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Proxy Migration from 4.3 to 5.1

1. Requirements and Considerations

  • To migrate a SUSE Manager 4.3 Proxy to SUSE Multi-Linux Manager 5.1, you require a new machine with SL Micro 6.1 or SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP7 and mgrpxy installed.

  • An in-place migration from SUSE Manager 4.3 to 5.1 is not supported, regardless of whether the chosen host operating system is SL Micro 6.1 or SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP7.

  • Before migrating from SUSE Manager 4.3 to 5.1, any existing traditional clients including the traditional proxies must be migrated to Salt. For more information about migrating traditional SUSE Multi-Linux Manager 4.3 clients to Salt clients, see https://documentation.suse.com/suma/4.3/en/suse-manager/client-configuration/contact-methods-migrate-traditional.html.

  • Traditional contact protocol is no longer supported in SUSE Multi-Linux Manager 5.0 and later.

  • Before migrating a SUSE Manager 4.3 Proxy to SUSE Multi-Linux Manager 5.1, the SUSE Manager 4.3 Server needs to be migrated first, see SUSE Multi-Linux Manager Server Migration to a Containerized Environment.

2. Introduction

In SUSE Multi-Linux Manager 4.3, the proxy can be deployed using three different methods:

  • RPM based

  • containerized running on Podman

  • containerized running on k3s

In SUSE Multi-Linux Manager 5.1, RPM based support was removed, and only the containerized version running with podman or k3s is supported. Furthermore, the management of the containerized proxy running with Podman was re-designed and made simpler with the mgrpxy tool.

3. Deploy a New SUSE Multi-Linux Manager 5.1 Proxy

Because an in-place migration is not supported, a deployment of a new SUSE Multi-Linux Manager proxy with a new FQDN is required. For more information on deploying a new proxy on SL Micro 6.1 or SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP7 see Install SUSE Multi-Linux Manager Proxy .

4. Migrate Clients to the New Proxy

Before migrating the clients, ensure that the new SUSE Multi-Linux Manager 5.1 Proxy is already deployed and fully functional.
Procedure: Migrating Clients from old to new Proxy

  1. Log in to the SUSE Multi-Linux Manager Server Web UI.

  2. From the left navigation, select Systems  Systems List.

  3. Navigate to the old 4.3 proxy page, and click the Proxy tab.

  4. Select all systems to "SSM".

  5. From the left navigation, select Systems  System Set Manager.

  6. Select the sub-menu Misc  Proxy.

  7. From the drop-down select the new proxy to migrate to.

  8. Click Change Proxy.

All selected clients will now be migrated to the new proxy. You can check the schedule progress to verify if all clients were successfully migrated.

After a few minutes, the clients will start to show the new connection path. When all clients have the connection path under the new proxy, the old SUSE Manager 4.3 Proxy system is not needed anymore and can be removed.

5. TFTP files synchronization

Containerized proxies do not use tftpsync mechanism to transfer tftproot files. Instead these files are transparently downloaded and cached on demand.

To prevent false positive errors during cobbler sync run, migrated 4.3 proxies need to be removed from tftpsync mechanism.

If you previously configured a 4.3 proxy to receive TFTP files, one of the following configuration option is required:

To get to a shell inside the container, run on the container host:

mgrctl term

  • In the SUSE Multi-Linux Manager 5.1 server container, run configure-tftpsync.sh with the list of remaining 4.3 proxies as arguments. If no 4.3 proxies remain, run configure-tftpsync.sh with no arguments.

  • In the SUSE Multi-Linux Manager 5.1 server container, manually remove the relevant proxy from the proxies setting in the /etc/cobbler/settings.yaml file. If there are no 4.3 proxies remaining, then manually remove the proxies list completely.