Node counting

NOTE: This content is specific to Fedora and does not currently apply to CentOS.

Fedora nodes are counted by the Fedora infrastructure via the Count Me feature. This system is explicitly designed to make sure that no personally identifiable information is sent from counted systems. It also ensures that the Fedora infrastructure does not collect any personal data. The nickname for this counting mechanism is "Count Me", from the option name. Implementation details of this feature are available in DNF Better Counting change request for Fedora 32. In short, the Count Me mechanism works by telling Fedora servers how old your system is (with a very large approximation).

CentOS bootc does not include Count Me infrastructure.

More information on Count Me

This system is explicitly designed to make sure that no personally identifiable information is sent from counted systems. It also ensures that the Fedora infrastructure does not collect any personal data. The nickname for this counting mechanism is "Count Me", from the option name. Implementation details of this feature are available in DNF Better Counting change request for Fedora 32. In short, the Count Me mechanism works by telling Fedora servers how old your system is (with a very large approximation).

On Fedora/CentOS bootc in the full image, note that 3 different tools are included:

  • dnf

  • bootc

  • rpm-ostree (currently)

At container build time

If you use dnf as part of a container build, it will inherently run through the countme process unless you set countme=0 in /etc/yum.repos.d/fedora/*.repo.

At machine runtime

Because the base image includes rpm-ostree, it will run by default rpm-ostree as a stand-alone method. The new implementation has the same privacy preserving properties as the original DNF implementation.

Additionally, if you invoke dnf at runtime on an installed system, it will also be counted unless disabled in the /etc/yum.repos.d files.

Intersection with dnf-makecache.timer

The dnf-makecache.timer systemd unit would also by default invoke counting, except it is disabled by default if /run/ostree is present, which suppresses the cache invocation by default.

Intersection with bootc

At the current time there is no default interaction between the Count Me infrastructure and bootc.

Opting out of counting

You can disable the countme repo flags and the unit timer as part of a container build:

RUN sed -i -e s,countme=1,countme=0, /etc/yum.repos.d/*.repo && systemctl mask --now rpm-ostree-countme.timer

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