command: dropdb -U candlepin candlepin
Status code: 256
Command output: dropdb: could not connect to database postgres: could not connect to server:

then start PostgreSQL:

$ sudo /sbin/service postgresql start

PostgreSQL user does not exist

If you see this error:

########## ERROR ############
Error running command: dropdb -U candlepin candlepin
Status code: 256
Command output: dropdb: could not connect to database postgres: FATAL:  Ident authentication failed for user "candlepin"

then create the PostgreSQL user:

$ sudo su - postgres -c 'createuser -dls candlepin'

Candlepin database being used by another process

Sometimes re-running cpsetup might result in the following error meaning that either the user is logged into the database using a database client i.e. psql or candlepin application is still running (most likely).

Dropping candlepin database

########## ERROR ############
Error running command: dropdb -U candlepin candlepin
Status code: 256
Command output: dropdb: database removal failed: ERROR:  database "candlepin" is being accessed by other users
DETAIL:  There are 1 other session(s) using the database.

Most of the time this is a result of the candlepin webapp still running, restart tomcat

$ sudo /sbin/service tomcat6 stop

If you are using a database client, quit the database client.

candlepin=# \q

PostgreSQL not configured for trust

Candlepin currently expects that the database is configured in trust mode (i.e. no password required). If you see the following error, please check the PostgreSQLTips for help.

Dropping candlepin database

########## ERROR ############
Error running command: dropdb -U candlepin candlepin
Status code: 256
Command output: dropdb: could not connect to database postgres: FATAL:  Ident authentication failed for user "candlepin"

Wrong Java version and incorrect tomcat6 permissions

tomcat6 installs java-1.5.0-gcj instead of java-1.6.0-openjdk and sets some incorrect permissions which may lead to the following error during cpsetup:

########## ERROR ############
Error running command: wget -qO- http://localhost:8080/candlepin/admin/init
Status code: 2048
Command output:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/share/candlepin/cpsetup", line 215, in <module>
    main(sys.argv[1:])
  File "/usr/share/candlepin/cpsetup", line 207, in main
    run_command("wget -qO- http://localhost:8080/candlepin/admin/init")
  File "/usr/share/candlepin/cpsetup", line 34, in run_command
    raise Exception("Error running command")
Exception: Error running command

Please make sure that you have installed java-1.6.x-openjdk and check if permissions are correct for tomcat6, as noted in Red Hat Bugzilla 708694

Last modified on 30 August 2024

Table of Contents

Candlepin Setup

Requirements