Applies to SUSE OpenStack Cloud Crowbar 9

4 Installing and Setting Up an SMT Server on the Administration Server (Optional) #

One way to provide the repositories needed to set up the nodes in SUSE OpenStack Cloud is to install a Subscription Management Tool (SMT) server on the Administration Server, and then mirror all repositories from SUSE Customer Center via this server. Installing an SMT server on the Administration Server is optional. If your organization already provides an SMT server or a SUSE Manager server that can be accessed from the Administration Server, skip this step.

Important: Use of SMT Server and Ports

When installing an SMT server on the Administration Server, use it exclusively for SUSE OpenStack Cloud Crowbar. To use the SMT server for other products, run it outside of SUSE OpenStack Cloud Crowbar. Make sure it can be accessed from the Administration Server for mirroring the repositories needed for SUSE OpenStack Cloud Crowbar.

When the SMT server is installed on the Administration Server, Crowbar provides the mirrored repositories on port 8091.

4.1 SMT Installation #

If you have not installed the SMT server during the initial Administration Server installation as suggested in Section 3.5.1, “Software Selection”, run the following command to install it:

sudo zypper in -t pattern smt

4.2 SMT Configuration #

No matter whether the SMT server was installed during the initial installation or in the running system, it needs to be configured with the following steps.

Note: Prerequisites

To configure the SMT server, a SUSE account is required. If you do not have such an account, register at http://www.suse.com/. All products and extensions for which you want to mirror updates with the SMT server should be registered at the SUSE Customer Center (http://scc.suse.com/).

Configuring the SMT server requires you to have your mirroring credentials (user name and password) and your registration e-mail address at hand. To access them, proceed as follows:
1. Open a Web browser and log in to the SUSE Customer Center at http://scc.suse.com/.
2. Click your name to see the e-mail address which you have registered.
3. Click Organization › Organization Credentials to obtain your mirroring credentials (user name and password).
Start YaST › Network Services › SMT Configuration Wizard.
Activate Enable Subscription Management Tool Service (SMT).
Enter the Customer Center Configuration data as follows:
Use Custom Server: Do not activate this option
User: The user name you retrieved from the SUSE Customer Center
Password: The password you retrieved from the SUSE Customer Center
Check your input with Test. If the test does not return success, check the credentials you entered.
Enter the e-mail address you retrieved from the SUSE Customer Center at SCC E-Mail Used for Registration.
Your SMT Server URL shows the HTTP address of your server. Usually it should not be necessary to change it.
Select Next to proceed to step two of the SMT Configuration Wizard.
Enter a Database Password for SMT User and confirm it by entering it once again.
Enter one or more e-mail addresses to which SMT status reports are sent by selecting Add.
Select Next to save your SMT configuration. When setting up the database you will be prompted for the MariaDB root password. If you have not already created one then create it in this step. Note that this is the global MariaDB root password, not the database password for the SMT user you specified before.
The SMT server requires a server certificate at /etc/pki/trust/anchors/YaST-CA.pem. Choose Run CA Management, provide a password and choose Next to create such a certificate. If your organization already provides a CA certificate, Skip this step and import the certificate via YaST › Security and Users › CA Management after the SMT configuration is done. See https://documentation.suse.com/sles/15-SP1/single-html/SLES-security/#cha-security-yast-security for more information.
After you complete your configuration a synchronization check with the SUSE Customer Center will run, which may take several minutes.

4.3 Setting up Repository Mirroring on the SMT Server #

The final step in setting up the SMT server is configuring it to mirror the repositories needed for SUSE OpenStack Cloud. The SMT server mirrors the repositories from the SUSE Customer Center. Make sure to have the appropriate subscriptions registered in SUSE Customer Center with the same e-mail address you specified when configuring SMT. For details on the required subscriptions refer to Section 2.5, “Software Requirements”.

4.3.1 Adding Mandatory Repositories #

Mirroring the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP4 and SUSE OpenStack Cloud Crowbar 9 repositories is mandatory. Run the following commands as user root to add them to the list of mirrored repositories:

for REPO in SLES12-SP4-{Pool,Updates} SUSE-OpenStack-Cloud-Crowbar-9-{Pool,Updates}; do
  smt-repos $REPO sle-12-x86_64 -e
done

4.3.2 Adding Optional Repositories #

The following optional repositories provide high availability and storage:

High Availability

For the optional HA setup you need to mirror the SLE-HA12-SP4 repositories. Run the following commands as user root to add them to the list of mirrored repositories:

for REPO in SLE-HA12-SP4-{Pool,Updates}; do
  smt-repos $REPO sle-12-x86_64 -e
done

SUSE Enterprise Storage

The SUSE Enterprise Storage repositories are needed if you plan to use an external Ceph with SUSE OpenStack Cloud. Run the following commands as user root to add them to the list of mirrored repositories:

for REPO in SUSE-Enterprise-Storage-5-{Pool,Updates}; do
  smt-repos $REPO sle-12-x86_64 -e
done

4.3.3 Updating the Repositories #

New repositories added to SMT must be updated immediately by running the following command as user root:

smt-mirror -L /var/log/smt/smt-mirror.log

This command will download several GB of patches. This process may last up to several hours. A log file is written to /var/log/smt/smt-mirror.log. After this first manual update the repositories are updated automatically via cron job. A list of all repositories and their location in the file system on the Administration Server can be found at Table 5.2, “SMT Repositories Hosted on the Administration Server”.

4.4 For More Information #

For detailed information about SMT refer to the Subscription Management Tool manual at https://documentation.suse.com/sles/12-SP5/single-html/SLES-smt/.