Registering Ubuntu 16.04 and 18.04 Clients

This section contains information about registering Salt clients running Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, 18.04 LTS operating systems.

SUSE Manager supports Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, 18.04 LTS, and 20.04 LTS clients using Salt. For information about registering Salt clients running Ubuntu 20.04, see client-configuration:clients-ubuntu.adoc.

Canonical does not endorse or support SUSE Manager.

Ubuntu is supported for Salt clients only. Traditional clients are not supported.

Bootstrapping is supported for starting Ubuntu clients and performing initial state runs such as setting repositories and performing profile updates. However, the root user on Ubuntu is disabled by default, so to use bootstrapping, you require an existing user with sudo privileges for Python.

Add Software Channels

Before you register Ubuntu clients to your SUSE Manager Server, check that you have the Ubuntu product enabled, and the required channels are fully synchronized.

The products you need for this procedure are:

Table 1. Ubuntu Products - WebUI
OS Version	Product Name
Ubuntu 16.04	Ubuntu 16.04
Ubuntu 18.04	Ubuntu 18.04

Procedure: Adding Software Channels

In the SUSE Manager Web UI, navigate to Admin Setup Wizard Products.
Locate the appropriate products for your client operating system and architecture using the search bar, and check the appropriate product. This automatically checks all required channels. Click the arrow to see the complete list of related products, and ensure that any extra products you require are checked.
Click Add Products and wait until the products have finished synchronizing.

Ubuntu 16.04 is now at end-of-life, and the ISO images provided in the repository are out of date. Bootstrapping new Ubuntu 16.04 clients using these packages will fail. If you need to bootstrap new Ubuntu 16.04 clients, follow the troubleshooting procedure in client-configuration:tshoot-clients.adoc.

Procedure: Adding Software Channels

In the SUSE Manager Web UI, navigate to Admin Setup Wizard Products.
Locate the appropriate products for your client operating system and architecture using the search bar, and check the appropriate product. This will automatically check all mandatory channels. Also all recommended channels are checked as long as the include recommended toggle is turned on. Click the arrow to see the complete list of related products, and ensure that any extra products you require are checked.
Click Add Products and wait until the products have finished synchronizing.

Alternatively, you can add channels at the command prompt. The channels you need for this procedure are:

Table 2. Ubuntu Channels - CLI
OS Version	Base Channel
Ubuntu 16.04	ubuntu-16.04-pool-amd64
Ubuntu 18.04	ubuntu-18.04-pool-amd64

Procedure: Adding Software Channels at the Command Prompt

At the command prompt on the SUSE Manager Server, as root, use the mgr-sync command to add the appropriate channels:

mgr-sync add channel <channel_label_1>
mgr-sync add channel <channel_label_2>
mgr-sync add channel <channel_label_n>

Synchronization starts automatically. If you want to synchronize the channels manually, use:
```
mgr-sync sync --with-children <channel_name>
```
Ensure the synchronization is complete before continuing.

The channels you need for this procedure are:

Table 3. Ubuntu Channels - CLI
OS Version	Base Channel	Security Channel	Updates Channel
Ubuntu 16.04	ubuntu-1604-amd64-main	ubuntu-1604-amd64-security	ubuntu-1604-amd64-updates
Ubuntu 18.04	ubuntu-1804-amd64-main	ubuntu-1804-amd64-main-security	ubuntu-1804-amd64-main-updates

Procedure: Adding Software Channels at the Command Prompt

At the command prompt on the SUSE Manager Server, as root, use the spacewalk-common-channels command to add the appropriate channels:
```
spacewalk-common-channels \
<base_channel_name> \
<child_channel_name_1> \
<child_channel_name_2> \
... <child_channel_name_n>
```
Synchronize the channels:
```
mgr-sync refresh --refresh-channels
```

Procedure: Adding Software Channels at the Command Prompt

At the command prompt on the SUSE Manager Server, as root, use the spacewalk-common-channels command to add the appropriate channels:
```
spacewalk-common-channels \
<base_channel_label>
<child_channel_label_1> \
<child_channel_label_2> \
... <child_channel_label_n>
```

Synchronize the channels:

spacewalk-repo-sync -p <base_channel_label>

Ensure the synchronization is complete before continuing.

Channels added using this method do not synchronize regularly by default. You can configure a synchronization schedule using the SUSE Manager Web UI. Navigate to Software Manage Channels, click the channel you added, and select the Repositories Sync subtab. Set a daily or weekly synchronization schedule, and click Schedule.

The client tools channel provided by spacewalk-common-channels is sourced from Uyuni and not from SUSE.

Check Synchronization Status

Procedure: Checking Synchronization Progress

In the SUSE Manager Web UI, navigate to Admin Setup Wizard and select the Products tab. This dialog displays a completion bar for each product when they are being synchronized.
Alternatively, you can navigate to Software Manage Channels, then click the channel associated to the repository. Navigate to the Repositories tab, then click Sync and check Sync Status.

Procedure: Checking Synchronization Progress from the Command Prompt

At the command prompt on the SUSE Manager Server, as root, use the tail command to check the synchronization log file:
```
tail -f /var/log/rhn/reposync/<channel-label>.log
```
Each child channel generates its own log during the synchronization progress. You need to check all the base and child channel log files to be sure that the synchronization is complete.

Ubuntu channels can be very large. Synchronization can sometimes take several hours.

Root Access

The root user on Ubuntu is disabled by default. You can enable it by editing the sudoers file.

Procedure: Granting Root User Access

On the client, edit the sudoers file:
```
sudo visudo
```
Grant sudo access to the user by adding this line at the end of the sudoers file. Replace <user> with the name of the user that is bootstrapping the client in the Web UI:
```
<user>  ALL=NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/python, /usr/bin/python2, /usr/bin/python3
```

This procedure grants root access without requiring a password, which is required for registering the client. When the client is successfully installed it runs with root privileges, so the access is no longer required. We recommend that you remove the line from the sudoers file after the client has been successfully installed.

Register Clients

To register your Ubuntu clients, you need a bootstrap repository. By default, bootstrap repositories are automatically created, and regenerated daily for all synchronized products. You can manually create the bootstrap repository from the command prompt, using this command:

mgr-create-bootstrap-repo --with-custom-channels

For more information on registering your clients, see client-configuration:registration-overview.adoc.