Register Clients

When you have your SUSE Manager Server set up, you are ready to start registering clients.

You can use SUSE Manager to manage clients using either the Salt stack or the traditional stack (inherited from Spacewalk). Most new features and enhancements are only available for Salt-managed clients, which makes this stack the preferred one. For more details, see client-configuration:supported-features.adoc

In the SUSE Manager Web UI, navigate to Systems Bootstrapping, then fill in the Host, SSH Port, User and Password fields. Make sure you use stable FQDNs for the Host field, or SUSE Manager cannot find your host when your Public Cloud gives you a different short-lived FQDNS.

If you are attempting to bootstrap traditional clients, check that you can resolve the host name of the server while you are logged in to the client. You might need to add the FQDN of the server to /etc/hosts local resolution file on the client. Check using the hostname -f command with the local IP address of the server.

Public cloud images usually do not allow SSH login with username and password, but only SSH with a certificate. If you want to use bootstrap from the Web UI, you need to enable SSH login with username and SSH key. You can do this by navigating to Systems Bootstrapping and changing the authentication method.

If your cloud provider is Microsoft Azure, you can log in with username and password. To do this, you need to allow the AzureUser to run commands as root without a password. To do this, open the /etc/sudoers.d/waagent file, and add or edit this line:

AzureUser ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL

Allowing the AzureUser to run commands as root without a password carries a security risk. Use this method for testing only. Do not do this for production systems.

When the bootstrap process has completed successfully, your client is listed at Systems System List.

If you want more control over the process, have to register many clients, or are registering traditional clients, create a bootstrap script. For more information, see client-configuration:registration-bootstrap.adoc.
For Salt clients and even more control over the process, executing single commands on the command line can be useful. For more information, see client-configuration:registration-cli.adoc.

Activation Keys

Activation keys are used with traditional and Salt clients to ensure that your clients have the correct software entitlements, are connecting to the appropriate channels, and are subscribed to the relevant groups. Each activation key is bound to an organization, which you can set when you create the key.

Procedure: Creating an Activation Key

In the SUSE Manager Web UI, as an administrator, navigate to Systems Activation Keys.
Click the Create Key button.
On the Activation Key Details page, in the Description field, enter a name for the activation key.
In the Key field, enter the distribution and service pack associated with the key. For example, SLES12-SP4 for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP4.

Do not use commas in the Key field for any SUSE products. However, you must use commas for Red Hat Products. For more information, see reference:systems/activation-keys.adoc.
In the Base Channels drop-down box, select the appropriate base software channel, and allow the relevant child channels to populate. For more information, see reference:admin/setup-wizard.adoc#vle.webui.admin.wizard.products and administration:custom-channels.adoc.
Select the child channels you need (for example, the mandatory SUSE Manager tools and updates channels).
We recommend you leave the Contact Method set to Default.
We recommend you leave the Universal Default setting unchecked.
Click Create Activation Key to create the activation key.
Check the Configuration File Deployment check box to enable configuration management for this key, and click Update Activation Key to save this change.

The Configuration File Deployment check box does not appear until after you have created the activation key. Ensure you go back and check the box if you need to enable configuration management.

For more on activation keys, see client-configuration:activation-keys.adoc.

System Set Manager

System set manager (SSM) is used to administrate groups of systems, rather than performing actions on one system at a time. It works for both Salt and traditional clients.

For a complete list of the tasks that you can perform with the SSM, see client-configuration:system-set-manager.adoc.

You need to select which systems or system group you want to work with before you can use SSM to perform operations.

You can access SSM in three different ways:

Navigate to Systems System List, select systems you want to work with, and navigate to Systems System Set Manager.
Navigate to Systems System Groups, and click Use in SSM for the system group you want to work with.
Navigate to Systems System Groups, select the group you want to work with, and click Work with Group.

For more on SSM, see client-configuration:system-set-manager.adoc..