Hi Pavel,

Please don't assign this bug to me. As I discussed with Terry, I mentioned that I don't know how to copy ssh authorized file on a ansible server from system with kdump enabled to a dump target machine. Means, I Know there's ssh methods to copy ssh authorized file on A from A to B, but I don't know how to copy it on A from B to C. I ever asked other people, no one knows it. And I also raised this issue to Terry, he said he will ask people to hanlde it. I can tell what need to be done for this on kdump, better find a person who knows this.

Thanks
Baoquan

Think about it a while, if customer can copy the ssh authorized public key file to dump target server, and keep the private key file on dumping machine, ansible code will be simple to add to kdump module. While this may need all dumping machine to own the same private ssh key file. It may not be good. The ssh key file copying is a problem I ever tried at the first version of kdump module.

Since kdump provides "kdumpctl propagate" to copy ssh key file to dumping target server, while it will prompt with a ssh password input while it's not seen under ansible task running, it's not available any more.

Created a bz 1489746 to ask ansible component to implement a way to provide password between two remote ansible clients for ssh key file copying.

If they can fix 1489746, or suggest a way to satisfy the requirement, this bug can be fixed easily.

from email thread:

On 10/15/17 at 10:04pm, James Tanner wrote:
> Vault does not affect the transport or remote system security. It's job is
> to encrypt/decrypt secrets on the ansible controller only. Transport
> security is ssh.
>
> #1 The expect module can drive generic commands that require stdin
> http://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/expect_module.html. For those with a
> QA background, tcl/expect is rarely perfect and is quite often fragile.
>
> #2 There's a hundred different ways to create and propagate ssh keys, so I
> don't feel as if trying to adhere to kdumpctl's obtuse interface should be
> a requirement here. Copying the key directly from the kdump-client to the
> kdump-dump-target is also not a requirement....
>
> 1. Use shell or authorized keys module to generate the keys on the
> kdump-client
> 2. Use the fetch module to copy the key back to the ansible controller
> 3. Use the copy or authorized keys module to send the controller's copy to
> the dump-target

I personnally think this is the closest way to the original 'kdumpctl propagate'.
Thanks for your great idea, James.

Other people, any comment?

Thanks
Baoquan

from email thread:

> Thanks everyone.
> I emailed two of our customers who manage large environments and they both
> confirmed that they simply manage a single key-pair for their kdump user
> account from their deployment server.  They have the kdump user locked down
> as no login, no home dir.  They use this same kdump UID/GID and key-pair on
> every client node to dump to the target server.
>
> If we generate a new key-pair on the remote node, I suggest that we ensure
> to created as "USER-kdump.rsa", if the username does not already contain
> the kdump term.  That way if they are reusing another user account, or
> root, we are not distributing a potentially more important key. We I'll ask
> our security team to weigh in on the BZ for any guidance they might have in
> how we are handling keys.

Thanks for telling this, Terry.

We provide an option in /etc/kdump.conf:

#       sshkey /root/.ssh/kdump_id_rsa

Default to use /root/.ssh/kdump_id_rsa, user can specify their favorite
name, like 'USER-kdump.rsa'.

Baoquan,

Do you have what you need to move forward?  Can we close out https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1489746 as no longer needed?

(In reply to Terry Bowling from comment #7)
> Baoquan,
> 
> Do you have what you need to move forward?  Can we close out
> https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1489746 as no longer needed?

Yes, we can close it since it's not needed. 

Have closed it as NOTABUG.

By the way, I have made a pull request for the fix of this bug:
https://github.com/linux-system-roles/kdump/pull/9

Hope people can help review.

By default, dump_target.kind is not defined, but following conditional in tasks/main.yml is evaluated as true:

when: dump_target.kind == "ssh"

... which causes including tasks/ssh.yml and exception due to undefined other variable - ssh_dump_server.

Proposed fix:
- include_tasks: ssh.yml
  when: 
    - dump_target
    - dump_target.kind == "ssh"


Similar issue found in templates/kdump.conf.j2. Proposed fix:

{% if dump_target and dump_target.kind == "ssh" and sshkey != '/root/.ssh/kdump_id_rsa' %}
sshkey {{ sshkey }}
{% endif %}


Other possible solution is to change dump_target in defaults/main.yml.

(In reply to Leos Pol from comment #10)
> By default, dump_target.kind is not defined, but following conditional in
> tasks/main.yml is evaluated as true:
> 
> when: dump_target.kind == "ssh"
> 
> ... which causes including tasks/ssh.yml and exception due to undefined
> other variable - ssh_dump_server.
> 
> Proposed fix:
> - include_tasks: ssh.yml
>   when: 
>     - dump_target
>     - dump_target.kind == "ssh"
> 
> 
> Similar issue found in templates/kdump.conf.j2. Proposed fix:
> 
> {% if dump_target and dump_target.kind == "ssh" and sshkey !=
> '/root/.ssh/kdump_id_rsa' %}
> sshkey {{ sshkey }}
> {% endif %}
> 
> 
> Other possible solution is to change dump_target in defaults/main.yml.

Thanks, Leos. I changed as you suggested and test passed.

Hi Pavel,

I will attach the patch in the BZ since the github code is not synced with latest code.

Thanks
Baoquan

Created attachment 1360165 [details]
Fix the wonr conditional for ssh checking.

Thank you, I committed your fix to my repo and sent you a PR, together with some test improvements (removal of hardcoded values). I made a PR in the upstream project as well (#10), CI now works with the test.

rhel-system-roles-0.5-3.el7 works for me

Since the problem described in this bug report should be
resolved in a recent advisory, it has been closed with a
resolution of ERRATA.

For information on the advisory, and where to find the updated
files, follow the link below.

If the solution does not work for you, open a new bug report.

https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHEA-2018:0189