Registering SLE Micro Clients

This section contains information about registering clients running SLE Micro operating systems 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, and 5.5 on x86-64, arm64, and IBM Z (s390x) architectures.

The SLE Micro uses transactional updates. Transactional updates are atomic (all updates are applied only if all updates succeed) and support rollbacks. They do not affect a running system as no changes are activated until after the system is rebooted.

For more information on transactional updates and rebooting, see https://documentation.suse.com/sles/html/SLES-all/cha-transactional-updates.html.

The client registration described in this chapter, consists of these steps:

Synchronize software channels for the new client’s operating system and architecture by using either Web UI or command-line interface.
Register the client with SUSE Manager Server by using the Web UI or the command-line interface.

Additional sections describe ways to check and verify the registration procedure.

1. Add Software Channels

Before you register SLE Micro clients to the SUSE Manager Server, you need to add the required software channels, and synchronize them.

You can add the software channels with the Web UI or from the command line.

In the following section, descriptions often default to the x86_64 architecture. Replace it with other architectures if appropriate.

For the Web UI procedure, you need the following products:

Table 1. SLE Micro Products - WebUI
OS Version	Product Name
SLE Micro 5.5 x86-64	SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.5 x86_64
SLE Micro 5.5 arm64	SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.5 aarch64
SLE Micro 5.5 s390x	SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.5 s390x
SLE Micro 5.4 x86-64	SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.4 x86_64
SLE Micro 5.4 arm64	SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.4 aarch64
SLE Micro 5.4 s390x	SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.4 s390x
SLE Micro 5.3 x86-64	SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.3 x86_64
SLE Micro 5.3 arm64	SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.3 aarch64
SLE Micro 5.3 s390x	SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.3 s390x
SLE Micro 5.2 x86-64	SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.2 x86_64
SLE Micro 5.2 arm64	SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.2 aarch64
SLE Micro 5.2 s390x	SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.2 s390x
SLE Micro 5.1 x86-64	SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.1 x86_64
SLE Micro 5.1 arm64	SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.1 aarch64
SLE Micro 5.1 s390x	SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.1 s390x

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 from the command prompt. For this procedure, you need the following products:

Table 2. SLE Micro Products - CLI
OS Version	Base Channel	Updates Channel
SLE Micro 5.5 x86-64	sle-micro-5.5-pool-x86_64	sle-micro-5.5-updates-x86_64
SLE Micro 5.5 arm64	sle-micro-5.5-pool-arm64	sle-micro-5.5-updates-arm64
SLE Micro 5.5 IBM Z (s390x)	sle-micro-5.5-pool-s390x	sle-micro-5.5-updates-s390x
SLE Micro 5.4 x86-64	sle-micro-5.4-pool-x86_64	sle-micro-5.4-updates-x86_64
SLE Micro 5.4 arm64	sle-micro-5.4-pool-arm64	sle-micro-5.4-updates-arm64
SLE Micro 5.4 IBM Z (s390x)	sle-micro-5.4-pool-s390x	sle-micro-5.4-updates-s390x
SLE Micro 5.3 x86-64	sle-micro-5.3-pool-x86_64	sle-micro-5.3-updates-x86_64
SLE Micro 5.3 arm64	sle-micro-5.3-pool-arm64	sle-micro-5.3-updates-arm64
SLE Micro 5.3 IBM Z (s390x)	sle-micro-5.3-pool-s390x	sle-micro-5.3-updates-s390x
SLE Micro 5.2 x86-64	suse-microos-5.2-pool-x86_64	suse-microos-5.2-updates-x86_64
SLE Micro 5.2 arm64	suse-microos-5.2-pool-aarch64	suse-microos-5.2-updates-aarch64
SLE Micro 5.2 IBM Z (s390x)	suse-microos-5.2-pool-s390x	suse-microos-5.2-updates-s390x
SLE Micro 5.1 x86-64	suse-microos-5.1-pool-x86_64	suse-microos-5.1-updates-x86_64
SLE Micro 5.1 arm64	suse-microos-5.1-pool-aarch64	suse-microos-5.1-updates-aarch64
SLE Micro 5.1 IBM Z (s390x)	suse-microos-5.1-pool-s390x	suse-microos-5.1-updates-s390x

Procedure: Adding Software Channels at the Command Prompt

At the command prompt on the SUSE Manager container host, as root, add the appropriate channels:

mgrctl exec -ti -- mgr-sync add channel <channel_label_1>
mgrctl exec -ti -- mgr-sync add channel <channel_label_2>
mgrctl exec -ti -- mgr-sync add channel <channel_label_n>

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

2. Check Synchronization Status

Procedure: Checking Synchronization Progress From the Web UI

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 container host, as root, check the synchronization log file:
```
mgrctl exec -ti -- 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.

3. Register Clients

SLE Micro clients require a reboot after registering.

Following the bootstrapping process, automatic booting is disabled on SLE Micro clients. This change was implemented due to intermittent automatic reboots, which could occurr before Salt could relay the results of applying the bootstrap Salt state.

Although a reboot is automatically scheduled after registration is completed, it is respecting the default reboot manager maintenance window. This window may be several hours after the client is registered. It is advisable to manually reboot the client after the registration script finishes, to speed up the registration and to see the system appear in the system list.

To register your 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 on the container host:

mgrctl exec -ti mgr-create-bootstrap-repo

For more information on registering your clients, see Client Registration.

When using a bootstrap script with SLE Micro systems, ensure that the certificate section of the script has this content:

ORG_CA_CERT=RHN-ORG-TRUSTED-SSL-CERT
ORG_CA_CERT_IS_RPM_YN=0

Either edit the bootstrap script directly and add the settings, or create the bootstrap script with these parameters:

mgrctl exec -ti -- mgr-bootstrap --script=bootstrap-sle-micro.sh \
    --ssl-cert=/srv/www/htdocs/pub/RHN-ORG-TRUSTED-SSL-CERT

4. Reboot SLE Micro

SLE Micro is a transactional system. Transactional updates in general support several reboot methods. It is recommended to use systemd for rebooting in systems managed by SUSE Manager. Using other methods can lead to undesired behavior.

When bootstrapping a transactional system on SUSE Manager, systemd will be configured as the reboot method (REBOOT_METHOD), if the system is in its default configuration. Such a configuration allows SUSE Manager to control the reboot action, and rebooting can be performed immediately or scheduled with SUSE Manager as wanted.

4.1. Background Information

By default, the reboot method during client installation is set to auto. With the auto boot method, rebootmgrd will be used to reboot the system according to the configured policies if the service is running. Policies can be to reboot instantly or during a maintenance window. For more information, see the rebootmgrd(8) man page. Otherwise if rebootmgrd is not running, SUSE Manager will call systemctl reboot.

Using any method different from systemd may cause undesired behavior.