If you manage Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) systems connected to Red Hat Lightspeed, you're likely familiar with insights-client, the tool responsible for reading system information and reporting it to Red Hat Lightspeed's hosted services. 2, Red Hat is changing how insights-core, one of the components of insights-client, delivers its updates. The change gives system administrators more control and predictability, with a delivery mechanism they already know and trust.
Insights-client is made up of 2 components: the insights-client package itself, which acts as the orchestrator, and insights-core, the engine that reads information from the system for analysis. When we refer to insights-client as a whole, we mean both. Insights-client and insights-core previously followed different update paths. This model gave Red Hat the ability to ship updated analysis rules quickly, independent of the RHEL release cycle. Insights-client was always delivered as a standard RPM Package Manager (RPM).
Insights-core, however, was distributed as a Python egg and updated itself automatically at runtime. This meant it downloaded the latest version available outside of your standard package management workflow. Insights-core is now delivered as a standard RPM through the official RHEL repositories, using the same trusted content delivery pipeline used for every other RHEL package. Additionally, both components of insights-client now follow the same update model. They’re delivered through the AppStream repository, included with all standard RHEL subscriptions.
Because insights-core is now an RPM, it slots directly into the update processes your team already has in place. You can apply it during your maintenance windows, test it in lower environments before promoting it, and track it in your change management system with no special handling required. It behaves like every other package on your RHEL systems. While not mandatory, having the latest version of the package enables Red Hat Lightspeed to analyze your systems to its full potential.