Registering Ubuntu 20.04, 22.04 and 24.04 Clients

This section contains information about registering clients running Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, 22.04 LTS and 24.04 LTS operating systems.

  • Ubuntu 20.04, 22.04 and 24.04 repository URLs are available from SUSE Customer Center

  • Packages and metadata are provided by Ubuntu, not by SUSE

  • For supported products, see the support table and the release notes

SUSE Manager supports Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, 22.04 LTS and 24.04 LTS clients using Salt.

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.

Canonical does not endorse or support SUSE Manager.

1. Add Software Channels

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

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

The products you need for this procedure are:

Table 1. Ubuntu Products - WebUI
OS Version Product Name

Ubuntu 24.04

Ubuntu 24.04

Ubuntu 22.04

Ubuntu 22.04

Ubuntu 20.04

Ubuntu 20.04
Procedure: Adding Software Channels

  1. In the SUSE Manager Web UI, navigate to Admin  Setup Wizard  Products.

  2. 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.

  3. 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 24.04

ubuntu-2404-amd64-main-amd64

Ubuntu 22.04

ubuntu-2204-amd64-main-amd64

Ubuntu 20.04

ubuntu-2004-amd64-main-amd64
Procedure: Adding Software Channels at the Command Prompt

  1. 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>

  2. Synchronization starts automatically. If you want to synchronize the channels manually, use:

    mgr-sync sync --with-children <channel_name>

  3. Ensure the synchronization is complete before continuing.

2. Mirror Ubuntu ESM packages

Canonical provides Expanded Security Maintenance (ESM) packages for Ubuntu Pro users and customers. These packages offer longer maintenance (10 to 12 years) for several operating system components and selected applications.

These repositories can also be synchronized within SUSE Manager if you extract the required GPG keys and your personal Bearer Token from a system registered to Ubuntu Pro.

2.1. Extract GPG keys and Bearer Token

Register an Ubuntu host with Ubuntu Pro. You will find your personal registration token in the Ubuntu Pro Dashbaord. An Ubuntu One acconut is required for this.

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-advantage-tools
sudo pro attach <perosnal_token>

After registration, you will find the Bearer Token in the file /etc/apt/auth.conf.d/90ubuntu-advantage:

machine esm.ubuntu.com/apps/ubuntu/ login bearer password <token>  # ubuntu-pro-client
machine esm.ubuntu.com/infra/ubuntu/ login bearer password <token>  # ubuntu-pro-client

One dedicated bearer token is used per repository.

Configure the following repositories within SUSE Manager:

2.2. Configure Ubuntu ESM repositories

Use the following URLs for creating the repositories:

Table 3. Ubuntu ESM repositories
URL Description

https://bearer:<token>@esm.ubuntu.com/infra/ubuntu/dists/<release>-infra-updates/main/binary-<arch>/

Operating system functional updates

https://bearer:<token>@esm.ubuntu.com/infra/ubuntu/dists/<release>-infra-security/main/binary-<arch>/

Operating system security updates

https://bearer:<token>@esm.ubuntu.com/apps/ubuntu/dists/<release>-apps-updates/main/binary-<arch>/

Application functional updates

https://bearer:<token>@esm.ubuntu.com/apps/ubuntu/dists/<release>-apps-security/main/binary-<arch>/

Application security updates

Replace <token> with your personal Bearer Token. Also, arch and release must be replaced with one of the following values:

Table 4. Ubuntu ESM architectures and releases
Architectures Releases

amd64, arm64, armel, armhf, i386, powerpc, ppc64el, s390x

bionic, focal, jammy, noble, trusty, xenial

In order for SUSE Manager to synchronize the repositories, the corresponding GPG keys (ubuntu-advantage-esm-infra-trusty.gpg, ubuntu-advantage-esm-apps.gpg) must be imported. These are located on a system registered with Ubuntu Pro under /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d. Copy these files to the SUSE Manager system and import them as follows:

mgradm gpg add /path/to/gpg.key

Create the appropriate child channels below already synchronized Ubuntu parent channels. After that, repositories can be synchronized.

The procedure shown here can be used to circumvent the subscription limitations - however, this constitutes a breach of the Terms of Service and may have legal consequences. There must always be sufficient subscriptions for the number of systems used.

3. Check Synchronization Status

Procedure: Checking Synchronization Progress from the Web UI

  1. 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.

  2. 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

  1. 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

  2. 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.

4. Manage GPG Keys

Clients use GPG keys to check the authenticity of software packages before they are installed. Only trusted software can be installed on clients.

Trusting a GPG key is important for security on clients. It is the task of the administrator to decide which keys are needed and can be trusted. Because a software channel cannot be used when the GPG key is not trusted, the decision of assigning a channel to a client depends on the decision of trusting the key.

For more information about GPG keys, see GPG Keys.

5. Root Access

The root user on Ubuntu is disabled by default for SSH access.

To be able to onboard using a regular user, you need to edit the sudoers file.

This issue happens with self-installed versions of Ubuntu. If the default user has been granted administrative privileges during installation time, a password is required to perform privilege escalation using sudo. With cloud instances this does not happen because cloud-init automatically creates a file under /etc/sudoers.d and grants privilege escalation through sudo without the need for a password.
Procedure: Granting Root User Access

  1. 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, /var/tmp/venv-salt-minion/bin/python

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.

6. Register Clients

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, using this command:

mgr-create-bootstrap-repo

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