Deploy SUSE Manager 5.0 Server

This quick start guide shows you how to install and configure a SUSE Manager 5.0 container for x86-64 architecture on openSUSE Leap Micro 5.5.

1. Software and Hardware Requirements for SUSE Manager

This table shows the software and hardware requirements for deploying SUSE Manager Server.

Table 1. Bare metal Host Software and Hardware Requirements
Software and Hardware Recommended

Operating System:

openSUSE Leap Micro 5.5:

CPU:

Minimum 4 dedicated 64-bit x86-64CPU cores

RAM:

Development server Minimum 16 GB

Production server Minimum 32 GB

Disk Space:

Disk space depends on your channel requirements, at least 100 GB

50 GB per SUSE or openSUSE product and 360 GB per Red Hat product

Swap space:

3 GB
Official operating system for the Server Container Host

The supported operating system for the container host is openSUSE Leap Micro 5.5.

Container host

A container host is a server equipped with a container engine like Podman, which lets it manage and deploy containers. These containers hold applications and their essential parts, such as libraries, but not a full operating system, making them lightweight. This setup ensures applications run the same way in different environments. The container host supplies the necessary resources such as CPU, memory, and storage for these containers.

Server deployment mandates the use of a fully qualified domain name (FQDN). In the absence of automatic DNS provision of an FQDN by your router or network, the deployment process will not proceed successfully. An FQDN typically follows the format <host>.<domain>.com.

For instance:

  • uyuni.example.com

  • uyuni.fritz.box

  • uyuni.container.lab

For additional details, refer to the section on network requirements in the Installation and Upgrade Guide, available at Network Requirements.

2. Aquire the openSUSE Leap Micro 5.5 Image

  1. Proceed to: Download openSUSE Leap Micro 5.5

  2. Select and download the Offline Image.

  3. Prepare a USB fash disk or DVD for installation.

  4. Insert a DVD or a bootable USB stick containing the installation image for openSUSE Leap.

  5. Boot or reboot your system.

3. Container Host Installation

For detailed documentation on preparing your machines OS (virtual or physical), see SLE Micro 5.5 Deployment Guide.

Procedure: openSUSE Leap Micro 5.5 Installation

  1. Use the arrow keys to select Installation.

  2. On the Language, Keyboard and license Agreement page click Next.

  3. On the NTP Configuration page click Next.

  4. On the Authentication for the System page enter a password for the root user. Click Next.

  5. On the Installation Settings page click Install.

4. Update the system and Install Container Tools

  1. Login at the prompt as root.

  2. Run transactional-update:

    transactional-update

  3. Reboot the system.

  4. Login as root.

  5. Enter the transactional shell:

    transactional-update shell

  6. Add the continer utility repository:

    zypper ar https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/systemsmanagement:/Uyuni:/Stable:/ContainerUtils/openSUSE_Leap_Micro_5.5/systemsmanagement:Uyuni:Stable:ContainerUtils.repo

  7. Refresh the repository list and accept the key:

    zypper ref

  8. Install the container tools:

    zypper in mgradm mgrctl mgradm-bash-completion mgrctl-bash-completion

  9. Reboot the host.

5. Deploy SUSE Manager with mgradm

SUSE Manager is deployed as a container using the mgradm tool. There are two methods of deploying a SUSE Manager server as a container. In this section we will focus on basic container deployment.

For information on using a custom configuration file to deploy see, Configuration and deployment with mgradm and a custom yaml file.

For additional information, you can explore further by running mgradm --help from the command line.

Procedure: Deploying an Uyuni container with Podman

  1. From the terminal run the following command as root.

    mgradm install podman

  2. Input a password for the CA certificate, an administrative account password and your email for notifications:

    leapmicro:~ # mgradm install podman
3:07PM INF Welcome to mgradm
3:07PM INF Executing command: podman
Password for the CA certificate to generate:
Administrator password:
Administrator's email: admin@example.com

  3. The container will take some minutes to deploy.

  4. Once complete open a browser and visit https://leapmicro.uyuni.lab to begin working with SUSE Manager.

6. Optional: Synchronizing Products from SUSE Customer Center

SUSE Customer Center (SCC) maintains a collection of repositories which contain packages, software and updates for all supported enterprise client systems. These repositories are organized into channels each of which provide software specific to a distribution, release, and architecture. After synchronizing with SCC, clients can receive updates, be organized into groups, and assigned to specific product software channels.

This section covers synchronizing with SCC from the Web UI and adding your first client channel.

For Uyuni, synchronizing products from SUSE Customer Center is optional.

Before you can synchronize software repositories with SCC, you will need to enter organization credentials in SUSE Manager. The organization credentials give you access to the SUSE product downloads. You will find your organization credentials in https://scc.suse.com/organizations.

Enter your organization credentials in the SUSE Manager Web UI:

Optional Procedure: Entering Organization Credentials

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

  2. In the Setup Wizard page, navigate to the Organization Credentials tab.

  3. Click Add a new credential.

  4. Enter a username and password, and click Save.

A check mark icon is shown when the credentials are confirmed. When you have successfully entered the new credentials, you can synchronize with SUSE Customer Center.

Optional Procedure: Synchronizing with SUSE Customer Center

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

  2. From the Setup Wizard page select the SUSE Products tab. Wait a moment for the products list to populate. If you previously registered with SUSE Customer Center a list of products will populate the table. This table lists architecture, channels, and status information.

  3. If your SUSE Linux Enterprise client is based on x86_64 architecture scroll down the page and select the check box for this channel now.

  4. Add channels to SUSE Manager by selecting the check box to the left of each channel. Click the arrow symbol to the left of the description to unfold a product and list available modules.

  5. Click Add Products to start product synchronization.

When a channel is added, SUSE Manager will schedule the channel for synchronization. Depending on the number and size of this channels, this can take a long time. You can monitor synchronization progress in the Web UI.

For more information about using the setup wizard, see Wizard.

When the channel synchronization process is complete, you can register and configure clients. For more instructions, see Client Registration.