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documentation.suse.com / Public Cloud Guide / Managing cloud instances
Applies to SUSE Linux Enterprise

3 Managing cloud instances

  

SUSE Linux Enterprise in public clouds is managed almost like on bare metal or in virtual environments. Learn about what is different in the cloud.

3.1 Registering instances

  

Like other SUSE products, SUSE Linux Enterprise in public clouds has to be registered to receive updates. There are different ways to register, depending on the image flavor chosen for the instance.

  • PAYG instances are registered automatically against the SUSE-operated update infrastructure in the cloud framework region, or geographically close region. The guestregister.service manages the registration on first boot.

  • BYOS instances have to be registered manually with your SUSE registration key. You can register with the cloud framework's SUSE update servers, the SUSE Customer Center, or your own SUSE Manager or RMT infrastructure.

BYOS instances with cloud-regionsrv-client version 9.3.0 or higher can be registered with the cloud framework's SUSE update servers using registercloudguest --regcode with your SUSE Customer Center registration code.

BYOS instances created from images with a datestamp of 20220103 or later contain all required packages. For BYOS instances created from images with a date stamp prior to 20220103, cloud-regionsrv-client and other packages have to be installed first before connecting to the cloud framework's SUSE update servers. Refer to Section 3.1.1, “Register with registercloudguest” for instructions.

Registrations for BYOS instances to the update infrastructure are forwarded from the update server to the SUSE Customer Center, so your cloud instances show up in your SUSE account and count against the system count of your subscription.

Any BYOS instance can be registered directly with the SUSE Customer Center.

In summary, use registercloudguest to register with the local cloud update infrastructure to benefit from faster downloads. Use SUSEConnect to register with SUSE Customer Center, or your own SUSE Manager or RMT infrastructure.

Important
Important: registercloudguest limitations

Not all products and flavors can be registered with registercloudguest.

  • Container host (chost) images are optimized for container workloads and contain only a few packages outside of the bare minimum to make containers run. These images do not contain registercloudguest, but you can register instances with the SUSE Customer Center first, install the necessary packages and then register with the SUSE-operated update infrastructure in the cloud framework region. Refer to Section 3.1.1, “Register with registercloudguest” for instructions.

  • SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro (sle-micro) uses a read-only root file system with transactional updates. SLE Micro images do not contain registercloudguest. To register an instance, use the command transactional-update register. Refer to the SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro Administration Guide for more information.

  • SUSE Manager (suse-manager) can only be registered with the SUSE Customer Center.

3.1.1 Register with registercloudguest

  

To register a BYOS instance with registercloudguest, perform the following steps:

  1. Check if the cloud-regionsrv-client package is installed: 

    # rpm -q cloud-regionsrv-client

    If the package is not installed or older than version 9.3.0, install or update it. You will need some additional packages, depending on your cloud framework.

    1. For Amazon EC2 run: 

      # zypper in cloud-regionsrv-client cloud-regionsrv-client-plugin-ec2 \
 regionServiceClientConfigEC2 regionServiceCertsEC2

    2. For Microsoft Azure run: 

      # zypper in cloud-regionsrv-client cloud-regionsrv-client-plugin-azure \
 regionServiceClientConfigAzure regionServiceCertsAzure

    3. For Google Compute Engine run:

      # zypper in cloud-regionsrv-client cloud-regionsrv-client-plugin-gce \
 regionServiceClientConfigGCE regionServiceCertsGCE

  2. Disconnect your instance from the SUSE Customer Center: 

    # registercloudguest --clean

    Do not use SUSEConnect -d; it will no longer work.

  3. Connect the instance to the SUSE update infrastructure in the public cloud. Replace REGISTRATION_CODE with a valid registration code. Replace EMAIL_ADDRESS with the e-mail address associated with the SUSE account you or your organization uses to manage subscriptions. 

    # registercloudguest -r REGISTRATION_CODE  -e EMAIL_ADDRESS

    This will only register the base product and any recommended products. For instances created from images with a datestamp later than 20220103, it will also set up the repositories for the Public Cloud Module.

  4. For instances created from images with a date stamp prior to 20220103 it is strongly recommended to also add the Public Cloud Module repositories. For SUSE Linux Enterprise 15 SP4, run: 

    # SUSEConnect -p sle-module-public-cloud/15.4/x86_64

    For other versions or a complete list of modules and their product identifiers, run SUSEConnect --list-extensions.

3.1.2 Register with SUSEConnect

  

To register a BYOS instance with the SUSE Customer Center, use the command: 

# SUSEConnect -r REGISTRATION_CODE -e EMAIL_ADDRESS

Replace REGISTRATION_CODE with a valid registration code. Replace EMAIL_ADDRESS with the e-mail address associated with the SUSE account you or your organization uses to manage subscriptions.

To register with your own registration server, also provide its URL: 

# SUSEConnect -r REGISTRATION_CODE -e EMAIL_ADDRESS --url URL

3.2 Deregister instances

  

If you are to decommission an instance, remember to deregister it before termination. This will ensure that the system gets removed from the SUSE Customer Center and is no longer counted against your subscription.

  1. Run SUSEConnect --status-text to check the registration status.

  2. If the system is registered, check if the file /var/log/guestregister exists. This usually indicates the system was registered with registercloudguest.

  3. Deregister the system:

    1. If a system was registered with registercloudguest, run: 

      # registercloudguest --clean

    2. If a system was registered with SUSEConnect, run: 

      # SUSEConnect -d

      If this does not work, make sure the package cloud-regionsrv-client is not installed. It may have been installed after the system was registered.