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PatchMon Admin Guide

PatchMon Admin Guide

This document is the day-to-day usage guide for PatchMon administrators and operators working in the web UI. For installing or running the PatchMon server itself, see the PatchMon Operator Guide. For developer internals, see the PatchMon Internal Guide.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Welcome to PatchMon

PatchMon is an open-source patch management and infrastructure monitoring platform that gives sysadmins and IT teams centralised visibility over patches, packages, compliance, and remote access across their entire server fleet.

It works with standard Linux package managers (apt, yum, and dnf) and requires no inbound ports on your monitored hosts.

How It Works

PatchMon uses a lightweight agent model:

  1. Deploy the Server. Self-host PatchMon using Docker or the native installer, or use the managed PatchMon Cloud.
  2. Install the Agent. Add a host in the dashboard and run the one-liner install command on your Linux server.
  3. Monitor. The agent sends system and package data outbound to PatchMon on a schedule. No inbound ports need to be opened on your servers.

Network requirements: Agents only need outbound access on port 443 (HTTPS). If your systems are behind firewalls that inspect SSL/DNS traffic or are air-gapped, adjust your rules accordingly.

Key Features

Area Details
Dashboard Customisable per-user card layout with fleet-wide overview
Host Management Host inventory, grouping, and OS detail tracking
Package Tracking Package inventory, outdated package counts, and repository tracking per host
Compliance Scanning OpenSCAP CIS Benchmark scans and Docker Bench for Security (scheduled or on-demand)
Docker Monitoring Container discovery and status tracking across your hosts
Agent System Lightweight agents with outbound-only communication. No attack surface on your servers.
Remote Access In-browser RDP via Guacamole and SSH terminal with AI-assisted analysis
AI Analysis AI-powered assistance inside the SSH terminal
Users & Auth Multi-user accounts with roles, permissions, and RBAC
OIDC SSO Single Sign-On via external identity providers (e.g. Authentik, Keycloak, Entra ID)
TOTP 2FA Time-based one-time password two-factor authentication
Auto-Enrollment Automatic agent enrollment for Proxmox LXC containers
API REST API with JWT authentication under /api/v1
Rate Limiting Configurable rate limits for general, auth, and agent endpoints

Architecture

PatchMon is a single Go binary that serves both the API and the embedded React frontend. There is no separate frontend container or web server. The binary also runs database migrations automatically on startup.

End Users (Browser)  ──HTTPS──▶  Reverse Proxy (optional)
                                        │
                                        ▼
                               patchmon-server (Go binary)
                               - REST API (/api/v1)
                               - Embedded React frontend
                               - Background job worker (asynq)
                               - Database migrations
                                        │
                               ┌────────┴────────┐
                               ▼                 ▼
                          PostgreSQL 17       Redis 7
                                         (job queues)

                                        ▲
Agents on your servers  ──HTTPS──▶  patchmon-server
     (outbound only)

In-browser RDP  ──────────────────▶  guacd (Guacamole daemon)
Component Technology
Server Go single binary (API + embedded frontend + migrations)
Frontend React + Vite (embedded in the server binary)
Database PostgreSQL 17
Job Queue Redis 7 (via asynq)
RDP Gateway guacd (Apache Guacamole daemon), optional (required for RDP)

Support

License

PatchMon is licensed under AGPLv3.

Chapter 2: Settings in the Web UI

Overview

PatchMon 2.0 moves most day-to-day tuning out of the container's .env and into the Settings area of the web UI. From here you manage users and roles, host groups, agent update cadence, server-level toggles, branding, integrations, and authentication providers. Settings are stored in the database and the server re-reads them on every request (with a brief in-memory cache for hot paths), so most changes take effect without restarting the container.

Env vars beat DB values. When the same setting is present both as an environment variable and as a Settings UI value, the environment variable wins. The UI shows a small yellow "env" badge on values that are being overridden by .env, so you can tell at a glance why your change "didn't save". See PatchMon Environment Variables Reference for the full priority model.

This page is the map of the Settings area: what each page does, which permission unlocks it, and which deeper chapter to read if you need more detail.

How to reach Settings

Click the cog icon in the top navigation bar, or go directly to /settings. You land on whatever your highest-priority settings page is (users, for people with can_view_users; branding, for everyone else with settings permissions).

The left sidebar groups settings into four sections:

  1. User Management: users, roles, your own profile, and social/SSO authentication
  2. Hosts Management: host groups and agent update behaviour
  3. Integrations: API integrations (auto-enrolment tokens) and AI Terminal
  4. Server: server URL, environment variables, branding, server version, and metrics

Some items are hidden depending on your deployment or your edition. For example, Server URL and Metrics are hidden on PatchMon Cloud, and features like Roles (custom RBAC), Branding, and AI Terminal are gated by the corresponding capability modules on paid tiers.

Settings Pages: Quick Reference

Page Path Purpose Required permission
Users /settings/users Create, edit, and disable accounts can_view_users / can_manage_users
Roles /settings/roles Create and edit custom RBAC roles (Plus tier) can_manage_settings + rbac_custom module
My Profile /settings/profile Your own name, email, password, MFA, trusted devices Any authenticated user
Discord Auth /settings/discord-auth Configure Discord OAuth sign-in can_manage_settings
OIDC / SSO /settings/oidc-auth Configure OpenID Connect single sign-on can_manage_settings
Host Groups /settings/host-groups Organise hosts into groups for policy and visibility can_manage_settings
Agent Updates /settings/agent-config Global auto-update behaviour, update interval can_manage_settings
Agent Version /settings/agent-version Check and manage bundled agent binary versions can_manage_settings
API integrations /settings/integrations Auto-enrolment tokens, Proxmox LXC, getHomepage, etc. can_manage_settings
AI Terminal /settings/ai-terminal Configure AI provider for SSH terminal assist (Max tier) can_manage_settings + ai module
Server URL /settings/server-url Protocol, host, and port agents use to connect back can_manage_settings
Environment /settings/environment Read and edit server environment variables from the UI can_manage_settings
Branding /settings/branding Upload custom logo and favicon (Plus tier) can_manage_settings + custom_branding module
Server Version /settings/server-version Show the running version; check for updates can_manage_settings
Metrics /settings/metrics Control the optional telemetry opt-in can_manage_settings

Notifications, alert channels, alert settings, and patch management policies live outside the Settings area in 2.0, see Where alerts and patch policies live below.

User Management

Users

Path: /settings/users

Central directory of all PatchMon accounts. From here you can:

  • Create new users (local username/password or OIDC-matched)
  • Assign a role (superadmin, admin, host_manager, user, readonly, or any custom role you've created)
  • Reset a user's password (admin-initiated reset, not self-serve)
  • Enable, disable, or delete an account
  • See when each user last logged in

Users also get a one-click button to create an auto-enrolment-style API token scoped to themselves, useful for integrations that need to act on behalf of a specific human operator.

Roles

Path: /settings/roles Requires: rbac_custom module (Plus tier)

The Roles editor is where custom roles are authored. A role is a named bundle of permission flags:

  • can_view_dashboard, can_view_hosts, can_view_users, can_view_packages, can_view_reports, can_view_notification_logs
  • can_manage_hosts, can_manage_users, can_manage_settings, can_manage_alerts, can_manage_notifications, can_manage_compliance, can_manage_patching, can_manage_automation, can_manage_docker
  • can_use_remote_access (SSH terminal and RDP)

The built-in roles (superadmin, admin, user, readonly) are immutable; the editor lets you create and edit additional roles alongside them and assign any user to any custom role.

My Profile

Path: /settings/profile

Your own account settings. Every authenticated user has access. Covers:

  • First name, last name, email
  • Password change (rate-limited; by default 5 attempts per 15-minute window)
  • Two-Factor Authentication: enable or disable TOTP, regenerate backup codes
  • Trusted Devices: list and revoke "remember this device" exemptions from MFA challenges
  • Dashboard preferences: light/dark mode, card layout, default landing tab

Password policy rules are live: you cannot save a password that fails the server's policy. See PatchMon Environment Variables Reference: Password Policy.

Discord Auth

Path: /settings/discord-auth

Configure a Discord application as a sign-in provider. Each user can link their Discord identity from their profile page; once linked, they can sign in via the Discord button on the login page instead of typing a password.

Discord Auth is intentionally less feature-rich than OIDC SSO. There is no group-to-role mapping, no enforced-SSO mode, and no user auto-provisioning. Use it for communities and small teams; use OIDC SSO for everything else.

OIDC / SSO

Path: /settings/oidc-auth

Full OpenID Connect configuration: issuer URL, client ID and secret, redirect URI, scopes, button text, auto-provisioning, group-to-role mapping, and enforced-SSO toggle. A dedicated Import from environment button pulls existing OIDC_* values from .env into the database so you can migrate from file-based config without retyping anything.

For a step-by-step walk-through (Authentik, Keycloak, Entra ID, Okta), see Setting up OIDC SSO.

Hosts Management

Host Groups

Path: /settings/host-groups

Groups are the primary way to organise hosts for patching policies, alert routing, and dashboard filtering. Each host can belong to many groups; groups are purely organisational (no hierarchy, no nesting) and are referenced by name from policies, scheduled reports, and notification routes.

Agent Updates

Path: /settings/agent-config

Controls how and when PatchMon agents talk to the server and update themselves:

  • Update interval: how often agents send a full report (default: 60 minutes); hosts with the WebSocket channel open pick up interval changes live.
  • Auto-update behaviour: global on/off for automatic agent binary updates. Per-host overrides live on the host detail page.
  • Signup enabled: whether the first-time setup wizard still serves the initial-admin endpoint.

Agent Version

Path: /settings/agent-version

Inspect the bundled agent binary versions (one per OS/architecture), check for newer releases upstream, and force a fresh download of the bundled binaries. Useful after you upgrade the server. Agents pick up the new binaries via the auto-update flow. No manual distribution required.

See Managing the PatchMon Agent for how agents consume this information.

Integrations

API integrations

Path: /settings/integrations

Auto-enrolment tokens and per-integration API credentials:

  • Auto-enrolment tokens: one-shot or long-lived tokens that let enrolment scripts register new hosts without a human in the loop. Each token can be scoped to specific host groups and flagged for integrations like Proxmox LXC or getHomepage.
  • Integration-type tokens: the scoped token model used by the integration /api/* routes, including gethomepage for the dashboard widget.

AI Terminal

Path: /settings/ai-terminal Requires: ai module (Max tier)

Configure the AI provider used by the in-browser SSH terminal's assist feature. Supported providers: OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, OpenRouter. Credentials are encrypted at rest using AI_ENCRYPTION_KEY (see Environment Variables Reference). The page includes a "Test connection" button so you can confirm the key works before saving.

Server

Server URL

Path: /settings/server-url Hidden on: PatchMon Cloud

Three fields (protocol, host, port) that together define the base URL agents use to reach the server. This is the same URL the first-time setup wizard asked you to confirm, persisted in the database so the UI can generate correct install commands for every new host you add.

If you change the URL later, existing agents keep using whatever URL they were installed with; only new agents pick up the change. Rerun the install command on any host you want to retarget.

Environment

Path: /settings/environment Requires: can_manage_settings

New in 2.0: every tunable environment variable that can be safely changed at runtime is listed here with its effective value, source (env / database / default), default, and a one-line description. Editable variables have an edit button; sensitive or bootstrap-only variables (like DATABASE_URL, JWT_SECRET, REDIS_PASSWORD, AI_ENCRYPTION_KEY, SESSION_SECRET) show as read-only and must still be changed in .env.

Variables are grouped by category: Database, Server, Logging, Authentication, Password policy, Server performance, Rate limits, Redis, Encryption, Deployment.

When you edit a value, the UI writes it to the database and immediately flashes a "Restart the application for changes to take effect" toast. Some settings take effect on the next request (CORS origin, log level, rate limits); others need a restart. The UI doesn't always know which is which, so the safe rule is: change, then docker compose restart server.

Tip: If you've been managing PatchMon from .env files for a long time and want to move configuration into the database, clear a variable from .env first, then change it here. Otherwise the env value keeps winning.

Full reference: PatchMon Environment Variables Reference.

Branding

Path: /settings/branding Requires: custom_branding module (Plus tier)

Server Version

Path: /settings/server-version Hidden on: PatchMon Cloud

Shows the running PatchMon server version, the latest upstream version (checked daily by the version-update-check automation job, see Background jobs and automation), and a manual "Check for updates" button. It does not perform the upgrade. To upgrade, PatchMon is a container-image swap (see Installing PatchMon Server on Docker).

Metrics

Path: /settings/metrics Hidden on: PatchMon Cloud

Opt-in anonymous telemetry. PatchMon sends a small heartbeat (server version, number of hosts, rough OS distribution) to the upstream metrics endpoint once a day. You can turn this off, regenerate your anonymous instance ID, or send a one-off payload immediately. See Metrics and telemetry for exactly what is sent.

Where Alerts and Patch Policies Live

In 1.4.x these lived inside Settings. In 2.0 they've moved to more natural homes:

  • Alerts (Open alerts, History): /reporting → Alerts tab
  • Alert Lifecycle /reporting → Alert Lifecycle tab (retention, auto-resolve, cleanup jobs) → Alert Lifecycle tab (requires alerts_advanced module, Plus tier)
  • Destinations (SMTP, webhook, ntfy): /reporting → Destinations tab
  • Event Rules (routing alerts to destinations): /reporting → Event Rules tab
  • Delivery Log: /reporting → Delivery Log tab
  • Scheduled Reports: /reporting → Scheduled Reports tab
  • Patch Policies (scheduling, approval rules, exclusions): /patching?tab=policies

The Settings sidebar doesn't list them because the pages where you actually use them (Reporting and Patching) are the right home for them. The permissions are unchanged: can_manage_notifications, can_manage_alerts, can_manage_patching still control who sees each area.

Deep Dives

Some configuration areas have enough surface area to deserve their own page:

  • Setting up OIDC SSO: Authentik, Keycloak, Entra ID, group-to-role mapping
  • PatchMon Environment Variables Reference: every variable the server reads, with defaults and validation rules
  • Managing the PatchMon Agent: agent CLI, update behaviour, troubleshooting
  • Background jobs and automation: what the scheduled jobs on the Automation page actually do
  • WebSockets architecture: how the server talks to agents and browsers in real time

Troubleshooting

"I changed a setting but nothing happened"

Check the Environment page for the variable you changed. If the "Source" column says env, your change to the database value is being overridden by an environment variable set in .env or the container spec. Clear the env value and the DB value will take over.

"I saved a setting and the UI says 'Restart to take effect'"

Some settings (startup-only values like PORT, DATABASE_URL, pool sizes) are read once at boot and cached for the life of the process. Restart the server container:

docker compose restart server

A small number of settings (CORS origin, log level, rate-limit windows) are re-resolved on every request and don't require a restart. The UI doesn't always distinguish between them; when in doubt, restart.

"Branding / AI Terminal / Roles is greyed out"

These are paid-tier features. Self-hosted users on the free tier see them in the sidebar but can't click through; clicking redirects to an upgrade page. If you're on a paid tier and still see them as locked, click Settings → My Profile → Subscription to confirm the module is listed under your enabled modules.

See Also

  • First-time admin setup
  • PatchMon Environment Variables Reference
  • Managing the PatchMon Agent
  • Setting up OIDC SSO
  • Background jobs and automation

Chapter 3: Adding a Host

Overview

"Adding a host" is a two-sided operation. On the server side, you pre-register the host in the web UI: give it a friendly name, pick its operating system family, optionally place it in host groups, and receive a unique API ID and API key. On the host side, run the one-line install command that downloads and configures the agent using those credentials.

This page walks through the Add Host wizard, the install command, the Waiting for Connection screen, and what to do if the agent never shows up.

The server side is UI-only. You do not need shell access to the PatchMon server. Installing the agent on the target host is a separate job; see Installing the PatchMon Agent for distribution-specific prerequisites.

Permission required: can_manage_hosts. Users with only can_view_hosts see the Hosts list but not the Add Host button.

Before You Start

You will need:

  • A PatchMon user account with can_manage_hosts (typically Admin or a custom role).
  • Console or SSH access to the host you are adding, with root / sudo (Linux/FreeBSD) or Administrator (Windows).
  • Outbound HTTPS from the host to the PatchMon server on port 443. No inbound ports are opened on the host.
  • If your PatchMon server uses a self-signed certificate, decide up front whether to install the CA into the host's trust store or to bypass TLS verification in the install command.

Opening the Add Host Wizard

  1. In the left navigation, click Hosts. The Hosts page loads with the Total Hosts, Needs Updates, Needs Reboots, and Connection Status summary cards at the top.
  2. In the page header, click the blue Add Host button (icon: +). A modal titled Add New Host opens.

The wizard has four steps:

Step What happens
1. Choose OS Pick Linux, FreeBSD, or Windows
2. Host details Name the host, pick groups, toggle integrations
3. Copy command Copy the install one-liner, run it on the host
4. Connection The wizard waits for the agent to connect and report

Step indicators at the top highlight where you are. You can go Back at any point before Step 3 is submitted.

Step 1: Choose OS

You pick one of three tiles:

  • Linux: Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS, RHEL, Rocky, Alma, Fedora, Alpine, etc.
  • FreeBSD: FreeBSD 13 / 14, including pfSense.
  • Windows: Windows 10/11 (amd64 or ARM64) and Windows Server 2019 / 2022 / 2025.

The choice controls which install command the wizard generates and which download URL the server uses. You do not pick an architecture (amd64 / arm64 / arm / 386) here. The install script detects it automatically on the target host and downloads the matching binary.

Click Next to continue.

Step 2: Host Details

This form creates the host record on the server. Three groups of fields:

Friendly Name (required)

A human-readable label such as web-01.prod or billing-db. It appears in the Hosts list, dashboards, alerts, and the URL bar (/hosts/<id>). It is editable later from the Host Detail page, so don't worry about getting it perfect.

The placeholder server.example.com is not used as the system hostname. The real hostname is detected when the agent first reports.

Host Groups (optional)

A checkbox list of existing groups with coloured dots next to each name. Tick any group you want the host to belong to; a host can belong to multiple groups. You can change membership later from the Hosts table or the Host Detail page.

If you have no groups yet, this section is empty. Create groups first from Settings → Host Groups, see Managing Host Groups.

Integrations (optional)

Two toggles:

  • Docker: enables container, image, volume, and network discovery via the Docker socket. Requires the docker module on your plan.
  • Compliance: enables OpenSCAP CIS benchmark scanning. Requires the compliance module on your plan.

These toggles write the initial docker_enabled / compliance_enabled state on the host record. The agent picks them up on its first connection and updates config.yml accordingly. If you're not sure, leave them off; you can switch them on later from the Host Detail → Integrations tab. See Enabling Docker Integration.

Click Next. PatchMon creates the host in Pending state and generates a unique API ID and API key. The key is displayed only once (in the command on the next step). If you close the wizard without copying it, you will need to regenerate credentials from the Host Detail page.

Step 3: Copy the Install Command

The wizard now shows a read-only command tailored to:

  • The chosen OS (Linux / FreeBSD / Windows).
  • Your server's configured URL.
  • The new host's API ID and API key.
  • Your global TLS setting (ignore_ssl_self_signed): if it is on, the Linux command uses curl -sk and Windows toggles default to SSL bypass.

Linux / FreeBSD

curl -s "https://patchmon.example.com/api/v1/hosts/install" \
  -H "X-API-ID: patchmon_xxxxxxxx" \
  -H "X-API-KEY: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" | sudo sh

On FreeBSD the script drops sudo, because root usually runs the command directly.

Windows

On Windows the command is a PowerShell snippet that downloads the installer via Invoke-WebRequest and executes it. Two checkboxes adjust it:

  • Self-signed certificate (SSL bypass): prepends code that forces TLS 1.2 and disables certificate validation for the download. Use only on lab or internal-CA environments.
  • Use curl instead of Invoke-WebRequest (if download fails): switches to curl.exe for the download, useful when corporate endpoint-protection tooling breaks Invoke-WebRequest.

The Windows command must be run in an elevated PowerShell (Run as Administrator).

Copy

Click the Copy command button (or the Copy icon). The command is placed in your clipboard and the wizard advances to Step 4. If your browser blocks clipboard access, the wizard falls back to a prompt() dialog with the command pre-selected; copy from there.

Tip: Store the command somewhere safe only if you need it for later re-use. The API key is not shown again from this screen. If you lose it, regenerate credentials from Host Detail → Deploy Agent → API Credentials → Regenerate.

Step 4: Waiting for Connection

After you copy the command, the wizard flips to a progress screen. It polls the server every 2 seconds and walks through four stages:

Stage Icon What it means
Waiting for connection Pulsing Wi-Fi Host record exists; no agent has connected yet. Run the command now.
Connected Green tick The agent has opened a WebSocket to the server. The initial report is still in flight.
Receiving initial report Animated download The agent is sending its first system / package inventory.
Done Green tick Initial report received. The wizard redirects you to the new Host Detail page.

Run the copied command on the target host. Within a few seconds the status flips to Connected, and shortly after to Done. At Done, the modal closes and the URL changes to /hosts/<hostId>.

If you need to see the command again (for example because you pasted it into the wrong terminal), click View command again to jump back to Step 3. The command and credentials are preserved.

Note: Closing the wizard before the agent connects does not cancel the host. The host remains in Pending state and you can finish enrolment later from the Host Detail page. However, the plaintext API key is cleared from memory once the modal closes. If enrolment is not complete, open the host, click Deploy Agent, and regenerate credentials to get a fresh command.

After Enrolment

Once the agent connects and sends its first report:

  • The host moves from Pending to Active.
  • The OS type, OS version, architecture, hostname, IP, kernel, and package list populate automatically.
  • The Connection column on the Hosts page shows a green WSS badge (or WS if you are running without TLS).
  • Packages, repositories, and any enabled integrations (Docker, compliance) start reporting on the configured interval.

Troubleshooting: The Host Doesn't Check In

If the wizard sits on Waiting for connection for more than a minute or two, run through the checks below on the target host.

Check the install command actually ran

On Linux / FreeBSD the install script is verbose. Look for:

  • Downloading patchmon-agent-<os>-<arch>...
  • Installing to /usr/local/bin/patchmon-agent
  • Writing /etc/patchmon/config.yml
  • Writing /etc/patchmon/credentials.yml
  • Starting patchmon-agent service

If the script aborted early, re-run it. If apt-get fails because of broken packages, open the host again from the Hosts page, click Deploy Agent, tick Force install (bypass broken packages) on the Quick Install tab, and use the regenerated command.

Confirm the service is running

Linux (systemd):

sudo systemctl status patchmon-agent

Alpine (OpenRC):

sudo rc-service patchmon-agent status

Windows:

Get-Service -Name PatchMonAgent

For detailed service management, see Managing the PatchMon Agent.

Test the connection manually

On the host, run the agent's built-in connectivity and credential test:

sudo patchmon-agent ping

A successful response looks like:

API credentials are valid
Connectivity test successful

If this fails, the agent log is the next stop:

sudo tail -n 50 /etc/patchmon/logs/patchmon-agent.log

Common causes:

  • HTTP 401: the API key on the host does not match the one stored on the server. Usually this means the wizard was closed and the host was re-created, or credentials were rotated. Regenerate credentials from Host Detail → Deploy Agent.
  • TLS / certificate error: the host does not trust the server's TLS certificate. Either install the CA into the host trust store, or set skip_ssl_verify: true in /etc/patchmon/config.yml (lab only).
  • Connection refused / timeout: firewall, DNS, or reverse-proxy issue. From the host, curl -I https://patchmon.example.com should return an HTTP response.

See Managing the PatchMon Agent for a full diagnostic walkthrough and the patchmon-agent diagnostics command.

Nothing wrong on the host: still "Waiting"?

Open the host record regardless: from the Hosts page, click the host's friendly name (even while it's in Pending). The page shows a Deploy Agent button near the top right. Click it to reopen the install command and the waiting screen, and try again.

If the host has been Pending for a long time and you want to start over, delete the host from the Hosts page (trash icon or bulk-select → Delete), then add it again from scratch.

Bulk / Automated Enrolment

The Add Host wizard is designed for one host at a time. For automated enrolment:

  • Managing Host Groups: create groups before (or after) adding hosts.
  • Host Detail Page: guided tour of the page you land on after enrolment.
  • Installing the PatchMon Agent: full agent-installer documentation.
  • Managing the PatchMon Agent: post-install CLI, logs, diagnostics.
  • Agent Configuration Reference: every config.yml field explained.

Chapter 4: Host Detail Page

Overview

The Host Detail page is the single-host workbench in PatchMon. Reach it by clicking any host's friendly name from the Hosts page, or navigate directly to /hosts/<hostId>. Every action, statistic, and tab for a specific host lives here: connection status, package counts, repositories, integrations, patch runs, agent queue, credentials, and (when the relevant modules are enabled) Docker inventory and compliance results.

This page is a guided tour of the layout: what to click and what each tab is for.

Permission required: can_view_hosts to open the page. Mutating actions (trigger report, change groups, toggle integrations, delete host, run patches) need can_manage_hosts.

Page Header

The top of the page has four main areas:

Identity strip

  • Friendly name (large heading), editable inline.
  • Hostname and IP underneath, both editable inline (clicking shows a text field; Enter to save, Esc to cancel).
  • Status chips: Active / Pending / Inactive / Error, and a coloured WebSocket badge (WSS green for secure, WS amber for plaintext, Offline red).
  • Reboot required chip when the agent has detected pending-reboot flags (e.g. /var/run/reboot-required, kernel updates).
  • Uptime and Last updated relative timestamps.

If there's a pending patch run awaiting a fresh post-patch report, you'll see an Awaiting inventory report chip that links to the run.

Action buttons (top right)

Button What it does Requires agent online?
Apply Appears only when pending config changes (e.g. integration toggles) need to be pushed to the agent. Yes
Fetch Report Sends a WebSocket command asking the agent to collect and submit a fresh report now. Yes
Patch all Opens the Patching wizard pre-scoped to this host. Hidden on Windows hosts. Yes
Deploy Agent (key icon) Opens the Credentials modal with the install command and API credentials. No
Refresh (circular arrow) Re-fetches host data from the PatchMon server (UI only). No
Delete host (trash icon) Opens a confirmation dialog and then removes the host record. No

Package statistics cards

Four clickable cards:

  • Total Installed → opens Packages filtered by this host.
  • Outdated Packages → Packages filtered to this host with only those needing updates.
  • Security Updates → Packages filtered to this host with only security updates.
  • Repos → opens Repositories filtered to this host.

Use these as quick jump-offs to the fleet-wide pages with the host pre-selected.

The Tab Strip

Below the cards is a horizontal tab bar. On desktop, all content is inside tabs; on mobile, sections are stacked as cards and tabs are replaced by quick-jump links.

The tab strip is context-aware. Some tabs only appear under certain conditions:

Tab Always visible? Notes
Host Info Yes Default landing tab.
Network Yes
System Yes
Package Reports Yes Historical inventory snapshots.
Agent Queue Yes Background jobs for this host.
Notes Yes Free-text notes.
Integrations Yes Per-host Docker / Compliance toggles.
Reporting Conditional Hidden when global alerts are off.
Docker Conditional Only when the host has reported a working Docker integration. Gated by the docker module; shows a PLUS badge if your plan doesn't have it.
Patching Yes Gated by the patching module; shows a tier badge if your plan doesn't have it.
Compliance Conditional Only when the host has reported the compliance integration. Gated by the compliance module.
Terminal Yes on Linux/FreeBSD Browser-based SSH. Gated by the ssh_terminal module.
RDP Windows hosts only Browser-based RDP via Guacamole. Gated by the rdp module.

Each tab below is described as what you see and what you can do.

Host Info

Quick reference panel for the host's identity and agent settings. Fields include:

  • Friendly Name: inline-editable.
  • IP Address: inline-editable; if the agent has picked a primary interface, this field is read-only and tagged from eth0 (or whatever the interface is).
  • Hostname: inline-editable.
  • Machine ID: read-only unique hardware identifier.
  • Host Groups: coloured multi-select chips. Add or remove groups; changes save on blur.
  • Operating System: icon plus OS type and version (detected by the agent).
  • Agent Version: version of patchmon-agent currently reporting.
  • Agent Auto-update: per-host toggle. If global auto-update is disabled, a yellow warning badge is shown with a tooltip pointing to Settings → Agent Updates.
  • Force Agent Version Upgrade: the Update Now button sends an immediate upgrade command via WebSocket. Disabled when the agent is offline.

See Managing the PatchMon Agent for what the agent does when it receives an upgrade command.

Network

Visible when the agent has reported network data. Two sections:

  • DNS Servers: grid of resolvers the host uses.
  • Network Interfaces: one card per NIC with:
    • Name, type, and UP/DOWN status.
    • MAC address, MTU, and link speed / duplex.
    • All inet and inet6 addresses with netmask and gateway.
    • A star icon to mark one interface as the primary. PatchMon will use that interface's primary address as the host's IP everywhere in the UI, overriding auto-detection.

Clearing the primary flag re-enables auto-detection.

System

Hardware and OS specifics collected on each report:

  • Kernel version, SELinux status, architecture, package manager.
  • CPU model, socket/core counts, frequency.
  • Memory: total, used, free, swap (formatted in GiB).
  • Storage / disk layout.
  • Hardware vendor, product, serial number (where the agent can read it).
  • SSG (OpenSCAP) version when the compliance integration is enabled.

This tab is read-only. All values come from the agent report.

Package Reports

Paginated history of package inventory snapshots the agent has sent. Useful for:

  • Auditing when a package was installed, removed, or upgraded.
  • Comparing two reports to understand what a patch run changed.
  • Proving a package state at a given date to an auditor.

Each row shows the report timestamp, total packages, outdated count, security count, and a link to expand the full per-package diff.

Agent Queue

Live view of the background jobs queued for this host (fetch report, patch commands, compliance scans, integration config syncs, agent updates, etc.). The tab auto-refreshes every 30 seconds. You see:

  • Waiting: queued but not yet picked up.
  • Active: currently running.
  • Delayed: scheduled for later.
  • Failed: error state with the last error message.
  • Job History: recently completed jobs with timestamps and outcome.

Use this tab to trace a "my Fetch Report click didn't do anything" complaint.

Notes

A free-text area for operator notes: change windows, ownership, special configuration, support contacts. Click into the text area to edit, then Save.

Notes are visible to any user with can_view_hosts on this PatchMon deployment.

Integrations

Per-host toggles and setup status for optional agent integrations. Two primary panels:

Docker

  • Toggle: enables Docker discovery for this host. When off, no containers / images / volumes / networks are collected.
  • The change is staged as a pending configuration; a yellow banner appears at the top of the tab until the change is applied.
  • Click Apply in the page header to push the change to the agent via WebSocket. The agent updates its config.yml and reports back.

See Enabling Docker Integration for prerequisites and troubleshooting.

Compliance Scanning

  • A three-state selector: Disabled, On-Demand, Enabled.
    • Disabled: no scans.
    • On-Demand: only run when triggered from the UI; not included in scheduled reports.
    • Enabled: scans run on the agent's normal reporting interval.
  • Setup status indicator showing Installing / Ready / Partial / Error, with per-component status (OpenSCAP, Docker Bench).
  • Scanner Types section: individual toggles for OpenSCAP (CIS Benchmarks) and Docker Bench (the Docker Bench toggle is disabled if the Docker integration is off on this host).

Changes require the agent to be connected via WebSocket.

Refresh Status

The Refresh Status button at the top right of the tab asks the agent to report its current integration readiness immediately. Useful after installing OpenSCAP manually on the host.

Reporting

Host-scoped overrides for alerting. The tab is hidden when global alerts are disabled in Settings.

Primary feature: Host Down Alerts with three states:

  • Inherit from global settings (default).
  • Enabled: always create alerts when this host goes offline, regardless of global defaults.
  • Disabled: never create alerts for this host even if the global setting is on.

Use the Disabled override for hosts that are expected to be intermittent (dev laptops, ephemeral CI runners) so they don't spam your alert channels.

Docker (conditional)

Appears only when the host has actually reported a working Docker integration on at least one report. The tab is a compact per-host version of the fleet-wide Docker Inventory Tour.

Sub-tabs: Stacks, Containers, Images, Volumes, Networks. Each sub-tab shows counts in a badge next to its name.

Requires the docker module to be enabled on your plan. Plans without the module show a tier badge on the tab and an upgrade prompt inside.

Patching

Per-host patch run history and trigger point. Shows:

  • A filterable, sortable, paginated list of runs for this host.
  • Status chips (queued, running, completed, failed, approval pending).
  • Inline output for completed runs.
  • The Patch all button at the top of the Host Detail page is the quick way to start a new run scoped to this host.

Requires the patching module. The tab displays a tier badge when unavailable.

Compliance (conditional)

Appears when the compliance integration has been set up and at least one scan has run. Shows the latest benchmark results, failed rules with remediation guidance, and history. The agent installs OpenSCAP automatically when the integration is enabled; this tab surfaces that install's progress plus scan output.

Requires the compliance module.

Terminal

Browser-based SSH session to the host, proxied through the agent. No inbound port is needed on the host; the connection is routed over the existing agent WebSocket. Typical workflow:

  1. Open the Terminal tab.
  2. PatchMon fetches a short-lived SSH ticket and opens a WebSocket to the agent.
  3. The agent connects to localhost SSH (or the configured target) and relays the session.
  4. AI-assisted analysis is available within the terminal UI.

Gated by the ssh_terminal module. The agent-side ssh-proxy-enabled switch in config.yml must also be on. This is not a UI toggle, due to its security implications. See the SSH section of Agent Configuration Reference.

RDP (Windows only)

Browser-based RDP session using a Guacamole (guacd) gateway on the PatchMon server. Like the Terminal tab, it uses the agent to reach the host without requiring inbound firewall rules.

Visible only on Windows hosts, gated by the rdp module, and requires the agent-side rdp-proxy-enabled switch to be on in config.yml.

Credentials Modal (Deploy Agent)

Click Deploy Agent (key icon) in the page header to open the modal. Two tabs:

Quick Install

A copy-ready install command for this host, pre-populated with its API ID and API key. Options:

  • Force install (bypass broken packages): Linux / FreeBSD only.
  • Self-signed certificate (SSL bypass): Windows only.
  • Use curl instead of Invoke-WebRequest: Windows only, workaround for hosts where PowerShell's downloader is blocked.

Click Copy. You're automatically moved to the Waiting for Connection screen, which polls until the agent connects and sends its first report. This is identical to step 4 of the Add Host wizard.

API Credentials

  • API ID: copyable.
  • API Key: obscured by default. The plaintext key is only available if it was just created or regenerated; otherwise the field shows hashed – not usable.
  • Regenerate: creates a new API ID and key and invalidates the old ones. Use this if credentials have been lost or compromised. The agent on the host will need to be reconfigured or the install command re-run.

Common Actions: Where to Click

Quick reference for the most-asked "how do I…" questions:

Goal Where
Trigger an immediate report Page header → Fetch Report
Force the agent to self-update Host Info tab → Update Now
Open a shell in the browser Terminal tab
See what the agent is doing right now Agent Queue tab
Change which host groups the host is in Host Info tab → Host Groups field (or the Hosts table inline edit)
Turn Docker monitoring on / off Integrations tab → Docker toggle, then Apply in header
Run CIS scans Integrations tab → Compliance selector → Enabled or On-Demand
Re-copy the install command Deploy Agent (key icon) → Quick Install
Rotate the API key Deploy Agent → API Credentials → Regenerate
Patch this single host Page header → Patch all (opens wizard scoped to host)
Permanently remove the host Page header → trash icon

Mobile Layout

On smaller screens, the tab strip is replaced with stacked cards (Host Information, Network, System, Package Reports, and so on). The action buttons collapse into an icon row. Some dense sections (for example the Integrations mode selector) show a Manage in Integrations tab shortcut.

All data shown on mobile is the same as on desktop; only the layout changes.

Chapter 5: Managing Host Groups

Overview

Host groups are the primary way to organise your fleet in PatchMon. A group is a named bucket with a colour and an optional description. Each host can belong to any number of groups. Groups appear as a column and filter on the Hosts page, as a selector on the Patching page, as a scope for patch policies, and as a filter in the Integration API.

This page covers creating, editing, and deleting groups, assigning hosts to them, and how groups feed into other parts of PatchMon.

Permission required: can_manage_settings to create / edit / delete groups (the page sits under Settings); can_manage_hosts to change which groups a host belongs to.

Where to Find Host Groups

There are two places to manage groups in the UI, and both edit the same data:

  • Settings → Host Groups: full management page with a table view, create / edit / delete actions, and host counts.
  • Options page (/options): the same host-groups component, rendered inline for operators who have can_manage_hosts but not can_manage_settings.

You can get to host counts and host assignments from either place, but the Settings → Host Groups route is the canonical one and is the one this page describes.

Creating a Group

  1. In the left navigation, open Settings.
  2. Click Host Groups in the settings sub-menu. The page opens with a table listing existing groups and a Create Group button in the top right.
  3. Click Create Group. A modal titled Create Host Group opens.

The form has three fields:

Field Required? Notes
Name Yes Short identifier such as Production, Web servers, DB tier. Shown in the UI and in API output.
Description No Free-text note shown in tooltips and on the group card. Use it for scope or ownership information.
Color Yes A hex value used for the coloured dot next to the group name. Picker + text input; defaults to #3B82F6 (blue).

Click Create Group to save. The new group appears immediately in the table with a 0 hosts count.

Assigning Hosts to a Group

Groups are assigned on the host, not on the group. You have three paths:

During enrolment

On step 2 of the Add Host wizard (Host details) tick each group the host should belong to. See Adding a Host.

Inline from the Hosts page

  1. Open Hosts from the left navigation.
  2. Find the row for the host you want to change.
  3. Click the value in the Group column. It becomes an editable multi-select with coloured group chips.
  4. Tick / untick groups, then click away (or press Enter) to save.

Bulk assign

  1. Open Hosts.
  2. Select multiple rows using the checkboxes in the Select column.
  3. A toolbar appears above the table with Fetch Reports, Assign to Group, and Delete.
  4. Click Assign to Group. A modal lists every group with a checkbox.
  5. Tick one or more groups and click Assign to Groups. All selected hosts are updated in a single call.

Note on bulk behaviour: the bulk assign modal sets the selected groups on each host. It does not add to existing memberships. If you want to add a group without removing others, use the inline edit on the Hosts table or the Host Groups selector on the Host Detail page.

From the Host Detail page

Open any host (Hosts → click friendly name). On the Host Info tab, the Host Groups field is a multi-select identical to the one on the Hosts list. Tick / untick and click away to save.

Editing a Group

From Settings → Host Groups:

  1. Click the pencil icon in the Actions column of the group you want to change.
  2. A modal titled Edit Host Group opens with the current Name, Description, and Color pre-filled.
  3. Change whatever you need and click Update Group.

Editing a group's name or colour updates it everywhere: the Hosts table, the host's detail page, the Patching targets, and the API all pick up the new value immediately.

Deleting a Group

Deletion is restricted to prevent you from orphaning hosts by accident.

  1. From Settings → Host Groups, click the trash icon next to a group.
  2. The Delete Host Group modal opens.
  3. If the group has no hosts, the Delete Group button is enabled. Confirm to delete.
  4. If the group has one or more hosts, the modal shows a yellow warning with the list of hosts in the group, and the Delete Group button stays disabled.

What happens to hosts when the group is deleted?

You cannot delete a group that still contains hosts. The UI prevents it and the server returns an error. To delete a populated group, first move or remove the hosts:

  • Move each host out of the group: open the host, untick the group in the Host Groups field, and save. The host stays in PatchMon and keeps any other group memberships.
  • Or use bulk-assign from the Hosts page to reassign many hosts at once.

Once the group is empty, return to Settings → Host Groups and delete it.

Note: Deleting a group does not delete hosts. Hosts that were only in that group become ungrouped and still appear in the Hosts list. They can be reassigned to another group later.

Filtering by Group

On the Hosts page

  1. Click Filters in the Hosts toolbar to reveal the filter panel.
  2. Open the Host Group dropdown. It lists every group plus an Ungrouped option.
  3. Pick a group. The table reloads showing only hosts in that group.
  4. Use Clear Filters to reset.

You can also deep-link by visiting /hosts?group=<groupId>; group-clicks from other parts of the UI (for example the Host Groups page's host count badge) do exactly this.

Grouping the table

Above the filter panel, the No Grouping dropdown lets you group rows by Group, Status, or OS. Picking By Group splits the Hosts table into sections, one per group, each with a count header. Hosts in multiple groups appear under each of their groups. This is a visual grouping, not a filter.

Hiding stale hosts

The Hide Stale toggle on the Hosts toolbar can be combined with a group filter to narrow a view down to "active hosts in the production group", for example.

How Groups Feed Other Features

Groups are a selector across the product. Wherever a workflow asks "which hosts?" you can usually answer "this group".

Patching

  • When you build a patch run, the target picker offers Host or Host group as the target type.
  • Choosing a host group expands the target to every current member at the time the run is queued.
  • Patch policies (recurring runs) can use a host group as the primary selector, so adding a new host to the group automatically includes it in the next scheduled run.

For the full patching flow, see the Patching chapter.

Integration API

The Integration API exposes host-group membership as a filter on host-related endpoints. Common patterns:

  • Listing hosts in a specific group.
  • Fetching package status rolled up by group for an external dashboard.
  • Triggering bulk reports only for hosts in Production.

See Integration API Documentation for the exact endpoints and parameters.

Alerts and Reporting

Some alert channels and scheduled reports support scoping by host group so that, for example, the platform team only receives notifications for Production hosts while the dev team owns Staging. See the Alerts & Notifications chapter for specifics.

Dashboards

Dashboard cards and the Hosts summary counts are fleet-wide by default. Individual host-centric views (Host Detail) show the groups a host belongs to as coloured chips, and clicking a chip deep-links back to a group-filtered Hosts list.

Good Practice

A few patterns worth knowing:

  • Keep group names short. They show up in chips, tables, and filter dropdowns with limited width.
  • One group per purpose. Environment (Production, Staging), role (Web, DB, Cache), location (EU-West, US-East), or owner (Platform, Billing) are all reasonable axes. Combine them by giving a host multiple memberships instead of creating compound groups like Prod-Web-EU.
  • Use colour consistently. For example: red for production, yellow for staging, green for development. Consistent colours make the chips in the Hosts table and on dashboards readable at a glance.
  • Empty is fine. Groups with zero hosts are valid; they are often created ahead of time for patch-policy planning. The UI just won't let you delete a group that still has hosts.

Chapter 6: Package Inventory

Overview

The Packages page is PatchMon's fleet-wide package inventory. It aggregates every package reported by every agent across your fleet into a single searchable list, with one row per unique package name, showing how many hosts have it installed, how many need updates, whether any of those updates are security-flagged, and which repositories supply the latest version.

This page walks through the Packages list, the filters, the per-package detail page, and how the inventory ties into the Outdated Packages card on the Dashboard.

Permission required: can_view_packages to view packages. can_manage_hosts to trigger patch runs from this page.

Getting There

Click Packages in the left navigation. The page shows a summary row, a filter toolbar, and a paginated table.

You can also deep-link:

  • /packages?host=<hostId>: pre-filter to a specific host.
  • /packages?filter=outdated: only packages with at least one pending update.
  • /packages?filter=security or /packages?filter=security-updates: only packages with security updates available.
  • /packages?filter=regular: only packages with non-security updates.

The Dashboard's Outdated Packages card and the Host Detail cards use these query-string shortcuts.

Summary Cards

Five cards at the top of the page summarise what you're looking at:

Card Meaning Click behaviour
Packages Unique package names currently in the list –
Installations Sum of per-host installs across all listed packages –
Outdated Packages Packages with at least one host needing an update Filters to Packages Needing Updates
Security Packages Packages with at least one host needing a security update Filters to Security Updates Only
Outdated Hosts Distinct hosts that appear in the "needs update" side of those packages Jumps to Hosts filtered to hosts needing updates

The Packages and Installations figures reflect the current filter set; the Outdated Hosts card jumps you out to the Hosts page rather than filtering in-place.

The Filter Toolbar

Above the table:

  • Search: free-text search across package names (debounced, matched server-side).
  • Category: package category as reported by the underlying package manager (only populated for managers that expose categories, primarily apt/dpkg).
  • Update Status: the main filter. Four options:
    • All Packages
    • Packages Needing Updates
    • Security Updates Only
    • Regular Updates Only
  • Host: limits the list to packages present on a single host. When set, the page shows only that host's packages and unlocks the Patch all button to run a patch on just that host.
  • Columns: customise which columns are visible and in which order.

Note: The toolbar filters by a single host, not by host group. To review packages across a group, open the Hosts page, filter by group, bulk-select the hosts, and review their packages via the individual host links or patch wizards. Group-wide patching is driven from the Patching page, not from here.

Reading the Table

Default columns:

Column Content
(select) Checkbox. Tick to include the package in a multi-host patch run.
Package Package name with a Package icon. Click the name to open the Package Detail page. An Info bubble appears when the package has a description; click it to see the description in a modal.
Installed On Number of hosts with the package. When some (but not all) of those hosts need an update, the column shows N/M hosts (for example 3/12 hosts means 3 of 12 are outdated). Clicking the cell opens the relevant set of hosts on the Hosts page.
Status One of three badges: Up to Date (green), Update Available (amber), Security Update Available (red, with a shield icon).
Latest Version The newest version PatchMon has seen reported across all hosts for this package.
Source Repos Repo chips. Each chip links to that repository. If more than three sources are reported, the overflow is shown as +N.

The Columns button lets you hide any column except the select checkbox, drag to reorder, and reset to default. The column layout is persisted locally in your browser.

How "Installed On" is calculated

The count includes every host PatchMon has seen reporting the package, regardless of version. The "needs updates" part of N/M hosts is hosts whose currently installed version is older than the latest version available from their configured repositories.

Security vs Regular updates

A package is "security" when at least one host sees a security-flagged update for it (typically because the update is pulled from a distribution's security channel such as *-security on Debian/Ubuntu or a vendor advisory on RHEL). Regular updates are non-security package upgrades. The Status column surfaces whichever priority is higher.

Sorting and Pagination

  • Click any sortable column header to toggle sort direction.
  • The status sort uses a priority: Security Update Available first, then Update Available, then Up to Date, so ascending order puts the highest-risk packages at the top.
  • The page size selector (bottom of the table) supports 25, 50, 100, or 200 rows. Your choice is remembered per browser.

Clicking into a Package

Clicking a package name (or using the filter chip from a host's detail page) opens /packages/<id>, the Package Detail page. Two tabs:

Hosts tab (default)

Lists every host where the package is installed. Key elements:

  • Top summary cards: Updates Needed, Latest Version, Updated (when PatchMon last saw a report for the package), Hosts with Package, Up to Date.
  • A Source Repositories strip showing every repo across the fleet that supplies this package (click through to a repo detail).
  • Description panel: the package description as reported by the host's package manager.
  • Only pending filter: ticked by default; untick to see every host, including ones already up to date.
  • Search: filters the host list.
  • Per-row actions: for Linux/FreeBSD hosts, you can trigger a targeted patch of this one package. Windows hosts are marked as managed via Windows Update / WinGet.
  • Select multiple rows and use Patch selected to run the same upgrade across many hosts in one patch run.

Activity tab

Recent patch runs in which this specific package was upgraded, with timestamps, target hosts, and outcomes. Useful for "when was this CVE closed across the fleet?" audits.

Bulk Patch from the Packages Page

Two flows produce a patch run from the Packages page:

Patch selected packages across chosen hosts

  1. Tick the checkbox on each package to include. The header shows N selected.
  2. Click Patch selected (N) (top right).
  3. The Patch wizard opens in multi-host mode, discovers which hosts have the selected packages installed and need updates, and lets you pick which to include.
  4. If the Host filter is already set to a single host, the wizard locks to that host to avoid offering unrelated hosts.

Patch all on a single host

  1. Set the Host filter to one host.
  2. Click Patch all (top right, only appears when a single non-Windows host is filtered).
  3. Confirm in the wizard to upgrade every outdated package on that host.

Both flows route you into the Patching chapter. See the patch-run pages there for what happens next.

The Outdated Packages Dashboard Card

The Dashboard shows a Outdated Packages card near the top of the Cards layout (the actual position depends on your personal dashboard customisation). The number shown is the fleet-wide count of packages with at least one host needing an update, which is the same figure as the Outdated Packages card on the Packages page.

Clicking the Dashboard card navigates to /packages?filter=outdated, which:

  • Sets the Update Status filter to Packages Needing Updates.
  • Clears the Category filter.
  • Leaves other filters at their defaults.

From there, you can drill into individual packages, set up a patch run, or narrow to a specific host.

Tips

  • Live list, periodic backing data. Rows are fetched from the PatchMon server and reflect the most recent reports submitted by each host. To refresh a host's data immediately, open the host's detail page and click Fetch Report. The Packages list picks up the new state on its next refetch (or click Refresh on the Packages page).
  • Drilling down into patch state. The Hosts page is the better starting point when you care about which hosts are behind on updates. Use the Packages page when you care about which packages expose the fleet.
  • Windows hosts. Package reporting works for Windows (via winget, chocolatey, and MSI inventory), but the Patch all / Patch selected actions do not target Windows. Patching on Windows is managed via Windows Update or WinGet directly on the host.

Chapter 7: Repository Tracking

Overview

Every Linux host configures one or more package repositories: sources.list entries on Debian/Ubuntu, .repo files under /etc/yum.repos.d/ on RHEL-family, repositories on Alpine, pacman.conf entries on Arch, and pkg sources on FreeBSD. PatchMon's agent inventories those repositories on every report and sends them up alongside the package list. The server aggregates the results into a single fleet-wide view on the Repositories page.

This page walks through the Repositories list and detail view, the filters, how security is determined, and how repository data is kept current.

Permission required: can_view_hosts to read repositories; can_manage_hosts to edit or delete repository records.

What a Repository Entry Represents

A repository record in PatchMon corresponds to a package source as reported by a host's package manager:

Package manager Repository source
apt (Debian, Ubuntu) Each entry in /etc/apt/sources.list and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/*.list or *.sources
yum / dnf (CentOS, RHEL, Rocky, Alma, Fedora) Each enabled entry in /etc/yum.repos.d/*.repo
apk (Alpine) Each line in /etc/apk/repositories
pacman (Arch) Each [repo] section in /etc/pacman.conf
pkg (FreeBSD) Each configured pkg repository

Multiple hosts configured with the same URL are collapsed into a single repository record in the fleet view, so you can see at a glance which hosts pull from a given source. The per-host relationship is tracked separately so you can drill in and see exactly where a repo is in use.

Key fields on a repository entry:

  • Name: a human-friendly identifier (often the repo's Label or id).
  • URL: the base URL the package manager fetches from.
  • Distribution / release codename: e.g. jammy, el9, 3.19.
  • Is Secure: true when the URL starts with https://, false for plaintext http://.
  • Is Active: whether the repo is currently enabled on at least one host.
  • Host count: number of hosts currently configured with this repo.

Getting to the Repositories Page

Click Repositories in the left navigation. You can also deep-link:

  • /repositories?host=<hostId>: pre-filter to a single host's repositories.
  • The Repos card on the Host Detail page and the source-repo chips on the Packages page both use these query-string shortcuts.

Summary Cards

Four cards at the top:

Card Meaning
Total Repositories Unique repositories across the fleet
Active Repositories Repositories currently enabled on at least one host
Secure (HTTPS) Count of repositories whose URL uses HTTPS
Security Score secure ÷ total as a percentage

A low Security Score is a quick signal that you still have HTTP-only repositories in the fleet, which is a good target for remediation.

Filter Toolbar

  • Search: free-text search across the repository name and URL (debounced, matched server-side).
  • Host filter indicator: when ?host=<id> is set, a pill shows Filtered by: with an X to clear.
  • Security: All Security Types / HTTPS Only / HTTP Only.
  • Status: All Statuses / Active Only / Inactive Only.
  • Columns: customise visible columns and their order.

Reading the Table

Default columns:

Column Content
Repository Name, with a Database icon. Click to open the detail page.
URL Full URL. For Debian-family repos, the deb- / deb-src- prefix is stripped from display names for readability.
Distribution Distribution / codename / release.
Security Secure (HTTPS) with a lock icon, or Insecure (HTTP) with an open-lock icon.
Status Active or Inactive.
Hosts Count of hosts currently configured with this repo. Click to filter the Hosts page by hosts using this repo.
Actions Delete icon (requires can_manage_hosts).

Column visibility and order are persisted per browser.

Clicking into a Repository

Clicking a repository opens /repositories/<id>, the Repository Detail page. It has three main sections stacked vertically:

Repository Details

  • Name, Description, URL, Distribution, Is Active, Priority.
  • Inline edit toggle (pencil icon, requires can_manage_hosts) lets you change the friendly name, description, active flag, and priority.
  • Delete repository button opens a confirmation dialog.
  • Top-right summary chips: secure / insecure, active / inactive, last updated.

Editing or deleting a repository from this screen affects the PatchMon record, not the underlying host configuration. The next time an agent reports, PatchMon will reconcile with what's actually on the host. If the repo is still configured on any host, it will reappear. Delete is most useful for stale records where no host actively uses the repo.

Hosts Using This Repository

A searchable, paginated list of every host that has this repository configured. Each row shows:

  • Friendly name (link to the Host Detail page).
  • Hostname and IP.
  • OS and version icon.
  • When the host last reported the repository.
  • Any host-specific settings (priority override, enabled flag).

Use this view to answer "who's still pulling from this old mirror?" questions.

Packages from this Repository

A searchable, paginated list of every package PatchMon has seen delivered through this repository. Each row shows:

This is the easy way to audit "which packages on my fleet come from this third-party repository?"

How Repositories Are Kept Up-to-Date

Agents collect their repository configuration on every report cycle:

  1. The agent runs package-manager introspection (apt-cache policy, dnf repolist, etc.).
  2. The result is serialised and sent alongside the package inventory and system info.
  3. The PatchMon server upserts repository records and updates the per-host link table:
    • New repositories appear.
    • Removed repositories are marked inactive (and retained as records, so historical package activity can still reference them).
    • URL or distribution changes are reconciled. If you change a URL in /etc/apt/sources.list, the next report updates it.

Because updates are report-driven, the Repositories page reflects the last known state. To force an immediate refresh for one host, open the host and click Fetch Report.

Security Filter in Practice

The HTTPS Only / HTTP Only filter is the quickest audit tool for enforcing secure package sources:

  1. Set Security to HTTP Only.
  2. The list now shows every plaintext repository in the fleet.
  3. For each, click into the repo and use the Hosts Using This Repository list to see who needs reconfiguring.
  4. Fix on the host (swap URL to HTTPS in the relevant .list / .repo / apk repositories file, update the distribution's certificate stores if needed), then run Fetch Report on the host.
  5. The next report will move the host off the insecure record and onto the HTTPS one.

Some legitimate setups (for example, local intranet mirrors, or signed-but-insecure-transport repos such as classic Debian archives protected purely by GPG) are unavoidably HTTP. Use repository descriptions (via the edit dialog) to flag "approved HTTP" entries so future reviewers know they were considered.

Deleting a Repository Record

From the Repositories table or detail page, operators with can_manage_hosts can delete a record. The confirmation dialog lists the impact:

  • The repository record is removed from PatchMon.
  • Per-host links to that record are removed.
  • The underlying host configuration is not changed; no file on the host is modified.

Because the agent re-reports every cycle, a delete is only permanent if no host actually has the repo configured any more. This is why the Inactive Only status filter is helpful: records with zero hosts are safe to tidy up, while records still tied to hosts will reappear after the next report.

  • Package Inventory: browse packages, and use the repository chips there to jump to the repo detail.
  • Host Detail Page: per-host repositories surface through the Repos summary card.
  • Managing the PatchMon Agent: how the agent collects repository data on each report.
  • Integration API Documentation: repositories are exposed as API objects for external tooling and compliance reporting.

Chapter 8: Patching Overview

What Patching Is

Patching is the PatchMon feature that lets you deploy package and security updates to your Linux and FreeBSD hosts on demand or on a schedule, with validation, approval, stop, retry, and live log streaming over WebSocket. You drive it from the Patching page in the web UI, or from the Patching tab on any Host Detail page.

Patching in 2.0 is a first-class module rather than a side-feature. Runs are persisted, queued through Redis/asynq, executed by the agent on the host, and streamed back to the browser live.

Module Gate

Both halves of the feature are gated by a capability module. If the module is not enabled on your plan, the relevant UI appears locked with an "Upgrade required" placeholder and the corresponding API routes reject the request.

UI area Required module
Patching dashboard, Runs & History, trigger a patch run, approve, stop, retry patching
Policies tab, policy assignments, exclusions, scheduled runs patching_policies

Fleet-wide the Patching page is hidden from the sidebar when patching is not enabled. The Policies tab inside the page is shown with a tier badge when patching is enabled but patching_policies is not.

Who Can Use It

Patching uses two RBAC permissions on top of the module gate:

Action Permission Route pattern
View dashboard, list runs, open a run, watch the live stream can_view_hosts GET /patching/*
Trigger a run, approve, retry validation, stop, delete a run can_manage_patching POST /patching/trigger, POST /patching/runs/{id}/approve, etc.
View policies can_view_hosts GET /patching/policies
Create, edit, delete policies and policy assignments / exclusions can_manage_patching POST/PUT/DELETE /patching/policies/*

If your role has can_view_hosts but not can_manage_patching, you will see the Patching page read-only. The action buttons (Patch all, Approve, Stop, Delete) either do not appear or return a 403.

The Three Core Concepts

Everything in the Patching module revolves around three concepts:

1. Patch Run

A patch run is one unit of patching work against a single host. Every time you click "Patch all" on a host, approve a submission, or retry a validation, a run row is created in the database.

Each run has:

  • A type: patch_all (install all available package updates) or patch_package (install a specific package or set of packages).
  • A dry-run flag: if dry_run=true, the agent reports what would change without actually installing anything. This only applies to patch_package; patch_all cannot be dry-run because the agent's bulk upgrade path does not support --dry-run faithfully.
  • A status that moves through the run lifecycle (see below).
  • A persisted shell output that captures every line of stdout/stderr produced by the package manager. Live subscribers get it streamed over WebSocket; everyone else gets the full blob on completion.
  • Optional policy metadata: the effective patch policy is snapshotted onto the run at trigger time, so you can see in run detail "which policy was in effect when this was queued".

Run statuses

The server moves a run through these statuses, visible as badges in the Runs & History table and in the run detail header:

Status Meaning
queued The execution task has been enqueued on the asynq queue, waiting for the worker to pick it up.
pending_validation A dry-run was queued for validation but has not completed yet (the host may be offline).
validated The dry-run finished successfully; the run is waiting for an operator to approve it.
pending_approval A patch run was submitted for approval without a dry-run (e.g. a patch_all that cannot be dry-run). An approver needs to sign off before the run is queued.
approved The original validation run after someone approved it. A new execution run (linked by validation_run_id) is created alongside this row and queued.
scheduled The run has been accepted but is waiting for its run_at timestamp (delayed or fixed-time policy).
running The agent is currently executing the package manager command on the host. This is the status that opens the live WebSocket stream.
completed The run finished successfully. The persisted shell_output is now authoritative.
dry_run_completed A dry-run finished successfully (terminal state for dry-runs that aren't turned into a real run).
failed The run finished with a non-zero exit status or the host reported an error.
cancelled The run was stopped by an operator (via Stop Run) or deleted before execution.

2. Patch Policy

A patch policy controls when an approved patch run actually fires. Policies are optional; a host with no policy attached gets the implicit "Default" policy, which runs patches immediately on trigger.

Each policy has a delay type:

  • Immediate: run as soon as the task is dequeued.
  • Delayed: wait N minutes after the trigger before running (useful for "give me 30 minutes to change my mind").
  • Fixed time: run at a specific wall-clock time (HH:MM in a named timezone, e.g. 03:00 in Europe/London). Used for maintenance windows.

Policies are assigned to hosts or host groups. You can also add per-host exclusions to carve specific hosts out of a group-assigned policy. See Patch Policies and Scheduling for full details.

3. Dry-Run / Validation

A dry-run (also called a validation run) asks the agent to simulate the package installation without applying it. It exists to catch problems before you touch the host:

  • For apt-get, the agent runs apt-get -s install <packages> and parses the simulation output.
  • For dnf/yum, the agent runs the planning step that reports "what would be installed" without committing.
  • For pkg on FreeBSD, the agent runs pkg upgrade -n or the equivalent install-no-run.
  • For pacman, the agent uses pacman -S -p / pacman -Syu -p (print-only) as the validation step.

When the dry-run completes the run transitions to validated and shows you the list of packages that would be installed, including dependencies that were pulled in. If more packages would be installed than you originally asked for, the UI badges the run with Extra deps and surfaces the full list in the run detail "Packages affected" panel so you can review before approving.

Approval is the step that turns a validated dry-run into a real patching run. On approval:

  1. The validation run is marked approved (terminal) and preserved with its output for audit.
  2. A new patch run is created with dry_run=false, linked to the validation via validation_run_id.
  3. The new run is enqueued against the effective policy (so "Approve & Patch" at 14:00 on a host with a 03:00 fixed-time policy produces a scheduled run, not an immediate one).
  4. You can override the policy at approval time by picking Immediate in the approve wizard, which bypasses the delay.

Multi-OS Coverage

The agent chooses the patching back-end by detecting the host's package manager. Linux and FreeBSD patching are fully supported; Windows patching has its own path.

Package manager OSes Supported for patching
apt-get Debian, Ubuntu, Raspbian Yes
dnf RHEL 8+, Rocky, AlmaLinux, Fedora Yes
yum RHEL 7, CentOS 7 Yes
pacman Arch Linux, Manjaro Yes
pkg FreeBSD 13+ (plus freebsd-update for the base system on patch_all) Yes
apk Alpine Linux No. The agent reports apk inventory but rejects patch runs with package manager "apk" not supported for patching (apt, dnf, yum, pkg, pacman required). Alpine hosts are visible in PatchMon and get compliance scans, but patch runs on them fail on the agent side.
Windows Update Agent (WUA) + WinGet Windows 10/11, Server 2019/2022/2025 Yes (separate path)

Note: The 2.0 release notes describe Linux patching generally. If you need to patch Alpine hosts, track the package manager roadmap or use your existing Alpine tooling until apk support lands.

Windows patching

When the agent detects it is running on Windows, patch runs are handled by the WUA + WinGet path rather than the Linux package-manager path:

  • Patch all installs every Windows Update currently marked approved for that host by the server, plus runs winget upgrade --all for WinGet-managed applications.
  • Patch package routes by name: strings that look like a KB... / GUID update are sent via WUA, anything else is treated as a WinGet package ID.
  • Reboot state, superseded-update cleanup, and approved-GUID sync all go through dedicated /patching/windows-updates/* endpoints used by the beta Windows agent.

Windows patching is flagged beta in 2.0 and the Run Detail page renders the same way regardless of OS. The terminal pane simply shows PowerShell / winget output instead of apt-get output.

Where Patching Lives in the UI

There are two ways into patching from the left-hand navigation:

  1. Patching (top-level sidebar item): the fleet-wide view. This is the page described in Running a Patch, Patch Policies and Scheduling, and Patch History and Live Logs.
  2. Hosts → select a host → Patching tab: the per-host view. Start a Patch all run for that host, watch its packages list, open any previous patch run for this host. The tab is hidden when the patching module is disabled.

You can also enter the Patching UI from:

What Happens When You Click "Patch All"

The end-to-end flow for a single patch_all run is:

  1. You click Patch all on a Host Detail page. The Patch Wizard opens, pre-loaded with the host.
  2. You optionally override the policy (e.g. "Run immediately" on a host that has a delayed policy) and click the fire button.
  3. The browser calls POST /patching/trigger with patch_type=patch_all. Because patch_all cannot be dry-run, the run starts in pending_approval if you ticked "Submit for approval", or goes straight to queued otherwise.
  4. The server inserts a patch_runs row, snapshots the effective policy onto it, and enqueues a run_patch task on the patching asynq queue. If the policy introduces a delay, asynq schedules the task for the future and the run status shows scheduled.
  5. When the task dequeues, the server sends a run_patch WebSocket message to the agent connected for that host.
  6. The agent flips the run to running, calls apt-get upgrade -y (or the equivalent for the OS), and streams stdout/stderr back over POST /patching/runs/{id}/output in short chunks.
  7. The server fans each chunk out to any browsers subscribed to GET /patching/runs/{id}/stream, and persists the combined output to the database.
  8. On success the agent sends a final completed stage with the authoritative shell output. The server marks the run completed, emits a patch_run_completed notification, and flags the host as "awaiting post-patch report" so the next inventory sync can update the package status.
  9. The Run Detail page swaps the green Live pill for a subtle Awaiting inventory report pill, then for New report received once the agent sends its next scheduled inventory report and the system knows the on-host packages reflect reality.

See Running a Patch for the step-by-step operator walkthrough, and Patch History and Live Logs for everything to do with the terminal pane and log stream.

Chapter 9: Running a Patch

This page walks you through starting a patch run from the PatchMon web UI, from the initial click through dry-run validation, approval and live log streaming, to the final "patched" state. Everything here happens in the browser against a logged-in session.

Assumes you have the patching module enabled and the can_manage_patching permission. If the action buttons are missing, see Patching Overview for the permission matrix.

Starting Points

There are three entry points into a patch run:

Entry point What gets pre-filled Typical use
Host Detail → Patching tab → Patch all Target host is locked; patch type is patch_all "Update everything on this host, now."
Host Detail → Patching tab → Patch selected packages Target host is locked; patch type is patch_package with the packages you ticked "Patch just these two CVEs on this host."
Packages → select a package → Patch this package Package name is locked; host list is discovered from fleet inventory (only hosts that actually need the update) "Roll out this specific package across the fleet."

All three funnel into the same Patch Wizard, a single modal used everywhere patching is initiated, so the mental model is identical regardless of where you started from.

The Patch Wizard

The wizard has a fixed six-step sequence, but it auto-skips steps that have no decision to make for your starting point. Unused steps are shown muted in the step indicator so you always see the full mental model.

# Step Shown when
1 Hosts You entered from Packages (fleet rollout) and need to pick which hosts to patch. Hidden when the host is pre-locked.
2 Packages You entered with a multi-package list and want to trim it. Hidden for patch_all or single-package runs.
3 Validate patch_package only. Hidden for patch_all (cannot dry-run) and for Approve flows (validation already exists).
4 Timing Always shown. Review effective policy and optionally override to "run immediately".
5 Approval patch_package only. Choose "Approve & Patch now" or "Submit for approval". Hidden in Approve mode.
6 Submit Always shown. Final per-host summary and the fire button.

Navigation is forward-only through the wizard; the Back button steps through enabled steps and skips the hidden ones.

Flow A: Patch All on a Single Host

This is the simplest case: update every out-of-date package on one host.

  1. Open Hosts → select your host → Patching tab.
  2. Click Patch all. The wizard opens at the Timing step (Hosts, Packages, Validate and Approval are all skipped for patch_all).
  3. Review the effective patch policy shown on the Timing step. If the host has a delayed or fixed-time policy attached, the wizard tells you when the run will actually start (for example "Runs at 03:00 Europe/London").
  4. If you need to bypass the delay, tick Run immediately. This sets schedule_override=immediate on the trigger call and fires the run as soon as the worker dequeues it.
  5. Click Next to advance to Submit.
  6. On Submit, read the per-host summary (host name, patch type, effective run time) and click Queue & patch.

What happens next on the server:

  • A patch_runs row is inserted with patch_type=patch_all, dry_run=false, and the policy snapshot.
  • A run_patch task is enqueued on the patching asynq queue.
  • If the policy introduces a delay, the task is scheduled for the future and the run is shown as scheduled in Runs & History. Otherwise it goes straight to queued.
  • The browser deep-links into the Run Detail page so you can watch the live terminal.

Note: patch_all cannot be dry-run. The agent's bulk-upgrade path (apt-get upgrade, dnf upgrade, pkg upgrade, pacman -Syu) does not support a reliable simulation mode. If you want a dry-run, patch specific packages instead.

Flow B: Patch a Specific Package with Dry-Run

This is the richer flow and the one to use for anything security-sensitive. The dry-run runs first, you review the transaction, then you approve.

  1. Open Patching → click into the package from a host, or start from Packages → package name → Patch this package.
  2. The wizard opens at the Validate step (Hosts and Packages steps may be visible for fleet rollouts).
  3. Click Run dry-run. The browser calls POST /patching/trigger with dry_run=true. For each target host, the server:
    • Creates a patch_runs row in pending_validation status.
    • Sends the run_patch command to the agent with DryRun=true.
    • The agent runs the package-manager simulation step (for example apt-get -s install <packages>).
  4. The wizard polls each run until it terminates. While you wait you see:
    • The per-host status badge (pending validation → running → validated).
    • A live terminal excerpt for the currently running host.
  5. When the dry-run completes, the run transitions to validated and the wizard shows:
    • The final Packages affected list (what would be installed, always a superset of the original request because of dependency resolution).
    • An Extra deps badge if dependency resolution pulled in packages you didn't originally ask for.
    • The captured stdout/stderr for the simulation.
  6. Review the output. If the transaction looks correct, click Next to the Timing step, choose Run immediately or leave the policy delay, and then Approve & Patch on the Submit step.
  7. The browser calls POST /patching/runs/{validationId}/approve. The server:
    • Marks the validation run approved (terminal state; the row and output are preserved for audit).
    • Creates a new patch_runs row with dry_run=false, linked to the validation via validation_run_id.
    • Enqueues the real run_patch task with the effective policy delay.
    • Returns the new run ID; the UI deep-links you into its Run Detail page if it's going to start immediately.

Retrying a stuck validation

If the agent was offline when you triggered the dry-run, the run will sit in pending_validation until it comes back. You have two options:

  • Retry Validation: re-queues the same dry-run task. Call this once the agent is back online. Works via POST /patching/runs/{id}/retry-validation and is only available for patch_package runs.
  • Skip & Patch: bypasses the dry-run entirely and queues the real patch run directly. Use this when you're confident about the change and the host won't come back soon. The UI labels the button amber to make it clear you're skipping a safety step.

Both options are available from the Runs & History table, from the Run Detail page, and inline on a per-row basis.

Submitting a patch_all run for approval

patch_all can't be dry-run, but you can still route it through an approval gate. In the wizard's Approval step tick Submit for approval. The run is created in pending_approval status with no execution task enqueued. A second reviewer with can_manage_patching can then open Runs & History, click Approve on that row, and the server builds the real execution run the same way as a validated approval. Until that happens the run sits in the DB and can also be deleted.

Flow C: Patch a Package Across the Fleet

Same as Flow B, but starting from the Packages page. The wizard discovers which hosts have the package out of date (only those show up in the Hosts step) and validates each in parallel.

  1. Navigate to Packages → click the package name → Patch this package.
  2. The wizard opens at Hosts. Tick the hosts you want to patch, or Select all.
  3. Click Next to Validate. The wizard fans out dry-runs across the selected hosts with a bounded concurrency pool (5 at a time by default) to avoid hammering the queue.
  4. When every host has reached a terminal validation state, you see a per-host results table. Hosts with failed dry-runs are flagged so you can exclude them from the approval step or retry them.
  5. Timing lets you pick a per-host policy override, useful when your fleet mixes policies.
  6. Submit fires POST /patching/runs/{id}/approve once per validated run. The UI tracks failures in a bulk-approve result banner when you come back to Runs & History.

Watching a Run: The Run Detail Page

Once a run is fired and not delayed, the UI redirects you into /patching/runs/{id}. The page has:

  • A header with the host name, status badge, Awaiting inventory report pill (post-patch), and the primary action buttons for the current state (Approve & Patch, Retry Validation, Skip & Patch, Stop Run).
  • A left-side Run summary card: host, type, initiated by, approved by, started / completed timestamps, link to the validation run if any, patch policy in effect, and packages affected.
  • A right-side Shell output terminal for the live log stream.

Live log streaming

While the run is running, the Run Detail page opens a WebSocket connection to /api/v1/patching/runs/{id}/stream. The server's in-process patchstream hub fans out agent-published events to every connected browser:

  • snapshot: sent once when you connect. Contains the current stage and whatever shell_output is already persisted, so the terminal pane is primed even if you arrived mid-run.
  • chunk: a short piece of stdout/stderr from the agent, appended to the terminal as it arrives.
  • done: a terminal stage (completed, failed, cancelled, validated, or dry_run_completed). The socket closes and the UI refetches run metadata to show the final state.

The header shows a pulsing green Live pill while the WebSocket is open. If you scroll up in the terminal to read earlier output, the UI stops auto-scrolling; scroll back to the bottom and it resumes.

If you arrive on a run that's already in a terminal state, the server sends a single snapshot message containing the persisted shell_output plus a synthetic done message, then closes the connection. The database is the source of truth, so you see exactly the same terminal contents as everyone else.

Copying output

When the run is not queued or running, a Copy output button appears above the terminal. It copies the full shell output to your clipboard. Use this for incident reports or to paste into a ticket.

The terminal normalises carriage returns. apt-get and dpkg use \r to overwrite progress bars on a single line, which would be invisible in a scrollback view. The UI converts \r to \n so every progress update becomes its own readable line.

Stopping a Running Patch

You can stop a run while it is in the running state. This is a hard stop with no graceful "let it finish the current package" behaviour.

  1. On the Run Detail page, click Stop Run in the header.
  2. Confirm in the dialog. The warning "Partially-installed packages may leave the host in an intermediate state" is there for a reason. Interrupting apt or dnf mid-transaction can leave dpkg or rpmdb needing manual repair.
  3. The browser calls POST /patching/runs/{id}/stop. The server looks up the agent in the agentregistry, sends a patch_run_stop WebSocket message, and returns 202 Accepted.
  4. The agent cancels the subprocess via SIGINT, collects whatever output it has, and reports a terminal cancelled stage back to the server.
  5. The live stream closes and the run's final status is cancelled.

When Stop Run is not available

  • The run is not in the running state (no subprocess to interrupt). For queued, scheduled, pending_validation, pending_approval, or validated, use Delete in Runs & History instead. That also removes any scheduled task from the asynq queue.
  • The agent is not currently connected. The UI returns a 409 with "Agent is not currently connected". Wait for the agent to reconnect, or stop the agent's systemd service if you need the patch process killed at the OS level.

Post-Patch: The Awaiting Inventory Report Pill

When a patch_all or non-dry-run patch_package completes, the server sets awaiting_post_patch_report_run_id on the host. The Run Detail page shows an Awaiting inventory report pill next to the status badge, and the polling interval keeps ticking every 3 seconds.

The agent's next scheduled inventory report (usually within 60 minutes, sooner if triggered manually) updates the host's package list. The server clears the awaiting flag, and:

  • If the host's last_update timestamp is newer than the run's completed_at, the pill changes to New report received.
  • Otherwise the pill disappears. Absence is the soft success signal.

This is how you know the packages the patch run installed are now reflected in the Package Inventory view, not just that the apt command returned exit 0.

Troubleshooting Common Cases

The run sits in queued forever

The asynq worker picked up the task but cannot reach the agent, or the agent never received the WebSocket command.

  • Check the agent's connection status on the Host Detail page (green Connected pill).
  • Check the server logs for patching: entries around the task ID (patch-run-<run-id>).
  • If the agent has been offline and just reconnected, wait up to 30 seconds for the WebSocket re-handshake.

"package manager ... not supported for patching"

The agent rejected the run because the host's detected package manager is not in the supported list (apt, dnf, yum, pkg, pacman). This is the error you see on Alpine (apk) hosts today. The run immediately transitions to failed with the message in error_message.

The run completes but the package inventory hasn't updated

The agent hasn't sent its post-patch inventory report yet. The Awaiting inventory report pill will flip automatically once it arrives. If it doesn't arrive within an hour, force a report from the agent CLI:

sudo patchmon-agent report

Approve returns 400 "Only validated... runs can be approved"

Another operator already approved or deleted the run while you were looking at it. Reload Runs & History; the row will now be in approved or gone.

  • Patching Overview: the three core concepts, module gates, and supported OS coverage.
  • Patch Policies and Scheduling: control when approved runs actually fire.
  • Patch History and Live Logs: the Runs & History table, filtering, and deeper dive into the live log stream.
  • Managing the PatchMon Agent: agent CLI, service management, and troubleshooting connection issues.

Chapter 10: Patch Policies and Scheduling

A patch policy controls when an approved patch run actually fires on a host. Policies let you carve out maintenance windows, build in a delay for "I might change my mind" runs, or force an immediate execution on anything that matters. Assignments and exclusions let you apply a policy broadly (to a host group) while still carving specific hosts out of it.

This page walks through the policy model, how effective policies are resolved, the Settings UI, and how policies interact with run triggers.

Module Gate and Permissions

Patch policies are gated by the patching_policies capability module, which is separate from the base patching module. A deployment with patching enabled but not patching_policies can still trigger patch runs; they just run immediately and cannot be scheduled through a policy.

Action Required module Required permission
View policies and their assignments patching_policies can_view_hosts
Create, edit, delete policies patching_policies can_manage_patching
Add or remove policy assignments (host / host group) patching_policies can_manage_patching
Add or remove host exclusions patching_policies can_manage_patching

If patching_policies is not enabled, the Policies tab on the Patching page is shown with an "Upgrade required" placeholder and a tier badge.

Where Policies Live in the UI

There are two equivalent entry points, both showing the same policy list with the same editor:

  • Patching page → Policies tab: the main view. Lists every policy, shows schedule type and assignment count, and lets you expand a policy to manage its assignments and exclusions inline.
  • Settings → Patch Management: the admin-centric view, identical in function, kept so patch policies are discoverable alongside other operational settings.

Both pages are backed by the same /api/v1/patching/policies endpoints, so any change you make in one is visible immediately in the other.

The Policy Model

Each policy has the following fields:

Field Type Description
name string, required Display name of the policy.
description string, optional Free-text description.
patch_delay_type enum, required immediate, delayed, or fixed_time.
delay_minutes integer, required when delayed Minutes to wait after the trigger before running.
fixed_time_utc string, required when fixed_time Time of day in HH:MM format. See the timezone note below.
timezone string, optional IANA timezone name (e.g. Europe/London, America/New_York). Used in the UI label only.

The three delay types

Immediate. The run fires as soon as the asynq worker dequeues the task. This is the default policy behaviour when no policy is attached to a host. Use for development hosts or anything where you actively approve each run.

Delayed. The run is scheduled for now + delay_minutes at the moment it is triggered. Typical values are 30-60 minutes, enough time for an operator to cancel if the trigger was a mistake, but short enough that the patch still lands in the current shift. The delay is counted from the trigger time (or approval time, for patch_package), not from policy creation.

Fixed time. The run is scheduled for the next occurrence of HH:MM. If HH:MM has already passed today, the run is scheduled for HH:MM tomorrow. Use for maintenance windows (03:00 daily reboots, for example). Delays can be long: a run triggered at 14:00 for a 03:00 fixed-time policy will sit in scheduled status for 13 hours.

Timezone handling (important)

The fixed_time_utc column is literally interpreted as UTC by the server when computing the next run time. The timezone field on the policy is stored and shown in the UI label (Fixed time at 03:00 Europe/London), but the scheduler does not apply it. 03:00 always means 03:00 UTC.

This is a known wrinkle:

  • The database column is named fixed_time_utc, which is the source of truth.
  • The UI builds the "at 03:00 Europe/London" display string from fixed_time_utc + timezone purely for labelling.
  • ComputeRunAt parses fixed_time_utc into a UTC wall-clock time and ignores the stored timezone.

Practical advice: enter the fixed time as the UTC equivalent of your intended local time and use the timezone field purely as a reminder to yourself. A 03:00 Europe/London maintenance window in winter (GMT) should be stored as fixed_time_utc=03:00; in summer (BST) you would want 02:00. If you need true local-time scheduling that follows DST, plan patch runs with a delayed policy triggered by an external scheduler instead.

Note: This may change in a future release. Verify the current behaviour in your deployment by triggering a test run and checking the scheduled_at timestamp on the run before relying on timezone-aware semantics.

Creating a Policy

  1. Open Patching → Policies (or Settings → Patch Management).
  2. Click Create policy. A modal opens with the policy form.
  3. Fill in:
    • Name: required. Pick something that describes the window, not the host set (e.g. "Nightly 03:00 UTC", not "Production web tier"). Host assignment is done separately.
    • Description: optional but helpful.
    • Patch delay: Immediate, Delayed (run after N minutes), or Fixed time (e.g. 3:00 AM).
  4. If you picked Delayed, enter the number of minutes (minimum 1).
  5. If you picked Fixed time:
    • Enter the time in HH:MM format. Remember this is interpreted as UTC.
    • Pick a timezone from the dropdown. This only changes the label; see the timezone note above.
  6. Click Create. The policy appears in the list with 0 assignment(s).

Policies are empty until you assign them. A newly-created policy is inert and does not automatically apply to any host.

Assigning Policies

A policy can be assigned to a host (direct) or a host group (indirect). Direct assignments take precedence over group assignments; see Effective Policy Resolution below.

To assign a policy:

  1. In the Policies list, click the N assignment(s) link on the policy row. The row expands to show the Applied to panel.
  2. Choose Host or Host group from the dropdown.
  3. Pick the target host or group from the second dropdown.
  4. Click Add.

The assignment takes effect immediately for any future patch runs on that target. Runs already queued against the old effective policy are not recomputed; they keep the policy snapshot from the moment they were triggered (visible in the Run Detail sidebar).

To remove an assignment, click the × next to its chip in the Applied to list.

Exclusions

Exclusions let you carve a specific host out of a policy that it would otherwise inherit through a host group. Direct host assignments cannot be excluded because the precedence rules make the direct assignment always win.

Typical use:

  1. You have a host group production-web with 50 hosts.
  2. You assign a Nightly 03:00 UTC policy to that group.
  3. One particular host in the group (prod-web-api-01) serves a customer in Singapore who cannot tolerate a 03:00 UTC outage (that's mid-day for them).
  4. You add prod-web-api-01 as an Exclusion on the policy. That host is then treated as having no policy (falls back to Default / immediate) even though it is still in the production-web group.
  5. Optionally, assign prod-web-api-01 directly to a different policy with a 19:00 UTC fixed time.

To add an exclusion, expand the policy and use the Exclusions row: pick a host from the dropdown, click Exclude host. The host is shown as an amber chip in the exclusions list.

Exclusions apply only to that specific policy. If the host is a member of another group assigned to a different policy, that other policy can still apply.

Effective Policy Resolution

When a patch run is triggered, the server resolves the effective policy for the target host using this precedence:

  1. Direct host assignment: if the host has any policy directly assigned, that policy wins. Exclusions do not apply here (you can't direct-assign and then exclude).
  2. Group assignment: if the host is a member of one or more host groups, the server walks the groups' policy assignments and picks the first policy (by assignment created_at ascending) where the host is not excluded.
  3. Default: if none of the above applies, the effective policy is the implicit "Default" policy, which is equivalent to patch_delay_type=immediate. The Run Detail sidebar shows this as "Default policy. Runs immediately on trigger."

If a host is in multiple groups with conflicting policies, the oldest policy assignment wins. Order matters. If you need deterministic behaviour in a complex fleet, prefer direct host assignments over layered group policies, or design your groups so that each host is only in one "scheduling" group.

Checking the effective policy

Before triggering a run, the Patch Wizard's Timing step calls GET /patching/preview-run?host_id=<id> for each selected host. The response contains the run_at_iso time (what ComputeRunAt returns right now) and the resolved policy's name, ID, and delay type. That's how the wizard tells you "Runs at 03:00 UTC via Nightly-Window" before you click fire.

The policy snapshot

When a run is created, the server also takes a snapshot of the effective policy onto the run row (policy_snapshot JSON). The snapshot is what the Run Detail page displays, and it is immutable; changing or deleting the policy later does not rewrite the snapshot. This is important for audit: "which policy was in effect when this run fired on 12 March?" always has an answer, even if the policy has since been deleted.

Scheduling Semantics

Once the effective policy is resolved, the server converts it into an asynq job delay:

Policy type delayMs computation Visible run status
immediate 0 queued immediately
delayed delay_minutes × 60 × 1000 scheduled for run_at = now + delay_minutes
fixed_time ms until next HH:MM UTC scheduled for run_at = next HH:MM UTC

The patch_runs row stores both created_at (when the run was inserted) and scheduled_at (when asynq should release it to the worker). The Runs & History table shows scheduled_at as "Started" time if the run has not yet started.

Schedule overrides at trigger / approve time

Both POST /patching/trigger and POST /patching/runs/{id}/approve accept a schedule_override field. The only currently-supported value is "immediate", which forces delayMs=0 regardless of the effective policy. This is what the Run immediately checkbox in the Patch Wizard Timing step sets.

The snapshot on the run is still taken from the effective policy. The override only changes the actual firing time, not the policy metadata. Run Detail will show the real policy (e.g. "Nightly 03:00 UTC") but the run's scheduled_at will be absent and its status will jump straight to queued.

Deleting a scheduled run

A scheduled run can be deleted from Runs & History. When you click Delete on a scheduled row:

  1. The server removes the run's row from the patch_runs table.
  2. It also calls inspector.DeleteTask("patching", "patch-run-<id>") to remove the queued asynq task, so the run doesn't fire after being deleted.

Deletion is only allowed for runs in queued, pending_validation, pending_approval, validated, approved, or scheduled status. Anything running or terminal is not deletable (use Stop Run for a running run; terminal runs are historical records and cannot be removed from the UI).

Editing and Deleting Policies

Editing a policy in place (change name, description, delay type, or delay value) is supported from the Policies list. Click the pencil icon on a policy row to open the edit modal, then Update.

Existing runs are not re-scheduled when you edit a policy; their snapshot was taken at trigger time. Only future runs will use the new values.

Deleting a policy removes it immediately. All assignments and exclusions attached to it are removed with it (cascade delete). Any run in scheduled status that was created from this policy keeps its scheduled_at and still fires when the time comes. The policy ID on the run becomes a dangling reference, but the policy name is preserved in the policy_snapshot column for the UI.

If you're replacing a policy with a new one, prefer reassigning hosts and groups to the new policy before deleting the old one.

Common Patterns

Single maintenance window across the fleet

Create one policy (Nightly 03:00 UTC) with fixed_time at 03:00. Assign it to a top-level host group that contains everything, or to each host directly. Use exclusions for the handful of hosts that need a different window.

Canary-then-production

Create two policies:

  • Canary 01:00 UTC with fixed_time at 01:00, assigned to your canary host group.
  • Production 04:00 UTC with fixed_time at 04:00, assigned to your production-all host group.

Trigger the same patch_package run on both groups at the same time. The canary hosts patch first; production follows three hours later. If canary reports failures, delete the still-scheduled production runs before they fire.

Slow-rollout "hold for 30 minutes"

Create a Delayed 30min policy with patch_delay_type=delayed, delay_minutes=30. Assign it to everything. Every approved run goes into scheduled status for 30 minutes before firing. If you realise you approved the wrong thing, delete the scheduled run; otherwise it fires automatically.

Mixed: immediate by default, fixed-window for production

  • Leave most hosts with no assignment. They fall through to the Default (immediate) policy.
  • Create a Prod 03:00 UTC policy and assign it directly to the production group.
  • A patch triggered from the Packages page across the fleet then runs immediately on dev/staging and waits for the next 03:00 UTC on production.
  • Patching Overview: the three core concepts and how patching fits together.
  • Running a Patch: the Patch Wizard flow, including the Timing step that reads the effective policy.
  • Patch History and Live Logs: reading run history, including the policy snapshot shown on each run.
  • Hosts and Groups: managing host groups, which are the usual unit of policy assignment.

Chapter 11: Patch History and Live Logs

The Runs & History tab on the Patching page is where every past and pending patch run lives. This page covers how to read the history table, filter and search it, select runs for bulk actions, and work with the live log stream on the Run Detail page.

Getting to Runs & History

From the left sidebar, click Patching and switch to the Runs & History tab. The URL becomes /patching?tab=runs and is shareable.

  • /patching?tab=runs&status=active: queued + running
  • /patching?tab=runs&status=failed: only failed runs
  • /patching?tab=runs&status=completed: only completed runs
  • /patching?tab=runs&status=pending_approval&type=patch_all: combined filter

These are the same URLs the Patching dashboard cards link to when you click the Total runs / Queued / Completed / Failed tiles at the top of the page.

The Runs & History Table

The table has eight columns on desktop:

Column What it shows
Delete checkbox Selects the row for bulk delete. Only shown for deletable statuses (queued, pending_validation, pending_approval, validated, approved, scheduled).
Approve checkbox Selects the row for bulk approval. Only shown for approvable statuses (validated, pending_validation, pending_approval).
Host Friendly name if set, otherwise hostname, otherwise host UUID. Clickable from the Run Detail page sidebar.
Type Summary of the run type: "Patch all", or a compact list of package names for patch_package (e.g. curl, openssl). Dry-runs render the same way but the status badge tells you it was a validation.
Status The run status badge plus an Extra deps pill when a validated run would install more packages than you requested.
Initiated by The username of the operator who triggered the run. Empty for runs triggered by automation.
Started created_at timestamp for not-yet-started runs, started_at for running / completed runs.
Completed completed_at timestamp if the run has finished, otherwise blank.
Actions Inline action buttons: Retry, Skip & Patch, Approve, View. See Inline row actions below.

On mobile (<768px) the table collapses into per-run cards with the same information stacked vertically. Actions sit at the bottom of each card as full-width buttons.

Pagination and page size

The table is paginated server-side via GET /patching/runs?limit=<N>&offset=<M>. The default is 25 rows per page. You can change the page size to 50, 100, or 200 from the dropdown at the bottom; your choice is remembered in localStorage under patching-runs-limit.

The runs list is sorted by created_at descending by default, with newest runs at the top. The server also accepts sort_by (created_at, started_at, completed_at, status) and sort_dir (asc, desc) but the UI does not expose sort controls today; filter and paginate to narrow the window instead.

Filtering

Two filters are available above the table:

  • Status: All, Active (queued + running), Queued, Pending validation, Pending approval, Validated (awaiting approval), Approved, Scheduled, Running, Completed, Failed, Cancelled.
  • Type: All, Patch all, Patch package.

Filters reset the pagination to page 1. Click Clear filters to remove both. The selected filters are also encoded in the URL, so you can bookmark or share a filtered view.

Empty states

  • If the filters match nothing, the table shows "No runs match your filters" with a prompt to adjust the filter.
  • If there are no runs at all (fresh install), the table shows "No patch runs yet. Patch runs triggered from the Overview tab or from host detail pages will appear here."

Inline Row Actions

The rightmost Actions column shows action buttons specific to the row's current status:

Status Buttons shown
pending_validation Retry (re-queue the dry-run), Skip & Patch (bypass validation and go straight to executing), View
pending_approval Approve, View
validated Approve, View
All others View only

View always opens the Run Detail page at /patching/runs/{id}.

Approve and Skip & Patch both route through the Patch Wizard in approve mode, even for a single row. This is a deliberate consistency choice: every path that turns a validation into a real run uses the same UI, so you get the per-host policy override UI for free (e.g. you can pick "Run immediately" at approval time even if the host normally has a delayed policy).

Retry re-queues the dry-run task without opening the wizard. Use this after bringing an offline host back online. Only available for patch_package runs; patch_all cannot be re-validated because it cannot be dry-run.

Bulk selection and bulk actions

At the top of each row are two optional checkboxes, one for delete and one for approve. Clicking them adds the row to a selection set; the header checkbox selects every eligible row on the current page.

Once at least one row is selected, a bulk action bar appears above the table:

  • Delete N selected: deletes every selected run. This also removes any scheduled asynq task for each run.
  • Approve N selected: opens the Patch Wizard pre-loaded with every selected validation. You get one Timing / Submit sequence for the batch, with per-host policy overrides.

After a bulk approval, the UI shows a summary banner (e.g. "Approved 5, 1 failed"). Failures for individual hosts are surfaced without blocking the other approvals.

You cannot mix a delete selection and an approve selection for the same row. The two checkboxes toggle independently and both sets are tracked. You can clear either selection at any time with the Clear delete or Clear approve buttons.

The Run Detail Page

Click View on any row, or navigate directly to /patching/runs/{id}, to open the Run Detail page. The layout is:

  • Header: back arrow, host name as H1, subtitle with run type / status badge / post-patch pill, and primary action buttons (Approve & Patch, Retry Validation, Skip & Patch, Stop Run) right-aligned.
  • Run summary sidebar (left, on desktop): host, type, initiated by, approved by, started / completed / scheduled-for, link to the linked validation run (when applicable), patch policy in effect, and the full list of packages affected.
  • Primary content (right): state banners for non-terminal statuses (pending_validation, pending_approval, validated), an error panel when error_message is set, and the Shell output terminal.

State banners

The Run Detail page shows a context-specific banner for every non-terminal state so you immediately know what the run is waiting for:

  • Pending validation: "Validation pending. Host may be offline." Explains that you can retry when the host is back, or skip validation.
  • Pending approval: "Awaiting approval." Explains that the run was submitted for approval and needs a second reviewer.
  • Validated: "Validation complete. Approval required." If the run would install more packages than you asked for, the banner includes the dependency count so you know to review the Packages affected panel.

Polling cadence

While the page is open, the Run Detail query refetches on a status-dependent interval:

  • queued, pending_validation: every 3 seconds.
  • running: every 5 seconds if the live WebSocket is open, every 3 seconds otherwise (the faster poll is a safety net if the WebSocket drops).
  • completed and the host is still flagged as "awaiting post-patch inventory report": every 3 seconds so the Awaiting inventory report pill flips to New report received as soon as the agent's next report arrives.
  • Everything else: no automatic refetch.

Live Log Streaming

When a run is running, the Run Detail page opens a WebSocket to /api/v1/patching/runs/{id}/stream. Authentication is the same JWT cookie you use for the rest of the UI; the outer Auth middleware handles the upgrade.

Message types

The stream speaks JSON. Three message types arrive from the server:

// Sent exactly once when the browser connects
{ "type": "snapshot",
  "patch_run_id": "...",
  "stage": "running",
  "shell_output": "Reading package lists...\n...",
  "error_message": "" }

// Sent for each line-buffered stdout/stderr chunk the agent pushes
{ "type": "chunk",
  "patch_run_id": "...",
  "stage": "progress",
  "chunk": "Setting up libssl3 (3.0.2-0ubuntu1.15)...\n" }

// Sent once when the run reaches a terminal stage on the agent
{ "type": "done",
  "patch_run_id": "...",
  "stage": "completed",        // or failed / cancelled / validated / dry_run_completed
  "error_message": "" }

The browser appends every chunk.chunk to its local terminal buffer. When done arrives, the browser closes the socket and invalidates the run query so the page refetches the final persisted state.

Keepalive

The server sends a WebSocket ping frame every 30 seconds to keep the connection alive through proxies and load balancers. Write operations use a 10-second deadline; a stuck client is dropped rather than pinning a goroutine. There is no agent or server-side retry logic for the browser socket. If the page reconnects (for example, after a brief network blip), the snapshot replays the full buffered output, and any missed chunks that were persisted to the database are included in it.

Why you may see "(No output yet)"

There's a small window after clicking Queue & patch where the run is still queued:

  • The asynq worker has not yet dequeued the task.
  • The agent has not yet received the run_patch command.
  • No output has been published.

The terminal shows "(No output yet)" during this window. The status badge tells you Queued; once the agent flips to running, the first chunk arrives within a second or two.

Terminal rendering

The Run Detail page renders output in a GitHub-dark-styled <pre> at ~420px tall (55vh max). It is scrollable and word-wrapping is preserved. Progress-bar \r characters from apt-get and dpkg are converted to \n so each progress update becomes its own line in the scrollback. You lose the animated overwrite but gain readability.

If you scroll up manually (more than ~32px from the bottom) the UI stops auto-scrolling so it doesn't fight you. Scroll back to within 32px of the bottom and auto-scroll resumes.

Copying output

When the run is in any non-running, non-queued state, a Copy output button appears above the terminal. It copies the full shell_output to your clipboard via navigator.clipboard.writeText. Use this to paste into a ticket, email, or post-incident report.

No Built-in Export or Download

There is no server-side export endpoint for runs. You cannot download a run's log as a file, and there is no CSV/JSON export of the Runs & History table. Options if you need one:

  • For a single run: use Copy output on the Run Detail page and paste into a file yourself.
  • For bulk analysis: hit the API directly (GET /api/v1/patching/runs?limit=200&offset=0) and write the JSON to disk. The API is paginated to 200 rows max per request, and authenticates with the same JWT bearer token as the web UI.

Note: The listed GET /patching/runs response includes the run metadata (status, timestamps, host info, package list) but not the full shell output. To get shell output in bulk, iterate over run IDs and fetch each with GET /patching/runs/{id}.

Notifications for Runs

Run lifecycle events emit notifications via the normal notifications pipeline. Destinations like SMTP, webhooks, or ntfy configured in Settings → Notifications see them. The events are:

Event type Emitted when Default severity
patch_run_started Agent reports running stage informational
patch_run_approved An operator approves a validation informational
patch_run_completed Agent reports completed stage (non-dry-run) informational
patch_run_failed Agent reports failed stage error
patch_run_cancelled An operator deletes a not-yet-running run informational

The notification message includes the host name, patch type, package list (truncated to 5 with "... and N more"), effective policy name, and (for failures) the captured error message truncated to 300 characters. Severity is resolved via the per-event alert settings, so you can raise or lower the default by event type in the alerts configuration.

Deleting Runs

Runs in queued, pending_validation, pending_approval, validated, approved, or scheduled state can be deleted. Deletion:

  1. Removes the row from patch_runs.
  2. Removes the asynq task (patch-run-<id> and patch-run-<id>-retry if it exists) from the queue.
  3. Emits a patch_run_cancelled notification event.

Terminal runs (completed, failed, cancelled, dry_run_completed) cannot be deleted from the UI; they are historical audit records. If you need to purge old runs for storage reasons, contact support or write a direct database query targeting patch_runs.created_at.

Running runs cannot be deleted. Use Stop Run (see Running a Patch) instead; that issues a graceful cancel through the agent.

  • Patching Overview: the three core concepts: run, policy, dry-run.
  • Running a Patch: detailed walkthrough of triggering, approving, and stopping a run.
  • Patch Policies and Scheduling: policy model, assignments, and how the schedule is computed.
  • Alerts and Notifications: configure where patch run events get delivered.

Chapter 12: Enabling Docker Integration

Overview

The PatchMon agent includes an optional Docker integration that discovers containers, images, volumes, and networks on the host and reports them to the PatchMon server. When enabled, the agent also subscribes to the Docker event stream and relays container lifecycle events (start, stop, die, pause, unpause, kill, destroy) as status updates, keeping the fleet-wide Docker inventory broadly in sync with what is running.

This page covers what the integration does, how to enable it per host from the PatchMon UI, what the agent needs on the host, how config.yml reflects the toggle, and what to check when the integration doesn't report.

Module gate: The Docker views (/docker/* routes, Docker tabs on Host Detail) require the docker module to be enabled on your plan. Plans without the module show a tier badge on the Docker tab and an upgrade prompt when you navigate to /docker.

Permission required: can_manage_hosts to toggle the integration; can_view_hosts to see the resulting inventory.

What the Integration Does

When enabled on a host, the agent:

  1. Discovers inventory on each report: lists all containers (running and stopped), images (including intermediate layers PatchMon elects to ignore), volumes (local / NFS / custom driver), and networks (bridge / host / overlay / macvlan / user-defined).
  2. Streams container events in real time: subscribes to the Docker daemon's event bus. Each relevant event (start, stop, die, pause, unpause, kill, destroy) is translated into a container_start / container_stop / container_die / container_pause / container_unpause / container_kill / container_destroy status event and pushed to the server over the agent's WebSocket.
  3. Resolves image provenance: for each image, PatchMon attempts to attribute it to a registry (Docker Hub, GHCR, GitLab, Quay, ECR, ACR, GCR, local, private) and makes the registry entry clickable when possible.
  4. Tracks available updates: compares the running image tag against available tags in the registry (where the registry allows it) and flags images with newer versions.
  5. Feeds the Compliance module: if compliance scanning is also enabled for the host, Docker Bench for Security can run as an additional scanner (see the Compliance chapter).

The resulting data powers two places in the UI:

  • The Docker Inventory page at /docker: fleet-wide view across all hosts. See Docker Inventory Tour.
  • The Docker tab on the Host Detail page: the same data filtered to one host.

Agent Prerequisites on the Host

The Docker integration talks directly to the Docker daemon through the Unix socket. What the agent needs on the host:

Requirement Detail
Docker Engine installed Any reasonably recent version; the agent uses the Go Docker client SDK.
Docker socket present The agent looks for /var/run/docker.sock. If the socket is missing (Docker not installed, or not yet started), the integration reports as unavailable.
Agent has read access to the socket The agent runs as root, which has access on standard installs. On hosts where docker.sock is mode 0660 and owned by root:docker, root access is fine. Custom Docker configurations that tighten socket permissions further may need adjustment.
Docker daemon responsive The agent pings the daemon when it first checks availability; a responsive ping confirms Docker is up. If Docker is installed but the service isn't running, the agent waits for it and retries rather than crashing.

The Docker binary (docker) is not required on the PATH. The agent uses the Docker Engine API directly via the socket, so the CLI is optional. You can verify the socket path and daemon version from the host with a quick command:

ls -l /var/run/docker.sock
docker version   # if the CLI is installed

Windows hosts: The agent's Docker integration is Linux / FreeBSD only. Windows hosts do not surface the Docker tab regardless of whether Docker Desktop is installed.

Enabling the Integration from the UI

There are two places to switch it on:

On a new host during enrolment

On step 2 of the Add Host wizard (Host details), the Integrations section has a Docker toggle. Tick it before clicking Next. When the agent first connects, it will already have docker: true in its config.yml and start collecting data on the first report.

See Adding a Host.

On an existing host

  1. Open Hosts → click the host's friendly name to open its Host Detail page.
  2. Click the Integrations tab.
  3. Find the Docker panel.
  4. Click the toggle at the right of the panel to set it to Enabled.
  5. A yellow banner appears at the top of the tab and the page header: Pending configuration changes.
  6. Click Apply in the page header to push the change to the agent over the WebSocket.

The agent then:

  • Updates config.yml to set integrations.docker: true.
  • Re-initialises its integration manager.
  • Starts collecting Docker inventory on the next reporting cycle (typically within one report interval; the default is 60 minutes, but the initial report after enabling is sent immediately).
  • Begins streaming container events.

What "Pending configuration changes" means

The toggle on the UI writes the desired state to the PatchMon server. The change is only actually sent to the agent when you click Apply, which broadcasts the new config over the WebSocket. If the agent is offline, Apply is disabled and the banner tells you so. The change waits in pending state until the agent reconnects.

You'll see integrations.docker change in the agent's config.yml shortly after Apply is clicked, without needing to restart the service (the update interval and integration toggles are synced at runtime).

Disabling the Integration

From the same Integrations tab on the host:

  1. Click the Docker toggle to Disabled.
  2. Click Apply in the page header.

After the change is applied:

  • The agent stops discovering Docker inventory.
  • Existing inventory records remain in PatchMon (so historical queries and event history are preserved), but the agent will no longer refresh them.
  • Container event streaming is stopped.

Disabling does not remove Docker from the host or stop containers; it only instructs the agent to stop monitoring.

How It Looks in config.yml

The agent config file is located at:

  • Linux / FreeBSD: /etc/patchmon/config.yml
  • Windows: C:\ProgramData\PatchMon\config.yml

The integrations block contains the Docker toggle:

integrations:
  docker: true          # Enabled by the UI toggle
  compliance:
    enabled: false
    on_demand_only: true
    openscap_enabled: true
    docker_bench_enabled: false

See Agent Config YML Reference for the full schema and how each field behaves.

You can enable Docker integration by editing the config file directly, but using the UI toggle is strongly preferred: it keeps the server's view of the host in sync with the config and prevents a subsequent Apply from silently overwriting your edit.

When Docker Integration Doesn't Report

Symptoms you might see:

  • The Docker tab never appears on the Host Detail page, even after enabling the integration and clicking Apply.
  • The host enabled Docker, but no containers or images appear at /docker.
  • Real-time status (container start / stop) doesn't update.

Work through the checks below in order.

1. Confirm the server saw the toggle

On the Host Detail page, open the Integrations tab. The Docker panel should show Enabled with a green badge. If it shows Disabled: the change was not saved. Toggle again and click Apply.

2. Confirm the agent received the config

On the host:

sudo grep -A 4 '^integrations:' /etc/patchmon/config.yml

Expect:

integrations:
  docker: true
  ...

If the file still shows docker: false, the Apply button wasn't clicked or the agent's WebSocket wasn't connected at the time. Back in the UI, look at the page header. If the Apply button is still visible, click it again (the agent must be connected).

3. Confirm the Docker socket is accessible

ls -l /var/run/docker.sock
sudo docker ps        # agent runs as root, so sudo mimics its view

If the socket is missing, Docker isn't installed or isn't running. Install / start Docker and watch the next report.

4. Look at the agent's log for Docker errors

sudo tail -n 50 /etc/patchmon/logs/patchmon-agent.log | grep -i docker

Typical messages:

  • Docker socket not found: Docker isn't installed, or the socket has a non-standard path.
  • Failed to create Docker client: the socket exists but the agent can't open a client; check permissions.
  • Docker container event: confirms the event stream is active and receiving events.
  • Docker daemon ping failed, retrying: Docker is installed but unresponsive. The agent will keep retrying.

For the full logging reference, see Managing the PatchMon Agent.

5. Force a report and recheck

Back in the UI, on the Host Detail page, click Fetch Report. The agent collects a fresh inventory (including Docker) and reports immediately. Watch the Docker tab count badges update.

6. Refresh integration status

On the Integrations tab, the Refresh Status button asks the agent to report its current integration readiness state. Useful after installing Docker, fixing socket permissions, or starting the Docker service.

7. Module gate

If the Docker tab shows a tier badge instead of content, the docker module is not enabled on your plan. Contact your PatchMon administrator to enable it on the subscription plan.

  • Docker Inventory Tour: what the inventory looks like once the integration is working.
  • Host Detail Page: where the Integrations tab lives and how Apply works.
  • Adding a Host: enable Docker at enrolment time.
  • Agent Config YML Reference: every field in config.yml, including the integrations block.
  • Managing the PatchMon Agent: agent logs, diagnostics, and service management.

Chapter 13: Docker Inventory Tour

Overview

Once the Docker integration is enabled on one or more hosts, PatchMon aggregates the discovered containers, images, volumes, and networks into a fleet-wide Docker Inventory. The inventory answers "what's running where" questions: which hosts have Docker, which containers are running, which images are out of date, and which volumes and networks exist across the estate.

This page is a guided tour of /docker (the fleet view), /docker/hosts/:id (per-host view), and the detail pages for containers, images, volumes, and networks.

Module required: docker. Plans without the module show a tier-badge prompt on the Docker tab and the /docker routes. Contact your PatchMon administrator to enable it.

Permission required: can_view_hosts to view the inventory; can_manage_hosts to delete Docker resources from the UI.

Getting to the Docker Page

Click Docker in the left navigation. You land on /docker with Stacks selected by default. The URL accepts a ?tab= parameter (stacks, containers, images, volumes, networks, hosts) so you can deep-link to a specific tab.

If no hosts have the Docker integration enabled, the list sections are empty. See Enabling Docker Integration to turn it on for a host.

Top-of-Page Statistics

Four summary cards sit above the tabs:

Card Meaning Click behaviour
Hosts with Docker Hosts actively reporting Docker inventory –
Running Containers running / total counts across the fleet –
Total Images Distinct images reported across all hosts –
Updates Available Images PatchMon knows have newer tags in their registry Opens the Images tab filtered to Updates available

These figures come from the /docker/dashboard endpoint and are refreshed every 30 seconds automatically while the page is open.

Tab Strip

Six tabs. Each has a counter badge to show at a glance how big the fleet is across that dimension:

  • Stacks: containers grouped by their Compose project / stack label.
  • Containers: every container on every host.
  • Images: every image on every host.
  • Volumes: every volume on every host.
  • Networks: every network on every host.
  • Hosts: a directory of hosts with Docker enabled.

Clicking a tab resets the page's search field and sets a sensible default sort for that view (status on containers, repository on images, name elsewhere).

Stacks tab

Groups running containers by their Compose project / stack label. Each group card shows:

  • Stack name.
  • Number of containers in the stack, broken down by status.
  • Host the stack runs on (stacks are scoped per host; a stack of the same name on two hosts appears twice).
  • Links to the individual containers and their images.

Use this tab when you think in terms of "my wordpress stack" rather than "individual containers".

Containers tab

One row per container. Columns include:

  • Name: click to open the container detail page (/docker/containers/:id).
  • Image: the image tag, with registry-aware linking (click a Docker Hub image to jump to Docker Hub, GHCR to GitHub, etc.).
  • Status: colour-coded badge: running (green), exited (red), paused (yellow), restarting (blue), or plain for other states.
  • Host: friendly name of the host the container lives on. Click to jump to the per-host Docker view.
  • Optional columns: created timestamp, ports, state transitions.

Filters:

  • Search across name, image, and host.
  • Status filter: All, Running, Exited, Paused, Restarting.
  • Sort by name, image, status (with secondary sort by name within status), or host.

Actions:

  • Delete (trash icon): deletes the container via the agent. Requires can_manage_hosts. Errors are surfaced in an alert.

Images tab

One row per image. Rows show:

  • Repository + tag (and registry link when recognised).
  • Size.
  • Source (Docker Hub, GHCR, GitLab, Quay, ECR, ACR, GCR, local, private, unknown) as a coloured badge.
  • Container count: how many containers on which hosts reference this image.
  • Update indicator: a chip when a newer tag is available in the registry.

Filters include source type and an Updates available filter (the same filter the top Updates Available card opens).

Clicking an image opens /docker/images/:id: the image detail page with a list of the hosts that have the image and the containers using it.

Volumes tab

One row per volume with:

  • Name, driver (local, nfs, custom).
  • Mountpoint on the host.
  • Host the volume lives on.
  • Container count: how many containers mount it.

Filter by Driver and search. Click a volume name to open /docker/volumes/:id, which shows which containers currently mount it, along with the host.

Networks tab

One row per network with:

  • Name, driver (bridge, host, overlay, macvlan, none, custom), scope.
  • IPAM subnet / gateway.
  • Host the network exists on.
  • Container count.

Filter by Driver and search. Click a network name to open /docker/networks/:id with container membership.

Hosts tab

A compact directory of hosts that have the Docker integration enabled, sorted alphabetically by friendly name. Each row summarises container / image counts for that host and links to the per-host Docker view at /docker/hosts/:id.

Use this tab as the starting point when you want to focus on a single host rather than pivot by resource type.

Per-Host Docker View

The URL /docker/hosts/:id (and the row link on the Hosts tab) opens a view scoped to one host. It shows:

  • The host's friendly name, hostname, and a link back to the main Host Detail page.
  • Container and image counts, running / exited / paused breakdowns.
  • The host's container list, grouped by stack where available.
  • The host's image list.

This view is equivalent to the Docker tab on the host's main Host Detail page (see Host Detail Page). Either works. Pick whichever route you land on.

Resource Detail Pages

Each Docker resource has its own detail page. They follow the same pattern: top section with identifying metadata, cards with stats, related resources, and any actions.

Container detail: /docker/containers/:id

Shows the container's name, image, status, ports, host, created and started timestamps, restart policy, command and entrypoint, labels, mounts, and networks.

A Similar containers strip at the bottom lists other containers using the same image across the fleet, useful for "is this redis:7 running anywhere else?" questions.

Image detail: /docker/images/:id

Shows repository, tag, digest, size, architecture, OS, labels, history (layers), and the registry link.

Below, two lists:

  • Hosts with this image: every host pulling it, with the tag they currently have.
  • Containers using this image: every container across the fleet referencing this image.

An Updates panel appears when a newer tag is available in the source registry.

Volume detail: /docker/volumes/:id

Shows driver, mountpoint, size (when Docker reports it), labels, and options. The Containers using this volume list shows where it is mounted.

Network detail: /docker/networks/:id

Shows driver, scope, IPAM configuration, and options. The Containers attached list shows what's connected to the network.

How the Data Stays Current

Docker data flows into PatchMon on two channels:

Periodic inventory reports

Every time the agent runs its regular report cycle (default: 60 minutes, configurable server-side), it enumerates containers, images, volumes, and networks and sends the snapshot to the server. The full inventory in /docker reflects the last snapshot from each host.

To force an immediate refresh for a single host, open its Host Detail page and click Fetch Report.

Real-time container events

When the Docker integration is enabled, the agent also subscribes to the Docker event stream and pushes container lifecycle events over its existing WebSocket connection. The relevant event types are:

  • container_start (maps to running)
  • container_stop / container_die / container_kill (all map to exited)
  • container_pause (paused)
  • container_unpause (running)
  • container_destroy (removed)

The server records these events against the container record so that, for example, a container crash is visible in the UI within seconds rather than waiting for the next full report.

UI refresh cadence

On top of those agent-driven pushes, the /docker page itself refreshes the dashboard summary every 30 seconds via polling, and per-tab queries refetch when you switch tabs. The manual Refresh button (top right, circular arrow) forces an immediate refetch of whichever tab is active.

Tip: If you change something on a host (start / stop a container, pull an image) and want to see it in the UI, the event should appear within a few seconds via the WebSocket push. A full refresh of image / volume / network inventory waits for the next report. Use Fetch Report on the Host Detail page if you can't wait.

Deleting Docker Resources

Containers, images, volumes, and networks can be deleted from their table rows (trash icon) or from their detail pages. Deletion:

  • Requires can_manage_hosts.
  • Opens a confirmation modal listing the resource and its host.
  • Sends a delete command to the agent over the WebSocket.
  • The agent executes the equivalent docker rm / docker rmi / docker volume rm / docker network rm and reports the outcome back.

If Docker refuses (for example because a container is still running, or an image is still referenced by a container), the UI surfaces the error inline.

Search and Sort Persistence

Search and filter state are per-tab and reset when you switch tabs (so switching from Containers to Images doesn't carry a container-specific filter into the Images view). Sort field and direction reset to the tab's default when you switch, too.

The main Refresh button also clears any per-tab "updates available" filter that was set via the dashboard card click.

  • Enabling Docker Integration: how to switch the integration on for a host.
  • Host Detail Page: the per-host Docker tab, equivalent to /docker/hosts/:id.
  • Managing the PatchMon Agent: the agent that collects the Docker data.
  • Agent Config YML Reference: the integrations.docker setting in config.yml.

Chapter 14: Compliance Overview

What Compliance Scanning Is

Compliance scanning evaluates your hosts against published security benchmarks: CIS Benchmarks for the operating system and Docker Bench for Security for container hosts. Results are reported per rule (pass, fail, warning) back to the web UI, giving you a fleet-wide compliance score, per-host rule detail, and optional auto-remediation for failed rules.

Scanning is performed by the PatchMon agent on each host, not by the server. The agent runs the scanner locally, parses the output, and submits structured results back to the server via POST /api/v1/compliance/scans. The server aggregates the data into dashboards and rule views.

This page covers the overall model: what the scanners are, how SSG content is delivered in 2.0, the module gate, and the permission matrix. For walkthroughs of actually running scans and reading results, see Running Compliance Scans and Results and Remediation.

Module Gate

All compliance UI and API routes are gated by the compliance capability module. Some plans (smaller tiers) do not include compliance at all; on those plans the Security Compliance sidebar item is hidden and the corresponding API endpoints return 403.

UI area Required module
Security Compliance page (all tabs) compliance
Host Detail → Compliance tab compliance
Compliance-related per-host settings (mode, scanner toggles, default profile) compliance

If the module is disabled, the Host Detail page shows an "Upgrade required" placeholder in the Compliance tab and the dashboard hides compliance cards.

Permission Matrix

Compliance uses three RBAC permissions on top of the module gate. Each API route applies a specific combination:

Action Required permission Example route
View the dashboard, scan history, host compliance detail, rule detail, trends, and active scan list can_view_reports GET /compliance/dashboard, GET /compliance/scans/{hostId}
Trigger scans (single or bulk), cancel a running scan, install the scanner, upgrade SSG content, trigger per-rule remediation can_manage_compliance POST /compliance/trigger/{hostId}, POST /compliance/cancel/{hostId}, POST /compliance/remediate/{hostId}
Change per-host compliance mode, per-host scanner toggles (OpenSCAP / Docker Bench), default profile for a host can_manage_hosts POST /hosts/{hostId}/integrations/compliance/mode, POST /hosts/{hostId}/integrations/compliance/scanners

In practice a "compliance operator" role typically has can_view_reports + can_manage_compliance; a "host owner" role typically has can_manage_hosts so they can enable or disable compliance on their own hosts. A pure auditor role with can_view_reports alone can see everything but cannot change anything.

Note: The release-notes shorthand of "can_view_reports and can_manage_hosts" doesn't quite line up with the handler: triggering a scan requires can_manage_compliance, not can_manage_hosts. Use the table above as the source of truth.

The Two Scanners

The compliance integration on the agent (patchmon-agent/internal/integrations/compliance/compliance.go) runs two independent scanners. A "scan" as submitted to the server is actually an array of sub-scans, one per scanner that ran successfully.

1. OpenSCAP: CIS Benchmarks

What it is. OpenSCAP is the OS-level security compliance scanner. On supported Linux distributions it evaluates the host against the CIS Benchmark datastreams published by SCAP Security Guide (SSG). The agent picks the relevant ssg-*-ds.xml datastream for the host's OS and runs oscap xccdf eval against it.

Profile levels. Each datastream ships with two CIS-derived profiles:

  • CIS Level 1 Server (level1_server): the baseline profile, intended for general-purpose systems with minimal operational impact. This is the default profile used for ad-hoc scans.
  • CIS Level 2 Server (level2_server): the extended profile, for environments that require defence-in-depth (classified/regulated workloads). Some L2 rules impose real operational restrictions (e.g. disabling wireless where it's present).

The per-host default profile setting (Host Detail → Integrations → Compliance) controls which profile is used for scheduled scans. A manual scan can override the default by passing profile_id in the trigger request; the Host Detail Compliance tab exposes this as "Pick a profile".

Supported operating systems (as surfaced by the Compliance Settings panel):

OS Profiles shipped in SSG
Ubuntu CIS Level 1 Server, CIS Level 2 Server
Debian CIS Level 1 Server, CIS Level 2 Server
RHEL CIS Level 1 Server, CIS Level 2 Server
CentOS CIS Level 1 Server, CIS Level 2 Server
Rocky Linux CIS Level 1 Server, CIS Level 2 Server
AlmaLinux CIS Level 1 Server, CIS Level 2 Server
Fedora CIS Level 1 Server, CIS Level 2 Server
SLES CIS Level 1 Server, CIS Level 2 Server
OpenSUSE CIS Level 1 Server, CIS Level 2 Server

Any host OS not listed has no SSG datastream available and OpenSCAP scans will be skipped on it. The scanner is still "available" in the integrations metadata if oscap is installed; it just has nothing to evaluate.

Default per-host state: OpenSCAP is enabled by default on every host that has compliance turned on. This is controlled by the compliance_openscap_enabled host flag, defaulted to true in 1.4.2 and preserved on upgrade.

2. Docker Bench for Security

What it is. Docker Bench is the container-host security scanner from the Center for Internet Security. It evaluates the Docker daemon, its configuration files, running containers, images, and Swarm configuration against the CIS Docker Benchmark. Rules are categorised into sections:

  • Host Configuration
  • Docker Daemon Configuration
  • Docker Daemon Configuration Files
  • Container Images and Build File
  • Container Runtime
  • Docker Security Operations
  • Docker Swarm Configuration

Results use a different status model from OpenSCAP: instead of pass/fail, most Docker Bench rules either pass or emit a warning. There are very few hard fails. The Compliance dashboard surfaces Docker Bench statistics separately in the "Docker Bench Analysis" section, with "Warnings by Section" charts instead of the severity-based ones used for OpenSCAP.

When it runs. Docker Bench runs only when both of the following are true:

  1. The Docker integration is enabled on the host (the scanner reads the same Docker socket).
  2. Docker Bench is enabled on the per-host scanner toggle.

If either is off, Docker Bench is skipped even if the binary is installed.

Default per-host state: Docker Bench is disabled by default on every host (per 1.4.2). You must explicitly toggle it on per host (Host Detail → Integrations → Compliance → Docker Bench). Most hosts do not run Docker, and running Docker Bench on a host without Docker produces a long list of misleading "Docker daemon not running" failures.

Per-Host Scanner Configuration

Every host that has compliance enabled exposes four compliance-related fields, manageable from the Host Detail → Integrations → Compliance panel or from the Compliance page's Hosts tab:

Field Values Meaning
compliance_mode disabled, on-demand, enabled Overall compliance switch for this host. disabled means the agent does not run any scanner. on-demand means scans run only when manually triggered. enabled means scans run on the fleet-wide compliance_scan_interval.
compliance_openscap_enabled true / false Whether OpenSCAP runs on this host. Default true.
compliance_docker_bench_enabled true / false Whether Docker Bench runs on this host. Default false.
compliance_default_profile_id profile ID or null The OpenSCAP profile used for scheduled / "all profiles" scans on this host. Null means the agent defaults to level1_server.

Changes to these fields are queued as pending config and pushed to the agent on the next heartbeat via the Apply Pending Config flow (see Managing the PatchMon Agent). They do not take effect until the agent confirms receipt.

Mode: disabled vs on-demand vs enabled

  • Disabled: nothing runs on this host. The scanner integration is marked off and the Compliance UI shows "Disabled" in the Mode column.
  • On-demand: the scheduled-scan path is disabled but manual Run Scan buttons still work. Use this when you only want to scan on investigation.
  • Enabled: the agent runs scheduled scans at the fleet-wide interval set in Security Compliance → Settings → Scan Interval (default 24 hours, configurable from 6 hours to 7 days).

The fleet-wide default compliance mode (Security Compliance → Settings → Default Compliance Mode) applies only to newly registered hosts. Existing hosts keep their current mode across server upgrades.

SSG Content Is Bundled in the Server Binary

This is one of the most important architectural changes in 2.0 for compliance.

In 1.x and earlier, each agent fetched SCAP Security Guide (SSG) content from GitHub at scan time. That required every agent to have outbound access to github.com, created occasional transient failures when GitHub was unavailable, and allowed agents to drift to different SSG versions depending on when they last pulled.

In 2.0, SSG and CIS benchmarking content is bundled with the server binary at build time and served from a single SSG_CONTENT_DIR on the server. Agents now fetch content from the server itself, via two new endpoints:

  • GET /api/v1/compliance/ssg-version, returns the SSG version string and the list of ssg-*-ds.xml files available.
  • GET /api/v1/compliance/ssg-content/{filename}, streams a specific datastream file to the agent.

Both endpoints accept agent API-key authentication.

What this means operationally

  • No external network calls at scan time. Agents in air-gapped environments no longer need GitHub access; they need server access, which they already had for heartbeats.
  • One SSG version across the fleet. Every agent gets the same content bundle. The Compliance Settings page shows the active version and the list of content files under OpenSCAP Content.
  • Version-pinned scanning. Because the server binary ships with the content, upgrading the server is the way to get new SSG rules. You can also trigger a per-host UpgradeSSG job (Host Detail → Integrations → Compliance) to push the current server-bundled version to that host.

Where to see the active version

Security Compliance → Settings → OpenSCAP Content shows:

  • The SSG version string (e.g. 0.1.77).
  • The number of content files bundled.
  • A collapsible list of every ssg-*-ds.xml filename.
  • The table of supported OSes and their profiles.

Where Compliance Lives in the UI

There are three ways in:

  1. Security Compliance (top-level sidebar): the fleet-wide view. Five tabs: Overview (dashboard), Hosts (per-host table with scan controls), Scan Results (drill into rules), History (chronological scan list), Settings (default mode, interval, SSG content).
  2. Hosts → select a host → Compliance tab: per-host drill-down with the same scan controls, latest scan summary, rule breakdown by status / severity / section, and a per-rule remediation action.
  3. Dashboard → Compliance cards: the main PatchMon dashboard includes a compliance summary card that deep-links into the Compliance page with the relevant filter applied. Hidden when the compliance module is disabled.

The top of every compliance view has five status cards: Total hosts, Compliant, Warning, Critical, Never scanned. Clicking "Never scanned" filters the Hosts tab to just the never-scanned subset so you can fix coverage gaps.

What a Scan Looks Like End-to-End

A typical ad-hoc scan flows like this:

  1. An operator clicks Run Scan on a host (either from the Compliance Hosts tab or from the Host Detail page).
  2. The browser calls POST /compliance/trigger/{hostId}. The server clears any stale "cancel" flag for this host in Redis, enqueues a run_scan task on the compliance asynq queue, and returns the job ID.
  3. The task dequeues and sends a run_scan WebSocket command to the agent. The server updates the compliance_scans record to running status as soon as the agent confirms receipt.
  4. The agent runs one or both scanners in sequence. OpenSCAP calls oscap xccdf eval against the SSG datastream; Docker Bench calls docker-bench-security (bundled with the agent).
  5. Each sub-scan produces structured rule results. The agent batches them into a CompliancePayload and submits via POST /api/v1/compliance/scans.
  6. The server's ReceiveScans handler validates API credentials, applies a 10-requests-per-minute rate limit, and writes the scan + results into the database in a single transaction. It honours the per-host openscap_enabled and docker_bench_enabled flags on the server side too, so accidental submissions from a scanner the host has disabled are rejected.
  7. On success, the server emits a compliance_scan_completed notification event (with per-profile summaries) and, if any scan errored, a separate compliance_scan_failed event.
  8. The UI's active-scan poll sees the row disappear from the active_scans endpoint, shows a toast "Compliance scan completed", and the dashboard refetches.

Scheduled scans go through the same run_scan → agent → ReceiveScans pipeline; only the initiator differs.

Stuck Scans and Auto-Cleanup

Compliance scans can take a long time: a full OpenSCAP L2 scan on a mid-size host can run 15–45 minutes, so PatchMon has an explicit stall detection threshold rather than a short timeout.

A scan is considered stalled if it has been in running status for more than 3 hours without completing. A recurring asynq job (ComplianceScanCleanup, at POST /api/v1/compliance/scans/cleanup) runs periodically and moves every stalled scan to a terminal state with the error message Scan terminated automatically after running for more than 3 hours. This guarantees the Scans in Progress widget doesn't accumulate ghost scans and frees up the per-host "currently scanning" flag.

The GET /compliance/scans/stalled endpoint lets you see which scans are about to be cleaned up. The Compliance page exposes this via the stalled-scans widget (when any rows exist).

  • Running Compliance Scans: triggering scans, bulk scan modal, cancelling, handling stuck scans.
  • Results and Remediation: reading the dashboard, drilling into host detail and rule detail, auto-remediation.
  • Docker Monitoring: Docker integration prerequisite for Docker Bench.
  • Managing the PatchMon Agent: Apply Pending Config flow used to push compliance toggles to agents.
  • Release Notes - 1.4.0: the release that introduced compliance scanning.
  • Release Notes - 1.4.2: per-host scanner toggles, scan cancel, 3h auto-cleanup.
  • Release Notes - 2.0.0: bundled SSG content and the rewrite.

Chapter 15: Running Compliance Scans

This page covers how to trigger a compliance scan, watch it progress, cancel it if needed, and set up scheduled scans across the fleet. All actions are from the web UI; everything runs against a logged-in session with the compliance module enabled.

You need can_manage_compliance to trigger, cancel, or install scanners; can_view_reports to watch progress without changing anything; and can_manage_hosts to change per-host compliance mode or scanner toggles.

Three Ways to Start a Scan

Entry point Best for Scope
Host Detail → Run Scan button Investigating a single host 1 host, "all profiles" (whatever scanners are enabled for that host)
Security Compliance → Hosts tab → green Play button Re-scanning a specific host from the fleet view 1 host, "all profiles"
Security Compliance → Scheduled, via fleet interval Ongoing coverage across hosts where compliance mode is enabled Every host with mode=enabled, runs periodically

Bulk ad-hoc scans across a selected host set are also supported. See Bulk Scans below.

Triggering a Scan on One Host

From the Host Detail page

  1. Open Hosts → select the host → Compliance tab (also reachable via Security Compliance → host row → host name link).
  2. Look at the top-right of the Compliance tab. You'll see:
    • A Connected or Disconnected pill: this is the agent's WebSocket connection status. Scans require a connected agent.
    • A Run Scan button (green with a Play icon).
  3. Click Run Scan. The UI calls POST /api/v1/compliance/trigger/{hostId} with profile_type=all (run every scanner enabled for this host).
  4. The button flips to a spinner with "Scanning…" and a toast confirms "Compliance scan triggered". The response includes a jobId you can correlate with server logs if needed.

If the agent is disconnected, the button is disabled and the tooltip reads "Host is disconnected". Re-enable connectivity (see Managing the PatchMon Agent) before retrying.

You can also pick a specific profile instead of running all scanners:

  1. On the Host Detail Compliance tab, expand the profile selector (if visible for your role) and choose a profile, for example, level2_server instead of the default level1_server.
  2. Tick Enable Remediation if you want the agent to apply OpenSCAP's remediation scripts for any failed rule during this scan. Remediation in-scan is destructive, only tick this when you've reviewed what the rules would do.
  3. Click Run Scan. The request body includes profile_type, profile_id, and enable_remediation.

From the Security Compliance Hosts tab

  1. Open Security Compliance → Hosts tab. You see a table of every compliance-enabled host.
  2. Click the green Play button in the Run column for the host you want to scan. This has exactly the same effect as Run Scan on Host Detail, with profile_type=all.
  3. Watch the row turn blue: the Last activity column shows an animated "OpenSCAP" / "Docker Bench" / "Scanning…" label while the scan is in progress.

The Play button turns into a red StopCircle button when the scan is active. Click it to cancel. See Cancelling a Scan below.

Watching Scan Progress

There is no live log stream for compliance scans (unlike patch runs). Instead, the UI relies on active-scan polling.

The active-scans widget

On the Compliance page Overview tab, when any scan is running, a blue Scans in Progress card appears with a spinner. Each running scan is shown as a pill with:

The list also appears inline above the hosts table and refetches via GET /api/v1/compliance/scans/active every 30 seconds while scans are active, and every 2 minutes when idle. The dashboard uses the same cadence.

The pending-scans window

Between the moment you click Run Scan and the moment the agent updates the DB row to running, there's a few-second gap where the scan exists as an asynq task but not yet as a database row. The UI bridges this with pendingScans state: the just-triggered host shows up in the active-scans widget with a "Triggering…" status immediately, and is replaced by the real DB row once it lands (or removed after 60 seconds if no corresponding scan shows up).

Completion notifications

When an active scan disappears from the /compliance/scans/active response, the UI compares against the previous poll's active-scan set and shows a success toast:

  • "Compliance scan completed" for a generic completion.
  • "Scan completed for host name" for a tracked pending scan.

The dashboard and the history tab refetch automatically at this point.

Per-rule progress during scanner install

If the host doesn't have OpenSCAP or the CIS benchmark content installed yet, the first action is usually to install the scanner, which has its own progress model. See Installing the Scanner below.

Cancelling a Scan

A scan can be cancelled while it is running. Unlike patch runs, there is no "Stop Run" confirmation modal. Cancel is a one-click action because scanners are read-only and safe to interrupt.

From the Hosts tab

  1. On the Hosts tab, find the row with the blue "Scanning…" indicator.
  2. Click the red StopCircle button in the Run column. The UI calls POST /api/v1/compliance/cancel/{hostId}.
  3. A toast confirms "Cancel request sent for host".

What cancel actually does

The CancelScan handler on the server does three things:

  1. Removes any queued run_scan task from asynq, so a scan that hasn't yet reached the agent won't start.
  2. Sets a compliance_scan_cancel flag in Redis for this host, so if the worker picks up the task between DeleteTask and the agent message, the worker sees the cancel flag and skips execution.
  3. Sends a compliance_scan_cancel WebSocket message to the agent, so an already-running scan is interrupted at the process level.

If the agent is connected and busy scanning, it receives the cancel, terminates the OpenSCAP / Docker Bench subprocess, and submits whatever partial results it has. The scan record is marked cancelled.

If the agent is offline, only the queue-level cancel applies: the scan won't run when the agent reconnects because the task has already been removed from the queue.

Cancel is idempotent. Calling it on a host with no active scan returns success with "Scan cancel sent".

Scheduled Scans

Scheduled scans are the "set and forget" path. Every host with compliance_mode=enabled gets a scan on the fleet-wide interval, no operator intervention required.

Fleet-wide defaults

Set from Security Compliance → Settings:

  • Default Compliance Mode: applied to newly registered hosts only. Existing hosts keep whatever mode they already have.
    • Disabled, new hosts register with compliance off. You must explicitly enable per host.
    • On-Demand, new hosts register with scanning available but scheduled off. Manual Run Scan works.
    • Enabled, new hosts register ready for scheduled scanning.
  • Scan Interval: how often enabled hosts scan. Presets: 6h, 12h, 24h (default), 48h, 3d, 7d. Also accepts a raw minutes value between 60 and 10080 (7 days).

Saving Settings pushes the new interval to every connected agent on the next heartbeat. Offline agents pick it up when they reconnect.

Per-host mode overrides

The default is advisory; every host has its own compliance_mode. To change it:

  1. Open Hosts → host → Integrations tab.
  2. Scroll to Compliance.
  3. Pick Disabled, On-Demand, or Enabled.
  4. The change is queued as pending config and applied via the Apply Pending Config flow on the host's next agent heartbeat.

The Compliance page's Hosts tab shows the current mode in the Mode column (Disabled, On-demand, Scheduled).

Per-host scanner toggles

On the same Integrations → Compliance panel you'll find two checkboxes:

  • OpenSCAP: default on. Tick to have the agent run OpenSCAP CIS scans during each scheduled and on-demand scan.
  • Docker Bench: default off. Tick only for hosts that actually run Docker and where the Docker integration is enabled.

These toggles are also reflected in the Hosts-tab Scanners column (OpenSCAP, Docker, OpenSCAP, Docker, or - if nothing is enabled).

Default profile

Set from Host Detail → Integrations → Compliance → Default profile. Pick between the available profiles exposed by the agent (typically level1_server, level2_server, and possibly docker-bench on hosts where Docker is present). This is the profile used for scheduled scans and for ad-hoc scans where no explicit profile is passed (profile_type=all).

Bulk Scans Across the Fleet

For ad-hoc "scan everything right now" operations, use the Bulk Scan modal (opened from the Compliance page; the exact entry point depends on your module / edition, usually a bulk action button on the Hosts tab).

The modal lets you:

  1. Choose a Profile Type. All Profiles, OpenSCAP Only, or Docker Bench Only.
  2. Tick Enable Remediation if you want OpenSCAP to apply remediation scripts during the scan.
  3. Tick the hosts you want to include (or Select All).
  4. Click Scan N Hosts.

The UI sends one POST /api/v1/compliance/trigger/bulk request with the full host list. The server enqueues one run_scan task per host. Hosts that are offline are still queued. They scan as soon as they reconnect and the worker dequeues their task (or the task is cleaned up if the queue drops it before reconnection).

The modal shows a results banner:

  • Green if every trigger succeeded.
  • Yellow if some failed, with the list of host names and the specific error per host.

After a successful bulk scan, the modal auto-closes after three seconds and each triggered host appears in the active-scans widget as pending / running.

Installing the Scanner

Compliance scanning on a host needs OpenSCAP (oscap binary) installed and the SSG content available locally. The first time you enable compliance on a host, the scanner usually isn't there yet. PatchMon handles this with an install job.

  1. Enable compliance mode on the host (set to On-Demand or Enabled).
  2. On next Apply Pending Config, the agent receives the new integration state and reports that the scanner is not installed.
  3. From the Host Detail Compliance tab, click Install Scanner. The UI calls POST /api/v1/compliance/install-scanner/{hostId}.
  4. The server enqueues an install task. The worker sends an install message to the agent.
  5. The agent installs openscap-scanner (via apt / dnf) and downloads SSG content from the server via GET /api/v1/compliance/ssg-content/{filename}. Progress events are reported back to Redis and surfaced in the UI via GET /compliance/install-job/{hostId}, which returns the current state (waiting, active, completed) plus a per-step message and progress percent.
  6. When the install completes, the Run Scan button becomes active.

Install can be cancelled mid-flight from the same UI via POST /api/v1/compliance/install-scanner/{hostId}/cancel.

Upgrading SSG content on a host

When the server is upgraded to a newer PatchMon version with newer bundled SSG content, existing hosts may still have older content cached locally. To force an upgrade:

  1. Host Detail → Integrations → Compliance → Upgrade SSG Content. The UI calls POST /api/v1/compliance/upgrade-ssg/{hostId}.
  2. The server enqueues an ssg_upgrade task. The agent downloads the latest ssg-*-ds.xml files from the server.
  3. Poll the upgrade job via GET /api/v1/compliance/ssg-upgrade-job/{hostId}: the UI shows waiting, active, or completed with a message.

The Compliance Settings page always shows the currently-active server-side SSG version under OpenSCAP Content → SSG x.y.z.

Handling Stuck Scans

Any scan that has been in running status for more than 3 hours is considered stalled. A recurring cleanup job (ComplianceScanCleanup, triggered at POST /api/v1/compliance/scans/cleanup) marks every such scan as cancelled with the error message:

Scan terminated automatically after running for more than 3 hours

This prevents orphaned "forever running" scans from clogging the active-scans widget. The cleanup runs on a schedule driven by the recurring automation queue; administrators with can_manage_compliance can also trigger it on demand from the Automation UI.

Seeing stalled scans

The GET /api/v1/compliance/scans/stalled endpoint returns every scan older than 3 hours that is still marked running. If the Compliance page shows a Stalled Scans widget (rendered when any stalled rows exist), clicking a row links into the host's compliance detail so you can inspect it.

Why a scan might legitimately stall

  • The agent crashed mid-scan. There was no opportunity to submit a terminal result.
  • The agent lost network connectivity mid-scan. Results were generated but not submitted; by the time connectivity returned, the 3-hour window had passed.
  • A profile on an unusually large host simply exceeded 3 hours (uncommon for L1, possible for L2 with heavy file-integrity rules on deep filesystems). The cleanup will fire; re-run the scan manually afterwards.

What the operator should do

If a scan was cleaned up automatically and you need results:

  1. Check agent health (sudo patchmon-agent diagnostics on the host, or review the host's recent logs from the Host Detail page).
  2. If the agent is healthy, Run Scan again from the Host Detail or Compliance Hosts tab.
  3. If scans reliably take more than 3 hours on a specific host (typically an extra-large file server), consider switching that host to an on-demand schedule so it only scans when you're actively watching.

Rate Limits

Agent-side submission of scan results is rate-limited to 10 submissions per minute per host at POST /api/v1/compliance/scans. Legitimate use never hits this: a host only submits once per scan. The limit exists to contain a misbehaving agent that tries to re-submit results in a loop.

Server-side scan triggers are not individually rate-limited beyond the general-auth rate limits you configure for the API, but asynq's worker pool naturally paces execution: a fleet-wide "scan everything now" will queue 100+ tasks and work through them at a sensible rate.

  • Compliance Overview: module gate, permissions, scanner architecture, bundled SSG content.
  • Results and Remediation: what to do with scan results once they land.
  • Docker Monitoring: the Docker integration you need for Docker Bench scans.
  • Managing the PatchMon Agent: diagnostics and the Apply Pending Config flow used to push compliance settings.

Chapter 16: Compliance Results and Remediation

Once a compliance scan completes, results appear in three layers of the web UI: the fleet-wide dashboard, the per-host Compliance tab, and the per-rule Rule Detail page. This page walks through each layer in operator terms, then covers the optional auto-remediation paths and the compliance trends view.

You need can_view_reports to see any of this; can_manage_compliance to trigger remediation.

Fleet-Wide Dashboard

The Security Compliance landing page opens on the Overview tab, which is the fleet-wide dashboard. It's designed to answer "how is my overall compliance posture, and where do I look first?" in a single glance.

The five summary cards

Across the top of every Compliance page view sit five identical cards:

Card What it counts Derived from
Total hosts total_hosts + unscanned: every host with compliance visibility, scanned or not summary.total_hosts + summary.unscanned
Compliant Hosts whose latest scan score is ≥ 80% summary.hosts_compliant
Warning Hosts whose latest scan score is between 60% and 79% summary.hosts_warning
Critical Hosts whose latest scan score is < 60% summary.hosts_critical
Never scanned Hosts that have never successfully submitted a scan summary.unscanned

The Never scanned card is clickable, it toggles a filter on the Hosts tab to show only never-scanned hosts, which is the fastest way to find coverage gaps.

Six charts

The Overview tab grid has six charts:

  • Failures by Severity: stacked doughnut of critical / high / medium / low failed rules across the fleet. Clicking a slice deep-links into the Scan Results tab filtered to that severity.
  • OpenSCAP Distribution: split of pass / fail rules across OpenSCAP scans.
  • Compliance Profiles: pie of scans by profile type (OpenSCAP vs Docker Bench). Clicking drills into the matching filter.
  • Last Scan Age: distribution of when hosts were last scanned (today / this week / this month / older).
  • Compliance Trend: placeholder today; reserved for the trends view.
  • Host Compliance Status: bar chart of hosts by Compliant / Warning / Critical / Never Scanned.

All charts refetch every 2 minutes (or every 30 seconds when there's at least one active scan) so the dashboard stays useful for an operator who leaves the page open during a rollout.

Profile-type filter

Above the charts is a profile type filter with three values: All Scans (default), OpenSCAP, Docker Bench. Switching to OpenSCAP or Docker Bench reveals additional profile-specific panels:

  • OpenSCAP Analysis: Rule Results doughnut, Failures by Severity bar, Score Distribution, Scan Freshness.
  • Docker Bench Analysis: Rule Results doughnut (pass vs warning), Warnings by Section bar (broken down into the CIS Docker Benchmark sections), Score Distribution, Scan Freshness.

The Docker Bench view intentionally uses "Warnings" instead of "Failures" because Docker Bench's status model is pass-or-warning for most checks, not pass-or-fail.

Hosts Tab: Per-Host Fleet View

The Hosts tab shows a row per compliance-enabled host. This is your work list, sort and scan from here.

Column What it shows
Run Green Play button (trigger scan) or red Stop button (cancel scan).
Host name Friendly name (clickable, opens Compliance Host Detail).
Status Shield icon colour-coded: green ≥80%, yellow 60-79%, red <60%, grey never-scanned.
Last activity Friendly date of last scan and activity label ("Scan", or "Scanning…" while active).
Passed / Failed / Skipped Click the count to deep-link into the Scan Results tab, filtered by this host and that status.
Scanner status Scanned, Enabled, or -; whether the agent has actually produced a scan, has the scanner enabled without results, or has no scanner integration active.
Mode Scheduled, On-demand, or Disabled: this host's compliance_mode.
Scanners Which scanners are enabled per host: OpenSCAP, Docker, OpenSCAP, Docker, or -.

Clicking any Passed / Failed / Skipped number pivots you straight into the Scan Results tab with the host and status filters applied, so "click the 12 Failed for hostA" gets you a filtered rule list for that host's latest scan.

The page also respects the tableFilter override driven by the Never scanned summary card, click that card and the table filters to hosts with no scan records.

Scan Results Tab: Rule Drill-Down

The Scan Results tab (also reachable via the per-host clicks described above) is where you investigate specific rules across the fleet. It shows every rule that has been evaluated by any scanned host, with:

  • Rule title, rule reference (e.g. xccdf_org.ssgproject.content_rule_...), section (CIS section number for OpenSCAP, bench section for Docker Bench).
  • Severity badge (critical / high / medium / low / unknown).
  • Profile type badge (OpenSCAP / Docker Bench).
  • Hosts passed / failed / warned / total across the fleet.

Filters above the table: status (pass / fail / warn / error / skipped), severity, profile type, specific host, and full-text search. These all push down to GET /api/v1/compliance/rules so the filtering is server-side and consistent with the dashboard drill-down links.

Click any rule to open Rule Detail.

Rule Detail: Single Rule Across the Fleet

The Rule Detail page (/compliance/rules/{ruleId}) is what you open when you want to understand "what is this rule, why is it failing, how do I fix it, and which hosts does it affect?".

It has four sections:

1. Summary cards

Four cards at the top: Affected Hosts, Passing, Failing, Warnings, counts across the fleet for the rule's latest scan per host.

2. Description

The human-readable explanation from the benchmark, expanded in full. For OpenSCAP rules this is the SCAP <Description> element; for Docker Bench it's the rule prose from the benchmark.

3. Why this failed (Rationale)

The benchmark's rationale for why this rule exists, why it matters, what risk it mitigates. Shown as plain text.

4. What the fix does + Remediation

The right column contains two panels that help operators act on a failure:

  • What the fix does: a short plain-English explanation of the remediation, derived heuristically from the remediation text (for example, "This fix will update file permissions or ownership…" when the script uses chmod / chown; "This fix will update SSH daemon configuration…" when the script touches /etc/ssh). This is UI scaffolding, not audit-grade. Always read the actual remediation script below.
  • Remediation: the exact script the scanner would run. For OpenSCAP rules this is the shell fix pulled from SSG. For Docker Bench it's the benchmark-prescribed command. A Copy button copies the script to your clipboard so you can paste into a change ticket or runbook.

If the benchmark doesn't ship a remediation script (common for high-level "document this" rules), the panel reads "No remediation steps available."

5. Affected Hosts table

Every host that has evaluated this rule shows up here with:

  • Host name (click to open Compliance Host Detail).
  • Status for this rule on this host (Pass / Fail / Warning / N/A / Skipped / Error).
  • Why (this host): either the scanner's finding text, or a Current: X → Required: Y string built from actual + expected. This is the concrete reason why this host failed, which is usually enough to diagnose without opening a shell.

Use this view to scope impact: "this rule fails on 14 hosts; is it the same root cause on all of them?" Sort by the status column, look for clusters of identical finding text, and fix them as a batch.

Compliance Host Detail

The per-host compliance view (/compliance/hosts/{hostId}) is reached by clicking any host name across Compliance. Its layout:

  • Header: back link, Shield icon, host name as H1, Run Scan button with connection-status pill, link to Full Host Details.
  • Five summary cards: Passed, Failed, Warning, N/A, and Score (or recent scan metadata).
  • Scan Results table: paginated at 25 rows per page, drilled into the most recent scan for this host by default, filterable by status and severity.
  • Inline rule actions: each failed rule row has an expand button that shows the Why / Rationale / Remediation inline, plus a "Remediate this rule" button (see below).

Filters on the five summary cards: click the Passed rules card to filter results to pass-only, click Failed for fail-only, etc. The card selected gets a coloured ring so you know the active filter.

The scan shown is the latest per-profile. A profile-type filter above the table lets you flip between the latest OpenSCAP scan and the latest Docker Bench scan for the host. If the latest scan is older than a week, a soft warning reminds you that the results may be stale.

Auto-Remediation

There are two remediation paths, each driven from a different part of the UI.

1. Per-rule on-demand remediation

Fix a single failed rule without running a full scan.

  1. Open Compliance Host Detail for the host.
  2. In the Scan Results table, expand a failed rule.
  3. Click Remediate this rule.
  4. The UI calls POST /api/v1/compliance/remediate/{hostId} with { "rule_id": "<rule-ref>" }. The server validates that the agent is connected and sends a remediate_rule WebSocket message to the agent.
  5. The agent runs oscap xccdf eval --remediate --rule <rule> against the SSG datastream, that runs OpenSCAP's targeted remediation script for just that one rule.
  6. The UI shows a toast "Remediation triggered". The next scan (manual or scheduled) should show that rule flipping from Fail to Pass if the fix was successful.

Per-rule remediation is limited to OpenSCAP rules today. Docker Bench does not ship executable remediation scripts in the benchmark. The UI greys out the Remediate button on Docker Bench rules for this reason.

2. In-scan remediation

Apply remediation scripts for every failing rule as part of a scan.

  • From the Run Scan dialog on Host Detail, tick Enable Remediation before starting the scan.
  • From the Bulk Compliance Scan modal (Compliance page), tick Enable Remediation before triggering the batch.

When enable_remediation=true is set on the trigger, the agent runs OpenSCAP in --remediate mode, which attempts the remediation fix for every rule that fails. The scan results submitted back to the server include a remediation_applied / remediation_count summary so you can tell the difference between a regular scan and a remediating scan.

When to use which

  • Per-rule: tightly-scoped changes, especially on production where you want to see exactly one thing change at a time. Safer, slower.
  • In-scan: bulk cleanup on a newly-built host, or a lab environment you just rebuilt and want to harden in one pass. Faster, but applies every fix, review the affected rule set first.

Warning: Some OpenSCAP remediation scripts are destructive. They can change SSH configuration, disable protocols, modify PAM settings, or set kernel parameters that break unrelated tooling. Always test in-scan remediation on a non-production host before rolling it across the fleet. Per-rule remediation is safer because you've read the script first.

Release-note lineage

Auto-remediation was introduced in 1.4.0 ("Optional auto-remediation of failed rules during scans"). In 2.0 it remains under the Compliance module, it did not move into the Patching module. If you're reading older release notes, per-rule remediation still runs through POST /api/v1/compliance/remediate/{hostId}, not through a patch run.

GET /api/v1/compliance/trends/{hostId}?days=30 returns the host's scan history as a time series: completed_at, score, profile_name, profile_type for each scan in the window. The UI uses this to render the Compliance Trend panel on the Overview tab (currently a placeholder waiting for rendering updates) and to show trend lines on Compliance Host Detail.

The API supports days between 1 and 365. Typical use is the default 30 days for day-to-day monitoring, or 365 when writing an annual compliance report.

History Tab: Chronological Scans

The History tab is a flat list of every scan the system has ever recorded, newest first. Paginated at 25 per page, filterable by status, profile type, and host.

Each row shows:

  • Host name.
  • Profile (e.g. level1_server OpenSCAP, or Docker Bench for Security).
  • Started at and duration.
  • Totals: total rules, passed, failed, warnings, skipped, not applicable.
  • Score and any error message.

Scans that were auto-cancelled after the 3-hour stall threshold appear here with the error message "Scan terminated automatically after running for more than 3 hours" and a status of cancelled, useful for spotting hosts that consistently time out.

There is no export endpoint for scan history. To archive scans for regulators, call GET /api/v1/compliance/scans/history directly and write the JSON to disk.

Notifications for Scans

Every completed scan emits a compliance_scan_completed notification event. The notification body includes:

  • Fleet-friendly title: Compliance Scan - <hostname> (- N Failed Rules suffix when failures are present).
  • Per-profile summary lines: profile name, score as a percentage, passed count, failed count.
  • Structured metadata for downstream processing: host ID, host name, failed count, passed count, total rules, profile summaries.

Default severity is informational, escalated to warning when there's at least one failed rule. The per-event alert settings let you override severity or suppress these if you already have a dashboard.

A separate compliance_scan_failed event is emitted for each sub-scan that errored during a multi-scanner run (e.g. OpenSCAP succeeded but Docker Bench failed). Default severity is error. Metadata includes the profile name, profile type, and the captured error.

Practical Workflow

A typical compliance cycle in PatchMon looks like:

  1. Baseline, turn compliance on across the fleet (Default Compliance Mode = On-Demand, then enable per host) and bulk-scan everything once to build the baseline. Expect a lot of failures; that's the starting point.
  2. Triage, open the Overview tab. Use Failures by Severity to find critical failures; click through to the Scan Results tab filtered to critical.
  3. Investigate, on each rule, open Rule Detail. Read the rationale, read the remediation, pick a handful of identical-finding hosts and fix them manually or via per-rule remediation.
  4. Rescan, on each fixed host, click Run Scan. Confirm the rule flipped to Pass.
  5. Enable scheduling, once the baseline is clean, switch compliance_mode=enabled on the hosts that care, set the scan interval to 24h (or whatever suits your SLO), and leave it running. The dashboard becomes your ongoing signal for drift.
  6. Revisit: the Scan Freshness chart on the OpenSCAP / Docker Bench tabs tells you which hosts haven't scanned recently; bring those back into the loop.
  • Compliance Overview: scanner architecture, permissions, module gate.
  • Running Compliance Scans: triggering, cancelling, scheduling, stuck-scan handling.
  • Docker Monitoring: the Docker integration prerequisite for Docker Bench scans.
  • Alerts and Notifications: routing compliance_scan_completed and compliance_scan_failed events to your destinations.
  • Release Notes - 1.4.0: introduction of auto-remediation.

Chapter 17: Alerts Overview

What alerts are in PatchMon

An alert is a record of a noteworthy condition detected by the server: a host that has stopped reporting, a security-updates threshold being crossed, a new PatchMon server version becoming available, and so on. Alerts appear in Reporting and can be routed to chat, email, or ntfy through the notifications pipeline. The same event that creates an alert can also be sent to external destinations. Alerts are the in-app representation of operational signals.

Alerts are grouped into categories in Settings and the UI: host, patching, compliance, docker, security, remote_access, and system.

The global master switch lives under Reporting → Alert Lifecycle → Alerts system. When this is off, no alerts are created at all, regardless of per-type configuration.

Alert types implemented today

The following alert types fire from the server code in 2.0. Each can be individually enabled, tuned, and routed.

Type Category Fired when
host_down host A host has not reported within 3× its update_interval, or its agent WebSocket disconnects
host_recovered host A previously-down host starts reporting again or its WebSocket reconnects
host_enrolled host A new host is successfully enrolled
host_deleted host A host is removed from the inventory
host_security_updates_exceeded security A host has more security updates than the configured threshold
host_pending_updates_exceeded security A host has more pending updates than the configured threshold
host_security_updates_resolved security Security updates count drops below threshold again
host_pending_updates_resolved security Pending updates count drops below threshold again
server_update system A newer PatchMon server version is detected via the DNS version check
agent_update system A newer agent version is released
patch_run_started patching A patch run begins
patch_run_completed patching A patch run finishes
patch_run_failed patching A patch run exits with errors
patch_run_approved patching A patch run is approved for execution
patch_run_cancelled patching A patch run is cancelled by an operator
patch_reboot_required patching Packages requiring a reboot were installed
compliance_scan_completed compliance An OpenSCAP compliance scan finishes
compliance_scan_failed compliance A compliance scan errors out
container_stopped docker A tracked Docker container stops unexpectedly
container_started docker A previously-stopped container starts again
container_image_update_available docker A newer image digest is available for a tracked container
ssh_session_started remote_access A user opens a web SSH session to a host
rdp_session_started remote_access A user opens a web RDP session to a host
user_login system A user signs in
user_login_failed system A failed sign-in attempt
account_locked system An account is locked after repeated failures
user_created system A new user is created
user_role_changed system A user's role is changed
user_tfa_disabled system A user's two-factor authentication is removed

If a type listed in the release notes is not in this table, it is not implemented in the server. Anything absent from the alert_config table is treated as enabled by default for backwards compatibility, but only types with emitters in the server code actually fire.

The Reporting page

Alerts are managed from Reporting in the main navigation. The page has a fixed header with four severity cards (Informational, Warning, Error, Critical) plus a Total Active card, and a tab bar underneath.

Tabs

Tab Purpose
Overview Dashboards: alerts by severity, volume trend, alerts by type, recent alerts, responder workload, deliveries by destination
Alerts The filterable table of open and historical alerts
Alert Lifecycle Per-type configuration (gated by the alerts_advanced module)
Destinations Notification destinations (SMTP, webhook, ntfy, internal)
Event Rules Routing rules that fan events out to destinations
Scheduled Reports Cron-scheduled fleet reports delivered to destinations
Delivery Log Every outbound notification attempt, with status and errors

Clicking any severity card jumps straight to the Alerts tab filtered to that severity and status = open.

Filters

The Alerts tab supports four filters in addition to a free-text search box:

Filter Values
Severity All Severities, Informational, Warning, Error, Critical
Type All Types or any alert type present in the current result set
Status All Status, Open, Acknowledged, Investigating, Escalated, Silenced, Done, Resolved
Assignment All Assignments, Assigned to me, Assigned, Unassigned

Filters persist in the URL (?tab=alerts&severity=critical&status=open), so you can deep-link directly to a filtered view. The severity cards in the header also highlight when a filter is active.

Sorting

Three columns in the alerts table are sortable by clicking the header: Severity, Type, and Created. The arrow icon next to the column header indicates the current sort direction.

Alert lifecycle

PatchMon tracks alerts with two concepts:

  • is_active: a boolean on the alert row. An alert is active when it is open or still being worked on, and inactive once it has been resolved.
  • Current state: a label derived from the most recent action recorded against the alert (e.g. acknowledged, resolved).

Actions

The available actions are driven by a database table rather than being hardcoded, so the list may vary slightly between deployments. Actions split into two groups:

Workflow actions keep the alert active and just record progress. Typical names:

  • acknowledged
  • investigating
  • escalated
  • silenced

Resolution actions close the alert: they set is_active=false, record resolved_at and resolved_by, and move the alert out of the active stats. Typical names:

  • resolved
  • done

Running a resolution action on an already-resolved alert is safe. Running a workflow action on a resolved alert re-activates it (this is how "reopen" works in practice: pick a workflow action like acknowledged).

Workflow actions appear under Workflow and resolution actions under Resolve in both the row menu and the alert details modal.

Assignment

Alerts can be assigned to a user from three places:

  1. The Assigned To dropdown on the alerts table: changes the assignment inline.
  2. The Assigned To dropdown in the alert details modal.
  3. The Auto-assign column in Alert Lifecycle: sets a default assignee for all new alerts of a given type.

Choose Unassigned to clear. Every assignment change is written to the alert history.

History

Every action (created, assigned, unassigned, acknowledged, resolved, and any custom action) is recorded in alert_history. Open the alert details modal and scroll to History to see who did what and when. System-driven actions (e.g. host_recovered auto-resolving a host_down alert) are recorded with user "System".

Bulk actions

Select one or more alerts using the checkboxes in the Alerts tab to reveal a bulk-actions bar above the table. You can:

  • Apply any workflow or resolution action to every selected alert in one call.
  • Delete the selected alerts permanently.

Bulk updates stream through the same history recording as individual actions. Deleting an alert does not leave a history trail; use a resolution action if you want to keep the audit record.

The number of selected alerts is shown on the left. Use the checkbox in the table header to select or deselect every visible row.

Per-alert-type configuration

Each alert type has its own row in Reporting → Alert Lifecycle. This tab is gated by the alerts_advanced module; plans without it show an upgrade prompt here.

Each row exposes:

Column Meaning
Active Master switch for this alert type. When off, no alerts of this type are created and no notifications are emitted.
Severity Default severity applied to new alerts of this type.
Alert delay Seconds to wait before delivering the outbound notification. If a cancelling counterpart event (e.g. host_recovered for host_down) fires within the delay window, the notification is suppressed. Useful for flappy hosts.
Frequency For periodic checks only (host_down, host_security_updates_exceeded, host_pending_updates_exceeded). Minutes between checks.
Threshold For threshold alerts only (host_security_updates_exceeded, host_pending_updates_exceeded). Numeric threshold above which an alert fires.
Auto-assign Toggle plus user picker: any new alert of this type is assigned to the chosen user automatically.
Retention Days to keep alerts of this type before cleanup. Empty = never auto-clean.
Auto-resolve Days after which active alerts auto-resolve if no one touches them.

Changes are staged locally. Use the Apply button on the top bar to save them, or Discard to revert. The browser warns you if you navigate away with unsaved changes.

Cleanup

Below the table, the Alert cleanup card runs the retention policy:

  • Preview cleanup shows the list of alerts that would be deleted under the current retention and auto-resolve rules.
  • Delete N alerts commits the preview. The action is irreversible.

Cleanup only deletes alerts that satisfy retention_days. Whether it also deletes unresolved alerts is governed by cleanup_resolved_only per type (default: resolved only).

Permissions

Permission What it grants
can_manage_alerts Create/modify alert configurations, run cleanup, act on alerts
can_manage_notifications Create, edit, test, and delete destinations, routes, and scheduled reports
can_view_notification_logs Read the Delivery Log tab
can_view_hosts List host groups and hosts when building routes and reports

Admins and superadmins bypass these checks. Regular users without can_manage_alerts can still view the Alerts tab but cannot perform actions.

Chapter 18: Notification Destinations

What a destination is

A destination is an endpoint that outgoing notifications are sent to: an SMTP mailbox, an HTTP webhook URL, an ntfy topic, or the built-in Internal Alerts destination that records alerts inside PatchMon itself.

Destinations are the "where" half of the notifications pipeline. The "what goes there" half is handled by event rules, covered in Notification Routes and Delivery Log.

Destinations live under Reporting → Destinations in the web UI.

Channel types

PatchMon 2.0 ships four destination channel types. The list is fixed in the server code:

Channel Value What it does
Webhook webhook HTTP POST of a JSON payload to any URL. Generic by default; Discord and Slack webhook URLs are auto-detected and formatted with the appropriate rich payload.
Email email SMTP delivery to one or more recipients, with HTML body and an optional attachment for scheduled reports.
ntfy ntfy Push notification via ntfy.sh or a self-hosted ntfy server.
Internal Alerts internal Built-in destination that drops events into the Alerts tab. You cannot create or delete this one; it is created automatically and can only be enabled or disabled.

Discord is a webhook, not a channel type. To post alerts to a Discord channel, create a Webhook destination with the Discord webhook URL. The separate Settings → Discord Authentication area is only for Discord OAuth2 sign-in; it is unrelated to notifications.

Permissions

Creating, editing, testing, and deleting destinations requires the can_manage_notifications permission. Admins and superadmins bypass the check. Users without the permission do not see the Destinations tab at all.

Creating a destination

  1. Open Reporting → Destinations.
  2. Click Add destination.
  3. Pick a channel type (Webhook, Email, or ntfy) and click Next.
  4. Give the destination a Display name: this is what appears in the event rules picker, the delivery log, and scheduled report selectors.
  5. Fill in the channel-specific configuration (see below).
  6. Leave Enabled on (default) or turn it off to save the configuration without sending anything yet.
  7. Click Create.

A successfully-created destination shows up in the destinations table with its channel icon, display name, and enabled switch.

Webhook

Pick this for generic JSON webhooks, Discord, or Slack. Discord and Slack URLs are auto-detected and sent rich payloads; other URLs receive a generic JSON body.

Field Required Notes
Webhook URL Yes Full HTTPS URL. Discord: https://discord.com/api/webhooks/.... Slack: https://hooks.slack.com/services/.... Generic: any endpoint that accepts POST with Content-Type: application/json.
Signing secret No Optional HMAC secret. When set, each webhook is signed with SHA-256 over the payload; the signature is sent in a header so the receiver can verify authenticity.

Email (SMTP)

Field Required Notes
SMTP host Yes e.g. smtp.example.com, smtp.sendgrid.net.
SMTP port No Defaults to 587. Use 465 for implicit TLS, 25 for unencrypted relay (avoid).
Username No SMTP auth user. Leave blank if your relay does not require it.
Password No SMTP auth password. Stored encrypted.
From Yes Envelope + header From address, e.g. patchmon@example.com. Must be accepted by the relay.
To Yes Comma-separated list of recipients.
Use TLS No On by default. STARTTLS on port 587, implicit TLS on 465. Disable only for on-prem relays without TLS.

ntfy

Field Required Notes
Server URL No Leave empty for https://ntfy.sh. Fill in your own URL for self-hosted ntfy.
Topic Yes ntfy topic name. Subscribe to the same topic on your phone/desktop to receive push notifications.
Access token No ntfy bearer token for protected topics. Alternative to basic auth.
Username / Password No Basic auth. Use instead of access token when your ntfy server is configured for HTTP basic auth.

Internal Alerts

You cannot create this destination; it is seeded automatically with the ID internal-alerts and appears with the Built-in tag. Its sole job is to write events into the in-app Alerts tab. You can:

  • Enable / disable it from the destinations table (disable if you do not want internal alert records at all, for example when you only use external chat or email).
  • Reference it from event rules, same as any other destination.

You cannot delete it. Attempting to delete returns 400 Bad Request: The Internal Alerts destination cannot be deleted. You can disable it instead.

Editing a destination

Click Edit in the destinations table. The modal re-loads the current configuration (secrets included, so you do not have to re-type passwords or tokens) and lets you change any field. Click Save to apply.

The enabled switch is inline in the table; click it to toggle without opening the modal.

Secrets are always encrypted at rest using PatchMon's SESSION_SECRET. When you re-enter a secret and save, the value is re-encrypted. The decrypted value is returned only to operators with can_manage_notifications.

Testing a destination

Use Test in the destinations row to verify the configuration without waiting for a real event:

  1. Click Test next to any enabled non-built-in destination.
  2. PatchMon enqueues a synthetic event with type test, severity informational, and the message "This is a test message from PatchMon notification settings."
  3. A toast confirms the test is enqueued. Actual delivery happens through the notifications worker and takes a second or two.
  4. The Delivery Log updates automatically after about three seconds; look there for the outcome.

Tests do not bypass global rate-limiting. If your destination is already at its per-minute rate cap (60 messages/minute), the test returns 429 Too many notifications; try again shortly.

Failure cases returned by the test endpoint:

HTTP Message Meaning
400 Bad Request Destination is disabled Enable it first.
404 Not Found Destination not found The destination was likely deleted in a parallel tab.
429 Too Many Requests Too many notifications; try again shortly Rate limit hit.
503 Service Unavailable Notifications not configured Background worker or Redis is not running.

Deleting a destination

Click the trash icon in the destinations table. The confirmation dialog warns that the action is permanent. Deleting a destination does not delete the event rules that target it: those routes will be orphaned and should be updated to point at a different destination or removed. Deliveries in the Delivery Log keep their historical destination_id and appear as a raw ID if the name can no longer be resolved.

You cannot delete the internal-alerts destination (see above).

What gets stored

Every destination is a database row with:

  • A stable UUID (id) used by event rules and the delivery log.
  • channel_type from the list above.
  • display_name.
  • enabled boolean.
  • config_encrypted: the JSON configuration, encrypted with SESSION_SECRET so a database dump does not expose SMTP passwords, ntfy tokens, or HMAC secrets.
  • created_at / updated_at timestamps.

The list endpoint never returns the raw config, only a has_secret flag. The decrypted config is fetched on demand from a separate endpoint when the edit modal opens.

Discord sign-in vs Discord webhooks

The two "Discord" areas in PatchMon are independent:

Area Purpose Where
Discord Authentication OAuth2 sign-in, users log in to PatchMon with their Discord account, optionally requiring membership of a server and role. Settings → Discord Authentication
Discord webhook destination Post alerts into a Discord channel via a channel webhook URL. Reporting → Destinations → Add destination → Webhook

Configure them separately. The OAuth2 settings are not required to send alerts to Discord.

Chapter 19: Notification Routes and Delivery Log

Overview

In PatchMon, a route (labelled Event Rule in the UI) connects one or more event types, and optionally a severity floor, a host scope, or a match rule, to a destination. When an event fires, the notifications engine evaluates every enabled route; each matching route produces a delivery to its destination.

Routes handle fan-out: one host_down event can notify your on-call ntfy topic, post to a Discord #alerts channel, and write an internal alert record, all from a single emit.

Both routes and the Delivery Log live under Reporting in the main navigation:

  • Reporting → Event Rules: create, edit, and disable routes.
  • Reporting → Delivery Log: every outbound delivery attempt, sent or failed.

Permissions

Action Permission
Create / edit / disable / delete routes can_manage_notifications
Read the delivery log can_view_notification_logs

Admins and superadmins bypass these checks.

Creating a route

  1. Go to Reporting → Event Rules.
  2. Click Add event rule. (Disabled until at least one destination exists. Create one first under Notification Destinations.)
  3. Fill in the modal:
Field Notes
Destination Required. Pick from the list of configured destinations. You can only route to enabled destinations; disabled destinations are skipped at delivery time.
Events Tick All events to match every event type, or tick individual events. Selecting every individual event collapses back to "All events".
Minimum severity Floor for the route. Events below this severity are ignored. Order is informational < warning < error < critical.
Host groups Optional. If any are selected, only events whose host is a member of at least one of the groups match. Leave empty for "any host".
Individual hosts Optional. If any are selected, only events for those specific hosts match. Leave empty for "any host".
Enabled On by default. Turn off to keep the rule for later without it firing.
  1. Click Add.

Event type reference

Pick from the same set documented in Alerts Overview. host_down, host_recovered, patch_run_completed, ssh_session_started, and so on. You can also select high-volume or low-volume events like user_login and account_locked to route sign-in telemetry.

Host group and host filters combined

If both host groups and individual hosts are set, the event must satisfy both filters. In practice you usually pick one or the other, not both.

Events without a host context (e.g. server_update, user_created) are filtered out by any host scope you add. Leave both scope fields empty to match those as well.

Severity, delay, and lifecycle

Per-type Alert delay in Alert Lifecycle applies before the route fan-out: if the event has a configured alert_delay_seconds, PatchMon enqueues the delivery with that delay. If a counterpart event fires within the window (for example, host_recovered while a delayed host_down is queued), the delayed notification is cancelled. Counterpart mapping:

Delayed event Cancelled by
host_down host_recovered
container_stopped container_started
host_security_updates_exceeded host_security_updates_resolved
host_pending_updates_exceeded host_pending_updates_resolved

Editing and deleting routes

Each row in Event Rules has Edit and Delete buttons.

  • Edit reopens the modal with the saved values. Save to update; the new criteria take effect for the next matching event.
  • Delete removes the rule entirely. Deliveries already enqueued finish, but no new deliveries are produced.

Disabled routes are displayed with a muted Disabled badge and do not receive deliveries. Disable is the safer option if you want to pause a rule temporarily.

How matching works

For each outgoing event, the server:

  1. Looks up all routes whose event_types include the event type (or the wildcard *).
  2. Drops routes whose destination is disabled.
  3. Drops routes whose min_severity is above the event's severity.
  4. For each remaining route, applies the host-group and host-ID filters.
  5. Deduplicates: events that repeat within a 2-minute window for the same destination are collapsed into one delivery. The fingerprint key is event_type + reference_id + destination_id + 2-minute bucket.
  6. Rate-limits: each destination is capped at 60 deliveries per minute. Deliveries over the cap are dropped with a warning in the server log.
  7. Enqueues an asynq task to the notifications queue with MaxRetry=5.

The queue worker then dispatches the delivery according to the destination's channel type (SMTP send, HTTP POST, ntfy publish, or internal alert write).

The Delivery Log

The Delivery Log tab shows every outbound notification attempt with its result. Use it when a destination is not receiving messages, a webhook recipient reports errors, or you want an audit trail of what went where.

Columns

Column Meaning
Time When the delivery was processed, shown as a relative time ("5m ago"). Hover for the exact timestamp.
Status sent for success (green), anything else for failure (red).
Event The event type that produced the delivery (e.g. host_down, patch_run_failed).
Destination The destination display name at the time of delivery. Shows the UUID if the destination has been deleted.
Reference reference_type:reference_id, clickable for host, patch_run, and alert references so you can jump to the source.
Error Error message returned by the delivery attempt. Empty for successful deliveries.

Pagination

The log is paginated at 50 rows per page. Use the left and right arrows at the bottom to move through history. The most recent deliveries are on page 1.

Use the Refresh log button in the page header to pull the latest entries without navigating away.

Retries

The notifications worker retries failed deliveries up to 5 times with exponential back-off (handled by asynq). Each attempt is recorded on the same delivery log row: the attempt_count field increments, and the row is upserted with the latest status and error_message. The provider message ID (e.g. SMTP queue ID, webhook Message-ID) is captured in provider_message_id when the remote end returns one.

If all five retries fail, the delivery row stays at the last failed state. There is no automatic escalation; diagnose the failure from the Error column.

Common failure reasons

Error (excerpt) Likely cause
connect: connection refused / i/o timeout Destination host is unreachable from the PatchMon server. Check firewall / network.
authentication failed / 535 5.7.8 Wrong SMTP credentials or token. Re-edit the destination and re-enter.
400 Bad Request from Discord/Slack webhook Webhook URL is wrong, revoked, or the rich payload is malformed for a customised Slack app.
403 Forbidden from ntfy Topic requires auth you have not provided, or token is expired.
destination disabled Someone disabled the destination between enqueue and delivery. Re-enable and re-trigger.

If an expected entry is missing, check that the route is enabled, the destination is enabled, the event passed the severity and scope filters, and the alert type itself is enabled in Alert Lifecycle.

Deduplication and rate-limiting in the log

Duplicates suppressed by the 2-minute dedup window do not appear in the delivery log; they are silently skipped before a delivery task is created. Rate-limited deliveries are also skipped silently (a warning goes to the server log, not the delivery log). If a destination suddenly stops receiving events, check:

  1. The destination is enabled.
  2. No route has been deleted.
  3. The per-minute rate cap is not being exceeded upstream. 60 messages/minute is per-destination.

Every notification includes an app_link in its metadata pointing back to the most relevant page in PatchMon:

Reference type Link
patch_run /patching/runs/<id>
host /hosts/<id>
alert /hosts/<host_id> if known, otherwise /
user /settings/users
test /reporting

Formatters for each channel render this as a clickable button (Discord/Slack rich embeds), an <a> tag (email), or a Click action (ntfy).

Chapter 20: Scheduled Reports

Overview

A scheduled report is a periodic fleet summary that PatchMon renders to HTML (with a CSV attachment) and delivers through one or more notification destinations on a cron schedule. Use them to keep leadership and on-call teams informed about compliance posture, patching throughput, pending updates, and open alerts, without anyone needing to log into the UI.

Scheduled reports are managed under Reporting → Scheduled Reports. They share the same destinations as event-driven notifications, so any email, webhook, or ntfy destination you have already set up can receive reports too.

Permissions

Creating, editing, running, and deleting scheduled reports requires can_manage_notifications. Admins and superadmins bypass the check. Users without the permission do not see the tab.

To include host-group scoping, the user must also have can_view_hosts (so the group picker can populate).

Creating a report

  1. Open Reporting → Scheduled Reports.
  2. Click New report. (Disabled until at least one destination exists. Create one under Notification Destinations.)
  3. Fill in the modal:
Field Notes
Report name Required. Shown in the table and as the email subject prefix.
Schedule Frequency + time of day. See Schedule options.
Sections Which blocks to include in the rendered report. See Report sections.
Deliver to Tick every destination that should receive this report. You can send the same report to multiple destinations.
Scope to host groups Optional. Limit the report's per-host sections to the selected host groups. Leave empty for fleet-wide.
Top rows per section Numeric cap on per-host lists, defaults to 20.
Enabled On by default. Disable to keep the report saved but paused.
  1. Click Create.

After creation, the report appears in the table with its next run time, status badge, and action buttons.

Schedule options

The modal composes a standard five-field cron expression for you, so you rarely see cron syntax directly. Frequencies and the resulting cron:

Frequency Cron produced What it means
Daily M H * * * Every day at the chosen time.
Weekdays (Mon to Fri) M H * * 1-5 Mondays to Fridays at the chosen time.
Weekly M H * * D,D,… The chosen days of the week. Pick one or more via the Mon/Tue/… toggle buttons.
Monthly M H D * * The chosen day of the month (1st, 15th, Last day, or a custom day 1–31).

All schedules evaluate in the server timezone configured in PatchMon settings; the modal labels this next to the time picker. Changes to the server timezone after the report is saved do not automatically re-schedule existing reports. Edit the report and save again to re-evaluate.

The schedule is displayed on the table in plain English ("Daily at 08:00", "Weekdays at 09:30", "15th of month at 06:00"), computed from the underlying cron.

Report sections

Each report is a composition of sections, ticked independently:

Section Content
Executive summary Total hosts, average compliance score, critical hosts, compliant hosts, plus a patching overview (runs, completed, failed, running).
Compliance summary Passed rules, failed rules, critical hosts, hosts with no recent scan.
Recent patch runs Latest patch runs by status with timestamps and target counts.
Hosts / status Host status rollup: offline, stale, active.
Open alerts Currently active alerts grouped by severity.
Hosts by outstanding updates Top hosts sorted by pending updates (respects the Top rows per section cap).
Top outdated security packages Packages with the most hosts needing a security update.

New reports default to Executive summary + Compliance summary + Recent patch runs unless you customise the selection.

Delivering a report

Every tick in Deliver to adds a destination to the report's fan-out. At run-time, PatchMon:

  1. Resolves the destinations (skips disabled ones).
  2. Renders the HTML body and CSV attachment once.
  3. Sends the same payload to each destination in parallel.

For each channel type the payload adapts:

Destination What the recipient sees
Email HTML email rendered inline; CSV attached. Subject contains the report name and timestamp.
Webhook JSON POST with report metadata, a summary, and the HTML body in a field. Use this to fan reports into a downstream system (data warehouse, Google Sheets ingester, etc.).
ntfy Short push notification with a link back to the latest report in the UI. The full HTML does not fit ntfy, so it is summarised.
Internal Alerts A system record under the Alerts tab, useful when you want a run history inside PatchMon without email.

A report's appearance in the Delivery Log uses event_type: scheduled_report. Filter the log by the report's destinations to audit deliveries.

Running a report manually

Click the green Play button in the report's row to run it immediately. The report is queued for instant execution and delivered to the configured destinations.

Manual runs respect the same destination state: disabled destinations are skipped, and rate limits still apply.

Disabled reports show the play button greyed out. Enable the report (or edit and tick Enabled) before running. The button tooltip tells you why it is unavailable.

Editing and deleting

  • Edit reopens the same modal pre-filled with the current schedule, sections, and destinations. Saving re-computes the next run time.
  • Delete removes the report permanently. Past deliveries in the log remain.
  • Enabled switch: edit the report and toggle Enabled in the modal. Disabled reports keep their schedule but do not fire until re-enabled; their next-run time is still displayed.

How scheduling works internally

Scheduled reports are stored in the scheduled_reports table. On create or update, PatchMon computes the next run via the cron expression in the server's timezone and writes it to next_run_at. The scheduler enqueues the report task to asynq at exactly that time, with no background polling loop.

When the task executes, the worker:

  1. Re-reads the report row.
  2. Aborts if it has been disabled since enqueue.
  3. Renders HTML + CSV via the server's report renderer (see internal/notifications/report_render.go).
  4. Fans out to each destination with the same fingerprint + rate-limit + retry semantics as regular notifications.
  5. Updates last_run_at and queues the next occurrence.

Because the schedule is stored as a cron string plus a timezone, daylight-saving transitions are handled by the cron library. Jobs that would fall in a skipped hour are pushed to the next valid slot; jobs repeated in a duplicate hour fire once.

Known limits

  • The scheduled-report pipeline does not attempt full re-delivery of a whole report's fan-out on transient failure. A delivery that fails retries per-destination (up to 5 times via asynq), but the render is not re-done. In practice this means a report either reached each destination successfully (with retries covering transient issues) or ended up in the delivery log as failed for that destination.
  • There is no "skip next run" option. To skip a single run, disable the report before its scheduled time, then re-enable it afterwards.
  • Report templates are not customisable from the UI in 2.0. The rendered HTML layout is fixed; customise by choosing sections and host-group scope. Custom templates are a candidate for a future release.

Chapter 21: Web SSH Terminal

Overview

PatchMon ships an in-browser SSH terminal that lets operators connect to any monitored Linux/FreeBSD host without leaving the web UI. The terminal is a full xterm with line editing, colours, scrollback, resize, and keyboard shortcuts, powered by a WebSocket between the browser and the PatchMon server.

Two connection modes are supported:

  • Direct: the PatchMon server dials the host's SSH port (22 by default) and bridges the session. Use this when your server has network reach to the hosts.
  • Proxy: the PatchMon server asks the host's own agent to open a local SSH connection (to localhost:22 on the host) and tunnels it back through the agent's existing outbound WebSocket. No inbound SSH port exposure required on the target host.

Authentication to the host uses an SSH password or an SSH private key (with an optional passphrase). Authentication to PatchMon itself is handled by your existing session cookies plus a one-time ticket described below.

Web SSH is shipped in PatchMon from 1.4.0 onwards; in 2.0 it is provided under the remote_access capability module.

Permissions

Role Web SSH access
admin / superadmin Always granted.
Any other role Requires can_use_remote_access on the role permissions.

Users without can_use_remote_access attempting to open the terminal are rejected with HTTP 403 Access denied during the WebSocket handshake.

Opening a terminal

  1. Go to Hosts and click the host you want to connect to.
  2. On the Host Detail page, open the Terminal tab (or click the SSH Terminal button in the header).
  3. Pick the Connection mode (Direct or Proxy).
  4. Enter the SSH username (defaults to root; the last-used username per host is cached in your browser's local storage).
  5. Choose an Authentication method:
    • Password: type the host password.
    • Key: paste the private key (OpenSSH or PEM format) and the passphrase if encrypted.
  6. Adjust the SSH port if needed (default 22).
  7. If you picked Proxy mode, set the Proxy host (default localhost) and Proxy port (default 22). These are the destination the agent will dial, typically localhost:22 when you want the agent to SSH into its own host.
  8. Click Connect.

Once the green "SSH connection established" line appears, the terminal is live and interactive.

Your SSH credentials are never stored by the server or browser. They are sent over the authenticated WebSocket once at connect time and held in browser state only for the life of the session. Disconnecting clears them from memory.

Direct mode

In Direct mode, the PatchMon server dials the host directly:

  1. Browser → POST /api/v1/auth/ssh-ticket with { "hostId": "<id>" }. Requires your PatchMon session cookie. Returns a 30-second, single-use ticket.
  2. Browser opens wss://<patchmon-host>/api/v1/ssh-terminal/<hostId>?ticket=<ticket>.
  3. Server consumes the ticket (deleted from Redis on use), validates the user is active and has permission, and upgrades to WebSocket.
  4. Browser sends the connect message with auth credentials, terminal size, and connection mode.
  5. Server dials host.ip (falling back to host.hostname) on the chosen port, authenticates with password or private key, and starts an interactive shell.

Host key verification: the server uses ~/.ssh/known_hosts on the PatchMon container if it exists, and falls back to InsecureIgnoreHostKey otherwise. Direct mode does not prompt the user to accept host keys. Keys are accepted on first use when the fallback is active. Supply a known_hosts file via volume mount for production deployments that require strict verification.

Use Direct mode when:

  • The PatchMon server has network reach to the host on the SSH port.
  • You accept bridging SSH via the server host rather than via the host's agent.

Proxy mode

Proxy mode routes the SSH session through the host's existing agent WebSocket, avoiding the need to expose an SSH port inbound to PatchMon.

Flow:

  1. Browser → ticket + WebSocket as in Direct mode.
  2. Server receives the connect message with connection_mode: "proxy".
  3. Server generates a 16-byte session ID, stores a proxy session record, and sends { "type": "ssh_proxy", "session_id": …, "host": "localhost", "port": 22, "username": … } over the agent's existing WebSocket.
  4. The agent dials <proxy_host>:<proxy_port> (defaults localhost:22) on its own host and pipes the stream back to the server over the WebSocket as ssh_proxy_data frames.
  5. The server forwards those frames to the browser as terminal data events.

Agent config requirement. Proxy mode requires integrations.ssh-proxy-enabled: true in the agent's /etc/patchmon/config.yml. This setting is not pushed from the server. It has to be set manually and the agent service restarted. If the agent rejects the request, the terminal shows "Agent not connected" or an agent-supplied error.

Use Proxy mode when:

  • The host has no inbound SSH exposure (behind NAT, in a restricted VPC, behind a corporate firewall).
  • You already trust the agent's outbound connection to PatchMon and want to reuse it.
  • You want to SSH to localhost through the agent without punching holes through the edge firewall.

One-time tickets for WebSocket auth

WebSocket upgrades cannot include the normal authentication cookies reliably across all browsers, and passing long-lived tokens via query parameters would expose them in server logs and browser history. PatchMon avoids both problems with one-time tickets:

  • Tickets are 64 hex characters, generated from crypto/rand on the server.
  • Tickets live in Redis with a 30-second TTL.
  • A ticket carries the user ID and the host ID it was minted for.
  • The WebSocket handler consumes the ticket on first use (atomic DEL). A second attempt to open a WebSocket with the same ticket fails with Invalid or expired ticket.
  • Ticket validation also verifies the hostId in the URL matches the one encoded in the ticket. Stolen tickets cannot be reused against a different host.

You get the ticket implicitly by clicking Connect in the UI; there is no operator-visible ticket string.

Keyboard and terminal interactions

The embedded xterm supports the usual shortcuts:

Action Shortcut
Copy selection Browser-standard (Ctrl+Shift+C / Cmd+C)
Paste Ctrl+Shift+V / Cmd+V
Send Ctrl+C to the remote Ctrl+C (when no selection)
Scrollback Mouse wheel or trackpad
Clear screen Remote clear command

The terminal automatically resizes when the PatchMon browser window resizes, the AI Assistant panel opens/closes, or the sidebar collapses. The server is notified over the WebSocket so the remote TTY keeps cols and rows in sync. Resize events are honoured in Direct mode (when supported by the remote SSH server) and in Proxy mode via ssh_proxy_resize messages to the agent.

Terminal output is also captured in a rolling 5 000-character buffer for the AI Terminal Assistant, if enabled.

Session lifetime and idle timeout

  • Ticket TTL: 30 seconds. A session that takes longer than that to start must re-request a ticket.
  • Idle disconnect: after 15 minutes with no terminal activity the session is closed automatically. A visible warning appears 1 minute before the disconnect. Any input or output resets the timer.
  • Manual disconnect: click Disconnect in the toolbar or close the terminal panel. Credentials are wiped from browser state on disconnect.

What happens when the WebSocket drops

  • If the server-side SSH process exits (e.g. you type exit on the remote shell), the terminal shows "SSH connection closed" and the WebSocket stays open for a potential new connect.
  • If the WebSocket itself drops unexpectedly and you were connected, the terminal attempts to reconnect once after 3 seconds, via a brand-new ticket and WebSocket. Authentication re-uses the cached username but you must re-enter password or key, as credentials are not persisted in the browser.
  • Close codes that are not retried: 1000 (normal close), 1006 (abnormal close, often auth failure), 1008 (policy violation). For those, you get "Connection failed: Session may have expired. Please refresh the page or log in again.".

Auditing

Every successful ticket mint (i.e. the user has requested a terminal session) fires an ssh_session_started event:

  • Severity: informational (configurable in Alert Lifecycle).
  • Metadata: host_id, host_name, user_id.
  • Reference: the host record.

Route this event type to a destination (for example, a #security Discord channel) if you want a live audit trail of all web SSH sessions. Configure routing in Notification Routes and Delivery Log.

Server logs also record each upgrade and ticket consumption under ssh-terminal connected and ssh-terminal ticket invalid log lines.

Troubleshooting

Symptom Likely cause and fix
"Authentication required. Please log in again." when clicking Connect Your PatchMon session cookie is missing or expired. Refresh the page and sign in.
"Invalid or expired ticket" on upgrade More than 30 seconds elapsed between ticket mint and WebSocket open, or the ticket was already consumed. Retry; PatchMon mints a new ticket on the retry.
"Agent not connected." in Proxy mode Host's agent WebSocket is down. Verify from Host Detail → Status; restart the agent service on the host.
Agent rejects with "ssh-proxy-enabled must be true" Set integrations.ssh-proxy-enabled: true in the agent's config.yml and restart the agent service.
"Failed to parse private key" Key is encrypted: add the passphrase. Or the key format is unsupported; use OpenSSH or PEM PKCS#8.
Connection established but first-time host key warning on server log The PatchMon container has no known_hosts for this host. Add one via a volume mount, or accept that first-use keys are auto-trusted.

Chapter 22: RDP via Guacamole

Known issue (2.0.0). The RDP connection flow has a known bug in PatchMon 2.0.0. Sessions may fail to establish, disconnect early, or return opaque errors in certain environments. A fix is planned for the next release. See Release Notes 2.0.0 for details. If RDP is mission-critical for your rollout, validate the workflow in a staging instance before relying on it in production.

Overview

PatchMon 2.0 lets you open a full RDP session to a Windows host from your browser, with no RDP client installed locally and no inbound RDP port exposed to the outside world. The session travels:

  • From the browser as a Guacamole WebSocket tunnel, into the PatchMon server.
  • From the PatchMon server into a guacd sidecar, which speaks the RDP protocol.
  • From guacd through a short-lived TCP proxy to the host's own PatchMon agent, which forwards to localhost:3389 on the Windows host.

This is a one-time ticketed connection with keyboard, mouse, and clipboard support. Screen size is configurable, and NLA/TLS/legacy RDP is auto-negotiated.

RDP is provided under the remote_access capability module.

Known issue: 2.0.0 RDP bug

Before using RDP in production, read this.

Version 2.0.0 has a known bug in the RDP connection flow that can cause:

  • Sessions to fail handshake with generic errors.
  • Ticket resolution issues that surface as "invalid or expired ticket" on otherwise valid sessions.
  • Early disconnects after a successful handshake under some network conditions.

A fix is planned for the next release. In the meantime:

  • If RDP is critical, stay on the last 1.4.x release that works for you, or retry the session.
  • Always verify the Web SSH Terminal works end-to-end first. It has no such known issue and is a good baseline check for connectivity and agent health.
  • When reporting RDP issues, include the server log lines tagged rdp-ticket and rdp tunnel, and the agent's rdp_proxy_* log lines.

Full context: Release Notes 2.0.0, section Known issues.

Architecture

┌──────────┐  Guacamole protocol over WSS  ┌──────────────────┐   TCP 4822   ┌───────┐  TCP  ┌──────────────────┐   TCP 3389  ┌──────────────┐
│ Browser  │ ───────────────────────────→ │ patchmon-server  │ ───────────→ │ guacd │ ────→ │  Ephemeral port  │ ──────────→ │  Windows     │
│ (guac-   │                              │  (Go binary)     │              │       │       │   on the server  │             │  Agent relay │
│  common- │ ←─────────────────────────── │                  │ ←─────────── │       │ ←──── │  (local listen)  │ ←────────── │  → localhost │
│  js)     │                              │                  │              │       │       │                  │             │    3389      │
└──────────┘                              └──────────────────┘              └───────┘       └──────────────────┘             └──────────────┘
                                                   │                                                 ▲
                                                   │           Agent WebSocket (rdp_proxy_*)         │
                                                   └─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Key components:

  • guacd: Apache Guacamole's daemon, shipped as a sidecar container in PatchMon's Docker Compose (guacamole/guacd:1.5.5). Runs on 4822/tcp inside the patchmon-internal network. No public ports.
  • PatchMon server: acts as the Guacamole WebSocket tunnel endpoint and owns the RDP ticket store. It asks the host's agent to set up a local TCP proxy, then hands that proxy to guacd.
  • Agent proxy: on receiving rdp_proxy over its WebSocket, the agent opens a local TCP bridge and forwards bytes between PatchMon and localhost:3389 on the Windows host. Requires integrations.rdp-proxy-enabled: true in the agent config.
  • Windows host: runs the standard Windows RDP service on 127.0.0.1:3389 (bound to localhost via the agent; no inbound exposure needed).

See Installing PatchMon Server on Docker for the sidecar configuration as deployed by the standard compose file. If you run PatchMon without the sidecar, install guacd separately (apt install guacd / yum install guacd) and set GUACD_ADDRESS to point at it.

Permissions and module

Access Requirement
Open an RDP session admin, superadmin, or can_use_remote_access + can_view_hosts on your role
Create RDP ticket for a host can_manage_hosts (needed to see the control on the host detail page in the first place)
Deployment remote_access capability module enabled

Users without the required permission are rejected at POST /auth/rdp-ticket with 403 Access denied.

Prerequisites

Before you can open an RDP session to a host, all of these must be true:

  1. The host is identified as Windows in PatchMon (os_type or expected_platform contains "windows"). Non-Windows hosts are rejected with 400 RDP is only available for Windows hosts.
  2. The host's PatchMon agent is online and connected via its WebSocket.
  3. The agent's config.yml has integrations.rdp-proxy-enabled: true. This setting is not pushable from the server. You edit it on the host and restart the PatchMonAgent service.
  4. RDP is enabled on the Windows host, and the agent's user context can reach localhost:3389. (The default NLA mode is fine; PatchMon negotiates security automatically.)
  5. The PatchMon server is able to reach guacd at its configured address (defaults to 127.0.0.1:4822 or guacd:4822 depending on deployment). If not, RDP ticket creation fails early with 503 guacd is not reachable on the PatchMon server.

Opening an RDP session

  1. Go to Hosts and click the Windows host.
  2. On Host Detail, open the Remote Access area and click Open RDP (or the RDP icon in the toolbar).
  3. Enter the Windows username and password for the account to sign in as.
  4. Optionally adjust the Screen size. Defaults to 1024 × 768. Allowed range is 320–8192 on each axis; values outside this range are clamped.
  5. Click Connect.

The server then:

  • Preflights guacd with a 2-second TCP dial.
  • Asks the rdpproxy to allocate an ephemeral listener (one per session), which is the "port" that guacd will dial into.
  • Sends rdp_proxy to the host's agent, waits up to 12 seconds for the agent to acknowledge with rdp_proxy_connected.
  • Mints an RDP ticket and returns the WebSocket tunnel URL to the browser.
  • The browser opens wss://<patchmon-host>/api/v1/rdp/websocket-tunnel?ticket=…&width=…&height=…, completes the Guacamole handshake, and starts streaming frames.

Once connected you see the Windows sign-in screen (or desktop, if NLA authenticated) in your browser.

Credentials handling

  • Username and password are sent once over HTTPS to POST /auth/rdp-ticket and stored encrypted in the RDP ticket record alongside the session ID, host ID, and screen dimensions.
  • The ticket is single-use and expires quickly (tens of seconds). When guacd consumes it to set up the tunnel, the stored credentials are forwarded to guacd and then to RDP. PatchMon itself does not keep them after the session starts.
  • For environments where Windows asks for a certificate, the default guacd config uses ignore-cert=true to accept the self-signed certificate Windows generates out of the box, matching mstsc.exe behaviour. Hardened per-host overrides are a candidate for a future release.
  • Security mode is negotiated as any, which lets FreeRDP pick the strongest common mode (NLA → TLS → legacy RDP). Hardcoding NLA would break hosts with Negotiate/TLS-only security layers and refuses blank-credential sessions.
  • Empty username and password are allowed (some hosts accept blank-credential sessions) but guacd usually fails handshake in that case; the server logs missing_username_or_password: true so you can spot it in the audit trail.

One-time tickets

RDP tickets work like SSH tickets:

  • 64-character hex string, crypto/rand entropy.
  • Stored in Redis with a short TTL.
  • Consumed atomically on first use by doGuacConnect.
  • Bound to a user ID, a host ID, a proxy session ID, a port, the encrypted credentials, and the requested screen width/height.
  • Validated against the user's current active state. A deactivated user cannot re-use a still-live ticket.

You never see or handle the ticket directly; the UI requests it under the hood when you click Connect.

Keyboard layouts and clipboard

  • Keyboard: the Guacamole client maps the browser's keydown events to scancodes. For most Latin keyboards (en-GB, en-US) this "just works". For non-Latin layouts, match the Windows layout to the browser's. Guacamole has no per-session keyboard-layout selector in PatchMon 2.0.
  • Clipboard: bidirectional text clipboard is supported via Guacamole's native clipboard channel. Copy in Windows, paste in the browser, or vice versa. Rich clipboard (images, file lists) is not supported.
  • Mouse: primary, secondary, and wheel. Mouse-wheel-click middle button is supported.
  • Full-screen: toggle via your browser's F11/fullscreen mode. Guacamole resizes the RDP session to the browser viewport where the host allows dynamic resolution.

Printer redirection, audio, drive mapping, and USB forwarding are not enabled in 2.0.

Session limits

Limit Default Source
Concurrent RDP sessions per server 50 rdpproxy.DefaultMaxSessions
Per-session idle timeout 30 minutes rdpproxy.sessionIdleTimeout
guacd preflight timeout 2 seconds guacdPreflightTimeout
Agent handshake timeout 12 seconds agentHandshakeTimeout

Exceeding the concurrency cap returns 503 Too many concurrent RDP sessions on this server, please try again later.

Disconnecting

  • Manual disconnect: close the browser tab or click the disconnect control in the RDP panel. The server tears the session down, tells the agent to close the TCP bridge, and releases the Redis ticket record.
  • Windows sign-out: the RDP session closes normally; the tunnel stays open for a brief grace period before cleanup.
  • Idle close: after 30 minutes of no data flow the session is killed server-side.

Auditing

Every successful RDP ticket creation fires an rdp_session_started event:

  • Severity: informational.
  • Metadata: host_id, host_name, user_id.
  • Reference: the host record.

Route this event type in Notification Routes and Delivery Log if you want a live audit trail of who is signing into Windows hosts from PatchMon.

Server logs include rdp-ticket and rdp session opened lines with the session ID, user ID, host ID, negotiated security posture, and a missing_username_or_password field. Use these to triage incidents; the session ID ties everything together.

Troubleshooting

Symptom Response from the server Likely cause and fix
guacd is not reachable on the PatchMon server. 503, code: guacd_unavailable The sidecar is not running. Check docker compose ps guacd, or install guacd on the host and set GUACD_ADDRESS.
The PatchMon agent on this host is not connected. 503, code: agent_disconnected Agent is offline. Start / restart the PatchMonAgent service on the host.
The PatchMon agent did not respond to the RDP proxy request in time. 504, code: agent_timeout The agent is connected but its handler is stuck, or blocked by firewall. Check agent logs for rdp_proxy entries.
rdp proxy is not enabled (via rdp-proxy-enabled) 502, code: agent_rdp_disabled Set integrations.rdp-proxy-enabled: true in the agent config.yml and restart the agent.
invalid host 502, code: agent_invalid_host Proxy host format rejected (reserved for future per-target proxies).
connection refused / no route to host on port 3389 502, code: rdp_port_unreachable RDP is not running on the Windows host, or a local firewall blocks localhost:3389. Enable RDP on the host.
RDP is only available for Windows hosts 400 Non-Windows host. Use the Web SSH Terminal instead.
Forbidden: origin not allowed in WebSocket upgrade 403 Your browser's Origin header isn't in PatchMon's CORS_ORIGIN allow-list. Update CORS_ORIGIN (or the dynamic origin resolver) to include your PatchMon URL and restart.
Guacamole handshake fails repeatedly with a valid user and password Check rdp tunnel guacd handshake failed in the server log. This is the 2.0.0 known-issue scenario; consult the release notes and retry.

Chapter 23: AI Terminal Assistant

Overview

The AI Terminal Assistant is an optional chat panel inside PatchMon's Web SSH Terminal. Operators open it alongside the terminal to ask questions about what they are seeing ("why did apt fail?", "how do I restart this service?", "explain this stack trace") and get answers from an LLM of their choice. The assistant can also turn code snippets in its replies into paste-to-terminal actions, so you stay inside a single window.

The assistant uses PatchMon as a proxy to a supported third-party AI provider (OpenRouter, Anthropic, OpenAI, or Google Gemini). The provider, model, and API key are configured once at the system level; individual operators don't have to set anything up.

Web SSH shipped in 1.4.0, and the AI assistant in the same release.

Supported providers

Four providers are supported in 2.0, each with a curated list of models:

Provider Default model Additional models
OpenRouter anthropic/claude-3.5-sonnet Claude 3 Haiku, GPT-4o, GPT-4o Mini, Gemini Pro 1.5, Llama 3.1 70B
Anthropic claude-sonnet-4-20250514 Claude 3.5 Sonnet, Claude 3.5 Haiku
OpenAI gpt-4o-mini GPT-4o, GPT-4 Turbo
Google Gemini gemini-1.5-flash Gemini 1.5 Pro, Gemini 2.0 Flash (experimental)

Pick one provider per PatchMon deployment. To change providers, edit the AI settings. The API key is cleared automatically when you switch, and you'll be asked to enter a new one for the new provider.

Module gate

The AI assistant is part of the ai capability module (also referred to as ai_assist in some settings). If your subscription does not include the AI module, the settings page is visible but cannot be enabled. Ask your account administrator if the AI features are missing entirely from your instance.

Permissions

Area Permission
Configure AI settings (provider, model, API key) admin or superadmin only
Use the AI assistant in a terminal Any user who can open the SSH terminal (admin/superadmin, or can_use_remote_access)

There is no separate per-user toggle. If AI is enabled at the system level and you have terminal access, the assistant is available to you.

Configuring a provider

Go to Settings → AI Terminal Assistant.

1. Pick your provider

Use the Provider dropdown. The Model dropdown below it repopulates with that provider's models and auto-selects the provider's default. Changing the provider immediately clears the stored API key (because keys belong to one provider each).

2. Enter your API key

Each provider issues its own key:

Provider Get your key from
OpenRouter openrouter.ai/keys
Anthropic console.anthropic.com/settings/keys
OpenAI platform.openai.com/api-keys
Gemini aistudio.google.com/apikey

Paste the key into the API Key field and click Save. PatchMon encrypts the key with your instance's SESSION_SECRET before writing it to the database. The key is never returned to the browser after saving; only a boolean "is set" flag is exposed via the API.

API Key Needs to be Re-entered. If PatchMon later fails to decrypt the stored key (for example, because SESSION_SECRET was rotated or was inconsistent across restarts), the settings page shows a yellow banner. Re-enter the key to clear it.

3. Test the connection

Click Test Connection. The server sends a one-sentence round-trip to the configured provider and checks the response. A green check plus "AI connection test successful" confirms everything works; a red error means the key is wrong, the model is unavailable, or the provider is unreachable from the PatchMon server.

4. Enable the assistant

Flip the Enable AI Assistant toggle at the top of the page. Until this is on, the chat panel inside the SSH terminal is hidden for everyone.

Using the assistant in a terminal

  1. Open a web SSH terminal to any host (see Web SSH Terminal).
  2. Click the robot icon in the terminal toolbar to open the assistant panel on the right.
  3. Type a question and press Enter. Example questions:
    • "The systemctl status nginx output says (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE). What's wrong?"
    • "How do I check disk usage on this Ubuntu host?"
    • "Explain this error message."
  4. The assistant replies inline. Code snippets (fenced with triple backticks or tagged as commands) get a Play and Copy button so you can paste the command into the terminal without typing.

The panel is a normal chat. You can keep asking follow-ups and the assistant keeps context.

What data is sent to the provider

Each request to /api/v1/ai/assist includes:

  • The system prompt: hardcoded in PatchMon, positions the model as a terminal helper for Linux/Unix administration.
  • The terminal context: the last ~3 000 characters of terminal output captured from the browser buffer, wrapped in Markdown fences, so the model can read what you're seeing. The server caps the uploaded context at 10 000 characters as a safety net.
  • The conversation history: up to the last 10 messages (user + assistant) from the current chat session, each trimmed to 2 000 characters.
  • The question: your current message, 1–2 000 characters.

The question is then proxied to the provider you configured (OpenRouter, Anthropic, OpenAI, or Gemini). PatchMon does not retain the request beyond the normal server access log.

Command-completion requests (when you pause while typing into the terminal, if completion is enabled) send:

  • Up to 5 000 characters of context.
  • The partial command you're typing (2–500 characters).
  • A low-temperature prompt instructing the model to output only the completion.

Privacy considerations

  • Terminal output you capture in the buffer is sent to the third-party provider as context. If you've just run a command that shows sensitive data (API keys, secrets, customer data), clear the terminal or don't ask the assistant about it.
  • Your provider's terms of service govern what they may do with the request. Review the provider's data-processing policy before enabling on production hosts. OpenRouter, Anthropic, OpenAI, and Gemini all publish policies.
  • API key secrecy: keys are encrypted at rest and never echoed back over the API. Admins with database access could still read the encrypted value; rotate SESSION_SECRET carefully.
  • All provider traffic leaves the PatchMon server over HTTPS directly to the provider's endpoint. PatchMon does not route it through any intermediate service.

If these trade-offs are not acceptable for a particular environment, leave the assistant disabled. The normal SSH terminal works fine without it.

Rate limiting

Each user is limited to 30 AI requests per minute across assist and complete combined. The limit is enforced in Redis with a 60-second window. Exceeding the limit returns 429 Rate limit exceeded. Please wait a moment. The panel shows the error inline and you can retry after the window resets.

Rate limiting is per PatchMon user, not per IP. It exists to protect your provider spend, not to throttle normal interactive use. 30/min is plenty of headroom for a single operator, while catching runaway scripts.

Input and response limits

  • Questions: 1–2 000 characters. Longer input is rejected with 400.
  • Context: 10 000 characters max (server trims longer input).
  • Conversation history: last 10 messages sent to the provider.
  • Per-message trim: 2 000 characters.
  • Completion input: 2–500 characters.
  • Completion context: 5 000 characters.
  • max_tokens per assistant reply: 1024.
  • Assistant temperature: 0.7 (creative but focused).
  • Completion temperature: 0.3 (conservative).

These values match the product defaults in internal/ai/service.go and are not currently configurable via the UI.

Enabling and disabling

  • Per-deployment: the admin toggle in Settings → AI Terminal Assistant. Off = panel is hidden for everyone.
  • Per-user (soft): any user can simply keep the panel closed. There is no per-user opt-out flag.
  • Emergency off: clear the API key in Settings → AI Terminal Assistant. The server-side AI endpoints return 400 AI API key not configured and the panel surfaces that error.

Troubleshooting

Symptom Likely cause
AI panel does not appear in the terminal AI module not included in your subscription, or AI not enabled in settings, or no API key set.
"AI assistant is not enabled" in the panel Toggle is off in settings.
"AI API key not configured" Key field is empty or decryption failed. Re-enter the key.
"Rate limit exceeded. Please wait a moment." 30 requests/minute cap hit for your user. Back off and retry.
Test connection fails with 401 from provider API key is wrong or revoked. Re-issue and re-enter.
Test connection fails with 404 model not found The model listed in PatchMon is not available on your account. Switch to a different model in the dropdown.
Replies are truncated mid-sentence Response hit the 1024-token cap. Ask a narrower follow-up or paste a smaller context.

Chapter 24: Users, Roles, and RBAC

PatchMon uses role-based access control (RBAC) to decide who can see and do what inside the application. Every user has exactly one role, and every role is a collection of permissions. This page covers the built-in roles, the full permission list, and how to manage users and roles from the Settings UI.

The Built-In Roles

PatchMon ships with five roles. You see these in Settings → Users (in the Role dropdown) and in Settings → Roles (as the matrix columns).

Role Default Permissions Typical Use
Super Admin (superadmin) Everything, including managing other superadmins The very first user, or dedicated platform owners
Admin (admin) Everything except managing other superadmins Day-to-day platform administrators
Host Manager (host_manager) Monitoring + host/infrastructure management + operations (patching, compliance, alerts, automation, remote access) NOC / Ops engineers
User (user) Monitoring + data export Engineers who need to look but not break
Readonly (readonly) Monitoring only Auditors, read-only dashboards, management

Two important rules about built-ins:

  • Cannot be deleted. superadmin, admin, host_manager, user and readonly are always present. The Delete button does not appear for them.
  • The core three cannot have their permissions edited. superadmin, admin and user are locked: their permission matrix is hardcoded and the Edit button is disabled. host_manager and readonly can still be edited if you want to tune them.

First user is always Super Admin. When PatchMon is first installed and has no users, the setup wizard creates the initial account as superadmin, regardless of what role you type. If OIDC is configured for auto-create before first boot, the very first OIDC login is also promoted to superadmin automatically so you cannot lock yourself out.

The Full Permission List

Permissions are grouped into four risk tiers. The colour you see in the Roles matrix corresponds to this risk level.

Monitoring & Visibility (Low risk)

Read-only access to dashboards, hosts, packages, reports, and logs.

Permission key Label What it lets the user do
can_view_dashboard View Dashboard View the main dashboard and its stat panels
can_view_hosts View Hosts See the host list, host detail pages, and connection status
can_view_packages View Packages See the package inventory across all hosts
can_view_reports View Reports See compliance scan results and alert reports
can_view_notification_logs View Notification Logs See notification delivery history and status

Host & Infrastructure (Medium risk)

Create, modify and delete hosts, packages, and containers.

Permission key Label What it lets the user do
can_manage_hosts Manage Hosts Create / edit / delete hosts, host groups, repositories and integrations
can_manage_packages Manage Packages Edit package inventory and metadata
can_manage_docker Manage Docker Delete Docker containers, images, volumes and networks

Operations (Medium-High risk)

Day-to-day NOC tasks.

Permission key Label What it lets the user do
can_manage_patching Manage Patching Trigger patches, approve patch runs, manage policies
can_manage_compliance Manage Compliance Trigger compliance scans, remediate findings, install scanners
can_manage_alerts Manage Alerts Assign, delete and bulk-action alerts
can_manage_automation Manage Automation Trigger and manage automation jobs
can_use_remote_access Remote Access Open SSH and RDP terminals against managed hosts

Administration (High risk)

Organisation-wide control.

Permission key Label What it lets the user do
can_view_users View Users See the user list and account details
can_manage_users Manage Users Create, edit and delete user accounts
can_manage_superusers Manage Superusers Manage superadmin accounts and elevated privileges
can_manage_settings Manage Settings System configuration, OIDC / SSO, AI, alert config, enrollment tokens
can_manage_notifications Manage Notifications Configure notification destinations and routing rules
can_export_data Export Data Download and export data and reports

Billing: On PatchMon Cloud there is also a can_manage_billing permission that governs access to the Billing page. On self-hosted instances this permission exists in the schema but the Billing page is not enabled by default.

Viewing the Role Matrix

  1. Sign in as a user with can_manage_settings.
  2. Go to Settings → Roles.
  3. You'll see a matrix: rows are permissions (grouped by tier), columns are roles. A green tick means the role has that permission.

Each column header also shows an n/N counter showing the number of permissions that role currently holds out of the total 20.

Creating a Custom Role

Custom roles let you tailor the permission set beyond the built-in five.

Availability: The Add Role button is only shown when the rbac_custom module is enabled on your PatchMon deployment. On self-hosted installs this module is typically enabled by default; on PatchMon Cloud it depends on your plan. If you don't see Add Role and the URL https://patchmon.example.com/settings/roles shows a "Not Available" screen, the module isn't enabled on your plan.

To create one:

  1. Go to Settings → Roles.
  2. Click Add Role in the top-right.
  3. Fill in the modal:
    • Role Name: lowercase, underscores instead of spaces. Examples: host_manager, compliance_auditor, noc_operator. This is the internal key; it cannot be renamed later.
    • Preset (optional): four quick-start presets are available:
      • Read Only: just the Monitoring & Visibility group
      • Operator: everything except the Administration group
      • Admin: every permission
      • Clear All: start from zero
    • Permissions: tick / untick individual permissions, or use the Select all / Deselect all shortcut on each group header.
  4. Watch the counter at the bottom (n/20 permissions selected) as a sanity check.
  5. Click Create Role.

The new role appears as a new column in the matrix and is selectable when creating or editing users.

Editing a Custom Role

  1. In the matrix, click the pencil icon in the column header of the role you want to edit.
  2. An editor panel opens below the matrix with all permissions listed.
  3. Tick / untick as needed, then click Save.

Changes take effect immediately. Any session held by a user with that role has its in-memory permissions refreshed on their next request.

Deleting a Custom Role

You can only delete a role that is not assigned to any user. If any user holds that role, the delete endpoint rejects the request with "Cannot delete role: users are assigned to it". Reassign those users to a different role first (see Editing a Role for an Existing User).

To delete:

  1. Click the pencil in the role's column header to open the editor panel.
  2. Click Delete (appears only for non-built-in roles).
  3. Confirm.

Creating Users

Go to Settings → Users and click Add User in the top-right.

Field Notes
Username Minimum 3 characters. Lowercase recommended
Email Must be a valid email. Used for OIDC account linking and email alerts
First Name / Last Name Optional
Password Must satisfy the active password policy (configured under Settings → Server Config → Security)
Role Choose from built-in or custom roles

Click Add User. The account is created immediately and can sign in straight away.

Role escalation protection: You cannot create a user with a role that's more privileged than your own. Only superadmin users can create new admin or superadmin accounts. Non-superadmin accounts that hold the can_manage_superusers permission can also create and manage superadmin accounts.

Self-Service Sign-Up

PatchMon can also let users register themselves rather than having an admin invite them.

  1. Go to Settings → Users.
  2. Scroll to User Registration Settings.
  3. Tick Enable User Self-Registration.
  4. Pick a Default Role for New Users: the role that self-registered accounts are assigned.
  5. Click Save Settings.

Security warning: Only enable self-registration on internal or private-network deployments. If your PatchMon is internet-facing, leave it off and invite users manually, or front it with OIDC SSO (which lets your IdP decide who can log in).

Editing a Role for an Existing User

  1. Go to Settings → Users.
  2. Find the user in the table and click the Edit (pencil) icon.
  3. Change Role in the dropdown and click Save.

Important side effects:

  • Sessions are revoked. When a user's role changes, all of their existing JWT sessions are invalidated on the server. They must sign in again. This ensures the old role's privileges cannot be replayed from an existing browser tab.
  • You cannot change your own role. The API rejects a self-role change with "Cannot change your own role". This is a deliberate safety net: two admins must cooperate to demote each other.
  • You cannot promote a user above yourself. An admin cannot promote a user to superadmin. Only a superadmin can create or promote to superadmin, and likewise only superadmin can assign the admin role.

Resetting a User's Password

  1. In the users table, click the Reset (key) icon on that user's row.
  2. Enter a new password.
  3. Click Reset Password.

After a reset, all of that user's sessions and trusted-device records are revoked. This is the standard post-compromise response. The user must sign in with the new password on every device.

You cannot reset the password of an inactive user. Reactivate them first.

Disabling (Deactivating) a User

Disabling is the safer alternative to deletion. The user record, their history, and their audit trail are preserved, but they cannot log in.

  1. Go to Settings → Users.
  2. Click the Edit icon on the user you want to disable.
  3. Untick the Active checkbox.
  4. Click Save.

Effects:

  • All their sessions are revoked immediately.
  • All their trusted devices are revoked (so re-activating them later cannot reuse a "remember this device" cookie that predates the deactivation window).
  • The user's row is shown with a red Inactive badge in the users table.

To re-enable: edit and tick Active again.

Deleting a User

Deletion is permanent and removes the user record and their associated dashboard preferences, sessions, trusted devices and notification preferences.

  1. Click the Delete (trash) icon on the user's row.
  2. Confirm.

Restrictions:

  • You cannot delete your own account.
  • You cannot delete the last superadmin (the API refuses).
  • You cannot delete the last admin if there are no superadmin users (ensures at least one admin always exists).
  • You cannot delete a user who holds a role that's more privileged than yours.

How Permissions Are Evaluated

  • Admin and Super Admin always have every permission, even if the role_permissions table says otherwise. The middleware short-circuits their permission checks. This is a safety net: if someone mis-edits the admin row (which shouldn't be possible via the UI, but could happen via direct database access), admins don't get locked out.
  • Every other role (built-in or custom) has its permissions read from the database at each request. Changes made in Settings → Roles take effect on the user's next API call; no restart required.
  • Role hierarchy for user management is enforced separately from the permissions above:
    • superadmin → rank 100
    • admin → rank 90
    • host_manager → rank 50
    • custom roles → rank 30 (mid-tier)
    • user → rank 20
    • readonly → rank 10

You can only modify, delete, or reset the password of users whose role rank is less than or equal to your own. This is distinct from the permission checks. Even if a custom role were granted can_manage_users, its holder still could not touch admin or superadmin accounts unless they additionally had can_manage_superusers.

When OIDC Role Sync Is Enabled

If Settings → OIDC / SSO → Sync roles from IdP is on, PatchMon stops letting admins manage users and roles from the UI. Instead:

  • The Add User and Add Role buttons disappear.
  • The Users tab shows a read-only list.
  • The Roles tab shows a banner reminding you that group membership in your IdP drives role assignment via environment variables: OIDC_SUPERADMIN_GROUP, OIDC_ADMIN_GROUP, OIDC_HOST_MANAGER_GROUP, OIDC_USER_GROUP, OIDC_READONLY_GROUP.
  • Users' roles are re-evaluated on every login based on their current IdP group membership.

If you want to use OIDC for authentication but still manage roles locally in PatchMon, leave Sync roles from IdP off. See Setting Up OIDC / Single Sign-On for the full toggle reference.

Troubleshooting

"You do not have permission to assign the role: admin"

Only a superadmin can create or promote users to admin or superadmin. If you're an admin and try to promote someone to admin, the API refuses. Ask a superadmin to do it.

"Cannot modify built-in role permissions"

The superadmin, admin and user rows are locked against permission edits. If you need a role with tweaked permissions, create a custom role based on a preset and assign users to that instead.

"Cannot delete role: users are assigned to it"

Before a role can be deleted, reassign every user who holds it. Use Settings → Users → Edit to change each user's role, then try the delete again.

"Cannot delete the last superadmin user" / "Cannot delete the last admin user"

At least one superadmin must always exist. If there are no superadmins at all, at least one admin must exist. Create a replacement first (and sign in as them to confirm the login works) before deleting the final one.

User's old role is still in effect after I changed it

Changing a role revokes all existing sessions, but the user's browser may still hold an old JWT cookie that hasn't been rejected yet. Ask them to refresh the page or sign out and back in; the server will reject the stale token and redirect them to login.

"Add User" / "Add Role" button is missing

Three possible causes:

  1. Your role doesn't have can_manage_settings or can_view_users. Check /settings/users: if the page is empty or you get a Forbidden, your role lacks the view permission.
  2. OIDC role sync is on. See When OIDC Role Sync Is Enabled.
  3. The rbac_custom module is not enabled. This only affects the Add Role button on the Roles tab. Custom role creation is a gated feature. The Add User button on the Users tab is always available when the other two conditions are met.

Chapter 25: Two-Factor Authentication

PatchMon supports time-based one-time password (TOTP) two-factor authentication (2FA, sometimes called MFA) on top of the normal username / password login. Once enabled on a user's account, every sign-in asks for a 6-digit code from an authenticator app, or a one-time backup code.

This page covers enabling 2FA per user, using backup codes, the "Remember Me" trusted-device feature, and how admins recover an account if the user loses their authenticator.

Scope and limitations

  • 2FA is opt-in per user. Each user decides whether to turn it on from their own profile.
  • 2FA is not available for OIDC accounts. If a user signs in via OIDC / SSO, their IdP is responsible for MFA. The PatchMon TFA tab is hidden on the profile page for OIDC-only accounts, and the setup endpoint refuses with "MFA is managed by your OIDC provider".
  • There is no global "require 2FA for all users" flag in the current release. Administrators cannot enforce 2FA for every account from the UI or an environment variable. If you need enforced 2FA, drive authentication through an OIDC provider that enforces MFA (e.g. Authentik, Entra ID) and set OIDC_DISABLE_LOCAL_AUTH=true.
  • The first-time setup wizard offers new admins the option to set up 2FA during initial account creation (Step 2 of the wizard). This is voluntary and can be skipped.

Enabling 2FA on Your Account

Each user enables 2FA themselves from their profile. Admins cannot enable it on behalf of another user.

  1. Sign in to PatchMon with your username and password.
  2. Click your avatar (top-right) → Profile.
  3. Open the Multi-Factor Authentication tab.
  4. Click Enable TFA.
  5. A QR code appears. Scan it with your authenticator app of choice. Known-good options:
    • Authy
    • Google Authenticator
    • 1Password
    • Bitwarden
    • Microsoft Authenticator
    • Duo Mobile
  6. If you can't scan the QR code (shared device, desktop-only app), copy the Manual Entry Key instead and paste it into your authenticator.
  7. Click Continue to Verification.
  8. Enter the current 6-digit code from your authenticator app.
  9. Click Verify & Enable.

You are now shown a one-time list of backup codes (see next section). Save them before clicking Done.

From now on, every password-based login will prompt for a 6-digit verification code after the password step.

Backup codes: save these

After enabling 2FA, PatchMon generates a batch of single-use backup codes. These let you sign in if you lose access to your authenticator app (lost phone, wiped device, etc.).

  • Each code can be used exactly once. Once used, it is consumed and cannot be reused.
  • They are shown only once, in plaintext, immediately after setup or regeneration. PatchMon stores them as bcrypt hashes in the database; neither you nor an admin can recover the plaintext later.
  • Treat them like a second password. Store them in a password manager, or print them and lock them away.
  • Click Download Codes to save a plain-text file for offline storage.

Regenerating backup codes

If you think your backup codes have leaked, or you've used most of them:

  1. Go to Profile → Multi-Factor Authentication.
  2. Scroll to the Backup Codes panel.
  3. Click Regenerate Codes.
  4. A new set of codes is generated and shown. The old set is immediately invalidated.

Using a backup code

On the 2FA prompt at login, you enter backup codes in the same field as TOTP codes. There is no separate "use a backup code" button. PatchMon tries the code as a TOTP first; if that fails, it checks whether it matches one of the stored backup-code hashes. If it matches, that backup code is consumed (removed from the stored list) and you are logged in.

Typical workflow if you've lost your phone:

  1. At the login page, enter your username and password as usual.
  2. On the "Two-Factor Authentication" screen, type one of your backup codes in the Verification Code field.
  3. Click Verify.

The code is spent. Your next login cannot use the same backup code again.

"Remember Me": Trusted Devices

When you enter your 2FA code, there's a Remember me on this computer (skip TFA for 30 days) checkbox. If ticked, PatchMon plants a long-lived, HttpOnly patchmon_device_trust cookie on that browser and records a hashed trust token in the database.

On subsequent logins from the same browser:

  • You still enter your password.
  • PatchMon sees the trust cookie, matches it to the database record, confirms the record belongs to you and hasn't expired, and skips the 2FA prompt.
  • A last_used_at timestamp on the trust record is bumped each time it's used, so you can see when each remembered device last signed in.

How the trust is keyed

The trust cookie is keyed only on (user ID, cookie hash). It is deliberately not bound to IP address or user agent, so:

  • Roaming between Wi-Fi, mobile hotspot, and office network does not invalidate the trust.
  • Updating your browser does not invalidate the trust.
  • Copying the cookie to a different browser on a different machine would bypass 2FA for that user (standard web cookie security model). Protect your browser profile accordingly.

Trust lifetime

The default lifetime is 30 days, configurable server-wide via the TFA_REMEMBER_ME_EXPIRES_IN environment variable. Accepts duration strings such as 7d, 30d, 90d. See PatchMon Environment Variables Reference for the full list.

There is a hard cap on how many trusted devices a single user can accumulate, controlled by TFA_MAX_REMEMBER_SESSIONS (default 5). When a sixth device is trusted, the oldest existing trust is removed automatically.

Reviewing your trusted devices

  1. Go to Profile → Trusted Devices.
  2. You'll see a list with, for each device:
    • Label (best-effort device name derived from the user agent)
    • User agent
    • IP address at the time it was last used
    • Created / Last used / Expires timestamps
    • A This device badge next to the one you're currently logged in from

Revoking a trusted device

To stop a specific device skipping 2FA (for example, an old laptop you're decommissioning):

  1. Profile → Trusted Devices.
  2. Find the device in the list and click Revoke.
  3. Confirm.

If the device you're revoking is the current browser, its trust cookie is also cleared, so your next login from this browser will require 2FA again.

Revoking every trusted device

Click Forget all trusted devices at the top of the panel. This:

  • Removes every trust record for your account.
  • Clears the trust cookie on the current browser.
  • Forces a full 2FA prompt on every device next time you sign in.

Use this after a suspected account compromise or after losing a device.

Disabling 2FA

To turn 2FA back off on your own account:

  1. Profile → Multi-Factor Authentication.
  2. Click Disable TFA.
  3. Enter your password to confirm.
  4. Click Disable TFA.

Side effects:

  • The TOTP secret is wiped from the database.
  • All existing backup codes are invalidated.
  • All of your trusted devices are revoked. This is intentional. The only purpose of a trust record is to skip 2FA, so with 2FA off they serve no purpose. If you later re-enable 2FA, old trust cookies will not be resurrected and every device must confirm 2FA again.

You cannot disable 2FA on an OIDC-only account. The API rejects the request with "Cannot disable TFA for accounts without a password". This is because disabling 2FA requires password confirmation, and OIDC-only accounts have no password set.

Failed Attempts and Lockout

To prevent brute-forcing the 6-digit code space, the verify-2FA endpoint is rate-limited per user.

Env var Default What it does
MAX_TFA_ATTEMPTS 5 Consecutive wrong codes allowed before a lockout
TFA_LOCKOUT_DURATION_MINUTES 30 How long the lockout lasts

After the cap is hit, the endpoint returns HTTP 429 Too Many Requests with the message "Too many failed TFA attempts. Please try again later." Wait out the lockout, or ask an admin (see below).

Each failure also returns a remainingAttempts counter in the response, so the login UI can tell the user how many tries are left.

First-Time Wizard: Optional 2FA Setup

When you bring up a brand-new PatchMon instance and complete the setup wizard, Step 2 (Multi-Factor Authentication) offers two choices:

  • Setup MFA now: scan a QR code and register an authenticator for the brand-new admin account before finishing the wizard. You'll also capture your backup codes.
  • Skip for now: the admin account is created without 2FA. You can turn it on later from Profile → Multi-Factor Authentication.

There is no "enforce for everyone" option in the wizard. This decision is always per-user.

Admin Recovery: User Has Lost Their Authenticator

PatchMon does not have a dedicated "admin reset MFA" button. Recovery is handled through the standard account-recovery flow, which implicitly disables 2FA in a safe way:

Option A: User has a backup code

Ask them to sign in with a backup code (see Using a backup code). Once they're in, they can:

  1. Profile → Multi-Factor Authentication → Disable TFA to remove the old authenticator secret entirely, and then re-enable with the new phone.
  2. Or Regenerate Codes to get a fresh set of backup codes without touching the authenticator.

Option B: User has no backup codes and no authenticator

An administrator must reset the account:

  1. Sign in as a user with can_manage_users (admin, superadmin, or any custom role with that permission).
  2. Go to Settings → Users.
  3. Find the affected user and click Reset Password.
  4. Set a new password and communicate it over an out-of-band secure channel.

Password reset alone does not disable 2FA. The user will still be prompted for a TOTP or backup code after their first login with the new password.

If the user still cannot produce a code, you have two further options:

  • Deactivate, then reactivate the account. Edit the user, untick Active, save (this also wipes their trusted devices), then tick Active again. 2FA is still enabled on the account, so this alone does not solve the missing-authenticator problem.
  • Delete and re-create the user as a last resort. You lose the user's ID, notification preferences, and any artefacts keyed to their account, so prefer the backup-code route wherever possible.

Feature gap: A "wipe 2FA on another user" admin action is on the roadmap. If you hit this frequently, consider moving your deployment to OIDC / SSO so that MFA is managed by the IdP (see Setting Up OIDC / Single Sign-On).

Direct database workaround (self-hosted only)

If you are self-hosting and absolutely need to clear 2FA on a user without backup codes, a DBA can clear the user's tfa_enabled, tfa_secret and tfa_backup_codes columns directly in the users table, then force a password reset from the UI. This is a last resort. Make a backup first, and never do this on PatchMon Cloud (where direct database access is not available).

-- Replace 'alice' with the affected username. Make a backup first.
UPDATE users
SET tfa_enabled = false,
    tfa_secret = NULL,
    tfa_backup_codes = NULL
WHERE username = 'alice';

After running this the user can sign in with just a password; they should immediately re-enrol in 2FA from their profile.

Environment Variables Reference

All of these are read once at server start. Changes require a restart to take effect. The full table lives in PatchMon Environment Variables Reference; reproduced here for convenience:

Variable Default Description
MAX_TFA_ATTEMPTS 5 Consecutive wrong 2FA codes before the account is temporarily locked
TFA_LOCKOUT_DURATION_MINUTES 30 How long a 2FA lockout lasts
TFA_REMEMBER_ME_EXPIRES_IN 30d How long a "Remember me" trusted-device record is valid. Accepts 7d, 30d, 90d, etc.
TFA_MAX_REMEMBER_SESSIONS 5 Maximum number of trusted devices per user; the oldest is evicted when the limit is reached

Troubleshooting

"Invalid verification code" when I know the code is correct

  1. Clock skew. TOTP codes are time-based. If your phone's clock is more than ~30 seconds out of sync with the server, codes will be rejected. Enable automatic date/time on your phone. PatchMon already tolerates a small drift window server-side, but not more than that.
  2. Using a used code. TOTP codes roll every 30 seconds. If you paste a stale code from 60+ seconds ago it will fail. Wait for a fresh code.
  3. Used backup code. Backup codes are single-use. If you've already used one, try a different one.

"Too many failed TFA attempts"

You've hit MAX_TFA_ATTEMPTS. Wait TFA_LOCKOUT_DURATION_MINUTES (default 30) and try again. There is no admin "unlock" button; the lockout key in Redis expires automatically. Self-hosters can flush the key by restarting Redis.

I ticked "Remember me" but I'm still being asked for 2FA

Three likely causes:

  • The trust record has expired. The default lifetime is 30 days; check TFA_REMEMBER_ME_EXPIRES_IN on your server.
  • You're signing in on a different browser, or in a private / incognito window, which doesn't have the cookie.
  • A password reset was performed on your account. Password resets (whether self-service or admin-initiated) revoke every trusted device as part of the security response. You'll need to tick Remember me again on the next 2FA prompt.

My MFA tab is missing on the profile page

You signed in via OIDC. PatchMon defers MFA to your IdP in that case. Enable MFA in your IdP (Entra ID, Authentik, Keycloak, etc.) if you want it.

I regenerated backup codes but the old ones still work

The old codes are invalidated at the same moment the new batch is displayed. If a stale code still seems to work, make sure you're looking at the right account. Backup codes are not user-transferable.

Chapter 26: Discord Notifications

PatchMon integrates with Discord in two separate, independent ways:

  1. Discord OAuth2 login: let users sign in to PatchMon with their Discord account, or link an existing PatchMon account to a Discord identity. Configured under Settings → Discord Auth.
  2. Discord as a notification / alert destination: fire PatchMon alerts and scheduled reports into a Discord channel via an incoming webhook. Configured under Settings → Alert Channels as a webhook destination.

You can enable either, both, or neither. They don't depend on each other.

Part 1: Discord OAuth2 Login

Let users authenticate to PatchMon with their Discord account. PatchMon supports three related flows:

  • Sign in with Discord (for users who don't yet exist): auto-creates a PatchMon account if self-registration is enabled.
  • Sign in with Discord (for users who do exist): auto-links by matching the verified Discord email to the user's PatchMon email.
  • Link Discord to an existing logged-in account: from the Profile page, attach a Discord identity to your PatchMon account without changing your password.

Everything is configured through the Settings UI. No environment variables are required; secrets are stored encrypted in the PatchMon database.

What you'll end up with

  • An additional Login with Discord button on the PatchMon login page.
  • Optional automatic account creation on first Discord login (driven by the PatchMon signup setting).
  • A Discord avatar and username visible on each user's profile.

Before you begin

You need:

Item Notes
A running PatchMon instance Reachable at a fixed URL, e.g. https://patchmon.example.com
HTTPS on the PatchMon URL Discord requires https:// redirect URIs in production
A PatchMon admin account with can_manage_settings To reach the Discord Auth settings page
A Discord account To access the Discord Developer Portal

Step 1: Find your callback URL

The callback is derived from PatchMon's configured server URL and is shown to you on the settings screen, but for reference the canonical path is:

https://patchmon.example.com/api/v1/auth/discord/callback

If PatchMon is showing the wrong hostname (for example http://localhost:3000 when you're running in production), fix your Server URL in Settings → Server Config first. The callback URL is read-only in the Discord settings panel and is rebuilt from the server URL whenever you save.

Step 2: Create a Discord application

  1. Go to the Discord Developer Portal.

  2. Click New Application and give it a name (e.g. PatchMon).

  3. In the left menu, open OAuth2.

  4. Under Redirects, click Add Redirect and paste your callback URL:

    https://patchmon.example.com/api/v1/auth/discord/callback

  5. Click Save Changes at the bottom.

  6. Copy the Client ID (shown at the top). You'll paste it into PatchMon in the next step.

  7. Click Reset Secret (or Copy if the secret is already visible), and save the value. Discord will only show this once. If you lose it, you'll have to reset it again.

You do not need to set up an OAuth2 URL / redirect URL generator in Discord. PatchMon builds the authorisation URL itself. The only field that matters in the Discord UI is the Redirects list.

Step 3: Configure PatchMon

  1. Sign in to PatchMon as an admin.
  2. Go to Settings → Discord Auth.
  3. Fill in the OAuth2 Configuration panel:
    • Client ID: the Application ID from Discord's app overview.
    • Client Secret: paste the secret from Step 2 into the field and click Save. The Not set badge should flip to Set (green tick). PatchMon encrypts the secret at rest using its configured SECRET_ENCRYPTION_KEY.
    • Redirect URI: usually leave blank. PatchMon derives the callback from the server URL automatically. Only override if you're behind a proxy that presents a different public URL.
    • Button Text: customise the login button label, e.g. Sign in with Discord. Defaults to Login with Discord.
  4. Click Apply to save the text fields.
  5. At the top of the panel, flip Enable Discord OAuth to on.

Step 4: Test

  1. Open PatchMon in a private / incognito browser window.
  2. On the login page you should now see a Login with Discord (or your custom label) button.
  3. Click it. Discord will ask you to authorise the PatchMon application.
  4. Accept. You'll be redirected back to PatchMon.

First-login behaviour

  • If a PatchMon user with the same email already exists and the Discord email is verified, PatchMon automatically links the accounts. You're logged in.
  • If no PatchMon user exists and self-registration is on (Settings → Users → User Registration Settings → Enable User Self-Registration), PatchMon creates a new account with:
    • Username: derived from the Discord username, stripped of unsafe characters, with a numeric suffix if the base name collides.
    • Email: the Discord email (or discord_<id>@discord.local if Discord doesn't expose an email).
    • Role: the Default Role for New Users setting.
  • If no PatchMon user exists and self-registration is off, the login flow redirects to /login?error=User+not+found. An admin must create the account first; next time, the verified-email auto-link kicks in.

Linking Discord to an existing PatchMon account

This is the safer alternative to "Sign in with Discord" for users who already have a PatchMon account. It lets them keep their username / email / password workflow and just adds a Discord badge.

  1. User signs in to PatchMon as normal.
  2. Clicks their avatar → Profile.
  3. Scrolls to the Linked Accounts section and clicks Link Discord.
  4. PatchMon redirects them to Discord to authorise, then back to the profile page.
  5. On success, the profile shows the Discord username and avatar, and a small "discord_linked=true" success banner.

Unlinking

Same panel → Unlink Discord. PatchMon refuses to unlink if Discord is the user's only login method (no password set, no OIDC linked), as this would lock the user out. Set a password in the Change Password panel first, then retry the unlink.

Troubleshooting: OAuth login

The "Login with Discord" button doesn't appear on the login page

  • Toggle is off. Check Settings → Discord Auth → Enable Discord OAuth.
  • Client secret is missing. The badge next to the field should say Set. If it says Not set, paste the secret and click Save.
  • Client ID is blank. Check the same panel; the Client ID field must be populated.

Redirect error: "The redirect URI isn't registered"

The URL Discord is being asked to redirect to doesn't match anything in the Discord app's Redirects list.

  • In Discord's Developer Portal, open your app → OAuth2 → Redirects and make sure https://patchmon.example.com/api/v1/auth/discord/callback is listed exactly. The protocol (https://), host, port, and path must all match.
  • Don't include a trailing slash; don't include query strings.
  • If PatchMon is behind a reverse proxy, make sure PatchMon's Server URL reflects the public URL, not the internal one.

Error: "Discord is not fully configured"

One of Client ID or Client Secret is missing. Fill them both in, then click Apply and Save respectively.

Someone else in PatchMon is already linked to that Discord account. Only one PatchMon user can hold a given Discord identity at a time.

First-login auto-create didn't happen

Auto-create only runs when Settings → Users → User Registration Settings → Enable User Self-Registration is on. If it's off, pre-create the user (with a matching email) and try again.

Part 2: Discord as a Notification / Alert Destination

PatchMon can push alerts, events and scheduled reports to a Discord channel via an incoming webhook (Discord's built-in mechanism for posting into a channel from an external service). This is handled by the generic "webhook" alert channel. PatchMon detects Discord URLs automatically and formats the message as a Discord embed.

What you'll end up with

  • A Discord channel that receives rich embedded messages for every PatchMon event of the type(s) you've subscribed.
  • Colour-coded severity (critical = red, error = orange, warning = yellow, informational = blue).
  • Structured fields based on the event type (container stops, host down, user role changes, etc.).
  • Scheduled reports (daily / weekly / monthly summaries) also delivered as embeds, with a plain-text excerpt and CSV attached where supported.

Step 1: Create a Discord incoming webhook

  1. In Discord, open the server (guild) that owns the target channel.

  2. Server settings → Integrations → Webhooks → New Webhook.

  3. Give the webhook a name (e.g. PatchMon), pick the target channel, optionally set an avatar.

  4. Click Copy Webhook URL. You should now have a URL shaped like:

    https://discord.com/api/webhooks/1234567890/abcdefgh-ABCDEFGH1234567890

    Keep it safe. Anyone who holds this URL can post to your channel.

Step 2: Add the webhook to PatchMon

  1. Sign in to PatchMon with a role that has can_manage_notifications.
  2. Go to Settings → Alert Channels.
  3. Click Add Destination.
  4. Pick Webhook as the channel type.
  5. Fill in:
    • Display Name: e.g. Ops Discord. Any label that helps you identify the channel later.
    • Webhook URL: paste the Discord webhook URL from Step 1.
  6. PatchMon detects it is a Discord URL automatically (the UI shows "Discord and Slack URLs are auto-detected for rich formatting"). Nothing else to configure for Discord.
  7. Click Save.

Heads-up: Anything else that starts with https://discord.com/api/webhooks/, https://discordapp.com/api/webhooks/, or https://www.discord.com/api/webhooks/ is treated as Discord and formatted with embeds. Slack URLs are detected similarly. Everything else is sent as a plain JSON {"title":..., "message":..., "severity":...} POST, which you can consume with your own handler.

Step 3: Route alerts to the destination

Creating the destination does not automatically route any events to it. You need at least one routing rule.

  1. Still on Settings → Alert Channels, scroll to the Routing Rules section.
  2. Click Add Rule.
  3. Pick the destination you just created from the dropdown.
  4. Choose the events / severities you want to send. The recommended starter set:
    • host_went_down
    • host_came_up
    • container_stopped
    • security_updates_available
    • user_tfa_disabled
    • account_locked
  5. Save the rule.

Your Discord channel should start receiving notifications on the next matching event. To test quickly, simulate a host-down event by stopping the PatchMon agent on any non-critical host and waiting for the next check-in cycle.

Step 4 (optional): Route scheduled reports

Alongside real-time alerts, PatchMon can send a periodic summary report to the same webhook.

  1. On the Alert Channels page, scroll to Scheduled Reports.
  2. Click Add Schedule.
  3. Configure:
    • Destinations: tick your Discord webhook.
    • Frequency: daily, weekdays, weekly (pick days), or monthly (pick day or "last day").
    • Delivery time: hour and minute in your server's timezone.
    • Sections: which report sections to include (Open alerts, Hosts by outstanding updates, Top outdated security packages).
  4. Save.

For Discord delivery, scheduled reports are rendered as:

  • A title with the report subject.
  • A short plain-text excerpt of the HTML body (tags stripped).
  • A PatchMon footer.
  • If a CSV attachment is configured, it is posted as a separate file via Discord's multipart upload.

Message format

Real-time alerts

Each event becomes a Discord embed:

  • Title: the event title (e.g. Host Down: web01.example.com).
  • Description: the full event message.
  • Colour: derived from severity (critical red, error orange, warning yellow, informational blue, everything else grey).
  • Fields: structured fields per event type (e.g. for container_stopped: host name, container name, image, old status, new status).
  • Footer: PatchMon.

Scheduled reports

  • Title: report subject line.
  • Description: excerpt of the HTML body, with tags (including <script> blocks) stripped.
  • Footer: PatchMon.

Troubleshooting: Notifications

Webhook URL shows "Webhook URL is required"

The form rejected an empty URL. Paste the full Discord webhook URL you copied in Step 1.

Destination saved but no Discord messages arrive

Walk through this list in order:

  1. Did any matching event fire? Check Alerts → Notification Logs. If the log shows no rows for your destination, no events matched your routing rules. Adjust the rules.

  2. Does the log show a failure? Filter the log by destination. If the delivery attempt failed, hover over the row to see the error Discord returned. Common ones:

    • 401 or 404: the webhook has been deleted in Discord. Re-create it and update the URL.
    • 429 Too Many Requests: you're hitting Discord's rate limit. Reduce the event volume, or split across multiple webhooks / channels.

  3. Did PatchMon even try? Check the PatchMon server logs:

    # Docker
docker compose logs patchmon-server | grep -i notification

  4. Is the URL actually Discord? PatchMon only formats as an embed when the URL hostname is discord.com, discordapp.com, or www.discord.com and the path contains /api/webhooks/. A typo in the URL (e.g. discord.co or no /api/ segment) falls back to the generic JSON POST format, which Discord will reject. Confirm the URL contains /api/webhooks/.

Posts are plain text, not embeds

The URL is not being recognised as Discord. See the last point above and verify the exact hostname and path.

Everything works but messages are posted to the wrong channel

The webhook URL encodes the target channel. In Discord, go to server settings → Integrations → Webhooks, select the webhook, and change Channel. Alternatively, create a new webhook for the correct channel and update PatchMon to use it.

I want to remove the webhook cleanly

  1. In PatchMon, Settings → Alert Channels, find the destination, click Delete.
  2. In Discord, server settings → Integrations → Webhooks, find the webhook, click Delete Webhook. This is the reliable way to revoke. Deleting only in PatchMon leaves the URL live; if anyone else captured the URL they can still post to your channel.

Security notes

OAuth login

  • The Discord Client Secret is stored encrypted in the PatchMon database using the server's SECRET_ENCRYPTION_KEY. Make sure that environment variable is set and is not the default value in production.
  • Account linking by email is only performed when Discord reports the user's email as verified, to prevent account takeover via an unverified email address.
  • PatchMon uses PKCE (S256) for Discord OAuth2 code exchange, so the authorisation code can't be replayed even if intercepted.
  • The Discord OAuth state is tied to a short-lived (10-minute) session stored in Redis; it's one-time-use and bound to an HttpOnly discord_state cookie.

Webhooks

  • Discord webhook URLs are bearer tokens. Anyone with the URL can post to your channel. Treat the webhook URL like a password.
  • PatchMon stores webhook URLs encrypted at rest if a SECRET_ENCRYPTION_KEY is configured. Without one, URLs are stored in plaintext. Don't skip setting the encryption key.
  • Do not paste webhook URLs into public GitHub issues, screenshots, or chat channels.
  • Consider creating a dedicated Discord channel and webhook per PatchMon environment (prod / staging) so you can revoke them independently.

Quick reference

Task Where
Create / edit Discord OAuth app Discord Developer Portal
Enable Discord login in PatchMon Settings → Discord Auth
Sign in via Discord Login page → Login with Discord button
Link existing account to Discord Profile → Linked Accounts → Link Discord
Create Discord webhook Server → Settings → Integrations → Webhooks
Add webhook to PatchMon Settings → Alert Channels → Add Destination → Webhook
Route events to Discord Settings → Alert Channels → Routing Rules
Schedule summary reports to Discord Settings → Alert Channels → Scheduled Reports
Check delivery history Alerts → Notification Logs

Chapter 27: gethomepage Dashboard Card

PatchMon exposes a dedicated read-only endpoint designed to be consumed by a GetHomepage (formerly Homepage) customapi widget. Drop a PatchMon card into your existing homepage to see total hosts, pending updates, and security updates at a glance.

At a glance

  • Endpoint: GET /api/v1/gethomepage/stats
  • Auth: HTTP Basic, using a PatchMon-issued API key dedicated to the GetHomepage integration
  • Widget type: customapi in GetHomepage
  • Fields available: 8 core metrics + a top-3 OS breakdown + a full os_distribution array
  • Rate limit: shares the standard API rate limit; GetHomepage polls every 60 seconds, well within the limit

Default widget

Out of the box the widget shows three metrics:

  • Total Hosts
  • Hosts Needing Updates
  • Security Updates

Additional metrics can be added by editing the mappings: in your GetHomepage services.yml. See Configuration options below.

Prerequisites

  • A running PatchMon 2.x instance reachable from the machine running GetHomepage.
  • GetHomepage already installed and rendering at least one page.
  • Network path between GetHomepage and PatchMon on HTTP or HTTPS. HTTPS is strongly recommended.
  • PatchMon admin access (you need can_manage_settings to create API keys).

Setup

Step 1: Create a GetHomepage API key

  1. Sign in to PatchMon as an admin.
  2. Go to Settings → Integrations.
  3. Open the GetHomepage tab.
  4. Click New API Key and fill in:
    • Token Name: e.g. GetHomepage dashboard.
    • Allowed IP Addresses (optional): restrict to the IP of the machine running GetHomepage.
    • Expiration Date (optional): set one if this is a temporary key.
  5. Click Create Token.

Step 2: Copy the credentials

A success modal is shown with:

  • Token Key: the API username.
  • Token Secret: the API password. Shown only once. Save it immediately.
  • Base64-encoded credentials: pre-built Authorization: Basic value, ready to paste.
  • Complete widget configuration: a ready-to-drop-in YAML snippet.

Click Copy Config to copy the full YAML block. The secret is never retrievable again after you close this modal. If you lose it, you have to delete the key and create a new one.

Step 3: Configure GetHomepage

Option A: Paste the copied YAML (quickest)
  1. Open your GetHomepage services.yml.
  2. Paste the YAML block that PatchMon gave you.
  3. Save the file.
  4. Restart GetHomepage.

The YAML looks like this:

- PatchMon:
    href: https://patchmon.example.com
    description: PatchMon Statistics
    icon: https://patchmon.example.com/assets/favicon.svg
    widget:
      type: customapi
      url: https://patchmon.example.com/api/v1/gethomepage/stats
      headers:
        Authorization: Basic <base64_encoded_credentials>
      mappings:
        - field: total_hosts
          label: Total Hosts
        - field: hosts_needing_updates
          label: Needs Updates
        - field: security_updates
          label: Security Updates
Option B: Build it by hand

  1. Encode your credentials:

    echo -n "YOUR_TOKEN_KEY:YOUR_TOKEN_SECRET" | base64

  2. Paste the widget into services.yml, replacing <your_base64_credentials> with the result:

    - PatchMon:
    href: https://patchmon.example.com
    description: PatchMon Statistics
    icon: https://patchmon.example.com/assets/favicon.svg
    widget:
      type: customapi
      url: https://patchmon.example.com/api/v1/gethomepage/stats
      headers:
        Authorization: Basic <your_base64_credentials>
      mappings:
        - field: total_hosts
          label: Total Hosts
        - field: hosts_needing_updates
          label: Needs Updates
        - field: security_updates
          label: Security Updates

  3. Restart GetHomepage:

    docker restart gethomepage
# or
systemctl restart gethomepage

Configuration options

Customising the fields displayed

The default configuration displays 3 metrics. You can add more. PatchMon returns 8 numeric metrics and the top-3 OS breakdown, and the widget supports 6–8 comfortably before it becomes cluttered.

Each mappings entry has two parts:

  • field: the JSON key returned by the PatchMon API (case-sensitive, exactly as listed below)
  • label: the human-readable label rendered by GetHomepage

Available fields

Field Type Description Included by default
total_hosts Number Total active hosts in PatchMon Yes
hosts_needing_updates Number Hosts with at least one outdated package Yes
security_updates Number Total security updates available across all hosts Yes
up_to_date_hosts Number Hosts with zero outdated packages No
total_outdated_packages Number Sum of all outdated packages across hosts No
hosts_with_security_updates Number Hosts requiring at least one security patch No
total_repos Number Active repositories being monitored No
recent_updates_24h Number Successful updates in the last 24 hours No
top_os_1_name String Name of the most common OS (e.g. "Ubuntu") No (use label instead, see below)
top_os_1_count Number Count of the most common OS No
top_os_2_name String Name of the 2nd most common OS No
top_os_2_count Number Count of the 2nd most common OS No
top_os_3_name String Name of the 3rd most common OS No
top_os_3_count Number Count of the 3rd most common OS No
os_distribution Array Full OS breakdown (advanced use only; GetHomepage cannot render arrays directly) No
last_updated String (ISO 8601) Timestamp the stats were generated No

The top_os_*_name string fields render poorly in customapi widgets. Use the corresponding _count fields and put the OS name in the label:. See Displaying OS distribution.

Quick recipe: add a fourth metric

Before:

mappings:
  - field: total_hosts
    label: Total Hosts
  - field: hosts_needing_updates
    label: Needs Updates
  - field: security_updates
    label: Security Updates

After:

mappings:
  - field: total_hosts
    label: Total Hosts
  - field: hosts_needing_updates
    label: Needs Updates
  - field: security_updates
    label: Security Updates
  - field: recent_updates_24h      # newly added
    label: Updated (24h)

Save, restart GetHomepage, and you've gone from 3 to 4 metrics.

Example widget configurations

All examples assume you've already populated the Authorization header with your encoded credentials.

Security-focused widget

widget:
  type: customapi
  url: https://patchmon.example.com/api/v1/gethomepage/stats
  headers:
    Authorization: Basic <credentials>
  mappings:
    - field: security_updates
      label: Security Patches
    - field: hosts_with_security_updates
      label: Hosts at Risk
    - field: hosts_needing_updates
      label: Total Pending

Repository / coverage widget

widget:
  type: customapi
  url: https://patchmon.example.com/api/v1/gethomepage/stats
  headers:
    Authorization: Basic <credentials>
  mappings:
    - field: total_repos
      label: Repositories
    - field: total_hosts
      label: Managed Hosts
    - field: up_to_date_hosts
      label: Up-to-Date

Activity widget

widget:
  type: customapi
  url: https://patchmon.example.com/api/v1/gethomepage/stats
  headers:
    Authorization: Basic <credentials>
  mappings:
    - field: recent_updates_24h
      label: Updated (24h)
    - field: hosts_needing_updates
      label: Pending Updates
    - field: up_to_date_hosts
      label: Fully Patched

Maximum-information widget (all 8 numeric metrics)

widget:
  type: customapi
  url: https://patchmon.example.com/api/v1/gethomepage/stats
  headers:
    Authorization: Basic <credentials>
  mappings:
    - field: total_hosts
      label: Total Hosts
    - field: hosts_needing_updates
      label: Needs Updates
    - field: up_to_date_hosts
      label: Up-to-Date
    - field: security_updates
      label: Security Updates
    - field: hosts_with_security_updates
      label: Security Hosts
    - field: total_outdated_packages
      label: Outdated Packages
    - field: total_repos
      label: Repositories
    - field: recent_updates_24h
      label: Updated (24h)

Note this widget will be quite tall. Keep it to 3–5 metrics for most layouts.

Multiple environments

# Production - security-focused
- PatchMon Prod:
    href: https://patchmon-prod.example.com
    description: Production Patches
    icon: https://patchmon-prod.example.com/assets/favicon.svg
    widget:
      type: customapi
      url: https://patchmon-prod.example.com/api/v1/gethomepage/stats
      headers:
        Authorization: Basic <prod_credentials>
      mappings:
        - field: total_hosts
          label: Hosts
        - field: security_updates
          label: Security
        - field: hosts_needing_updates
          label: Pending

# Development - package-focused
- PatchMon Dev:
    href: https://patchmon-dev.example.com
    description: Development Patches
    icon: https://patchmon-dev.example.com/assets/favicon.svg
    widget:
      type: customapi
      url: https://patchmon-dev.example.com/api/v1/gethomepage/stats
      headers:
        Authorization: Basic <dev_credentials>
      mappings:
        - field: total_hosts
          label: Hosts
        - field: total_outdated_packages
          label: Packages
        - field: up_to_date_hosts
          label: Updated

Displaying OS distribution

Step 1: Find out your top 3 operating systems

curl -s -H "Authorization: Basic YOUR_BASE64_CREDENTIALS" \
  https://patchmon.example.com/api/v1/gethomepage/stats \
  | jq '{top_os_1_name, top_os_1_count, top_os_2_name, top_os_2_count, top_os_3_name, top_os_3_count}'

Sample output:

{
  "top_os_1_name": "Ubuntu",
  "top_os_1_count": 35,
  "top_os_2_name": "Debian",
  "top_os_2_count": 18,
  "top_os_3_name": "Rocky Linux",
  "top_os_3_count": 12
}

Step 2: Add the counts to the widget, using the names as labels

mappings:
  - field: total_hosts
    label: Total Hosts
  - field: top_os_1_count
    label: Ubuntu          # from top_os_1_name
  - field: top_os_2_count
    label: Debian          # from top_os_2_name
  - field: top_os_3_count
    label: Rocky Linux     # from top_os_3_name

Step 3: Restart GetHomepage

docker restart gethomepage
# or
systemctl restart gethomepage

The widget now shows your infrastructure OS breakdown. If your top 3 OSes change over time, update the labels; PatchMon will reorder the counts automatically based on actual host counts.

Custom icon

# PatchMon logo
icon: https://patchmon.example.com/assets/favicon.svg
icon: https://patchmon.example.com/assets/logo_dark.png
icon: https://patchmon.example.com/assets/logo_light.png

# GetHomepage built-in icon
icon: server

# Local icon inside your GetHomepage image / volume
icon: /icons/patchmon.png

API reference

Endpoints

Method Path Description
GET /api/v1/gethomepage/stats Returns the widget payload described above
GET /api/v1/gethomepage/health Simple liveness probe. Returns status: "ok", the current timestamp, and the name of the API key used.

Authentication

  • Type: HTTP Basic Authentication
  • Format: Authorization: Basic <base64(token_key:token_secret)>
  • Token type: gethomepage (enforced server-side; a credential created under the API tab won't work here, and vice versa)

Stats response

{
  "total_hosts": 42,
  "total_outdated_packages": 156,
  "total_repos": 12,
  "hosts_needing_updates": 15,
  "up_to_date_hosts": 27,
  "security_updates": 23,
  "hosts_with_security_updates": 8,
  "recent_updates_24h": 34,
  "os_distribution": [
    { "name": "Ubuntu",     "count": 20, "os_type": "linux", "os_version": "22.04" },
    { "name": "Debian",     "count": 12, "os_type": "linux", "os_version": "12" },
    { "name": "Rocky Linux", "count": 10, "os_type": "linux", "os_version": "9" }
  ],
  "top_os_1_name": "Ubuntu",
  "top_os_1_count": 20,
  "top_os_2_name": "Debian",
  "top_os_2_count": 12,
  "top_os_3_name": "Rocky Linux",
  "top_os_3_count": 10,
  "last_updated": "2026-04-24T12:34:56Z"
}

Health response

{
  "status": "ok",
  "timestamp": "2026-04-24T12:34:56Z",
  "api_key": "GetHomepage dashboard"
}

Managing API keys

Viewing existing keys

Go to Settings → Integrations → GetHomepage. For each key you see:

  • Token name
  • Creation date
  • Last-used timestamp
  • Active / Inactive status
  • Expiration date (if set)

Disable / Enable / Delete

  • Disable / Enable: toggle the button on the row to temporarily block or restore access without deleting the credential.
  • Delete: click the trash icon. This is permanent; any widget using that key will start returning 401.

Security features

  • IP restrictions: per-key allowlist (CIDRs supported).
  • Expiration dates: automatic sunset.
  • Last-used tracking: spot keys that have silently stopped working, or suspicious usage.
  • One-time secret display: the secret is shown once, at creation. Never again.

Troubleshooting

Error: "Missing or invalid authorization header"

GetHomepage is not sending the Authorization header correctly.

  • Verify the headers: section is properly indented in services.yml.
  • Re-encode the credentials; make sure you used -n with echo so no trailing newline ends up in the base64.
  • Confirm you're using type: customapi, as other widget types ignore arbitrary headers.

Error: "Invalid API key"

The key does not exist in PatchMon.

  • Check Settings → Integrations → GetHomepage for the key.
  • Re-create the key if it's missing, update the GetHomepage config with the new credentials.

Error: "API key is disabled" / "API key has expired"

Enable the key, or create a new one with a later expiration.

Error: "IP address not allowed"

Your GetHomepage instance's outbound IP is not in the credential's allowlist. Either add it, or remove the allowlist if not needed.

Widget shows nothing

Work through this checklist:

  • Can GetHomepage reach PatchMon at all? Test with curl from inside the GetHomepage container: curl -v https://patchmon.example.com/api/v1/gethomepage/health -H "Authorization: Basic ..."
  • Is the API key active and not expired?
  • Is the base64 credential correct?
  • Is services.yml valid YAML? (run yamllint services.yml if unsure)
  • Has GetHomepage been restarted since the last change?
  • Check GetHomepage's container logs for error messages.

Testing the endpoint directly

# Step 1: encode
echo -n "your_key:your_secret" | base64

# Step 2: test
curl -H "Authorization: Basic YOUR_BASE64" \
     https://patchmon.example.com/api/v1/gethomepage/stats | jq

Every numeric field in the response (including top_os_*_count) can be used in a widget mapping.

Security best practices

  • Always use HTTPS. The credentials are sent on every 60-second poll. Don't put them on the wire in the clear.
  • IP-restrict the key to the GetHomepage instance's IP.
  • Give the key an expiration and rotate it as part of your normal credential rotation.
  • Monitor the last-used timestamp to spot suspicious activity.
  • One key per GetHomepage instance if you're running several, to make rotation and revocation easier.
  • Store services.yml with appropriate file permissions on the GetHomepage host.

Integration architecture

┌──────────────────┐
│   GetHomepage    │
│    Dashboard     │
└────────┬─────────┘
         │
         │ HTTP(S) GET, every 60s
         │ Authorization: Basic <base64>
         │
         ▼
┌──────────────────┐
│    PatchMon      │
│   API server     │
│                  │
│ /api/v1/         │
│ gethomepage/     │
│   stats          │
└────────┬─────────┘
         │
         │ Aggregate query
         │
         ▼
┌──────────────────┐
│   PostgreSQL     │
│                  │
│  - Hosts         │
│  - Packages      │
│  - Updates       │
│  - Repositories  │
└──────────────────┘

Rate limiting

The /api/v1/gethomepage/* endpoints are subject to PatchMon's general API rate limit of 100 requests per 15 minutes per IP by default. GetHomepage's default poll interval of 60 seconds sits well within this limit (15 requests per 15 minutes). If you lower GetHomepage's poll interval aggressively, you may start hitting 429 Too Many Requests; stay above 10 seconds.

Support and resources

Chapter 28: Ansible Dynamic Inventory

The patchmon.dynamic_inventory Ansible plugin queries PatchMon's scoped integration API and turns it into a live Ansible inventory. Hosts and their group memberships stay in sync with PatchMon automatically, so you stop hand-editing hosts.ini.

What the plugin does

For each request, the plugin:

  1. Calls GET /api/v1/api/hosts on your PatchMon instance with HTTP Basic Auth.
  2. Receives a JSON list of active hosts, their IPs, and their PatchMon host-group memberships.
  3. Builds an Ansible inventory in memory:
    • Each PatchMon host becomes an Ansible host, keyed by hostname.
    • ansible_host is set to the host's ip field (so Ansible connects directly to the IP even if DNS is iffy).
    • Each PatchMon host group becomes an Ansible group, and the host is added as a member.

The result is a fully dynamic ansible-inventory --list tree driven entirely by PatchMon's groupings.

Requirements

Component Minimum version
Ansible 2.19.0
Python 3.6
requests 2.25.1

Install the Python dependency on the machine running ansible:

pip install 'requests>=2.25.1'

Installation

From Ansible Galaxy (recommended)

ansible-galaxy collection install patchmon.dynamic_inventory

From source

git clone https://github.com/PatchMon/PatchMon-ansible.git
cd PatchMon-ansible/patchmon/dynamic_inventory

# Build the collection tarball
ansible-galaxy collection build

# Install it locally
ansible-galaxy collection install patchmon-dynamic_inventory-*.tar.gz

# Install Python dependencies
pip install -r requirements.txt

Creating an API Credential in PatchMon

The plugin authenticates as an integration API credential (one of the scoped Basic-Auth tokens managed by PatchMon's integration API). It is not a normal user password.

  1. Sign in to PatchMon as a user with can_manage_settings.
  2. Go to Settings → Integrations and select the API tab.
  3. Click Create API Key and fill in:
    • Name: e.g. Ansible inventory
    • Scopes: at minimum, host:read. If you want the plugin to read host stats as well, add the other read scopes. See Integration API Documentation for the full scope list.
    • Allowed IP addresses (optional): restrict the credential to the public IP of your Ansible controller.
    • Expiration (optional): set a date if the credential is temporary.
  4. Click Create.
  5. Copy the secret immediately. It is displayed only once. Save both the Token Key (the username) and Token Secret (the password).

The plugin's api_key config value is PatchMon's Token Key. The plugin's api_secret is PatchMon's Token Secret. The labels differ; the meaning is the same.

Configuration

Create an inventory file, e.g. patchmon_inventory.yml:

---
plugin: patchmon.dynamic_inventory
api_url: https://patchmon.example.com/api/v1/api/hosts/
api_key: your_token_key
api_secret: your_token_secret
verify_ssl: true

Configuration options

Option Required Default Description
plugin yes (required) Must be patchmon.dynamic_inventory
api_url yes (required) URL of the PatchMon scoped hosts endpoint. For PatchMon 2.x this is https://<your-patchmon-host>/api/v1/api/hosts/
api_key yes (required) The Token Key from the PatchMon API credential
api_secret yes (required) The Token Secret from the PatchMon API credential
verify_ssl no true Whether to verify the PatchMon server's TLS certificate. Only disable on internal dev setups with self-signed certs

Using environment variables and Ansible Vault

Hard-coding the secret into patchmon_inventory.yml is not recommended. Use Ansible's environment-variable lookup or Ansible Vault instead:

---
plugin: patchmon.dynamic_inventory
api_url: https://patchmon.example.com/api/v1/api/hosts/
api_key: "{{ lookup('env', 'PATCHMON_API_KEY') }}"
api_secret: "{{ lookup('env', 'PATCHMON_API_SECRET') }}"
verify_ssl: true

Then:

export PATCHMON_API_KEY=your_token_key
export PATCHMON_API_SECRET=your_token_secret
ansible-inventory -i patchmon_inventory.yml --list

Making it the default inventory

Add to your ansible.cfg:

[defaults]
inventory = patchmon_inventory.yml

[inventory]
enable_plugins = patchmon.dynamic_inventory.dynamic_inventory

Every ansible / ansible-playbook / ansible-inventory invocation from this directory will now use PatchMon as its source of truth.

Usage

List all hosts

ansible-inventory -i patchmon_inventory.yml --list

Ping every host

ansible all -i patchmon_inventory.yml -m ping

Run a playbook against a PatchMon host group

If your PatchMon host group is named web_servers, the Ansible group name is also web_servers:

ansible-playbook -i patchmon_inventory.yml playbook.yml --limit web_servers

Intersect multiple groups

Standard Ansible group-pattern syntax applies. For example, to target all hosts in both web_servers and production:

ansible-playbook -i patchmon_inventory.yml playbook.yml --limit 'web_servers:&production'

API Response Format

The plugin expects the PatchMon API endpoint to return JSON shaped like this:

{
  "hosts": [
    {
      "hostname": "server1.example.com",
      "ip": "192.168.1.10",
      "host_groups": [
        { "name": "web_servers" },
        { "name": "production" }
      ]
    },
    {
      "hostname": "server2.example.com",
      "ip": "192.168.1.11",
      "host_groups": [
        { "name": "db_servers" },
        { "name": "production" }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "total": 2
}

This matches the shape returned by GET /api/v1/api/hosts in PatchMon 2.x (the host_groups array also contains an id field, which the plugin ignores).

Inventory mapping

  • Host name: hostname becomes the Ansible inventory key.
  • Connection IP: ip is set as the ansible_host variable on that host.
  • Groups: every { "name": "...", "id": "..." } in host_groups becomes an Ansible group, and the host is added to it.

Hosts with no entries in host_groups end up in Ansible's built-in ungrouped group.

Examples

List inventory output

ansible-inventory -i patchmon_inventory.yml --list

Example output:

{
  "_meta": {
    "hostvars": {
      "server1.example.com": { "ansible_host": "192.168.1.10" },
      "server2.example.com": { "ansible_host": "192.168.1.11" }
    }
  },
  "all": {
    "children": ["ungrouped", "web_servers", "db_servers", "production"]
  },
  "db_servers":   { "hosts": ["server2.example.com"] },
  "production":   { "hosts": ["server1.example.com", "server2.example.com"] },
  "web_servers":  { "hosts": ["server1.example.com"] }
}

Target specific groups

ansible-playbook -i patchmon_inventory.yml playbook.yml --limit web_servers
ansible-playbook -i patchmon_inventory.yml playbook.yml --limit production

Filtering at the API level

The scoped API /api/v1/api/hosts also accepts a ?hostgroup= query parameter. If you want a plugin invocation that only returns, say, the production group, set:

api_url: https://patchmon.example.com/api/v1/api/hosts/?hostgroup=production

This reduces the payload size and is handy when you have thousands of hosts and only want Ansible to see a subset.

Authentication and SSL

The plugin uses HTTP Basic Authentication. The Authorization header it sends is Basic base64(api_key:api_secret).

SSL certificate verification is on by default (verify_ssl: true). Disable it only when testing against an internal instance with a self-signed certificate, and never in production.

Troubleshooting

Test the API endpoint directly

curl -u "TOKEN_KEY:TOKEN_SECRET" https://patchmon.example.com/api/v1/api/hosts

You should get a JSON document with a hosts array. If not, double-check:

  • The URL. PatchMon 2.x exposes the endpoint under /api/v1/api/hosts (note the double /api/).
  • The credential. Ensure you're using the Token Key as the username and the Token Secret as the password, not a normal PatchMon user login.
  • That the credential has the host:read scope (or is unscoped).
  • That any IP allowlist on the credential includes the IP Ansible is calling from.

Debug the inventory

ansible-inventory -i patchmon_inventory.yml --list --debug
ansible-inventory -i patchmon_inventory.yml --list -vvv

Look for 401 Unauthorized (wrong credentials) or 403 Forbidden (missing scope / IP restriction) in the verbose output.

Common issues

Symptom Likely cause Fix
401 Unauthorized Token key or secret wrong Regenerate the credential in Settings → Integrations
403 Forbidden with "IP address not allowed" Allowlist on the credential blocks the controller Edit the credential and add the controller's public IP, or remove the allowlist
403 Forbidden with "Insufficient scope" Credential lacks host:read Edit the credential and tick the host:read scope
SSL cert error Self-signed cert, or verify_ssl: true against an internal PKI Install the CA chain on the controller, or temporarily set verify_ssl: false
Empty inventory No hosts in PatchMon, or ?hostgroup= filter matches nothing Test with curl first; verify the group name spelling
JSON parsing errors API URL points at the wrong path (e.g. /api/v1/hosts instead of /api/v1/api/hosts) Correct the URL. The scoped API is under /api/v1/api/

Security best practices

  • Create a dedicated credential for Ansible. Don't reuse the same API key across multiple tools. If one is compromised, you want to revoke just that one.
  • Scope it tightly. host:read is enough for inventory; grant no more.
  • IP-restrict the credential to your Ansible controller(s).
  • Set an expiration on the credential and rotate it as part of your normal key rotation.
  • Vault the secret. Use ansible-vault encrypt_string or an environment variable. Never commit plaintext secrets to git.
  • Always use HTTPS and verify_ssl: true in production.

Contributing

Pull requests are welcome on PatchMon-ansible. Issues and feature requests can be filed at PatchMon-ansible/issues.

Chapter 29: Proxmox LXC Auto-Enrollment Guide

Overview

PatchMon's Proxmox Auto-Enrollment feature enables you to automatically discover and enroll LXC containers from your Proxmox hosts into PatchMon for centralized patch management. This eliminates manual host registration and ensures comprehensive coverage of your Proxmox infrastructure.

What It Does

  • Automatically discovers running LXC containers on Proxmox hosts
  • Bulk enrolls containers into PatchMon without manual intervention
  • Installs agents inside each container automatically
  • Assigns to host groups based on token configuration
  • Tracks enrollment with full audit logging

Key Benefits

  • Zero-Touch Enrollment - Run once, enroll all containers
  • Secure by Design - Token-based authentication with hashed secrets
  • Rate Limited - Prevents abuse with per-day host limits
  • IP Restricted - Optional IP whitelisting for enhanced security
  • Fully Auditable - Tracks who enrolled what and when
  • Safe to Rerun - Already-enrolled containers are automatically skipped

Table of Contents

How It Works

Architecture Overview

┌─────────────────────┐
│   PatchMon Admin    │
│                     │
│  1. Creates Token   │
│  2. Gets Key/Secret │
└──────────┬──────────┘
           │
           ├─────────────────────────────────┐
           ▼                                 ▼
┌─────────────────────┐          ┌─────────────────────┐
│  Proxmox Host       │          │   PatchMon Server   │
│                     │          │                     │
│  3. Runs Script ────┼──────────▶  4. Validates Token │
│  4. Discovers LXCs  │          │  5. Creates Hosts   │
│  5. Gets Credentials│◀─────────┤  6. Returns Creds   │
│  6. Installs Agents │          │                     │
└──────────┬──────────┘          └─────────────────────┘
           │
           ▼
┌─────────────────────┐
│   LXC Containers    │
│                     │
│  • curl installed   │
│  • Agent installed  │
│  • Reporting to PM  │
└─────────────────────┘

Enrollment Process (Step by Step)

  1. Admin creates auto-enrollment token in PatchMon UI

    • Configures rate limits, IP restrictions, host group assignment
    • Receives token_key and token_secret (shown only once!)

  2. Admin runs enrollment script on Proxmox host

    • Script authenticated with auto-enrollment token
    • Discovers all running LXC containers using pct list

  3. For each container, the script:

    • Gathers hostname, IP address, OS information, machine ID
    • Calls PatchMon API to create host entry
    • Receives unique api_id and api_key for that container
    • Uses pct exec to enter the container
    • Installs curl if missing
    • Downloads and runs PatchMon agent installer
    • Agent authenticates with container-specific credentials

  4. Containers appear in PatchMon with full patch tracking enabled

Two-Tier Security Model

1. Auto-Enrollment Token (Script → PatchMon)

  • Purpose: Create new host entries
  • Scope: Limited to enrollment operations only
  • Storage: Secret is hashed in database
  • Lifespan: Reusable until revoked/expired
  • Security: Rate limits + IP restrictions

2. Host API Credentials (Agent → PatchMon)

  • Purpose: Report patches, send data, receive commands
  • Scope: Per-host unique credentials
  • Storage: API key is hashed (bcrypt) in database
  • Lifespan: Permanent for that host
  • Security: Host-specific, can be regenerated

Why This Matters:

  • Compromised enrollment token ≠ compromised hosts
  • Compromised host credential ≠ compromised enrollment
  • Revoked enrollment token = no new enrollments (existing hosts unaffected)
  • Lost credentials = create new token, don't affect existing infrastructure

Prerequisites

PatchMon Server Requirements

  • PatchMon version with auto-enrollment support
  • Admin user with "Manage Settings" permission
  • Network accessible from Proxmox hosts

Proxmox Host Requirements

  • Proxmox VE installed and running
  • One or more LXC containers (VMs not supported)
  • Root access to Proxmox host
  • Network connectivity to PatchMon server
  • Required commands: pct, curl, jq, bash

Container Requirements

  • Running state (stopped containers are skipped)
  • Debian-based or RPM-based Linux distribution
  • Network connectivity to PatchMon server
  • Package manager (apt/yum/dnf) functional

Network Requirements

Source Destination Port Protocol Purpose
Proxmox Host PatchMon Server 443 (HTTPS) TCP Enrollment API calls
LXC Containers PatchMon Server 443 (HTTPS) TCP Agent installation & reporting

Firewall Notes:

  • Outbound only connections (no inbound ports needed)
  • HTTPS recommended (HTTP supported for internal networks)
  • Self-signed certificates supported with -k flag

Quick Start

1. Create Token (In PatchMon UI)

  1. Go to Settings → Integrations → Auto-Enrollment & API tab
  2. Click "New Token"
  3. Configure:
    • Name: "Production Proxmox"
    • Max Hosts/Day: 100
    • Host Group: Select target group
    • IP Restriction: Your Proxmox host IP
  4. Save credentials immediately (shown only once!)

2. One-Line Enrollment (On Proxmox Host)

curl -s "https://patchmon.example.com/api/v1/auto-enrollment/script?type=proxmox-lxc&token_key=YOUR_KEY&token_secret=YOUR_SECRET" | bash

That's it! All running LXC containers will be enrolled and the PatchMon agent installed.

3. Verify in PatchMon

  • Go to Hosts page
  • See your containers listed with "pending" status
  • Agent connects automatically after installation (usually within seconds)
  • Status changes to "active" with package data

Step-by-Step Setup

Step 1: Create Auto-Enrollment Token

Via PatchMon Web UI

  1. Log in to PatchMon as an administrator

  2. Navigate to Settings

    Dashboard → Settings → Integrations → Auto-Enrollment & API tab

  3. Click "New Token" button

  4. Fill in token details:

    Field Value Required Description
    Token Name Proxmox Production Yes Descriptive name for this token
    Max Hosts Per Day 100 Yes Rate limit (1-1000)
    Default Host Group Proxmox LXC No Auto-assign enrolled hosts
    Allowed IP Addresses 192.168.1.10 No Comma-separated IPs
    Expiration Date 2027-01-01 No Auto-disable after date

  5. Click "Create Token"

  6. CRITICAL: Save Credentials Now!

    You'll see a success modal with:

    Token Key:    patchmon_ae_a1b2c3d4e5f6...
Token Secret: 8f7e6d5c4b3a2f1e0d9c8b7a...

    Copy both values immediately! They cannot be retrieved later.

    Pro Tip: Copy the one-line installation command shown in the modal - it has credentials pre-filled.

Step 2: Prepare Proxmox Host

Install Required Dependencies
# SSH to your Proxmox host
ssh root@proxmox-host

# Install jq (JSON processor)
apt-get update && apt-get install -y jq curl

# Verify installations
which pct jq curl
# Should show paths for all three commands
Download Enrollment Script

Method A: Direct Download from PatchMon (Recommended)

# Download with credentials embedded (copy from PatchMon UI)
curl -s "https://patchmon.example.com/api/v1/auto-enrollment/script?type=proxmox-lxc&token_key=YOUR_KEY&token_secret=YOUR_SECRET" \
    -o /root/proxmox_auto_enroll.sh

chmod +x /root/proxmox_auto_enroll.sh

Method B: Manual Configuration

# Download script template
cd /root
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/PatchMon/PatchMon/main/agents/proxmox_auto_enroll.sh
chmod +x proxmox_auto_enroll.sh

# Edit configuration
nano proxmox_auto_enroll.sh

# Update these lines:
PATCHMON_URL="https://patchmon.example.com"
AUTO_ENROLLMENT_KEY="patchmon_ae_your_key_here"
AUTO_ENROLLMENT_SECRET="your_secret_here"

Step 3: Test with Dry Run

Always test first!

# Dry run shows what would happen without making changes
DRY_RUN=true ./proxmox_auto_enroll.sh

Expected output:

[INFO] Found 5 LXC container(s)
[INFO] Processing LXC 100: webserver (status: running)
[INFO]   [DRY RUN] Would enroll: proxmox-webserver
[INFO] Processing LXC 101: database (status: running)
[INFO]   [DRY RUN] Would enroll: proxmox-database
...
[INFO] Successfully Enrolled:  5 (dry run)

Step 4: Run Actual Enrollment

# Enroll all containers
./proxmox_auto_enroll.sh

Monitor the output:

  • Green [SUCCESS] = Container enrolled and agent installed
  • Yellow [WARN] = Container skipped (already enrolled or stopped)
  • Red [ERROR] = Failure (check troubleshooting section)

Step 5: Verify in PatchMon

  1. Go to Hosts page in PatchMon UI
  2. Look for newly enrolled containers (names prefixed with "proxmox-")
  3. Initial status is "pending" (normal!)
  4. Agent connects automatically after installation (usually within seconds)
  5. Status changes to "active" with package data populated

Troubleshooting: If status stays "pending" after a couple of minutes, see Agent Not Reporting section.

Usage Examples

Basic Enrollment

# Enroll all running LXC containers
./proxmox_auto_enroll.sh

Dry Run Mode

# Preview what would be enrolled (no changes made)
DRY_RUN=true ./proxmox_auto_enroll.sh

Debug Mode

# Show detailed logging for troubleshooting
DEBUG=true ./proxmox_auto_enroll.sh

Custom Host Prefix

# Prefix container names (e.g., "prod-webserver" instead of "webserver")
HOST_PREFIX="prod-" ./proxmox_auto_enroll.sh

Include Stopped Containers

# Also process stopped containers (enrollment only, agent install fails)
SKIP_STOPPED=false ./proxmox_auto_enroll.sh

Force Install Mode (Broken Packages)

If containers have broken packages (CloudPanel, WHM, cPanel, etc.) that block apt-get:

# Bypass broken packages during agent installation
FORCE_INSTALL=true ./proxmox_auto_enroll.sh

Or use the force parameter when downloading:

curl -s "https://patchmon.example.com/api/v1/auto-enrollment/script?type=proxmox-lxc&token_key=KEY&token_secret=SECRET&force=true" | bash

What force mode does:

  • Skips apt-get update if broken packages detected
  • Only installs missing critical tools (jq, curl, bc)
  • Uses --fix-broken --yes flags safely
  • Validates installations before proceeding

Scheduled Enrollment (Cron)

Automatically enroll new containers on a schedule. Since cron runs with a minimal environment (limited PATH, no user variables), you need to ensure the crontab has the correct environment set up for the script to find required commands like pct, curl, and jq.

Setting Up the Crontab

Edit the root crontab:

crontab -e

Add the following. The PATH and environment variables at the top are essential - without them the script will fail because cron does not inherit your shell's environment:

# === PatchMon Auto-Enrollment Environment ===
# Cron uses a minimal PATH by default (/usr/bin:/bin). The enrollment script
# requires pct, curl, and jq which may live in /usr/sbin or other paths.
# Set a full PATH so all commands are found.
SHELL=/bin/bash
PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin

# Enrollment credentials (required by the script)
PATCHMON_URL=https://patchmon.example.com
AUTO_ENROLLMENT_KEY=patchmon_ae_your_key_here
AUTO_ENROLLMENT_SECRET=your_secret_here

# Optional overrides
# HOST_PREFIX=proxmox-
# FORCE_INSTALL=false
# CURL_FLAGS=-sk

# === Schedule ===
# Run daily at 2 AM
0 2 * * * /root/proxmox_auto_enroll.sh >> /var/log/patchmon-enroll.log 2>&1

# Or hourly for dynamic environments where containers are created frequently
# 0 * * * * /root/proxmox_auto_enroll.sh >> /var/log/patchmon-enroll.log 2>&1
Why This Matters

Cron does not load your interactive shell profile (~/.bashrc, ~/.profile, etc.). This means:

What cron is missing Impact Fix
PATH only includes /usr/bin:/bin pct not found (lives in /usr/sbin) Set PATH at top of crontab
No exported variables PATCHMON_URL, credentials are empty Define them in crontab or use a wrapper
No TTY Colour output codes may cause log clutter Redirect to log file with 2>&1
Alternative: Wrapper Script

If you prefer not to put credentials in the crontab, create a wrapper script instead:

cat > /root/patchmon_enroll_cron.sh << 'EOF'
#!/bin/bash
# Wrapper that sets the environment for cron execution

export PATH="/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin"
export PATCHMON_URL="https://patchmon.example.com"
export AUTO_ENROLLMENT_KEY="patchmon_ae_your_key_here"
export AUTO_ENROLLMENT_SECRET="your_secret_here"
# export HOST_PREFIX="proxmox-"
# export CURL_FLAGS="-sk"

/root/proxmox_auto_enroll.sh
EOF

chmod 700 /root/patchmon_enroll_cron.sh

Then reference the wrapper in crontab:

0 2 * * * /root/patchmon_enroll_cron.sh >> /var/log/patchmon-enroll.log 2>&1

Make sure the wrapper script is only readable by root (chmod 700) since it contains secrets.

Log Rotation

For long-running cron schedules, consider adding log rotation to prevent unbounded log growth:

cat > /etc/logrotate.d/patchmon-enroll << 'EOF'
/var/log/patchmon-enroll.log {
    weekly
    rotate 4
    compress
    missingok
    notifempty
}
EOF
Verifying Cron is Working
# Check the cron job is registered
crontab -l | grep patchmon

# Check recent cron execution logs
grep patchmon /var/log/syslog | tail -n 20

# Check enrollment log output
tail -f /var/log/patchmon-enroll.log

Already-enrolled containers are automatically skipped on each run, so there is no risk of duplicates or errors from repeated execution.

Multi-Environment Setup

# Production environment (uses prod token)
export PATCHMON_URL="https://patchmon.example.com"
export AUTO_ENROLLMENT_KEY="patchmon_ae_prod_..."
export AUTO_ENROLLMENT_SECRET="prod_secret..."
export HOST_PREFIX="prod-"
./proxmox_auto_enroll.sh

# Development environment (uses dev token with different host group)
export AUTO_ENROLLMENT_KEY="patchmon_ae_dev_..."
export AUTO_ENROLLMENT_SECRET="dev_secret..."
export HOST_PREFIX="dev-"
./proxmox_auto_enroll.sh

Configuration Options

Environment Variables

All configuration can be set via environment variables:

Variable Default Description Example
PATCHMON_URL Required PatchMon server URL https://patchmon.example.com
AUTO_ENROLLMENT_KEY Required Token key from PatchMon patchmon_ae_abc123...
AUTO_ENROLLMENT_SECRET Required Token secret from PatchMon def456ghi789...
CURL_FLAGS -s Curl options -sk (for self-signed SSL)
DRY_RUN false Preview mode (no changes) true/false
HOST_PREFIX "" Prefix for host names proxmox-, prod-, etc.
SKIP_STOPPED true Skip stopped containers true/false
FORCE_INSTALL false Bypass broken packages true/false
DEBUG false Enable debug logging true/false

Script Configuration Section

Or edit the script directly:

# ===== CONFIGURATION =====
PATCHMON_URL="${PATCHMON_URL:-https://patchmon.example.com}"
AUTO_ENROLLMENT_KEY="${AUTO_ENROLLMENT_KEY:-your_key_here}"
AUTO_ENROLLMENT_SECRET="${AUTO_ENROLLMENT_SECRET:-your_secret_here}"
CURL_FLAGS="${CURL_FLAGS:--s}"
DRY_RUN="${DRY_RUN:-false}"
HOST_PREFIX="${HOST_PREFIX:-}"
SKIP_STOPPED="${SKIP_STOPPED:-true}"
FORCE_INSTALL="${FORCE_INSTALL:-false}"

Token Configuration (PatchMon UI)

Configure tokens in Settings → Integrations → Auto-Enrollment & API:

General Settings:

  • Token Name: Descriptive identifier
  • Active Status: Enable/disable without deleting
  • Expiration Date: Auto-disable after date

Security Settings:

  • Max Hosts Per Day: Rate limit (resets daily at midnight)
  • Allowed IP Addresses: Comma-separated IP whitelist
  • Default Host Group: Auto-assign enrolled hosts

Usage Statistics:

  • Hosts Created Today: Current daily count
  • Last Used: Timestamp of most recent enrollment
  • Created By: Admin user who created token
  • Created At: Token creation timestamp

Security Best Practices

Token Management

  1. Store Securely

    • Save credentials in password manager (1Password, LastPass, etc.)
    • Never commit to version control
    • Use environment variables or secure config management (Vault)

  2. Principle of Least Privilege

    • Create separate tokens for prod/dev/staging
    • Use different tokens for different Proxmox clusters
    • Set appropriate rate limits per environment

  3. Regular Rotation

    • Rotate tokens every 90 days
    • Disable unused tokens immediately
    • Monitor token usage for anomalies

  4. IP Restrictions

    • Always set allowed_ip_ranges in production
    • Update if Proxmox host IPs change
    • Use VPN/private network IPs when possible

  5. Expiration Dates

    • Set expiration for temporary/testing tokens
    • Review and extend before expiration
    • Delete expired tokens to reduce attack surface

Network Security

  1. Use HTTPS

    • Always use encrypted connections in production
    • Use valid SSL certificates (avoid -k flag)
    • Self-signed OK for internal/testing environments

  2. Network Segmentation

    • Run enrollment over private network if possible
    • Use proper firewall rules
    • Restrict PatchMon server access to known IPs

Access Control

  1. Admin Permissions

    • Only admins with "Manage Settings" can create tokens
    • Regular users cannot see token secrets
    • Use role-based access control (RBAC)

  2. Audit Logging

    • Monitor token creation/deletion in PatchMon logs
    • Track enrollment activity per token
    • Review host notes for enrollment source

  3. Container Security

    • Ensure containers have minimal privileges
    • Don't run enrollment as unprivileged user
    • Use unprivileged containers where possible (enrollment still works)

Incident Response

If a token is compromised:

  1. Immediately disable the token in PatchMon UI

    • Settings → Integrations → Auto-Enrollment & API → Toggle "Disable"

  2. Review recently enrolled hosts

    • Check host notes for token name and enrollment date
    • Verify all recent enrollments are legitimate
    • Delete any suspicious hosts

  3. Create new token

    • Generate new credentials
    • Update Proxmox script with new credentials
    • Test enrollment with dry run

  4. Investigate root cause

    • How were credentials exposed?
    • Update procedures to prevent recurrence
    • Consider additional security measures

  5. Delete old token

    • After verifying new token works
    • Document incident in change log

Troubleshooting

Common Errors and Solutions

Error: "pct command not found"

Symptom:

[ERROR] This script must run on a Proxmox host (pct command not found)

Cause: Script is running on a non-Proxmox machine

Solution:

# SSH to Proxmox host first
ssh root@proxmox-host
cd /root
./proxmox_auto_enroll.sh
Error: "Auto-enrollment credentials required"

Symptom:

[ERROR] Failed to enroll hostname - HTTP 401
Response: {"error":"Auto-enrollment credentials required"}

Cause: The X-Auto-Enrollment-Key and/or X-Auto-Enrollment-Secret headers are missing from the request

Solution:

  1. Verify the script has AUTO_ENROLLMENT_KEY and AUTO_ENROLLMENT_SECRET set
  2. Check for extra spaces/newlines in credentials
  3. Ensure token_key starts with patchmon_ae_
  4. Regenerate token if credentials lost
# Test credentials manually
curl -X POST \
  -H "X-Auto-Enrollment-Key: YOUR_KEY" \
  -H "X-Auto-Enrollment-Secret: YOUR_SECRET" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"friendly_name":"test","machine_id":"test"}' \
  https://patchmon.example.com/api/v1/auto-enrollment/enroll
Error: "Invalid or inactive token" / "Invalid token secret"

Symptom:

[ERROR] Failed to enroll hostname - HTTP 401
Response: {"error":"Invalid or inactive token"}

or

[ERROR] Failed to enroll hostname - HTTP 401
Response: {"error":"Invalid token secret"}

Cause: Token key not found or disabled (Invalid or inactive token), or secret doesn't match (Invalid token secret), or token has expired (Token expired)

Solution:

  1. Check token status in PatchMon UI (Settings → Integrations)
  2. Enable if disabled
  3. Extend expiration if expired
  4. Verify the secret matches the one shown when the token was created
  5. Create new token if credentials are lost (secrets cannot be retrieved)
Error: "Rate limit exceeded"

Symptom:

[ERROR] Rate limit exceeded - maximum hosts per day reached

Cause: Token's max_hosts_per_day limit reached

Solution:

# Option 1: Wait until tomorrow (limit resets at midnight)
date
# Check current time, wait until 00:00

# Option 2: Increase limit in PatchMon UI
# Settings → Integrations → Edit Token → Max Hosts Per Day: 200

# Option 3: Create additional token for large enrollments
Error: "IP address not authorized"

Symptom:

[ERROR] Failed to enroll hostname - HTTP 403
Response: {"error":"IP address not authorized for this token"}

Cause: Proxmox host IP not in token's allowed_ip_ranges

Solution:

  1. Find your Proxmox host IP:

    ip addr show | grep 'inet ' | grep -v 127.0.0.1

  2. Update token in PatchMon UI:

    • Settings → Integrations → Edit Token
    • Allowed IP Addresses: Add your IP

  3. Or remove IP restriction entirely (not recommended for production)

Error: "jq: command not found"

Symptom:

[ERROR] Required command 'jq' not found. Please install it first.

Cause: Missing dependency

Solution:

# Debian/Ubuntu
apt-get update && apt-get install -y jq

# CentOS/RHEL
yum install -y jq

# Alpine
apk add --no-cache jq
Error: "Failed to install agent in container"

Symptom:

[WARN] Failed to install agent in container-name (exit: 1)
Install output: E: Unable to locate package curl

Cause: Agent installation failed inside LXC container

Solutions:

A. Network connectivity issue:

# Test from Proxmox host
pct exec 100 -- ping -c 3 patchmon.example.com

# Test from inside container
pct enter 100
curl -I https://patchmon.example.com
exit

B. Package manager issue:

# Enter container
pct enter 100

# Update package lists
apt-get update
# or
yum makecache

# Try manual agent install
curl https://patchmon.example.com/api/v1/hosts/install \
  -H "X-API-ID: patchmon_xxx" \
  -H "X-API-KEY: xxx" | bash

C. Unsupported OS:

  • Agent supports: Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS, RHEL, Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux, Alpine
  • Check /etc/os-release in container
  • Manually install on other distributions

D. Broken packages (use force mode):

FORCE_INSTALL=true ./proxmox_auto_enroll.sh
Error: SSL Certificate Problems

Symptom:

curl: (60) SSL certificate problem: self signed certificate

Cause: Self-signed certificate on PatchMon server

Solution:

# Use -k flag to skip certificate verification
export CURL_FLAGS="-sk"
./proxmox_auto_enroll.sh

Better solution: Install valid SSL certificate on PatchMon server using Let's Encrypt or corporate CA

Warning: Container Already Enrolled

Symptom:

[INFO] ✓ Host already enrolled and agent ping successful - skipping enrollment

Cause: The script detected an existing agent configuration (/etc/patchmon/config.yml and /etc/patchmon/credentials.yml) inside the container and the agent successfully pinged the PatchMon server.

This is normal! The script safely skips already-enrolled hosts. No action needed.

If you need to re-enroll:

  1. Delete host from PatchMon UI (Hosts page)
  2. Remove agent config inside the container: pct exec <vmid> -- rm -rf /etc/patchmon/
  3. Rerun enrollment script

Agent Not Reporting

If containers show "pending" status after enrollment:

1. Check agent service is running:

pct enter 100

# For systemd-based containers
systemctl status patchmon-agent.service

# For OpenRC-based containers (Alpine)
rc-service patchmon-agent status

# For containers without init systems (crontab fallback)
ps aux | grep patchmon-agent

2. Check agent files exist:

ls -la /etc/patchmon/
# Should show: config.yml and credentials.yml

ls -la /usr/local/bin/patchmon-agent
# Should show the agent binary

3. Check agent logs:

# Systemd journal logs
journalctl -u patchmon-agent.service --no-pager -n 50

# Or check the agent log file
cat /etc/patchmon/logs/patchmon-agent.log

4. Test agent connectivity:

/usr/local/bin/patchmon-agent ping
# Should show success if credentials and connectivity are valid

5. Verify credentials:

cat /etc/patchmon/credentials.yml
# Should show api_id and api_key

cat /etc/patchmon/config.yml
# Should show patchmon_server URL

6. Restart the agent service:

# Systemd
systemctl restart patchmon-agent.service

# OpenRC
rc-service patchmon-agent restart

Debug Mode

Enable detailed logging:

DEBUG=true ./proxmox_auto_enroll.sh

Debug output includes:

  • API request/response bodies
  • Container command execution details
  • Detailed error messages
  • curl verbose output

Getting Help

If issues persist:

  1. Check PatchMon server logs:

    tail -f /path/to/patchmon/backend/logs/error.log

  2. Create GitHub issue with:

    • PatchMon version
    • Proxmox version
    • Script output (redact credentials!)
    • Debug mode output
    • Server logs (if accessible)

  3. Join Discord community for real-time support

Advanced Usage

Selective Enrollment

Enroll only specific containers:

# Only enroll containers 100-199
nano proxmox_auto_enroll.sh

# Add after line "while IFS= read -r line; do"
vmid=$(echo "$line" | awk '{print $1}')
if [[ $vmid -lt 100 ]] || [[ $vmid -gt 199 ]]; then
    continue
fi

Or use container name filtering:

# Only enroll containers with "prod" in name
if [[ ! "$name" =~ prod ]]; then
    continue
fi

Custom Host Naming

Advanced naming strategies:

# Include Proxmox node name
HOST_PREFIX="$(hostname)-"
# Result: proxmox01-webserver, proxmox02-database

# Include datacenter/location
HOST_PREFIX="dc1-"
# Result: dc1-webserver, dc1-database

# Include environment and node
HOST_PREFIX="prod-$(hostname | cut -d. -f1)-"
# Result: prod-px01-webserver

Multi-Node Proxmox Cluster

For Proxmox clusters with multiple nodes:

Option 1: Same token, different prefix per node

# On node 1
HOST_PREFIX="node1-" ./proxmox_auto_enroll.sh

# On node 2
HOST_PREFIX="node2-" ./proxmox_auto_enroll.sh

Option 2: Different tokens per node

  • Create token for each node with different default host groups
  • Node 1 → "Proxmox Node 1" group
  • Node 2 → "Proxmox Node 2" group

Option 3: Centralized automation

#!/bin/bash
# central_enroll.sh

NODES=(
  "root@proxmox01.example.com"
  "root@proxmox02.example.com"
  "root@proxmox03.example.com"
)

for node in "${NODES[@]}"; do
  echo "Enrolling containers from $node..."
  ssh "$node" "bash /root/proxmox_auto_enroll.sh"
done

Integration with Infrastructure as Code

Ansible Playbook:

---
- name: Enroll Proxmox LXC containers in PatchMon
  hosts: proxmox_hosts
  become: yes
  tasks:
    - name: Install dependencies
      apt:
        name:
          - curl
          - jq
        state: present

    - name: Download enrollment script
      get_url:
        url: "{{ patchmon_url }}/api/v1/auto-enrollment/script?type=proxmox-lxc&token_key={{ token_key }}&token_secret={{ token_secret }}"
        dest: /root/proxmox_auto_enroll.sh
        mode: '0700'

    - name: Run enrollment
      command: /root/proxmox_auto_enroll.sh
      register: enrollment_output

    - name: Show enrollment results
      debug:
        var: enrollment_output.stdout_lines

Terraform (with null_resource):

resource "null_resource" "patchmon_enrollment" {
  triggers = {
    cluster_instance_ids = join(",", proxmox_lxc.containers.*.vmid)
  }

  provisioner "remote-exec" {
    connection {
      host = var.proxmox_host
      user = "root"
      private_key = file(var.ssh_key_path)
    }

    inline = [
      "apt-get install -y jq",
      "curl -s '${var.patchmon_url}/api/v1/auto-enrollment/script?type=proxmox-lxc&token_key=${var.token_key}&token_secret=${var.token_secret}' | bash"
    ]
  }
}

Bulk API Enrollment

For very large deployments (100+ containers), use the bulk API endpoint directly:

#!/bin/bash
# bulk_enroll.sh

# Gather all container info
containers_json=$(pct list | tail -n +2 | while read -r line; do
  vmid=$(echo "$line" | awk '{print $1}')
  name=$(echo "$line" | awk '{print $3}')
  
  echo "{\"friendly_name\":\"$name\",\"machine_id\":\"proxmox-lxc-$vmid\"}"
done | jq -s '.')

# Send bulk enrollment request
curl -X POST \
  -H "X-Auto-Enrollment-Key: $AUTO_ENROLLMENT_KEY" \
  -H "X-Auto-Enrollment-Secret: $AUTO_ENROLLMENT_SECRET" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d "{\"hosts\":$containers_json}" \
  "$PATCHMON_URL/api/v1/auto-enrollment/enroll/bulk"

Benefits:

  • Single API call for all containers
  • Faster for 50+ containers
  • Partial success supported (individual failures don't block others)

Limitations:

  • Max 50 hosts per request
  • Does not install agents (must be done separately)
  • Less detailed error reporting per host

Webhook-Triggered Enrollment

Trigger enrollment from PatchMon webhook (requires custom setup):

#!/bin/bash
# webhook_listener.sh

# Simple webhook listener
while true; do
  # Listen for webhook on port 9000
  nc -l -p 9000 -c 'echo -e "HTTP/1.1 200 OK\n\n"; /root/proxmox_auto_enroll.sh'
done

Then configure PatchMon (or monitoring system) to call webhook when conditions are met.

API Reference

Admin Endpoints (Authentication Required)

All admin endpoints require JWT authentication:

Authorization: Bearer <jwt_token>
Create Token

Endpoint: POST /api/v1/auto-enrollment/tokens

Request:

{
  "token_name": "Proxmox Production",
  "max_hosts_per_day": 100,
  "default_host_group_id": "uuid",
  "allowed_ip_ranges": ["192.168.1.10", "10.0.0.5"],
  "expires_at": "2026-12-31T23:59:59Z",
  "metadata": {
    "integration_type": "proxmox-lxc",
    "environment": "production"
  }
}

Response: 201 Created

{
  "message": "Auto-enrollment token created successfully",
  "token": {
    "id": "uuid",
    "token_name": "Proxmox Production",
    "token_key": "patchmon_ae_abc123...",
    "token_secret": "def456...",  // Only shown here!
    "max_hosts_per_day": 100,
    "default_host_group": {
      "id": "uuid",
      "name": "Proxmox LXC",
      "color": "#3B82F6"
    },
    "created_by": {
      "id": "uuid",
      "username": "admin",
      "first_name": "John",
      "last_name": "Doe"
    },
    "expires_at": "2026-12-31T23:59:59Z"
  },
  "warning": "Save the token_secret now - it cannot be retrieved later!"
}
List Tokens

Endpoint: GET /api/v1/auto-enrollment/tokens

Response: 200 OK

[
  {
    "id": "uuid",
    "token_name": "Proxmox Production",
    "token_key": "patchmon_ae_abc123...",
    "is_active": true,
    "allowed_ip_ranges": ["192.168.1.10"],
    "max_hosts_per_day": 100,
    "hosts_created_today": 15,
    "last_used_at": "2025-10-11T14:30:00Z",
    "expires_at": "2026-12-31T23:59:59Z",
    "created_at": "2025-10-01T10:00:00Z",
    "default_host_group_id": "uuid",
    "metadata": {"integration_type": "proxmox-lxc"},
    "host_groups": {
      "id": "uuid",
      "name": "Proxmox LXC",
      "color": "#3B82F6"
    },
    "users": {
      "id": "uuid",
      "username": "admin",
      "first_name": "John",
      "last_name": "Doe"
    }
  }
]
Get Token Details

Endpoint: GET /api/v1/auto-enrollment/tokens/:tokenId

Response: 200 OK (same structure as single token in list)

Update Token

Endpoint: PATCH /api/v1/auto-enrollment/tokens/:tokenId

Request:

{
  "is_active": false,
  "max_hosts_per_day": 200,
  "allowed_ip_ranges": ["192.168.1.0/24"],
  "expires_at": "2027-01-01T00:00:00Z"
}

Response: 200 OK

{
  "message": "Token updated successfully",
  "token": { /* updated token object */ }
}
Delete Token

Endpoint: DELETE /api/v1/auto-enrollment/tokens/:tokenId

Response: 200 OK

{
  "message": "Auto-enrollment token deleted successfully",
  "deleted_token": {
    "id": "uuid",
    "token_name": "Proxmox Production"
  }
}

Enrollment Endpoints (Token Authentication)

Authentication via headers:

X-Auto-Enrollment-Key: patchmon_ae_abc123...
X-Auto-Enrollment-Secret: def456...
Download Enrollment Script

Endpoint: GET /api/v1/auto-enrollment/script

Query Parameters:

  • type (required): Script type (proxmox-lxc or direct-host)
  • token_key (required): Auto-enrollment token key
  • token_secret (required): Auto-enrollment token secret
  • force (optional): true to enable force install mode

Example:

curl "https://patchmon.example.com/api/v1/auto-enrollment/script?type=proxmox-lxc&token_key=KEY&token_secret=SECRET&force=true"

Response: 200 OK (bash script with credentials injected)

Enroll Single Host

Endpoint: POST /api/v1/auto-enrollment/enroll

Request:

{
  "friendly_name": "webserver",
  "machine_id": "proxmox-lxc-100-abc123",
  "metadata": {
    "vmid": "100",
    "proxmox_node": "proxmox01",
    "ip_address": "10.0.0.10",
    "os_info": "Ubuntu 22.04 LTS"
  }
}

Response: 201 Created

{
  "message": "Host enrolled successfully",
  "host": {
    "id": "uuid",
    "friendly_name": "webserver",
    "api_id": "patchmon_abc123",
    "api_key": "def456ghi789",
    "host_group": {
      "id": "uuid",
      "name": "Proxmox LXC",
      "color": "#3B82F6"
    },
    "status": "pending"
  }
}

Error Responses:

Note: The API does not perform duplicate host checks. Duplicate prevention is handled client-side by the enrollment script, which checks for an existing agent configuration inside each container before calling the API.

429 Too Many Requests - Rate limit exceeded:

{
  "error": "Rate limit exceeded",
  "message": "Maximum 100 hosts per day allowed for this token"
}
Bulk Enroll Hosts

Endpoint: POST /api/v1/auto-enrollment/enroll/bulk

Request:

{
  "hosts": [
    {
      "friendly_name": "webserver",
      "machine_id": "proxmox-lxc-100-abc123"
    },
    {
      "friendly_name": "database",
      "machine_id": "proxmox-lxc-101-def456"
    }
  ]
}

Limits:

  • Minimum: 1 host
  • Maximum: 50 hosts per request

Response: 201 Created

{
  "message": "Bulk enrollment completed: 2 succeeded, 0 failed, 0 skipped",
  "results": {
    "success": [
      {
        "id": "uuid",
        "friendly_name": "webserver",
        "api_id": "patchmon_abc123",
        "api_key": "def456"
      },
      {
        "id": "uuid",
        "friendly_name": "database",
        "api_id": "patchmon_ghi789",
        "api_key": "jkl012"
      }
    ],
    "failed": [],
    "skipped": []
  }
}

FAQ

General Questions

Q: Can I use the same token for multiple Proxmox hosts?
A: Yes, as long as the combined enrollment count stays within max_hosts_per_day limit. Rate limits are per-token, not per-host.

Q: What happens if I run the script multiple times?
A: Already-enrolled containers are automatically skipped. The script checks for existing agent configuration inside each container and skips those where the agent is already installed and responsive. Safe to rerun!

Q: Can I enroll stopped LXC containers?
A: No, containers must be running. The script needs to execute commands inside the container to install the agent. Start containers before enrolling.

Q: Does this work with Proxmox VMs (QEMU)?
A: No, this script is LXC-specific and uses pct exec to enter containers. VMs require manual enrollment or a different automation approach (SSH-based).

Q: How do I unenroll a host?
A: Go to PatchMon UI → Hosts → Select host → Delete. The agent will stop reporting and the host record is removed from the database.

Q: Can I change the host group after enrollment?
A: Yes! In PatchMon UI → Hosts → Select host → Edit → Change host group.

Q: Can I see which hosts were enrolled by which token?
A: Yes, check the host "Notes" field in PatchMon. It includes the token name and enrollment timestamp.

Q: What if my Proxmox host IP address changes?
A: Update the token's allowed_ip_ranges in PatchMon UI (Settings → Integrations → Edit Token).

Q: Can I have multiple tokens with different host groups?
A: Yes! Create separate tokens for prod/dev/staging with different default host groups. Great for environment segregation.

Q: Is there a way to trigger enrollment from PatchMon GUI?
A: Not currently (would require inbound network access). The script must run on the Proxmox host. Future versions may support webhooks or agent-initiated enrollment.

Security Questions

Q: Are token secrets stored securely?
A: Yes, token secrets are hashed using bcrypt before storage. Only the hash is stored in the database, never the plain text.

Q: What happens if someone steals my auto-enrollment token?
A: They can create new hosts up to the rate limit, but cannot control existing hosts or access host data. Immediately disable the token in PatchMon UI if compromised.

Q: Can I audit who created which tokens?
A: Yes, each token stores the created_by_user_id. View in PatchMon UI or query the database.

Q: How does IP whitelisting work?
A: PatchMon checks the client IP from the HTTP request. If allowed_ip_ranges is configured, the IP must match one of the allowed ranges using CIDR notation (e.g., 192.168.1.0/24). Single IP addresses are also supported (e.g., 192.168.1.10).

Q: Can I use the same credentials for enrollment and agent communication?
A: No, they're separate. Auto-enrollment credentials create hosts. Each host gets unique API credentials for agent communication. This separation limits the blast radius of credential compromise.

Technical Questions

Q: Why does the agent require curl inside the container?
A: The agent script uses curl to communicate with PatchMon. The enrollment script automatically installs curl if missing.

Q: What Linux distributions are supported in containers?
A: Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS, RHEL, Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux, Alpine Linux. Any distribution with apt/yum/dnf/apk package managers.

Q: How much bandwidth does enrollment use?
A: Minimal. The script download is ~15KB, agent installation is ~50-100KB per container. Total: ~1-2MB for 10 containers.

Q: Can I run enrollment in parallel for faster processing?
A: Not recommended. The script processes containers sequentially to avoid overwhelming the PatchMon server. For 100+ containers, consider the bulk API endpoint.

Q: Does enrollment restart containers?
A: No, containers remain running. The agent is installed without reboots or service disruptions.

Q: What if the container doesn't have a hostname?
A: The script uses the container name from Proxmox as a fallback.

Q: Can I customize the agent installation?
A: Yes, modify the install_url in the enrollment script or use the PatchMon agent installation API parameters.

Troubleshooting Questions

Q: Why does enrollment fail with "dpkg was interrupted"?
A: Your container has broken packages. Use FORCE_INSTALL=true to bypass, or manually fix dpkg:

pct enter 100
dpkg --configure -a
apt-get install -f

Q: Why does the agent show "pending" status forever?
A: Agent likely can't reach PatchMon server. Check:

  1. Container network connectivity: pct exec 100 -- ping patchmon.example.com
  2. Agent service running: pct exec 100 -- systemctl status patchmon-agent.service
  3. Agent logs: pct exec 100 -- journalctl -u patchmon-agent.service

Q: Can I test enrollment without actually creating hosts?
A: Yes, use dry run mode: DRY_RUN=true ./proxmox_auto_enroll.sh

Q: How do I get more verbose output?
A: Use debug mode: DEBUG=true ./proxmox_auto_enroll.sh

Support and Resources

Documentation

  • PatchMon Documentation: https://docs.patchmon.net
  • API Reference: https://docs.patchmon.net/api
  • Agent Documentation: https://docs.patchmon.net/agent

Community

  • Discord: https://patchmon.net/discord
  • GitHub Issues: https://github.com/PatchMon/PatchMon/issues
  • GitHub Discussions: https://github.com/PatchMon/PatchMon/discussions

Professional Support

For enterprise support, training, or custom integrations:

  • Email: support@patchmon.net
  • Website: https://patchmon.net/support

PatchMon Team

Chapter 30: Auto-Enrollment API Documentation

Overview

PatchMon's auto-enrollment API enables automated device onboarding using tools like Ansible, Terraform, or custom scripts. It covers token management, host enrollment, and agent installation endpoints.

Table of Contents

API Architecture

Base URL Structure

https://your-patchmon-server.com/api/v1/

The API version is v1 and is fixed in the server.

Endpoint Categories

Category Path Prefix Authentication Purpose
Admin /auto-enrollment/tokens/* JWT (Bearer token) Token management (CRUD)
Enrollment /auto-enrollment/* Token key + secret (headers) Host enrollment & script download
Host /hosts/* API ID + key (headers) Agent installation & data reporting

Two-Tier Security Model

Tier 1: Auto-Enrollment Token

  • Purpose: Create new host entries via enrollment
  • Scope: Limited to enrollment operations only
  • Authentication: X-Auto-Enrollment-Key + X-Auto-Enrollment-Secret headers
  • Rate Limited: Yes (configurable hosts per day per token)
  • Storage: Secret is hashed (bcrypt) in the database

Tier 2: Host API Credentials

  • Purpose: Agent communication (data reporting, updates, commands)
  • Scope: Per-host unique credentials
  • Authentication: X-API-ID + X-API-KEY headers
  • Rate Limited: No (per-host)
  • Storage: API key is hashed (bcrypt) in the database

Why two tiers?

  • Compromised enrollment token does not compromise existing hosts
  • Compromised host credential does not compromise enrollment
  • Revoking an enrollment token stops new enrollments without affecting existing hosts

Authentication

Admin Endpoints (JWT)

All admin endpoints require a valid JWT Bearer token from an authenticated user with "Manage Settings" permission:

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer <jwt_token>" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     https://your-patchmon-server.com/api/v1/auto-enrollment/tokens

Enrollment Endpoints (Token Key + Secret)

Enrollment endpoints authenticate via custom headers:

curl -H "X-Auto-Enrollment-Key: patchmon_ae_abc123..." \
     -H "X-Auto-Enrollment-Secret: def456ghi789..." \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     https://your-patchmon-server.com/api/v1/auto-enrollment/enroll

Host Endpoints (API ID + Key)

Host endpoints authenticate via API credential headers:

curl -H "X-API-ID: patchmon_abc123" \
     -H "X-API-KEY: def456ghi789" \
     https://your-patchmon-server.com/api/v1/hosts/install

Admin Endpoints

All admin endpoints require JWT authentication and "Manage Settings" permission.

Create Auto-Enrollment Token

Endpoint: POST /api/v1/auto-enrollment/tokens

Request Body:

Field Type Required Default Description
token_name string Yes (required) Descriptive name (max 255 chars)
max_hosts_per_day integer No 100 Rate limit (1–1000)
default_host_group_id string No null UUID of host group to auto-assign
allowed_ip_ranges string[] No [] IP whitelist (exact IPs or CIDR notation)
expires_at string No null ISO 8601 expiration date
metadata object No {} Custom metadata (e.g. integration_type, environment)
scopes object No null Permission scopes (only for API integration type tokens)

Example Request:

{
  "token_name": "Proxmox Production",
  "max_hosts_per_day": 100,
  "default_host_group_id": "uuid-of-host-group",
  "allowed_ip_ranges": ["192.168.1.10", "10.0.0.0/24"],
  "expires_at": "2026-12-31T23:59:59Z",
  "metadata": {
    "integration_type": "proxmox-lxc",
    "environment": "production"
  }
}

Response: 201 Created

{
  "message": "Auto-enrollment token created successfully",
  "token": {
    "id": "uuid",
    "token_name": "Proxmox Production",
    "token_key": "patchmon_ae_abc123...",
    "token_secret": "def456ghi789...",
    "max_hosts_per_day": 100,
    "default_host_group": {
      "id": "uuid",
      "name": "Proxmox LXC",
      "color": "#3B82F6"
    },
    "created_by": {
      "id": "uuid",
      "username": "admin",
      "first_name": "John",
      "last_name": "Doe"
    },
    "expires_at": "2026-12-31T23:59:59Z",
    "scopes": null
  },
  "warning": "Save the token_secret now - it cannot be retrieved later!"
}

Important: The token_secret is only returned in this response. It is hashed before storage and cannot be retrieved again.

List Auto-Enrollment Tokens

Endpoint: GET /api/v1/auto-enrollment/tokens

Response: 200 OK

[
  {
    "id": "uuid",
    "token_name": "Proxmox Production",
    "token_key": "patchmon_ae_abc123...",
    "is_active": true,
    "allowed_ip_ranges": ["192.168.1.10"],
    "max_hosts_per_day": 100,
    "hosts_created_today": 15,
    "last_used_at": "2025-10-11T14:30:00Z",
    "expires_at": "2026-12-31T23:59:59Z",
    "created_at": "2025-10-01T10:00:00Z",
    "default_host_group_id": "uuid",
    "metadata": { "integration_type": "proxmox-lxc" },
    "scopes": null,
    "host_groups": {
      "id": "uuid",
      "name": "Proxmox LXC",
      "color": "#3B82F6"
    },
    "users": {
      "id": "uuid",
      "username": "admin",
      "first_name": "John",
      "last_name": "Doe"
    }
  }
]

Tokens are returned in descending order by creation date. The token_secret is never included in list responses.

Get Token Details

Endpoint: GET /api/v1/auto-enrollment/tokens/{tokenId}

Response: 200 OK. Same structure as a single token in the list response (without token_secret).

Error: 404 Not Found if tokenId does not exist.

Update Token

Endpoint: PATCH /api/v1/auto-enrollment/tokens/{tokenId}

All fields are optional. Only include fields you want to change.

Request Body:

Field Type Description
token_name string Updated name (1–255 chars)
is_active boolean Enable or disable the token
max_hosts_per_day integer Updated rate limit (1–1000)
allowed_ip_ranges string[] Updated IP whitelist
default_host_group_id string Updated host group (set to empty string to clear)
expires_at string Updated expiration date (ISO 8601)
scopes object Updated scopes (API integration type tokens only)

Example Request:

{
  "is_active": false,
  "max_hosts_per_day": 200,
  "allowed_ip_ranges": ["192.168.1.0/24"]
}

Response: 200 OK

{
  "message": "Token updated successfully",
  "token": {
    "id": "uuid",
    "token_name": "Proxmox Production",
    "token_key": "patchmon_ae_abc123...",
    "is_active": false,
    "max_hosts_per_day": 200,
    "allowed_ip_ranges": ["192.168.1.0/24"],
    "host_groups": { "id": "uuid", "name": "Proxmox LXC", "color": "#3B82F6" },
    "users": { "id": "uuid", "username": "admin", "first_name": "John", "last_name": "Doe" }
  }
}

Errors:

  • 404 Not Found: Token does not exist
  • 400 Bad Request: Host group not found, or scopes update attempted on a non-API token

Delete Token

Endpoint: DELETE /api/v1/auto-enrollment/tokens/{tokenId}

Response: 200 OK

{
  "message": "Auto-enrollment token deleted successfully",
  "deleted_token": {
    "id": "uuid",
    "token_name": "Proxmox Production"
  }
}

Error: 404 Not Found if tokenId does not exist.

Enrollment Endpoints

Download Enrollment Script

Endpoint: GET /api/v1/auto-enrollment/script

This endpoint validates the token credentials, then serves a bash script with the PatchMon server URL, token credentials, and configuration injected automatically.

Query Parameters:

Parameter Required Description
type Yes Script type: proxmox-lxc or direct-host
token_key Yes Auto-enrollment token key
token_secret Yes Auto-enrollment token secret
force No Set to true to enable force install mode (for broken packages)

Example:

curl "https://patchmon.example.com/api/v1/auto-enrollment/script?type=proxmox-lxc&token_key=KEY&token_secret=SECRET"

Response: 200 OK. Plain text bash script with credentials injected.

Errors:

  • 400 Bad Request: Missing or invalid type parameter
  • 401 Unauthorized: Missing credentials, invalid/inactive token, invalid secret, or expired token
  • 404 Not Found: Script file not found on server

Enroll Single Host

Endpoint: POST /api/v1/auto-enrollment/enroll

Headers:

X-Auto-Enrollment-Key: patchmon_ae_abc123...
X-Auto-Enrollment-Secret: def456ghi789...
Content-Type: application/json

Request Body:

Field Type Required Description
friendly_name string Yes Display name for the host (max 255 chars)
machine_id string No Unique machine identifier (max 255 chars)
metadata object No Additional metadata (vmid, proxmox_node, ip_address, os_info, etc.)

Example Request:

{
  "friendly_name": "webserver",
  "machine_id": "proxmox-lxc-100-abc123",
  "metadata": {
    "vmid": "100",
    "proxmox_node": "proxmox01",
    "ip_address": "10.0.0.10",
    "os_info": "Ubuntu 22.04 LTS"
  }
}

Response: 201 Created

{
  "message": "Host enrolled successfully",
  "host": {
    "id": "uuid",
    "friendly_name": "webserver",
    "api_id": "patchmon_abc123def456",
    "api_key": "raw-api-key-value",
    "host_group": {
      "id": "uuid",
      "name": "Proxmox LXC",
      "color": "#3B82F6"
    },
    "status": "pending"
  }
}

Note: The api_key is only returned in this response (plain text). It is hashed before storage. The host_group is null if no default host group is configured on the token.

Error Responses:

Status Error Cause
400 Validation errors Missing or invalid friendly_name
401 Auto-enrollment credentials required Missing X-Auto-Enrollment-Key or X-Auto-Enrollment-Secret headers
401 Invalid or inactive token Token key not found or token is disabled
401 Invalid token secret Secret does not match
401 Token expired Token has passed its expiration date
403 IP address not authorized for this token Client IP not in allowed_ip_ranges
429 Rate limit exceeded Token's max_hosts_per_day limit reached

Duplicate handling: The API does not perform server-side duplicate host checks. Duplicate prevention is handled client-side by the enrollment script, which checks for an existing agent configuration (/etc/patchmon/config.yml) inside each container before calling the API.

Host Management Endpoints

These endpoints are used by the PatchMon agent (not the enrollment script). They authenticate using the per-host X-API-ID and X-API-KEY credentials returned during enrollment.

Download Agent Installation Script

Endpoint: GET /api/v1/hosts/install

Serves a shell script that bootstraps the PatchMon agent on a host. The script uses a secure bootstrap token mechanism; actual API credentials are not embedded directly in the script.

Headers:

X-API-ID: patchmon_abc123
X-API-KEY: def456ghi789

Query Parameters:

Parameter Required Description
force No Set to true to enable force install mode
arch No Architecture override (e.g. amd64, arm64); auto-detected if omitted

Response: 200 OK. Plain text shell script with bootstrap token injected.

Download Agent Binary/Script

Endpoint: GET /api/v1/hosts/agent/download

Downloads the PatchMon agent binary (Go binary for modern agents) or migration script (for legacy bash agents).

Headers:

X-API-ID: patchmon_abc123
X-API-KEY: def456ghi789

Query Parameters:

Parameter Required Description
arch No Architecture (e.g. amd64, arm64)
force No Set to binary to force binary download

Response: 200 OK. Binary file or shell script.

Host Data Update

Endpoint: POST /api/v1/hosts/update

Used by the agent to report package data, system information, and hardware details.

Headers:

X-API-ID: patchmon_abc123
X-API-KEY: def456ghi789
Content-Type: application/json

Request Body Fields:

Field Type Required Description
packages array Yes Array of package objects (max 10,000)
packages[].name string Yes Package name
packages[].currentVersion string Yes Currently installed version
packages[].availableVersion string No Available update version
packages[].needsUpdate boolean Yes Whether an update is available
packages[].isSecurityUpdate boolean No Whether the update is security-related
agentVersion string No Reporting agent version
osType string No Operating system type
osVersion string No Operating system version
hostname string No System hostname
ip string No System IP address
architecture string No CPU architecture
cpuModel string No CPU model name
cpuCores integer No Number of CPU cores
ramInstalled float No Installed RAM in GB
swapSize float No Swap size in GB
diskDetails array No Array of disk objects
gatewayIp string No Default gateway IP
dnsServers array No Array of DNS server IPs
networkInterfaces array No Array of network interface objects
kernelVersion string No Running kernel version
installedKernelVersion string No Installed (on-disk) kernel version
selinuxStatus string No SELinux status (enabled, disabled, or permissive)
systemUptime string No System uptime
loadAverage array No Load average values
machineId string No Machine ID
needsReboot boolean No Whether a reboot is required
rebootReason string No Reason a reboot is required
repositories array No Configured package repositories
executionTime string No Time taken to gather data

Example Request:

{
  "packages": [
    {
      "name": "nginx",
      "currentVersion": "1.18.0",
      "availableVersion": "1.20.0",
      "needsUpdate": true,
      "isSecurityUpdate": false
    }
  ],
  "agentVersion": "1.5.0",
  "cpuModel": "Intel Xeon E5-2680 v4",
  "cpuCores": 8,
  "ramInstalled": 16.0,
  "swapSize": 2.0,
  "diskDetails": [
    {
      "device": "/dev/sda1",
      "mountPoint": "/",
      "size": "50GB",
      "used": "25GB",
      "available": "25GB"
    }
  ],
  "gatewayIp": "192.168.1.1",
  "dnsServers": ["8.8.8.8", "8.8.4.4"],
  "networkInterfaces": [
    {
      "name": "eth0",
      "ip": "192.168.1.10",
      "mac": "00:11:22:33:44:55"
    }
  ],
  "kernelVersion": "5.4.0-74-generic",
  "selinuxStatus": "disabled"
}

Response: 200 OK

{
  "message": "Host updated successfully",
  "packagesProcessed": 1,
  "updatesAvailable": 1,
  "securityUpdates": 0
}

Ansible Integration Examples

Basic Playbook for Proxmox Enrollment

---
- name: Enroll Proxmox LXC containers in PatchMon
  hosts: proxmox_hosts
  become: yes
  vars:
    patchmon_url: "https://patchmon.example.com"
    token_key: "{{ vault_patchmon_token_key }}"
    token_secret: "{{ vault_patchmon_token_secret }}"
    host_prefix: "prod-"

  tasks:
    - name: Install dependencies
      apt:
        name:
          - curl
          - jq
        state: present

    - name: Download enrollment script
      get_url:
        url: "{{ patchmon_url }}/api/v1/auto-enrollment/script?type=proxmox-lxc&token_key={{ token_key }}&token_secret={{ token_secret }}"
        dest: /root/proxmox_auto_enroll.sh
        mode: '0700'

    - name: Run enrollment
      command: /root/proxmox_auto_enroll.sh
      environment:
        HOST_PREFIX: "{{ host_prefix }}"
        DEBUG: "true"
      register: enrollment_output

    - name: Show enrollment results
      debug:
        var: enrollment_output.stdout_lines

Advanced Playbook with Token Management

---
- name: Manage PatchMon Proxmox Integration
  hosts: localhost
  vars:
    patchmon_url: "https://patchmon.example.com"
    admin_token: "{{ vault_patchmon_admin_token }}"

  tasks:
    - name: Create Proxmox enrollment token
      uri:
        url: "{{ patchmon_url }}/api/v1/auto-enrollment/tokens"
        method: POST
        headers:
          Authorization: "Bearer {{ admin_token }}"
          Content-Type: "application/json"
        body_format: json
        body:
          token_name: "{{ inventory_hostname }}-proxmox"
          max_hosts_per_day: 200
          default_host_group_id: "{{ proxmox_host_group_id }}"
          allowed_ip_ranges: ["{{ proxmox_host_ip }}"]
          expires_at: "2026-12-31T23:59:59Z"
          metadata:
            integration_type: "proxmox-lxc"
            environment: "{{ environment }}"
        status_code: 201
      register: token_response

    - name: Store token credentials
      set_fact:
        enrollment_token_key: "{{ token_response.json.token.token_key }}"
        enrollment_token_secret: "{{ token_response.json.token.token_secret }}"

    - name: Deploy enrollment script to Proxmox hosts
      include_tasks: deploy_enrollment.yml
      vars:
        enrollment_token_key: "{{ enrollment_token_key }}"
        enrollment_token_secret: "{{ enrollment_token_secret }}"

Ansible Role

# roles/patchmon_proxmox/tasks/main.yml
---
- name: Install PatchMon dependencies
  package:
    name:
      - curl
      - jq
    state: present

- name: Create PatchMon directory
  file:
    path: /opt/patchmon
    state: directory
    mode: '0755'

- name: Download enrollment script
  get_url:
    url: "{{ patchmon_url }}/api/v1/auto-enrollment/script?type=proxmox-lxc&token_key={{ token_key }}&token_secret={{ token_secret }}&force={{ force_install | default('false') }}"
    dest: /opt/patchmon/proxmox_auto_enroll.sh
    mode: '0700'

- name: Run enrollment script
  command: /opt/patchmon/proxmox_auto_enroll.sh
  environment:
    PATCHMON_URL: "{{ patchmon_url }}"
    AUTO_ENROLLMENT_KEY: "{{ token_key }}"
    AUTO_ENROLLMENT_SECRET: "{{ token_secret }}"
    HOST_PREFIX: "{{ host_prefix | default('') }}"
    DRY_RUN: "{{ dry_run | default('false') }}"
    DEBUG: "{{ debug | default('false') }}"
    FORCE_INSTALL: "{{ force_install | default('false') }}"
  register: enrollment_output

- name: Display enrollment results
  debug:
    var: enrollment_output.stdout_lines
  when: enrollment_output.stdout_lines is defined

- name: Fail if enrollment had errors
  fail:
    msg: "Enrollment failed with errors"
  when: enrollment_output.rc != 0

Ansible Vault for Credentials

# group_vars/all/vault.yml (encrypted with ansible-vault)
---
vault_patchmon_admin_token: "eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9..."
vault_patchmon_token_key: "patchmon_ae_abc123..."
vault_patchmon_token_secret: "def456ghi789..."

Playbook with Error Handling and Retries

---
- name: Robust Proxmox enrollment with error handling
  hosts: proxmox_hosts
  become: yes
  vars:
    patchmon_url: "https://patchmon.example.com"
    token_key: "{{ vault_patchmon_token_key }}"
    token_secret: "{{ vault_patchmon_token_secret }}"
    max_retries: 3
    retry_delay: 30

  tasks:
    - name: Test PatchMon connectivity
      uri:
        url: "{{ patchmon_url }}/api/v1/auto-enrollment/tokens"
        method: GET
        headers:
          Authorization: "Bearer {{ vault_patchmon_admin_token }}"
        status_code: 200
      retries: "{{ max_retries }}"
      delay: "{{ retry_delay }}"

    - name: Download enrollment script
      get_url:
        url: "{{ patchmon_url }}/api/v1/auto-enrollment/script?type=proxmox-lxc&token_key={{ token_key }}&token_secret={{ token_secret }}"
        dest: /root/proxmox_auto_enroll.sh
        mode: '0700'
      retries: "{{ max_retries }}"
      delay: "{{ retry_delay }}"

    - name: Run enrollment with retry logic
      shell: |
        for i in {1..{{ max_retries }}}; do
          echo "Attempt $i of {{ max_retries }}"
          if /root/proxmox_auto_enroll.sh; then
            echo "Enrollment successful"
            exit 0
          else
            echo "Enrollment failed, retrying in {{ retry_delay }} seconds..."
            sleep {{ retry_delay }}
          fi
        done
        echo "All enrollment attempts failed"
        exit 1
      register: enrollment_result

    - name: Handle enrollment failure
      fail:
        msg: "Proxmox enrollment failed after {{ max_retries }} attempts"
      when: enrollment_result.rc != 0

    - name: Parse enrollment results
      set_fact:
        enrolled_count: "{{ enrollment_result.stdout | regex_search('Successfully Enrolled:\\s+(\\d+)', '\\1') | default('0') }}"
        failed_count: "{{ enrollment_result.stdout | regex_search('Failed:\\s+(\\d+)', '\\1') | default('0') }}"

    - name: Report enrollment statistics
      debug:
        msg: |
          Enrollment completed:
          - Successfully enrolled: {{ enrolled_count }} containers
          - Failed: {{ failed_count }} containers

Error Handling

HTTP Status Codes

Code Meaning When It Occurs
200 OK Successful read/update operations
201 Created Token or host created successfully
400 Bad Request Validation errors, invalid host group, invalid script type
401 Unauthorized Missing, invalid, or expired credentials
403 Forbidden IP address not in token's whitelist
404 Not Found Token or resource not found
429 Too Many Requests Token's daily host creation limit exceeded
500 Internal Server Error Unexpected server error

Error Response Formats

Simple error:

{
  "error": "Error message describing what went wrong"
}

Error with detail:

{
  "error": "Rate limit exceeded",
  "message": "Maximum 100 hosts per day allowed for this token"
}

Validation errors (400):

{
  "errors": [
    {
      "msg": "Token name is required (max 255 characters)",
      "param": "token_name",
      "location": "body"
    }
  ]
}

Rate Limiting

Token-Based Rate Limits

Each auto-enrollment token has a configurable max_hosts_per_day limit:

  • Default: 100 hosts per day per token
  • Range: 1–1000 hosts per day
  • Reset: Daily (when the first request of a new day is received)
  • Scope: Per-token, not per-IP

When the limit is exceeded, the API returns 429 Too Many Requests:

{
  "error": "Rate limit exceeded",
  "message": "Maximum 100 hosts per day allowed for this token"
}

Global Rate Limiting

The auto-enrollment endpoints are also subject to the server's global authentication rate limiter, which applies to all authentication-related endpoints.

Security Considerations

Token Security

  • Secret hashing: Token secrets are hashed with bcrypt (cost factor 10) before storage
  • One-time display: Secrets are only returned during token creation
  • Rotation: Recommended every 90 days
  • Scope limitation: Tokens can only create hosts. They cannot read, modify, or delete existing host data.

IP Restrictions

Tokens support IP whitelisting with both exact IPs and CIDR notation:

{
  "allowed_ip_ranges": ["192.168.1.10", "10.0.0.0/24"]
}

IPv4-mapped IPv6 addresses (e.g. ::ffff:192.168.1.10) are automatically handled.

Host API Key Security

  • Host API keys (api_key) are hashed with bcrypt before storage
  • The installation script uses a bootstrap token mechanism; the actual API credentials are not embedded in the script
  • Bootstrap tokens are single-use and expire after 5 minutes

Network Security

  • Always use HTTPS in production
  • The ignore_ssl_self_signed server setting automatically configures curl flags in served scripts
  • Implement firewall rules to restrict PatchMon server access to known IPs

Audit Trail

All enrollment activity is logged:

  • Token name included in host notes (e.g. "Auto-enrolled via Production Proxmox on 2025-10-11T14:30:00Z")
  • Token creation tracks created_by_user_id
  • last_used_at timestamp updated on each enrollment

Complete Endpoint Summary

Admin Endpoints (JWT Authentication)

Method Path Description
POST /api/v1/auto-enrollment/tokens Create token
GET /api/v1/auto-enrollment/tokens List all tokens
GET /api/v1/auto-enrollment/tokens/{tokenId} Get single token
PATCH /api/v1/auto-enrollment/tokens/{tokenId} Update token
DELETE /api/v1/auto-enrollment/tokens/{tokenId} Delete token

Enrollment Endpoints (Token Authentication)

Method Path Description
GET /api/v1/auto-enrollment/script?type=... Download enrollment script
POST /api/v1/auto-enrollment/enroll Enroll a host

Host Endpoints (API Credentials)

Method Path Description
GET /api/v1/hosts/install Download installation script
GET /api/v1/hosts/agent/download Download agent binary/script
POST /api/v1/hosts/update Report host data

Quick Reference: curl Examples

Create a token:

curl -X POST \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <jwt_token>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "token_name": "Production Proxmox",
    "max_hosts_per_day": 100,
    "default_host_group_id": "uuid",
    "allowed_ip_ranges": ["192.168.1.10"]
  }' \
  https://patchmon.example.com/api/v1/auto-enrollment/tokens

Download and run enrollment script:

curl -s "https://patchmon.example.com/api/v1/auto-enrollment/script?type=proxmox-lxc&token_key=KEY&token_secret=SECRET" | bash

Enroll a host directly:

curl -X POST \
  -H "X-Auto-Enrollment-Key: patchmon_ae_abc123..." \
  -H "X-Auto-Enrollment-Secret: def456ghi789..." \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "friendly_name": "webserver",
    "machine_id": "proxmox-lxc-100-abc123"
  }' \
  https://patchmon.example.com/api/v1/auto-enrollment/enroll

Download agent installation script:

curl -H "X-API-ID: patchmon_abc123" \
     -H "X-API-KEY: def456ghi789" \
     https://patchmon.example.com/api/v1/hosts/install | bash

Integration Patterns

Pattern 1: Script-Based (Simplest)

# Download and execute in one command (credentials are injected into the script)
curl -s "https://patchmon.example.com/api/v1/auto-enrollment/script?type=proxmox-lxc&token_key=KEY&token_secret=SECRET" | bash

Pattern 2: API-First (Most Control)

# 1. Create token via admin API
# 2. Enroll hosts via enrollment API
# 3. Download agent scripts using per-host API credentials
# 4. Install agents with host-specific credentials

Pattern 3: Hybrid (Recommended for Automation)

# 1. Create token via admin API (or UI)
# 2. Download enrollment script with token embedded
# 3. Distribute and run script on Proxmox hosts
# 4. Script handles both enrollment and agent installation

Chapter 31: Integration API Documentation

Table of Contents

Overview

PatchMon's Integration API provides programmatic access to your PatchMon instance, enabling automation, integration with third-party tools, and custom workflows. API credentials use HTTP Basic Authentication with scoped permissions to control access to specific resources and actions.

Key Features

  • Scoped Permissions: Fine-grained control over what each credential can access
  • IP Restrictions: Optional IP allowlisting for enhanced security
  • Expiration Dates: Set automatic expiration for temporary access
  • Basic Authentication: Industry-standard authentication method (RFC 7617)
  • Rate Limiting: Built-in protection against abuse
  • Audit Trail: Track credential usage with last-used timestamps

Use Cases

  • Automation: Integrate PatchMon data into CI/CD pipelines
  • Inventory Management: Use with Ansible, Terraform, or other IaC tools
  • Monitoring: Feed PatchMon data into monitoring dashboards
  • Custom Scripts: Build custom tools that interact with PatchMon
  • Third-Party Integrations: Connect PatchMon to other systems

Interactive API Reference (Swagger)

PatchMon includes a built-in interactive API reference powered by Swagger UI. You can explore all available endpoints, view request/response schemas, and test API calls directly from your browser.

To access the Swagger UI:

https://<your-patchmon-url>/api/v1/api-docs

Note: The Swagger UI requires you to be logged in to PatchMon (JWT authentication). Log in to your PatchMon dashboard first, then navigate to the URL above in the same browser session.

The Swagger reference covers all internal and scoped API endpoints. This documentation page focuses specifically on the scoped Integration API that uses Basic Authentication with API credentials.

Creating API Credentials

Step-by-Step Guide

1. Navigate to Settings
  1. Log in to your PatchMon instance as an administrator
  2. Go to Settings → Integrations
  3. You will see the Auto-Enrollment & API tab
2. Click "New Token"

Click the "New Token" button. A modal will appear where you can select the credential type.

3. Select "API" as the Usage Type

In the creation modal, select "API" as the usage type. This configures the credential for programmatic access via Basic Authentication.

4. Configure the Credential

Fill in the following fields:

Required Fields:

Field Description Example
Token Name A descriptive name for identification and audit purposes Ansible Inventory, Monitoring Dashboard
Scopes The permissions this credential should have (at least one required) host: get

Optional Fields:

Field Description Example
Allowed IP Addresses Comma-separated list of IPs or CIDR ranges that can use this credential. Leave empty for unrestricted access. 192.168.1.100, 10.0.0.0/24
Expiration Date Automatic expiration date for the credential. Leave empty for no expiration. 2026-12-31T23:59:59
Default Host Group Optionally assign a default host group Production
5. Save Your Credentials

CRITICAL: Save these credentials immediately. The secret cannot be retrieved later.

After creation, a success modal displays:

  • Token Key: The API key (used as the username in Basic Auth), prefixed with patchmon_ae_
  • Token Secret: The API secret (used as the password). Shown only once.
  • Granted Scopes: The permissions assigned
  • Usage Examples: Pre-filled cURL commands ready to copy

Copy both the Token Key and Token Secret and store them securely before closing the modal.

Authentication

Basic Authentication

PatchMon API credentials use HTTP Basic Authentication as defined in RFC 7617.

Format
Authorization: Basic <base64(token_key:token_secret)>
How It Works
  1. Combine your token key and secret with a colon: token_key:token_secret
  2. Encode the combined string in Base64
  3. Prepend Basic to the encoded string
  4. Send it in the Authorization header

Most HTTP clients handle this automatically (for example, cURL's -u flag or Python's HTTPBasicAuth).

Authentication Flow

┌─────────────┐                                  ┌─────────────┐
│   Client     │                                  │  PatchMon   │
│ Application  │                                  │   Server    │
└──────┬──────┘                                  └──────┬──────┘
       │                                                │
       │  1. Send request with Basic Auth               │
       │  Authorization: Basic <base64>                 │
       │───────────────────────────────────────────────>│
       │                                                │
       │                  2. Validate credentials       │
       │                     a. Decode Base64           │
       │                     b. Find token by key       │
       │                     c. Check is_active         │
       │                     d. Check expiration        │
       │                     e. Verify integration type │
       │                     f. Verify secret (bcrypt)  │
       │                     g. Check IP restrictions   │
       │                     h. Update last_used_at     │
       │                                                │
       │                  3. Validate scopes            │
       │                     a. Check resource access   │
       │                     b. Check action permission │
       │                                                │
       │                  4. Return response            │
       │<───────────────────────────────────────────────│
       │  200 OK + Data (if authorised)                 │
       │  401 Unauthorised (if auth fails)              │
       │  403 Forbidden (if scope/IP check fails)       │

Validation Steps (In Order)

The server performs these checks sequentially. If any step fails, the request is rejected immediately:

  1. Authorization Header: checks for Authorization: Basic header
  2. Credential Format: validates key:secret format after Base64 decoding
  3. Token Existence: looks up the token key in the database
  4. Active Status: verifies is_active flag is true
  5. Expiration: checks token has not expired (expires_at)
  6. Integration Type: confirms metadata.integration_type is "api"
  7. Secret Verification: compares provided secret against the bcrypt hash
  8. IP Restriction: validates client IP against allowed_ip_ranges (if configured)
  9. Last Used Update: updates the last_used_at timestamp (occurs during authentication, before the handler runs)
  10. Scope Validation: verifies the credential has the required scope for the endpoint (handled by separate middleware)

Available Scopes & Permissions

API credentials use a resource–action scope model:

{
  "resource": ["action1", "action2"]
}

Host Resource

Resource name: host

Action Description
get Read host data (list hosts, view details, stats, packages, network, system, reports, notes, integrations)
delete Delete hosts

Example scope configurations:

// Read-only access
{ "host": ["get"] }

// Read and delete
{ "host": ["get", "delete"] }

Important Notes

  • Scopes are explicit: no inheritance or wildcards. Each action must be explicitly granted.
  • get does not automatically include delete or any other action.
  • At least one action must be granted for at least one resource. Credentials with no scopes will be rejected during creation.

API Endpoints

All endpoints are prefixed with /api/v1/api and require Basic Authentication with a credential that has the appropriate scope.

Endpoints Summary

Endpoint Method Scope Description
/api/v1/api/hosts GET host:get List all hosts with IP, groups, and optional stats
/api/v1/api/hosts/:id/stats GET host:get Get host package/repo statistics
/api/v1/api/hosts/:id/info GET host:get Get detailed host information
/api/v1/api/hosts/:id/network GET host:get Get host network configuration
/api/v1/api/hosts/:id/system GET host:get Get host system details
/api/v1/api/hosts/:id/packages GET host:get Get host packages (with optional update filter)
/api/v1/api/hosts/:id/package_reports GET host:get Get package update history
/api/v1/api/hosts/:id/agent_queue GET host:get Get agent queue status and jobs
/api/v1/api/hosts/:id/notes GET host:get Get host notes
/api/v1/api/hosts/:id/integrations GET host:get Get host integration status
/api/v1/api/hosts/:id DELETE host:delete Delete a host and all related data

List Hosts

Retrieve a list of all hosts with their IP addresses and host group memberships. Optionally include package update statistics inline with each host.

Endpoint:

GET /api/v1/api/hosts

Required Scope: host:get

Query Parameters:

Parameter Type Required Description
hostgroup string No Filter by host group name(s) or UUID(s). Comma-separated for multiple groups (OR logic).
include string No Comma-separated list of additional data to include. Supported values: stats.

Filtering by Host Groups:

# Filter by group name
GET /api/v1/api/hosts?hostgroup=Production

# Filter by multiple groups (hosts in ANY of the listed groups)
GET /api/v1/api/hosts?hostgroup=Production,Development

# Filter by group UUID
GET /api/v1/api/hosts?hostgroup=550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000

# Mix names and UUIDs
GET /api/v1/api/hosts?hostgroup=Production,550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000

Including Stats:

Use ?include=stats to add package update counts and additional host metadata to each host in a single request. This is more efficient than making separate /stats calls for every host.

# List all hosts with stats
GET /api/v1/api/hosts?include=stats

# Combine with host group filter
GET /api/v1/api/hosts?hostgroup=Production&include=stats

Note: If your host group names contain spaces, URL-encode them with %20 (e.g. Web%20Servers). Most HTTP clients handle this automatically.

Response (200 OK) without stats:

{
  "hosts": [
    {
      "id": "550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000",
      "friendly_name": "web-server-01",
      "hostname": "web01.example.com",
      "ip": "192.168.1.100",
      "host_groups": [
        {
          "id": "660e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440001",
          "name": "Production"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "total": 1,
  "filtered_by_groups": ["Production"]
}

Response (200 OK) with stats (?include=stats):

{
  "hosts": [
    {
      "id": "550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000",
      "friendly_name": "web-server-01",
      "hostname": "web01.example.com",
      "ip": "192.168.1.100",
      "host_groups": [
        {
          "id": "660e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440001",
          "name": "Production"
        }
      ],
      "os_type": "Ubuntu",
      "os_version": "24.04 LTS",
      "last_update": "2026-02-12T10:30:00.000Z",
      "status": "active",
      "needs_reboot": false,
      "updates_count": 15,
      "security_updates_count": 3,
      "total_packages": 342
    }
  ],
  "total": 1,
  "filtered_by_groups": ["Production"]
}

The filtered_by_groups field is only present when a hostgroup filter is applied.

Response Fields:

Field Type Description
hosts array Array of host objects
hosts[].id string (UUID) Unique host identifier
hosts[].friendly_name string Human-readable host name
hosts[].hostname string System hostname
hosts[].ip string Primary IP address
hosts[].host_groups array Groups this host belongs to
hosts[].os_type string Operating system type (only with include=stats)
hosts[].os_version string Operating system version (only with include=stats)
hosts[].last_update string (ISO 8601) Timestamp of last agent update (only with include=stats)
hosts[].status string Host status, e.g. active, pending (only with include=stats)
hosts[].needs_reboot boolean Whether a reboot is pending (only with include=stats)
hosts[].updates_count integer Number of packages needing updates (only with include=stats)
hosts[].security_updates_count integer Number of security updates available (only with include=stats)
hosts[].total_packages integer Total installed packages (only with include=stats)
total integer Total number of hosts returned
filtered_by_groups array Groups used for filtering (only present when filtering)

Get Host Statistics

Retrieve package and repository statistics for a specific host.

Endpoint:

GET /api/v1/api/hosts/:id/stats

Required Scope: host:get

Response (200 OK):

{
  "host_id": "550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000",
  "total_installed_packages": 342,
  "outdated_packages": 15,
  "security_updates": 3,
  "total_repos": 8
}

Response Fields:

Field Type Description
host_id string (UUID) The host identifier
total_installed_packages integer Total packages installed on this host
outdated_packages integer Packages that need updates
security_updates integer Packages with security updates available
total_repos integer Total repositories associated with the host

Get Host Information

Retrieve detailed information about a specific host including OS details and host groups.

Endpoint:

GET /api/v1/api/hosts/:id/info

Required Scope: host:get

Response (200 OK):

{
  "id": "550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000",
  "machine_id": "abc123def456",
  "friendly_name": "web-server-01",
  "hostname": "web01.example.com",
  "ip": "192.168.1.100",
  "os_type": "Ubuntu",
  "os_version": "24.04 LTS",
  "agent_version": "1.5.0",
  "host_groups": [
    {
      "id": "660e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440001",
      "name": "Production"
    }
  ]
}

Get Host Network Information

Retrieve network configuration details for a specific host.

Endpoint:

GET /api/v1/api/hosts/:id/network

Required Scope: host:get

Response (200 OK):

{
  "id": "550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000",
  "ip": "192.168.1.100",
  "gateway_ip": "192.168.1.1",
  "dns_servers": ["8.8.8.8", "8.8.4.4"],
  "network_interfaces": [
    {
      "name": "eth0",
      "ip": "192.168.1.100",
      "mac": "00:11:22:33:44:55"
    }
  ]
}

Get Host System Information

Retrieve system-level information for a specific host including hardware, kernel, and reboot status.

Endpoint:

GET /api/v1/api/hosts/:id/system

Required Scope: host:get

Response (200 OK):

{
  "id": "550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000",
  "architecture": "x86_64",
  "kernel_version": "6.8.0-45-generic",
  "installed_kernel_version": "6.8.0-50-generic",
  "selinux_status": "disabled",
  "system_uptime": "15 days, 3:22:10",
  "cpu_model": "Intel Xeon E5-2680 v4",
  "cpu_cores": 4,
  "ram_installed": 8192,
  "swap_size": 2048,
  "load_average": {
    "1min": 0.5,
    "5min": 0.3,
    "15min": 0.2
  },
  "disk_details": [
    {
      "filesystem": "/dev/sda1",
      "size": "50G",
      "used": "22G",
      "available": "28G",
      "use_percent": "44%",
      "mounted_on": "/"
    }
  ],
  "needs_reboot": true,
  "reboot_reason": "Kernel update pending"
}

Get Host Packages

Retrieve the list of packages installed on a specific host. Use the optional updates_only parameter to return only packages with available updates.

Endpoint:

GET /api/v1/api/hosts/:id/packages

Required Scope: host:get

Query Parameters:

Parameter Type Required Default Description
updates_only string No (none) Set to true to return only packages that need updates

Examples:

# Get all packages for a host
curl -u "patchmon_ae_abc123:your_secret_here" \
  https://patchmon.example.com/api/v1/api/hosts/HOST_UUID/packages

# Get only packages with available updates
curl -u "patchmon_ae_abc123:your_secret_here" \
  "https://patchmon.example.com/api/v1/api/hosts/HOST_UUID/packages?updates_only=true"

Response (200 OK):

{
  "host": {
    "id": "550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000",
    "hostname": "web01.example.com",
    "friendly_name": "web-server-01"
  },
  "packages": [
    {
      "id": "package-host-uuid",
      "name": "nginx",
      "description": "High performance web server",
      "category": "web",
      "current_version": "1.18.0-0ubuntu1.5",
      "available_version": "1.24.0-2ubuntu1",
      "needs_update": true,
      "is_security_update": false,
      "last_checked": "2026-02-12T10:30:00.000Z"
    },
    {
      "id": "package-host-uuid-2",
      "name": "openssl",
      "description": "Secure Sockets Layer toolkit",
      "category": "security",
      "current_version": "3.0.2-0ubuntu1.14",
      "available_version": "3.0.2-0ubuntu1.18",
      "needs_update": true,
      "is_security_update": true,
      "last_checked": "2026-02-12T10:30:00.000Z"
    }
  ],
  "total": 2
}

Response Fields:

Field Type Description
host object Basic host identification
host.id string (UUID) Host identifier
host.hostname string System hostname
host.friendly_name string Human-readable host name
packages array Array of package objects
packages[].id string (UUID) Host-package record identifier
packages[].name string Package name
packages[].description string Package description
packages[].category string Package category
packages[].current_version string Currently installed version
packages[].available_version string | null Available update version (null if up to date)
packages[].needs_update boolean Whether an update is available
packages[].is_security_update boolean Whether the available update is security-related
packages[].last_checked string (ISO 8601) When this package was last checked
total integer Total number of packages returned

Tip: Packages are returned sorted by security updates first, then by update availability. This puts the most critical packages at the top.

Get Host Package Reports

Retrieve package update history reports for a specific host.

Endpoint:

GET /api/v1/api/hosts/:id/package_reports

Required Scope: host:get

Query Parameters:

Parameter Type Required Default Description
limit integer No 10 Maximum number of reports to return

Response (200 OK):

{
  "host_id": "550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000",
  "reports": [
    {
      "id": "report-uuid",
      "status": "success",
      "date": "2026-02-12T10:30:00.000Z",
      "total_packages": 342,
      "outdated_packages": 15,
      "security_updates": 3,
      "payload_kb": 12.5,
      "execution_time_seconds": 4.2,
      "error_message": null
    }
  ],
  "total": 1
}

Get Host Agent Queue

Retrieve agent queue status and job history for a specific host.

Endpoint:

GET /api/v1/api/hosts/:id/agent_queue

Required Scope: host:get

Query Parameters:

Parameter Type Required Default Description
limit integer No 10 Maximum number of jobs to return

Response (200 OK):

{
  "host_id": "550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000",
  "queue_status": {
    "waiting": 0,
    "active": 1,
    "delayed": 0,
    "failed": 0
  },
  "job_history": [
    {
      "id": "job-history-uuid",
      "job_id": "bull-job-id",
      "job_name": "package_update",
      "status": "completed",
      "attempt": 1,
      "created_at": "2026-02-12T10:00:00.000Z",
      "completed_at": "2026-02-12T10:05:00.000Z",
      "error_message": null,
      "output": null
    }
  ],
  "total_jobs": 1
}

Get Host Notes

Retrieve notes associated with a specific host.

Endpoint:

GET /api/v1/api/hosts/:id/notes

Required Scope: host:get

Response (200 OK):

{
  "host_id": "550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000",
  "notes": "Production web server. Enrolled via Proxmox auto-enrollment on 2026-01-15."
}

Get Host Integrations

Retrieve integration status and details for a specific host (e.g. Docker).

Endpoint:

GET /api/v1/api/hosts/:id/integrations

Required Scope: host:get

Response (200 OK, Docker enabled):

{
  "host_id": "550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000",
  "integrations": {
    "docker": {
      "enabled": true,
      "containers_count": 12,
      "volumes_count": 5,
      "networks_count": 3,
      "description": "Monitor Docker containers, images, volumes, and networks. Collects real-time container status events."
    }
  }
}

Response (200 OK, Docker not enabled):

{
  "host_id": "550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000",
  "integrations": {
    "docker": {
      "enabled": false,
      "description": "Monitor Docker containers, images, volumes, and networks. Collects real-time container status events."
    }
  }
}

Delete Host

Delete a specific host and all related data (cascade). This permanently removes the host and its associated packages, repositories, update history, Docker data, job history, and group memberships.

Endpoint:

DELETE /api/v1/api/hosts/:id

Required Scope: host:delete

Path Parameters:

Parameter Type Required Description
id string (UUID) Yes The unique identifier of the host to delete

Response (200 OK):

{
  "message": "Host deleted successfully",
  "deleted": {
    "id": "550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000",
    "friendly_name": "web-server-01",
    "hostname": "web01.example.com"
  }
}

Response Fields:

Field Type Description
message string Confirmation message
deleted.id string (UUID) The ID of the deleted host
deleted.friendly_name string The friendly name of the deleted host
deleted.hostname string The hostname of the deleted host

Error Responses:

HTTP Code Error Description
400 Invalid host ID format The provided ID is not a valid UUID
403 Access denied Credential does not have host:delete permission
404 Host not found No host exists with the given ID
500 Failed to delete host Unexpected error during host deletion

Warning: This action is irreversible. All data associated with the host (packages, repositories, update history, Docker containers, job history, group memberships, etc.) will be permanently deleted.

Common Error Responses (All Endpoints)

404 Not Found: Host does not exist (for single-host endpoints):

{
  "error": "Host not found"
}

500 Internal Server Error: Unexpected server error:

{
  "error": "Failed to fetch hosts"
}

See the Troubleshooting section for authentication and permission errors.

Usage Examples

cURL Examples

List All Hosts
curl -u "patchmon_ae_abc123:your_secret_here" \
  https://patchmon.example.com/api/v1/api/hosts
List Hosts with Stats
curl -u "patchmon_ae_abc123:your_secret_here" \
  "https://patchmon.example.com/api/v1/api/hosts?include=stats"
Filter by Host Group
curl -u "patchmon_ae_abc123:your_secret_here" \
  "https://patchmon.example.com/api/v1/api/hosts?hostgroup=Production"
Filter by Host Group with Stats
curl -u "patchmon_ae_abc123:your_secret_here" \
  "https://patchmon.example.com/api/v1/api/hosts?hostgroup=Production&include=stats"
Filter by Multiple Groups
curl -u "patchmon_ae_abc123:your_secret_here" \
  "https://patchmon.example.com/api/v1/api/hosts?hostgroup=Production,Development"
Get Host Statistics
curl -u "patchmon_ae_abc123:your_secret_here" \
  https://patchmon.example.com/api/v1/api/hosts/HOST_UUID/stats
Get Host System Information
curl -u "patchmon_ae_abc123:your_secret_here" \
  https://patchmon.example.com/api/v1/api/hosts/HOST_UUID/system
Get All Packages for a Host
curl -u "patchmon_ae_abc123:your_secret_here" \
  https://patchmon.example.com/api/v1/api/hosts/HOST_UUID/packages
Get Only Packages with Available Updates
curl -u "patchmon_ae_abc123:your_secret_here" \
  "https://patchmon.example.com/api/v1/api/hosts/HOST_UUID/packages?updates_only=true"
Delete a Host
curl -X DELETE -u "patchmon_ae_abc123:your_secret_here" \
  https://patchmon.example.com/api/v1/api/hosts/HOST_UUID
Pretty Print JSON Output
curl -u "patchmon_ae_abc123:your_secret_here" \
  https://patchmon.example.com/api/v1/api/hosts | jq .

Python Examples

Using requests Library
import requests
from requests.auth import HTTPBasicAuth

# API credentials
API_KEY = "patchmon_ae_abc123"
API_SECRET = "your_secret_here"
BASE_URL = "https://patchmon.example.com"

# Create session with authentication
session = requests.Session()
session.auth = HTTPBasicAuth(API_KEY, API_SECRET)

# List all hosts
response = session.get(f"{BASE_URL}/api/v1/api/hosts")

if response.status_code == 200:
    data = response.json()
    print(f"Total hosts: {data['total']}")

    for host in data['hosts']:
        groups = ', '.join([g['name'] for g in host['host_groups']])
        print(f"  {host['friendly_name']} ({host['ip']}) - Groups: {groups}")
else:
    print(f"Error: {response.status_code} - {response.json()}")
Filter by Host Group
# Filter by group name (requests handles URL encoding automatically)
response = session.get(
    f"{BASE_URL}/api/v1/api/hosts",
    params={"hostgroup": "Production"}
)
List Hosts with Inline Stats
# Get hosts with stats in a single request (more efficient than per-host /stats calls)
response = session.get(
    f"{BASE_URL}/api/v1/api/hosts",
    params={"include": "stats"}
)

if response.status_code == 200:
    data = response.json()
    for host in data['hosts']:
        print(f"{host['friendly_name']}: {host['updates_count']} updates, "
              f"{host['security_updates_count']} security, "
              f"{host['total_packages']} total packages")
Get Host Packages (Updates Only)
# Get only packages that need updates for a specific host
response = session.get(
    f"{BASE_URL}/api/v1/api/hosts/{host_id}/packages",
    params={"updates_only": "true"}
)

if response.status_code == 200:
    data = response.json()
    print(f"Host: {data['host']['friendly_name']}")
    print(f"Packages needing updates: {data['total']}")
    for pkg in data['packages']:
        security = " [SECURITY]" if pkg['is_security_update'] else ""
        print(f"  {pkg['name']}: {pkg['current_version']} → {pkg['available_version']}{security}")
Get Host Details and Stats
# First, get list of hosts
hosts_response = session.get(f"{BASE_URL}/api/v1/api/hosts")
hosts = hosts_response.json()['hosts']

# Then get stats for the first host
if hosts:
    host_id = hosts[0]['id']

    stats = session.get(f"{BASE_URL}/api/v1/api/hosts/{host_id}/stats").json()
    print(f"Installed: {stats['total_installed_packages']}")
    print(f"Outdated: {stats['outdated_packages']}")
    print(f"Security: {stats['security_updates']}")

    info = session.get(f"{BASE_URL}/api/v1/api/hosts/{host_id}/info").json()
    print(f"OS: {info['os_type']} {info['os_version']}")
    print(f"Agent: {info['agent_version']}")
Delete a Host
# Delete a host by UUID (requires host:delete scope)
host_id = "550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000"
response = session.delete(f"{BASE_URL}/api/v1/api/hosts/{host_id}")

if response.status_code == 200:
    data = response.json()
    print(f"Deleted: {data['deleted']['friendly_name']} ({data['deleted']['hostname']})")
else:
    print(f"Error: {response.status_code} - {response.json()}")
Error Handling
def get_hosts(hostgroup=None):
    """Get hosts with error handling."""
    try:
        params = {"hostgroup": hostgroup} if hostgroup else {}
        response = session.get(
            f"{BASE_URL}/api/v1/api/hosts",
            params=params,
            timeout=30
        )
        response.raise_for_status()
        return response.json()

    except requests.exceptions.HTTPError as e:
        if e.response.status_code == 401:
            print("Authentication failed - check credentials")
        elif e.response.status_code == 403:
            print("Access denied - insufficient permissions")
        else:
            print(f"HTTP error: {e}")
        return None

    except requests.exceptions.Timeout:
        print("Request timed out")
        return None

    except requests.exceptions.RequestException as e:
        print(f"Request failed: {e}")
        return None
Generate Ansible Inventory
import json
import requests
from requests.auth import HTTPBasicAuth

API_KEY = "patchmon_ae_abc123"
API_SECRET = "your_secret_here"
BASE_URL = "https://patchmon.example.com"

def generate_ansible_inventory():
    """Generate Ansible inventory from PatchMon hosts."""
    auth = HTTPBasicAuth(API_KEY, API_SECRET)
    response = requests.get(f"{BASE_URL}/api/v1/api/hosts", auth=auth, timeout=30)

    if response.status_code != 200:
        print(f"Error fetching hosts: {response.status_code}")
        return

    data = response.json()

    inventory = {
        "_meta": {"hostvars": {}},
        "all": {"hosts": [], "children": []}
    }

    for host in data['hosts']:
        hostname = host['friendly_name']
        inventory["all"]["hosts"].append(hostname)

        inventory["_meta"]["hostvars"][hostname] = {
            "ansible_host": host['ip'],
            "patchmon_id": host['id'],
            "patchmon_hostname": host['hostname']
        }

        for group in host['host_groups']:
            group_name = group['name'].lower().replace(' ', '_')

            if group_name not in inventory:
                inventory[group_name] = {"hosts": [], "vars": {}}
                inventory["all"]["children"].append(group_name)

            inventory[group_name]["hosts"].append(hostname)

    print(json.dumps(inventory, indent=2))

if __name__ == "__main__":
    generate_ansible_inventory()

JavaScript/Node.js Examples

Using Native fetch (Node.js 18+)
const API_KEY = 'patchmon_ae_abc123';
const API_SECRET = 'your_secret_here';
const BASE_URL = 'https://patchmon.example.com';

const authHeader = 'Basic ' + Buffer.from(`${API_KEY}:${API_SECRET}`).toString('base64');

async function getHosts(hostgroup = null) {
  const url = new URL('/api/v1/api/hosts', BASE_URL);
  if (hostgroup) {
    url.searchParams.append('hostgroup', hostgroup);
  }

  const response = await fetch(url, {
    headers: {
      'Authorization': authHeader,
      'Content-Type': 'application/json'
    }
  });

  if (!response.ok) {
    const error = await response.json();
    throw new Error(`HTTP ${response.status}: ${error.error}`);
  }

  return await response.json();
}

// List all hosts
getHosts()
  .then(data => {
    console.log(`Total: ${data.total}`);
    data.hosts.forEach(host => {
      console.log(`${host.friendly_name}: ${host.ip}`);
    });
  })
  .catch(error => console.error('Error:', error.message));

Ansible Dynamic Inventory

Save this as patchmon_inventory.py and make it executable (chmod +x):

#!/usr/bin/env python3
"""
PatchMon Dynamic Inventory Script for Ansible.
Usage: ansible-playbook -i patchmon_inventory.py playbook.yml
"""

import json
import os
import sys
import requests
from requests.auth import HTTPBasicAuth

API_KEY = os.environ.get('PATCHMON_API_KEY')
API_SECRET = os.environ.get('PATCHMON_API_SECRET')
BASE_URL = os.environ.get('PATCHMON_URL', 'https://patchmon.example.com')

if not API_KEY or not API_SECRET:
    print("Error: PATCHMON_API_KEY and PATCHMON_API_SECRET must be set", file=sys.stderr)
    sys.exit(1)

def get_inventory():
    auth = HTTPBasicAuth(API_KEY, API_SECRET)
    try:
        response = requests.get(f"{BASE_URL}/api/v1/api/hosts", auth=auth, timeout=30)
        response.raise_for_status()
        return response.json()
    except requests.exceptions.RequestException as e:
        print(f"Error fetching inventory: {e}", file=sys.stderr)
        sys.exit(1)

def build_ansible_inventory(patchmon_data):
    inventory = {
        "_meta": {"hostvars": {}},
        "all": {"hosts": []}
    }
    groups = {}

    for host in patchmon_data['hosts']:
        hostname = host['friendly_name']
        inventory["all"]["hosts"].append(hostname)

        inventory["_meta"]["hostvars"][hostname] = {
            "ansible_host": host['ip'],
            "patchmon_id": host['id'],
            "patchmon_hostname": host['hostname']
        }

        for group in host['host_groups']:
            group_name = group['name'].lower().replace(' ', '_').replace('-', '_')
            if group_name not in groups:
                groups[group_name] = {
                    "hosts": [],
                    "vars": {"patchmon_group_id": group['id']}
                }
            groups[group_name]["hosts"].append(hostname)

    inventory.update(groups)
    return inventory

def main():
    if len(sys.argv) == 2 and sys.argv[1] == '--list':
        patchmon_data = get_inventory()
        inventory = build_ansible_inventory(patchmon_data)
        print(json.dumps(inventory, indent=2))
    elif len(sys.argv) == 3 and sys.argv[1] == '--host':
        print(json.dumps({}))
    else:
        print("Usage: patchmon_inventory.py --list", file=sys.stderr)
        sys.exit(1)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

Usage:

export PATCHMON_API_KEY="patchmon_ae_abc123"
export PATCHMON_API_SECRET="your_secret_here"
export PATCHMON_URL="https://patchmon.example.com"

# Test inventory
./patchmon_inventory.py --list

# Use with ansible
ansible-playbook -i patchmon_inventory.py playbook.yml
ansible -i patchmon_inventory.py all -m ping

Security Best Practices

Credential Management

Do:

  • Store credentials in a password manager or secrets vault (e.g. HashiCorp Vault, AWS Secrets Manager)
  • Use environment variables for automation scripts
  • Set expiration dates (recommended: 90 days)
  • Grant only the minimum permissions needed (principle of least privilege)
  • Rotate credentials regularly and delete old ones after migration

Don't:

  • Hard-code credentials in source code
  • Commit credentials to version control
  • Share credentials via email or chat
  • Store credentials in plain-text files

IP Restrictions

Restrict credentials to known IP addresses whenever possible:

Allowed IPs: 192.168.1.100, 10.0.0.0/24

For dynamic IPs, consider using a VPN with a static exit IP, a cloud NAT gateway, or a proxy server.

Network Security

  • Always use HTTPS in production environments
  • Verify SSL certificates: only disable verification (-k) for development/testing
  • Use firewall rules to restrict PatchMon API access at the network level

Monitoring & Auditing

  • Check "Last Used" timestamps regularly in the Integrations settings page
  • Investigate credentials that have not been used in 30+ days
  • Review all active credentials monthly
  • Remove credentials for decommissioned systems

If Credentials Are Compromised

  1. Immediately disable the credential in PatchMon UI (Settings → Integrations → toggle off)
  2. Review the "Last Used" timestamp to understand the window of exposure
  3. Check server logs for any unauthorised access
  4. Create new credentials with a different scope if needed
  5. Delete the compromised credential after verification
  6. Notify your security team if sensitive data may have been accessed

Troubleshooting

Error Reference

Error Message HTTP Code Cause Solution
Missing or invalid authorization header 401 No Authorization header, or it doesn't start with Basic Use -u key:secret with cURL, or set Authorization: Basic <base64> header
Invalid credentials format 401 Base64-decoded value doesn't contain a colon separator Check format is key:secret and ensure no extra characters
Invalid API key 401 Token key not found in the database Verify the credential exists in Settings → Integrations
API key is disabled 401 Credential has been manually deactivated Re-enable in Settings → Integrations, or create a new credential
API key has expired 401 The expiration date has passed Create a new credential to replace the expired one
Invalid API key type 401 The credential's integration_type is not "api" Ensure you created the credential with the "API" usage type
Invalid API secret 401 Secret doesn't match the stored bcrypt hash Create a new credential (secrets cannot be retrieved)
IP address not allowed 403 Client IP is not in the credential's allowed_ip_ranges Add your IP: curl https://ifconfig.me to find it
Access denied: does not have permission to {action} {resource} 403 Credential is missing the required scope Edit the credential and add the required permission
Access denied: does not have access to {resource} 403 The resource is not included in the credential's scopes at all Edit the credential's scopes to include the resource
Host not found 404 The host UUID does not exist Verify the UUID from the list hosts endpoint
Invalid host ID format 400 The host ID is not a valid UUID (DELETE endpoint) Ensure the ID is a valid UUID format
Failed to delete host 500 Unexpected error during host deletion Check PatchMon server logs for details
Failed to fetch hosts 500 Unexpected server error Check PatchMon server logs for details
Authentication failed 500 Unexpected error during authentication processing Check PatchMon server logs; may indicate a database issue

Debug Tips

cURL verbose mode:

curl -v -u "patchmon_ae_abc123:your_secret_here" \
  https://patchmon.example.com/api/v1/api/hosts

Python debug logging:

import logging
logging.basicConfig(level=logging.DEBUG)
requests_log = logging.getLogger("requests.packages.urllib3")
requests_log.setLevel(logging.DEBUG)
requests_log.propagate = True

Common Issues

Empty hosts array
  • Verify hosts exist in PatchMon UI → Hosts page
  • Check the hostgroup filter spelling matches exactly (case-sensitive)
  • Try listing all hosts without filters first to confirm API access works
Connection timeouts
# Test basic connectivity
ping patchmon.example.com
curl -I https://patchmon.example.com/health
SSL certificate errors

For development/testing with self-signed certificates:

curl -k -u "patchmon_ae_abc123:your_secret_here" \
  https://patchmon.example.com/api/v1/api/hosts

For production, install a valid SSL certificate (e.g. Let's Encrypt).

Getting Help

If issues persist:

  1. Check PatchMon server logs for detailed error information
  2. Use the built-in Swagger UI to test endpoints interactively
  3. Search or create an issue at github.com/PatchMon/PatchMon
  4. Join the PatchMon community on Discord

Chapter 32: Metrics and Telemetry

What we collect and why

We collect three pieces of information about PatchMon instances in the field:

  1. Quantity of installations / live setups
  2. Quantity of hosts being monitored
  3. Version number of the instance

This lets us produce a live statistic on patchmon.net showing adoption across the community, and (more importantly) lets us know how many instances are running an older version if a security issue is found.

This was discussed with the community on Discord; the original conversation is pinned in the Security channel.

What we do not collect

  • IP addresses. IPs are not written to any log or stored when your instance reaches out to us.
  • Host, user, or package data. Only the three fields above, plus a random instance UUID that identifies your install across reports.

How to opt out

Go to Settings → Metrics in the web UI and toggle the schedule off. From that moment, your instance stops sending telemetry.

FAQ

How do I delete the information you have about my instance?

Email support@patchmon.net with your UUID and we will remove your entry from the database. This is the only time we can associate your UUID with your instance, so once it is deleted we have no further link back to you.

What happens if I regenerate my instance ID?

A new instance ID appears in our reports and is counted as a new instance. We have no way to know which instance it replaced. Our website metric counts only instances active in the last 7 days, so old UUIDs drop out after a week.

Can I see the code for this?

Yes, PatchMon is open source. You can inspect the metrics collector in the PatchMon repository.

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