Reference Manual
6 Navigation
The top bar provides access to commonly used tools and user settings.
The right part of the top bar contains functionalities such as a bell icon with a counter bubble of unread notification messages, optionally, an eye icon with a context legend to the current page, quick search, links to background information, user preferences, and sign off. On the left is the so-called breadcrumb. The breadcrumb tells you how far you are from the root of the menu and it brings you back to any previous step.
The left navigation bar is the main menu to the SUSE Manager Web UI from where you load the Web UI pages.
If you click a the label of a menu entry you either open that page, or, if it is just a container of sub-entries, it expands this part of the menu tree without actually loading a page.
To collaps all open parts of the menu system, click the button at the top of menu, right to the Search page field.
If you click the small circle icon on the right of a menu label, the first available page of that menu entry will get loaded and displayed automatically.
Enter a search string in the Search page field to find an entry of the menu tree.
Available menu entries depend on the roles of the user.
Only SUSE Manager Administrators see the following navigation items:
›
›
›
Some pages have tabs and subtabs. These tabs offer an additional layer of granularity in performing tasks for systems or users.
The following example displays the tabs and subtabs available under System Details.
Green bars underline active tabs.
Important: Views Depending on User Roles
This guide covers the administrator user role level, some tabs, pages, and even whole categories described here may not be visible to you. Text markers are not used to identify which functions are available to each user role level.
6.1 Categories and Pages #
This section summarizes all of the categories and primary pages (those linked from the left navigation bar) within the SUSE Manager Web interface (Web UI). It does not list the many subpages, tabs and subtabs accessible from the individual pages. Each area of the Web interface is explained in detail later in this guide.
› . Check your tasks and systems. View and manage your primary account information and get help.
. Obtain a quick overview of your account. This page notifies you if your systems need attention, provides a quick link directly to these systems, displays the most recent patch alerts for your account, and recently registered systems.
. Update your personal profile, addresses, email, and credentials. Deactivate your account.
. Indicate if you wish to receive email notifications about available patches for your systems. Set how many items are displayed in system and group lists. Set contents of the overview start page. Select your preferred CSV separator.
. Configure timezone.
. Update organization configuration and display organization trusts.
› . Manage all your systems (including virtual guests) here.
. View a summary of your systems or system groups showing how many available patches each system has and which systems are entitled.
. Select and view subsets of your systems by specific criteria, such as Virtual Systems, Unprovisioned Systems, Recently Registered, Proxy, and Inactive.
. List your system groups. Create additional groups.
. Perform various actions on sets of systems, including scheduling patch updates, package management, listing and creating new groups, managing channel entitlements, deploying configuration files, schedule audits, apply system states, and check status. The availability of these actions depend on the system type.
. Bootstrap minion machines using SSH. Input SSH credentials and the activation key the selected system will use for its software sources. SUSE Manager will install required software (salt-minion packages on the client machine) and remotely perform the registration.
. Graphically visualize the client topology.
. Quickly search all your systems by specific criteria, such as name, hardware, devices, system info, networking, packages, and location.
. Generate an activation key for a SUSE Manager-entitled system. This activation key can be used to grant a specific level of entitlement or group membership to a newly registered system using the
rhnreg_kscommand.. View system profiles used to provision systems.
. Create and edit system information keys with completely customizable values assigned while provisioning systems.
. Display and modify various aspects of autoinstallation profiles (Kickstart and AutoYaST) used in provisioning systems.
. List software crashes grouped by UUID.
. Display and modify virtual host managers, file-based or VMware-based.
. View all minions. Manage on-boarding, remote commands, and states catalogs.
. Manage minion keys.
. Execute remote commands on targeted systems. Select the preview button to ensure selected targets are available and click Run to execute.
. Create, store, and manage states for your Salt minions from the State Catalog.
› . Image building and inspection.
. View all built images.
. Execute image build.
. View and create image building profiles.
. View and create image stores.
› . View and manage patch (errata) alerts here.
. Lists patch alerts and downloads associated RPMs relevant to your systems.
. Search patch alerts based on specific criteria, such as synopsis, advisory type, and package name.
. Manage the patches for an organization’s channels.
. Clone patches for an organization for ease of replication and distribution across an organization.
. View and manage the available SUSE Manager channels and the files they contain.
› . View a list of all software channels and those applicable to your systems.
. Search packages using all or some portion of the package name, description, or summary, with support for limiting searches to supported platforms.
. Create and edit channels used to deploy configuration files.
. Define default base channels for servers according to their operating system or architecture when registering.
› . View and search CVE audits, system subscriptions, and OpenSCAP scans.
. View a list of systems with their patch status regarding a given CVE (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) number.
. List subscriptions.
. View and search OpenSCAP (Security Content Automation Protocol) scans.
› . Keep track of and manage configuration channels, actions, individual configuration files, and systems with SUSE Manager-managed configuration files.
. A general dashboard view that shows a configuration summary.
. List and create configuration channels from which any subscribed system can receive configuration files.
. List and create files from which systems receive configuration input.
. List the systems that have SUSE Manager-managed configuration files.
› . Keep track of your scheduled actions.
. List scheduled actions that have not been completed.
. List scheduled actions that have failed.
. List scheduled actions that have been completed. Completed actions can be archived at any time.
. List completed actions that have been selected to archive.
. View and edit defined action chains.
› . View and manage users in your organization.
. List users in your organization.
. Configure user group creation.
› . Use the Setup Wizard to configure SUSE Manager. List, create, and manage one or more SUSE Manager organizations. The SUSE Manager administrator can assign channel entitlements, create and assign administrators for each organization, and other tasks.
. Streamlined configuration of basic tasks.
. List and create new organizations.
. List all users known by SUSE Manager, across all organizations. Click individual user names to change administrative privileges of the user.
Note
Users created for organization administration can only be configured by the organization administrator, not the SUSE Manager administrator.
. Make General configuration changes to the SUSE Manager server, including Proxy settings, Certificate configuration, Bootstrap Script configuration, Organization changes, and Restart the SUSE Manager server.
. Configure master and slave servers for inter-server synchronization.
. View and create schedules.
. View the status of the various tasks of the SUSE Manager task engine.
. Display the log entries of the Tomcat server, on which the SUSE Manager server is running.
› . List references to available help resources such as the product documentation, release notes, and a general search for all of this.
› . List external links to the knowledge base and the online documentation.
6.2 Patch Alert Icons #
Throughout SUSE Manager you will see three patch (errata) alert icons.
-represents a security alert.
-represents a bug fix alert.
-represents an enhancement alert.
On the › › page, in the Relevant Security Patches section click the patch advisory to view details about the patch or click the number of affected systems to see which systems are affected by the patch alert.
Both links take you to tabs of the Patch Details page.
If all patches are installed, there is just a View All Patches link to open the › page.
Refer to
Section 10.2.2, “Patch Details”
for more information.
6.3 Search #
In the top bar, SUSE Manager offers a search functionality for Packages, Patches (Errata), Documentation, and Systems.
To use the search, click the magnifier, then select the search item (choose from Systems, Packages, Documentation, and Patches) and type a string to look for a name match.
Click the button.
Your results appear at the bottom of the page.
If you misspell a word during your search query, the SUSE Manager search engine performs approximate string (or fuzzy string) matching, returning results that may be similar in spelling to your misspelled queries.
For example, if you want to search for a certain development system called test-1.example.com that is registered with SUSE Manager, but you misspell your query tset, the test-1.example.com system still appears in the search results.
Note
If you add a distribution, newly synchronize channels, or register a system with a SUSE Manager server, it may take several minutes for it to be indexed and appear in search results.
To force the rebuild of the search index, enter rhn-search cleanindex on the command line and wait until the rebuild is finished.
For advanced System searches, refer to Section 7.8, “Systems > Advanced Search”.
For advanced Patch or Errata searches, refer to Section 10.3, “Advanced Search”.
For advanced Package searches, refer to Section 11.2, “Package Search”.
For advanced Documentation searches, refer to Section 18.7, “Search”.
6.4 Systems Selected #
On the › › page, if you mark the check box next to a system, the system selected number on the right area of the top bar increases.
This number keeps track of the systems you have selected for use in the System Set Manager (SSM); for more information, see to
Section 7.5, “Systems > System Set Manager”.
At any time, it identifies the number of selected systems and provides the means to work (simultaneously) with an entire selection.
Clicking the the rubber symbol (Clear) deselects all systems, while clicking the system selected string (Manage) launches the System Set Manager with your selected systems in place.
These systems can be selected in a number of ways.
Only systems with at least a Management system role are eligible for selection.
On all system and system group lists, a check boxes exist for this purpose.
Each time you select a check box next to the systems or groups the systems selected counter at the top of the page changes to reflect the new number of systems ready for use in the System Set Manager.
6.5 Lists #
The information within most categories is presented in the form of lists.
These lists have some common features for navigation.
For instance, you can set the number of items per page and navigate through virtually all lists by clicking the back and next arrows above and below the right side of the table.
Some lists also offer the option to retrieve items alphabetically by clicking numbers or letters from the Alphabetical Index above the table.
Note: Performing Large List Operations
Performing operations on large lists (such as removing RPM packages from the database with the SUSE Manager Web UI) may take some time and the system may become unresponsive or signal “Internal Server Error 500”. Nevertheless, the command will succeed in the background if you wait long enough.
Login to the SUSE Manager Web UI to view the › › page. The Overview page contains summary panes that provide important information about your systems.
[guimenu]``Overview is split into functional sections, with the most critical sections displayed first. Users can control which of the following sections are displayed by making selections on the › › page. Refer to Section 6.8, “Your Preferences” for more information.
The
Taskspane lists the most common tasks an administrator performs via the Web interface. Click any link to reach the page within SUSE Manager that allows you to accomplish that task.
The
Inactive Systemslist provides a list of all systems that have stopped checking into SUSE Manager.
The
Most Critical Systemspane lists the most critical systems within your organization. It provides a link to quickly view those systems and displays a summary of the patch updates that have yet to be applied to those systems. Click the name of a system to see itsSystem Detailspage and apply the patch updates. Below the list is a link toView All Critical Systemson one page.
The
Recently Scheduled Actionspane lists all actions less than thirty days old and their status: failed, completed, or pending. Click the label of any given action to view its details page. Below the list is a link toView All Scheduled Actionson one page, which lists all actions that have not yet been carried out on your client systems.
The
Relevant Security Patchespane lists all available security patches that have yet to be applied to some or all of your client systems. It is critical that you apply these security patches to keep your systems secure. Below this list find links to all available patchesView All Patches. You may also view patches that only apply to your systemsView All Relevant Patches.
The
System Group Namepane lists groups you may have created and indicates whether the systems in those groups are fully updated. Click the link below this section to get to the › › page, where you can choose aGroup Nameto use with the System Set Manager.
The
Recently Registered Systemspane lists all systems added to SUSE Manager in the past 30 days. Select a system’s name to see itsSystem Detailspage. At the bottom of theRecently Registered Systemspane select theView All Recently Registered Systemslink to view all recently registered systems on one page.
To return to this page, select › › that is also known as The Menu.
6.6 Notification Messages #
The › › page allows you to manage your notification messages of the SUSE Manager server.
The default lifetime of notification messages is 30 days, after which messages are deleted from the database, regardless of read status.
You can configure the amount of time in /etc/rhn/rhn.conf:
# Configure the lifetime of notification messages in days java.notifications_lifetime = 30
All notification types are enabled by default.
To disable a notification type, open the /etc/rhn/rhn.conf configuration file and edit the java.notifications_type_disabled parameter:
# Configure the disablement of notification messages by type - example disabling all notification types java.notifications_type_disabled = OnboardingFailed,ChannelSyncFailed,ChannelSyncFinished
6.6.1 Notification Messages Tabs #
The Notification Messages page displays two tabs:
Unread MessagesAll Messages
These tabs contain a list of collected messages filtered by tab name.
6.6.2 Notification Messages Buttons #
The following buttons are available for working with notification messages:
— Refreshes the message list
— Check any messages you would like removed and then mass delete them via this button.
— Mark all messages as read.
6.6.3 Notification Messages Legend #
Several columns provide information for each message:
Severity: The following severity levels are available and for every failure a customized button (in line with the message) is available to react to that failure:
— Info
— Warning
— Error
Type: Available types are:Onboarding failed(Error)
Channel sync finished (Info)
Channel sync failed (Error)
Description: The text of the message with a link to the channel.Created: The date when the message was created.Action Read|Delete:Click the letter icon to flag a message as Read or Unread.
Click the waste bin icon delete a message immediately.
You can sort the messages by clicking a column label of the list header line.
6.7 User Account #
6.7.1 Your Account #
Modify your personal information, such as name, password, and title from the › › › page. To modify this information, make the changes in the appropriate text fields and click the button at the bottom.
If you change your SUSE Manager password, for security reasons you will not see the new password while you enter it.
Replace the asterisks in the Password and Confirm Password text fields with the new password.
Note
If you forget your password or username, proceed to the sign in screen and select the About link, then select the Lookup Login/Password page.
Here you can either specify your login and email address or only your email address if you are not sure about the username.
Then click or respectively.
6.7.2 Addresses #
On the › › › page you can manage your mailing, billing and shipping addresses, and associated phone numbers.
Click or below the address to be modified or added, make your changes, and click .
6.7.3 Change Email #
Set the email SUSE Manager sends notifications to on the › › › page.
If you would like to receive email notifications about patch alerts or daily summaries for your systems, check the checkbox located on the Your Preferences page.
To change your preferred email address, click › › › .
Enter your new email address and click the button.
Invalid email addresses like those ending in @localhost are filtered and rejected.
6.7.4 Account Deactivation #
The › › › page provides a means to cancel your SUSE Manager service. To do so, click the button. The Web interface returns you to the login screen. If you attempt to log back in, an error message advises you to contact the SUSE Manager administrator for your organization.
Note: SUSE Manager Administrator Account
If you are the only SUSE Manager Administrator for your organization, you cannot deactivate your account.
6.8 Your Preferences #
The › › page allows you to configure SUSE Manager options.
Email Notifications— Determine whether you want to receive email every time a patch alert is applicable to one or more systems in your account.Important
This setting enables Management and Provisioning customers to receive a daily summary of system events. These include actions affecting packages, such as scheduled patches, system reboots, or failures to check in. In addition to selecting this check box, you must identify each system to be included in this summary email. By default, all Management and Provisioning systems are included in the summary. Add more systems either individually on the
System Detailspage or for multiple systems at once in the › › interface. Note that SUSE Manager sends these summaries only to verified email addresses. To disable all messages, simply deselect this check box.SUSE Manager List Page Size— Maximum number of items that appear in a list on a single page. If more items are in the list, clicking the button displays the next group of items. This preference applies to system lists, patch lists, package lists, and so on."Overview" Start Page— Select the information panes that are displayed on the › › page. Check the box to the left of each information pane that which be included.Time Zone- Set the SUSE Manager interface to your local time by selecting the appropriateTime Zonefrom the drop-down box. Click the button to apply the selection.
CSV Files— Select the separator character to be used in downloadable CSV files. is the default; as an alternative use , which provides better compatibility with Microsoft Excel.
After making changes to any of these options, click the button.
6.9 Your Organization #
From the › › page you can modify the following pages:
ConfigurationOrganization TrustsConfiguration Channels
6.9.1 Configuration #
On the › › › page modify your personal information, such as name, password, and title. To modify any of this information, make the changes in the appropriate text fields and click the button at the bottom.
6.9.2 Organization Trusts #
The › › › page displays the trusts established with your organization (that is, the organization with which you, the logged-in user, are associated).
The page also lists Channels Shared, which refers to channels available to your organization via others in the established trusts.
You can filter the list of trusts by keyword using the Filter by Organization text box and clicking .
6.9.3 Configuration Channels #
The Configuration Channels page displays the channels which have been created and added using Configuration Channels.
From › › › you can select which configuration channels should be applied across your organization. If there is more than one configuration channel selected you can specify the order of the channels.
Procedure: Apply a Configuration Channel at the Organization Level #
Create a channel using
Configuration Channelsor via the command line.Browse to › › › .
Use the search feature to locate a channel by name.
Select the check box for the channel to be applied and click the button. The save button will save the change to the database but will not apply the channel.
Apply the channel by clicking the button. The channel will be scheduled and applied to any systems included within the organization.