--- name: satellite-host-on-prem title: Attaching on-prem hosts to your location description: Add compute capacity to your IBM Cloud Satellite® location to set up Red Hat OpenShift clusters or use Satellite-enabled IBM Cloud services. last-updated: 2026-08-27 --- > ## Documentation Index > The table of contents for this documentation set is at https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/satellite?format=markdown > The index for all IBM Cloud docs is at: https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/llms.txt > Use these files to discover more information as needed. # Attaching on-prem hosts to your location {: #attach-hosts} Add compute capacity to your IBM Cloud Satellite® location to set up Red Hat OpenShift clusters or use [Satellite-enabled IBM Cloud services](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/satellite?topic=satellite-managed-services&format=markdown). {: shortdesc} To attach Red Hat CoreOS (RHCOS) hosts, your location must be enabled for Red Hat CoreOS. For more information, see [Is my location enabled for Red Hat CoreOS?](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/satellite?topic=satellite-locations&format=markdown#verify-coreos-location). Note that you can still attach Red Hat Enterprise Linux hosts to a location that is enabled for Red Hat CoreOS. Before you begin, make sure that you create host machines that meet the [minimum hardware requirements](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/satellite?topic=satellite-host-reqs&format=markdown) in your on-prem data center, in IBM Cloud, or in public cloud providers. After you attach a host to your location, Satellite disables the ability to log in to the host as root with SSH for security purposes. SSH as root into a successfully attached host returns an error message. To restore the ability to SSH into the machine, you can [remove the host](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/satellite?topic=satellite-host-remove&format=markdown) and reload the operating system. Not sure how many hosts to attach to your location? See [Sizing your Satellite location](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/satellite?topic=satellite-location-sizing&format=markdown). {: tip} ## Attaching on-premises RHEL hosts to your location {: #attach-rhel-hosts} To attach RHEL hosts that reside in your on-premises data center to your location, follow these general steps to run the host attachment script. 1. [Download the host script](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/satellite?topic=satellite-host-attach-download&format=markdown) for your location. To attach a host with a RHEL operating system, the attachment script is a Shell script. 2. Retrieve the public IP address of your host, or if your host has only a private network interface, the private IP address of your host. 3. Copy the script from your local machine to your host. ```sh scp -i @:/tmp/attach.sh ``` {: pre} 4. Log in to your host. ```sh ssh -i @ ``` {: pre} 5. Update your host to have the required RHEL packages. For more information about how to install these package, see the [Red Hat documentation](https://access.redhat.com/solutions/253273){: external}. 6. Run the script. ```sh sudo nohup bash /tmp/attach.sh & ``` {: pre} 7. Check the progress of the registration script. ```sh journalctl -f -u ibm-host-attach ``` {: pre} 8. As you run the scripts on each machine, check that your hosts are shown in the **Hosts** tab of your location dashboard. This process takes a few minutes to complete. All hosts show a **Health** status of `Ready` when a heartbeat for the machine can be detected, and a **Status** of `Unassigned` as the hosts are not yet assigned to your Satellite control plane or a Red Hat OpenShift cluster. 9. After you have attached your hosts, assign them to the [Satellite control plane](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/satellite?topic=satellite-setup-control-plane&format=markdown) or use them to create a [Red Hat OpenShift on IBM Cloud cluster](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/openshift?topic=openshift-satellite-clusters&format=markdown). If your host is not attaching to your location, you can log in to the host to debug it. For more information, see [Logging in to a RHEL host machine to debug](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/satellite?topic=satellite-ts-hosts-login&format=markdown). {: tip} After you attach a host to your location, Satellite disables the ability to log in to the host as root with SSH for security purposes. Attempting to SSH as root into a successfully attached host returns an error message. To restore the ability to SSH into the machine, you can [remove the host](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/satellite?topic=satellite-host-remove&format=markdown) and reload the operating system. {: note} ## Attaching on-premises Red Hat CoreOS hosts to your location {: #attach-rhcos-hosts} To attach Red Hat CoreOS (RHCOS) hosts that reside in your on-premises data center to your location, follow these general steps to run the host attachment script. 1. [Download the host script](#attach-hosts) for your location. To attach a host with a Red Hat CoreOS (RHCOS) operating system, the attachment script is a Red Hat CoreOS ignition (`.ign`) file. 2. Boot your RHCOS host and include the file path to the ignition script as the `--user-data`. This command varies, depending on the type of host that you are adding. For example, if your hosts are Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud hosts, then you add `--user-data file:///tmp/attach_hypershift.ign` to your [launch template](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/reference/ec2/run-instances.html){: external}. Consult your provider documentation for more information about how to boot your host and include a file path to the ignition script. 3. As you run the scripts on each machine, check that your hosts are shown in the **Hosts** tab of your location dashboard. This process takes a few minutes to complete. All hosts show a **Health** status of `Ready` when a heartbeat for the machine can be detected, and a **Status** of `Unassigned` as the hosts are not yet assigned to your Satellite control plane or a Red Hat OpenShift cluster. 4. Assign your hosts to the [Satellite control plane](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/satellite?topic=satellite-setup-control-plane&format=markdown) or a [Red Hat OpenShift on IBM Cloud cluster](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/openshift?topic=openshift-satellite-clusters&format=markdown). If your host is not attaching to your location, you can log in to the host to debug it. For more information, see [Enabling SSH on Satellite hosts](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/satellite?topic=satellite-enabling-ssh-on-hosts&format=markdown). {: tip} After you attach a host to your location, Satellite disables the ability to log in to the host as root with SSH for security purposes. Attempting to SSH as root into a successfully attached host returns an error message. To restore the ability to SSH into the machine, you can [remove the host](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/satellite?topic=satellite-host-remove&format=markdown) and reload the operating system. {: note} ## I added hosts to my location, what's next? {: #on-prem-whats-next-host} Now that you added hosts to your location, you can assign them to your location control plane or to your IBM Cloud services. {: shortdesc} 1. Assign [hosts to the location control plane](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/satellite?topic=satellite-setup-control-plane&format=markdown) or [to your IBM Cloud services](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/satellite?topic=satellite-assigning-hosts&format=markdown). 2. Create a [Satellite-enabled IBM Cloud service](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/satellite?topic=satellite-managed-services&format=markdown), such as a [Red Hat OpenShift cluster](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/openshift?topic=openshift-satellite-clusters&format=markdown). You can even [register existing Red Hat OpenShift clusters to your location](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/satellite?topic=satellite-register-openshift-clusters&format=markdown) to use as deployment targets. 3. [Manage your applications](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/satellite?topic=satellite-cluster-config&format=markdown) with Satellite Config. 4. Create [Satellite cluster storage templates](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/satellite?topic=satellite-storage-template-ov&format=markdown). 5. Learn more about the [Satellite Link component](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/satellite?topic=satellite-link-location-cloud&format=markdown) and how you can use endpoints to manage the network traffic between your location and IBM Cloud. Need help? Check out [Getting support](https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/satellite?topic=satellite-get-help&format=markdown) where you can find information about cloud status, issues, and logging; contacting support; and setting your email notification preferences for IBM Cloud platform-related items.