1 General #
Subscription Management Tool 11 SP3 for SUSE Linux Enterprise was developed for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 11 SP3 or SP4.
1.1 Some of the Highlights #
The mirroring solution delivers maintenance updates from SUSE Customer Center or Novell Customer Center
Registration proxy with support for SUSE Linux Enterprise products
Note
When adding Subscription Management Tool during installation, online update repositories for Subscription Management Tool are added when you register the underlying SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.
1.2 Support #
Subscription Management Tool is supported for use with all SUSE Linux Enterprise 10, SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 and SUSE Linux Enterprise 12 client products that are supported from SUSE Customer Center or Novell Customer Center.
Subscription Management Tool 11 SP3 Server needs to be installed on top of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP3 or SP4. Supported architectures are x86_64, i586 and System z.
2 Installation #
Subscription Management Tool for SUSE Linux Enterprise (SMT) is an add-on to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP3 or SP4. You can add SMT during the installation, so the additional packages that come with SMT can be selected and installed right from the beginning, or later.
If you install SMT on top of SLES with the latest maintenance patches applied, you may get dependency errors in some cases if you do not also use the latest SMT patches.
To avoid those dependency errors, re-run Novell Customer Center (NCC) Configuration in YaST2 right after you have added the SMT installation repository to your system, but before you install any packages from SMT. This way the SMT update repository will be properly available to your system.
SMT11-SP3 can be installed on top of SLES11-SP4. However, to make the installation possible, it is necessary to use the latest installation media of Subscription Management Tool from download.suse.com.
YaST will then automatically use newer packages from the update repository if available. Your system needs to be connected to the Internet for both running NCC Configuration and receiving actual maintenance updates.
It is recommended to to check for SMT updates available
immediately after installing the product. SUSE continuously releases
maintenance updates for SMT, and newer packages are likely to be
available compared to those installed from media, for example using the
zypper patch command.
Support for SUSE Linux Enterprise 12 and the new SUSE Customer Center are only available once the latest patches have been applied!
3 Update #
3.1 Update from Subscription Management Tool 11 SP2 #
There are two ways of upgrading SMT 11 SP2 to SMT 11 SP3:
Perform the on-line migration, using the wagon tool. For more information, refer to the general documentation for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.
When upgrading SLES 11 to SP3 via booting the installation media, add the SMT add-on product. This will make sure that the SMT packages get updated together with SLES 11.
SMT11-SP3 can run on top of SLES11-SP4. In order to make it possible, it is necessary to install latest maintenance updates of SMT11-SP3. This needs to be done before SLES is updated from 11-SP3 to 11-SP4. After the update of SLES, SMT keeps running as-is.
3.1.1 MySQL Database Migration #
SLES11-SP3 introduces upgrade of the MySQL database to version 5.5. This upgrade involves change of the database format and the database needs to be converted.
After the MySQL database is upgraded, the database engine is not running. The database needs to be converted and MySQL started to continue using SMT.
To mgirate the MySQL database, run following commands as root:
touch /var/lib/mysql/.force_upgrade rcmysql restart
We strongly recommend to back up the database before migrating it.
3.2 Update from Subscription Management Tool 10 #
In general, the update from SMT 10 is not supported. This is a list of issues that might occur if the update is performed:
3.2.1 Configuration Changes #
- Authentication of Access
There is a new optional value "requiredAuthType" in /etc/smt.conf to specify if authentication should be required to access the update repositories. If the value is not present in /etc/smt.conf, behavior is unchanged from SMT 10. See the SMT 11 manual for further details.
- Registration URL Specific for SMT 11
SMT 11 does not use the registration URL from /etc/suseRegister.conf anymore, but reads the value "[NU] NURegUrl" from /etc/smt.conf. If the value is not present in /etc/smt.conf, the value from /etc/suseRegister.conf is used as a fallback.
- Update of apache2 Configuration
The installed version of /etc/apache2/conf.d/nu_server.conf and /etc/apache2/conf.d/smt_mod_perl.conf will be replaced with a newer version.
3.2.2 Changes Related to Dropping Privileges by SMT scripts #
- smt User
By default, all SMT scripts run under a new, unprivileged user named 'smt'. The user can be defined in smt.conf.
- Permissions of Files and Repositories
In SMT 10, all files and repositories were owned by root. In SMT 11, the smt user needs write access to these repositories. To fix up the permissions, use the changeSMTUserPermissions.sh script shipped as part of the smt package.
- Proxy Settings
The YaST2 proxy module writes the proxy information to /root/.curlrc. In SMT 11 the scripts are running with privileges dropped, therefore the .curlrc file in the home directory of the used user (smt by default) must be edited. Otherwise use smt.conf to define the proxy settings.
4 Support of SUSE Linux Enterprise 12 and SUSE Customer Center #
4.1 Migration between SCC and NCC #
SMT can talk to only one registration service (SCC, NCC, alternatively also SLMS). The switch between the registration servers can be done either via a YaST module or command-line tools.
Before performing the switch between customer centers, make sure that the target customer center serves all products that are registered against SMT. Both YaST and the command-line tools perform a check to find out whether all products can be served with the new registration server. If it is not possible, the only option is to install two parallel SMT instances and to synchronize products from both SCC and NCC.
To perform the migration to SCC via command-line, run:
smt ncc-scc-migration
To get its parameters, use the --help option. If you need to revert back from SCC to NCC, use
smt scc-ncc-migration
The migration itself is time-consuming and during the migration process the SMT server may not be able to serve clients that are already registered.
The migration process itself changes the registration server and the proper type of API in the configuration files. No further (configuration) changes are needed on the SMT.
To migrate between NCC and SCC via YaST, use the YaST smt-server module.
After migration, it is needed to re-synchronize the repositories.
4.2 Repository Structure #
The repository structure in the /srv/www/htdocs directory matches the structure as it comes from SCC. This directory structure differs from the structure coming from NCC. There are the following directories in the structure (selected examples, similar for other products and architectures):
repo/SUSE/Products/SLE-SDK/12/x86_64/product/
contains the -POOL repository of SDK (the GA version of all packages).
repo/SUSE/Products/SLE-SDK/12/x86_64/product.license/
contains EULA associated with the product.
repo/SUSE/Updates/SLE-SDK/12/x86_64/update/ repo/SUSE/Updates/SLE-SDK/12/s390x/update/ repo/SUSE/Updates/SLE-SERVER/12/x86_64/update/
contain update repositories for respective products.
repo/full/SUSE/Updates/SLE-SERVER/12/x86_64/update/ repo/testing/SUSE/Updates/SLE-SERVER/12/x86_64/update/
contain repositories optionally created for staging of respecive repositories. The semantics are the same as with repositories from NCC
4.3 Enabling SLP Announcements #
SMT already includes the SLP service description file (/etc/slp.reg.d/smt.reg). In order to enable SLP announcements of the SMT service, open respective ports in your firewall and enable the SLP service.
sysconf_addword /etc/sysconfig/SuSEfirewall2 FW_SERVICES_EXT_TCP "427" sysconf_addword /etc/sysconfig/SuSEfirewall2 FW_SERVICES_EXT_UDP "427" insserv slpd rcslpd start
5 Known Issues #
This is a list of issues known in this release.
5.1 Make Sure to Mirror All Needed Repositories #
Make sure all needed repositories are mirrored on the SMT server. Clients registered against the SMT server will be given only the repositories that are enabled to be mirrored from Novell Customer Center. To enable mirroring of all repositories required for a given product, use the 'smt repos' command with the '-p' option: 'smt repos -p <productname>'.
5.2 Provisional Subscriptions are Shown in SMT Only #
SMT displays all subscriptions, including provisional subscriptions, in the same way. However, NCC never displays provisional subscriptions. For this reason, if you are using provisional subscriptions, the NCC and SMT reports will be different during the two weeks the provisional codes are active.
5.3 supporturl Installation Kernel Parameter Not Used #
Both SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 and SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 contain an installation bug that prevents propagating of the supporturl installation-time kernel parameter to proper configuration file on the installed system. As a workaround, modify /etc/supportconfig.conf manually after the installation is finished.
6 Providing Feedback to Our Products #
For more information, see the READMEs on the installation media.
In case of encountering a bug, please report it via your support contact.
Your SUSE Linux Enterprise Team
7 Legal Notices #
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