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SUSE Liberty Linux

Registering RHEL 9 with RMT

Publication Date: March 28, 2024

This guide describes how to use SUSE Liberty Linux to update Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.

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1 Introduction

SUSE Liberty Linux is a technology and support solution for mixed Linux environments. With a SUSE Liberty Linux subscription, you can register and receive updates for Red Hat Enterprise Linux and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. An optional High Availability extension is also available.

Important

CentOS Stream is not supported.

You can register RHEL 9 with one of the following tools:

  • Repository Mirroring Tool (RMT) on SUSE Linux Enterprise 15

  • SUSE Manager

This guide describes how to register with RMT on SUSE Linux Enterprise 15. RMT is a proxy system for the SUSE Customer Center. The RMT server is registered with the SUSE Customer Center, and other systems in the network are registered with the RMT server and receive packages from it directly.

Procedure overview
  1. Section 2, “Requirements”. Make sure you have everything required for the following procedures.

  2. Section 3, “Configuring the RMT server”. This server must be installed on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15. You can skip this step if you already have an RMT server in your network.

  3. Section 4, “Mirroring SUSE Liberty Linux repositories with RMT”. You can skip this step if SUSE Liberty Linux is already enabled and mirrored on your RMT server.

  4. Section 5, “Registering RHEL with RMT”. RMT includes a setup script to automate the registration process.

2 Requirements

  • You have a SUSE Liberty Linux subscription.

  • You have a SUSE Customer Center account.

  • The systems you want to register are up to date. SUSE Liberty Linux only supports the latest minor release of each RHEL version.

  • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 15 is installed and up to date. This machine will be the RMT server. You can use the SUSE Liberty Linux subscription to register SLES. To install SLES 15, see Installation Quick Start.

  • The systems you want to register can reach the RMT server.

  • The RMT server has enough storage available for repository mirroring. Downloaded packages are stored in /usr/share/rmt/public/repo, which is a symbolic link to /var/lib/rmt/public/repo/. The amount of storage required depends on the number of repositories you mirror. We recommend at least 1.5 times the total size of all enabled repositories. Be aware that these repositories will grow substantially over time.

3 Configuring the RMT server

Use this procedure to configure the Repository Mirroring Tool (RMT) on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15.

Requirements
  • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 is installed and up to date.

  • You have a SUSE Customer Center account and organization credentials.

Procedure 1: Configuring the RMT server
  1. Install RMT on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15:

    # zypper in rmt-server
  2. Start the rmt module in YaST:

    # yast2 rmt
  3. Enter your Organization Credentials, then select Next.

    Tip

    To find your organization credentials, log in to the SUSE Customer Center, select your organization from My Organizations, and click Proxies. Your organization's Mirroring credentials are in the top right corner.

  4. Enter Database Credentials for a new MariaDB database user, then select Next. The new user is created.

  5. If a password for the MariaDB root user is already set, enter the password when prompted, then select OK.

    If no password is set for the MariaDB root user, enter and confirm a new password when prompted, then select OK.

  6. Enter a Common Name for the SSL certificates. The common name is usually the FQDN of the server.

  7. If the server has other domain names or IP addresses, enter these as Alternative common names. Select Add to add new names. When all common names are entered, select Next.

  8. If prompted, enter and confirm a password for the CA private key, then select OK.

  9. Activate the check box Open Ports for HTTP and HTTPS in Firewall, then select Next.

  10. YaST displays the RMT Service Status. Select Next.

  11. Review the Configuration Summary, then select Finish to close YaST.

YaST enables and starts all RMT systemd services and timers.

4 Mirroring SUSE Liberty Linux repositories with RMT

Use this procedure to mirror the SUSE Liberty Linux repositories for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.

Requirements
  • Section 3, “Configuring the RMT server”

  • The RMT server has enough storage available for repository mirroring.

  • Your organization credentials appear correctly in /etc/rmt.conf.

  • You have a SUSE Liberty Linux subscription activated in the SUSE Customer Center.

Procedure 2: Mirroring SUSE Liberty Linux repositories with RMT
  1. On the RMT server, update the available product and repository metadata:

    # rmt-cli sync

    Synchronization is also performed automatically by rmt-server-sync.timer. You can check the status and the next scheduled synchronization time with the following command:

    # systemctl status rmt-server-sync.timer
  2. Enable SUSE Liberty Linux using the product ID 2538:

    # rmt-cli product enable 2538

    This enables all of the default repositories associated with the product.

  3. If your subscription includes the High Availability extension, enable the extension using the product ID 2539:

    # rmt-cli product enable 2539
    Tip

    To check whether the High Availability extension is available, run this command: rmt-cli products list --all --name="Liberty" --version=9

  4. If you also need the Source or Debug repositories, find and enable them with the following commands:

    # rmt-cli repo list --all | grep SLL-
    # rmt-cli repo enable REPO_ID
  5. Start package mirroring for the enabled repositories:

    # rmt-cli mirror

    Packages are downloaded to the RMT server once per day by rmt-server-mirror.timer. You can check the status and the next scheduled download time with the following command:

    # systemctl status rmt-server-mirror.timer

5 Registering RHEL with RMT

Use this procedure to register Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 with the RMT server.

Important

CentOS Stream is not supported.

Requirements
Procedure 3: Registering RHEL with RMT
  1. On the RHEL system, download the rmt-client-setup-res script:

    # curl http://RMT_SERVER/tools/rmt-client-setup-res --output rmt-client-setup-res
  2. Run the rmt-client-setup-res script with the URL of the RMT server as a parameter:

    # sh rmt-client-setup-res https://RMT_SERVER

    The script installs SUSEConnect and its dependencies, then downloads and runs the rmt-client-setup script, which performs the following tasks:

    • Downloads all keys from http://RMT_SERVER/repo/keys.

    • Imports the keys with gpg --import and rpm --import.

    • Downloads the CA certificate from https://RMT_SERVER/rmt.crt.

    • Imports the CA certificate to the trust store.

    • Uses SUSEConnect to register the system with the RMT server. Registering the system using SUSEConnect adds and enables all default repositories.

    You should see Successfully registered system.

  3. Verify the installed product:

    # SUSEConnect --status-text

    You should see the following output:

    Installed Products:
    ------------------------------------------
    
      SUSE Liberty Linux release file
      (SLL/9/x86_64)
    
      Registered
    
    ------------------------------------------
  4. Verify the available repositories:

    # dnf repolist

    You should see SLL-9-Updates, SLL-AS-9-Updates, and SLL-CB-9-Updates.

  5. If your subscription includes the High Availability extension, activate it with the following command:

    # SUSEConnect -p SLL-HA/9/x86_64
    Tip

    To check whether the extension is available, run the SUSEConnect --list-extensions command.

  6. Run the update command to make sure there are no errors:

    # dnf update

You can now update your system from repositories provided by SUSE Liberty Linux.

6 Troubleshooting

nginx.service is inactive after installing the rmt-server package

Continue the procedure to configure RMT in YaST. This often resolves the issue. If that fails, Apache might be installed on your server, and must be disabled. Apache conflicts with NGINX because both web servers listen on port 80.

SUSE Liberty Linux doesn't appear in rmt-cli products list after rmt-cli sync

Check your network. If the network is down, rmt-cli sync fails without showing an error.

Mirroring completes with errors

If some packages could not be downloaded because of timeouts, rerun the rmt-cli mirror command until all packages are downloaded.

Setup script cannot access the SUSE Liberty Linux repository

The repodata directory on the RMT server will not be available until all of the packages for that repository are downloaded. If some packages could not be downloaded to the RMT server because of timeouts during the first mirroring, rerun the rmt-cli mirror command until all packages are downloaded.

Setup script cannot install SUSEConnect because of package dependencies

SUSE Liberty Linux only supports the latest minor release of RHEL. If your system is running the latest version and SUSEConnect still has package dependency issues, try the following workaround:

  1. Edit the rmt-client-setup-res script to add --skip-broken to the following line:

    $DNF install SUSEConnect librepo --skip-broken
  2. Run the script and accept any proposed package changes. SUSEConnect will be skipped.

  3. Run the script a second time. The package changes from the first attempt can sometimes resolve the package dependency issues, allowing the second attempt to successfully install SUSEConnect.