Steps to Creating a SUSE Manager Client

This document (7017577) is provided subject to the disclaimer at the end of this document.

Environment

SUSE Manager 2.1
SUSE Manager 3 (rhnsd client)


Situation

The SUSE Manager has just been installed. What preparations/steps are needed in order to connect a client to the SUSE Manager?

Resolution

1. Generate desired activation key.
a. Enter the webUI tool for SUSE Manager.
b. Select the Systems tab at the top of the page.
c. Select the Activation Keys tab on the left-hand side of the page.
d. Click the Create Key link in the upper right-hand corner.
i. Description - Enter a description to identify the generated activation key.
ii. Key - Choose either automatic generation by leaving this field blank or enter the key name that is wanted for generation.
iii. Usage - Determine the maximum amount of systems that may be simultaneously registered to the SUSE Manager with this key, or leave blank for unlimited use.
iv. Base Channels - Specify the channels accessible to the client using this key. If a system using this key is not compatible with the selected channel, it will fall back to the default channel. The default channel will automatically assign channels to the client based on installed products.
v. Add-On Entitlements - Select any additional entitlements for the clients to receive with this key.
vi. Contact Method - Select how clients communicate with the SUSE Manager. Pull waits for the client to check in while push has the server contact the client and pushes updates and actions, etc.
vii. Universal Default - Select whether or not this key should be the primary activation key for this organization.
e. Click Create Activation Key to create the key.
2. Select product(s) to make into channels.
a. Select the Admin tab at the top of the page.
b. Select the SUSE Products sub-tab.
c. Check the boxes of the products  you want to be mirrored by the SUSE Manager.
d. Click the Add Products button at the bottom of the page after selecting the desired products to mirror.
e. Wait for mirroring to complete.
3. Create bootstrap repository.
a. Run the following command on the SUSE Manager:
# mgr-create-bootstrap-repo
b. Enter the desired product label.
c. Repeat for all products you need your clients to use.
4. Generate the bootstrap script.
a. Run the following command on the SUSE Manager:
# mgr-bootstrap
5. Refine the bootstrap script.
a. Rename the bootstrap script to identify its intended use case. 
example: bootstrap-web-servers.sh
b. Adjust the variables in the script to accurately depict your setup.
i. ACTIVATION_KEYS should list the key name you made earlier.
ii. ORG_GPG_KEY should be set to the name(s) of the corporate public GPG key filename(s) residing in /srv/www/htdocs/pub (comma delimited). This is also where you would include any GPG keys you've made for a custom repository.
iii. CLIENT_OVERRIDES should match the client-config-verrides.txt file. If the file has been customize it should also have a custom name and this should reflect the new name.
iv. HOSTNAME should already be set, however this is where you would verify it has the correct hostname for the SUSE Manager.
v. ORG_CA_CERT should match the name of the ssl cert rpm file in the /srv/www/htdocs/repo directory. This should match by default.
vi. Above are the most commonly used variables. Read documentation for more detail on any other variables if you aren't sure they are correct.
vii. Enable the script by commenting out the instruction section at the top of the bootstrap script or at least comment out (with #'s) the exit command just below the instructions in the script. It will also say this within the instructions.
6. Use the bootstrap script on the client to finish the connection of the client to the SUSE Manager.
a. This can be done in more than one way: Concatenating the file through an ssh pipe to the client, wget, curl, etc. You can also scp the file to the client, change it's ownership so that it's executable, and then run the script on the client. The first given example would be run with the following command on the SUSE Manager:
# cat bootstrap-EDITED-NAME.sh | ssh root@CLIENT_MACHINE /bin/bash

Additional Information

Disclaimer

This Support Knowledgebase provides a valuable tool for SUSE customers and parties interested in our products and solutions to acquire information, ideas and learn from one another. Materials are provided for informational, personal or non-commercial use within your organization and are presented "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND.

  • Document ID:7017577
  • Creation Date: 05-May-2016
  • Modified Date:03-Mar-2020
    • SUSE Manager

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