Why do I see the message "no foreman.id" variable(s) when syncing an inventory from Satellite on Ansilble Automation Platform?

Environment

• Red Hat Satellite 6.8
• Red Hat Ansible Tower >= 3.8
• Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform >= 1.2

Issue

• When syncing an inventory from Satellite, all my hosts are deleted and then created again.

• Why do I see the message no foreman.id variable(s) when syncing an inventory from Satellite?

  2021-02-23 03:17:04,158 WARNING  awx.main.commands.inventory_import Host "005a19d57540" has no "foreman.id" variable(s)
  2021-02-23 03:17:04,158 WARNING  awx.main.commands.inventory_import Host "0065aea42d26" has no "foreman.id" variable(s)
  2021-02-23 03:17:04,158 WARNING  awx.main.commands.inventory_import Host "016e290db6e5" has no "foreman.id" variable(s)
  2021-02-23 03:17:04,158 WARNING  awx.main.commands.inventory_import Host "0194430af4e3" has no "foreman.id" variable(s)
  2021-02-23 03:17:04,158 WARNING  awx.main.commands.inventory_import Host "01b3b9ae5891" has no "foreman.id" variable(s)
  2021-02-23 03:17:04,158 WARNING  awx.main.commands.inventory_import Host "01c75b38ecb6" has no "foreman.id" variable(s)
  2021-02-23 03:17:04,158 WARNING  awx.main.commands.inventory_import Host "0239627e2934" has no "foreman.id" variable(s)
  2021-02-23 03:17:04,159 WARNING  awx.main.commands.inventory_import Host "02428de1739b" has no "foreman.id" variable(s)
  2021-02-23 03:17:04,159 WARNING  awx.main.commands.inventory_import Host "03378be62ff0" has no "foreman.id" variable(s)
  2021-02-23 03:17:04,159 WARNING  awx.main.commands.inventory_import Host "03420b6e1984" has no "foreman.id" variable(s)
  2021-02-23 03:17:04,159 WARNING  awx.main.commands.inventory_import Host "03679268fe3e" has no "foreman.id" variable(s)
  

Resolution

• On all Tower nodes, configure the variable settings.SATELLITE6_INSTANCE_ID_VAR to foreman_id

  # echo "SATELLITE6_INSTANCE_ID_VAR='foreman_id,foreman.id'" >> /etc/tower/conf.d/custom_satellite6_opts.py
  # chown root.awx /etc/tower/conf.d/custom_satellite6_opts.py
  # chmod 640 /etc/tower/conf.d/custom_satellite6_opts.py
  

• On the inventory source, have this configuration appended to the source vars:

  vars_prefix: 'foreman_'
  

• For restarting your Controller services on all nodes

  # automation-controller-service restart
  

• For restarting your Tower services on all nodes

  # ansible-tower-service restart
  

Root Cause

• When the error message no foreman.id" variable(s) is displayed, which means the variable is no present as a system fact for that particular host.
  

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