Registering Amazon Linux Clients

This section contains information about registering traditional and Salt clients running Amazon Linux operating systems.

Amazon Linux repository URLs are available from SUSE Customer Center, but the packages and metadata are provided by Amazon, not by SUSE.

Traditional clients are not available on Amazon Linux 2. Amazon Linux 2 clients are only supported as Salt clients.

Amazon Linux instances always have the same machine-id id at /etc/machine-id. Make sure you regenerate the machine-id after the instance is created. For more information, see Troubleshooting Registering Cloned Clients.

1. Add Software Channels

Before you register Amazon Linux clients to your SUSE Manager Server, you need to add the required software channels, and synchronize them.

The architectures currently supported are: x86_64 and aarch64. For full list of supported products and architectures, see Supported Clients and Features.

For example, when working with x86_64 architecture, you need this product:

Table 1. Amazon Linux Products - WebUI
OS Version Product Name

Amazon Linux 2

Amazon Linux 2 x86_64
Procedure: Adding Software Channels

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

  2. Locate the appropriate products for your client operating system and architecture using the search bar, and check the appropriate product. This will automatically check all mandatory channels. Also all recommended channels are checked as long as the include recommended toggle is turned on. Click the arrow to see the complete list of related products, and ensure that any extra products you require are checked.

  3. Click Add Products and wait until the products have finished synchronizing.

Alternatively, you can add channels at the command prompt. The channels you need for this procedure are:

Table 2. Amazon Linux Channels - CLI
OS Version Base Channel

Amazon Linux 2

amazonlinux2-core-x86_64
Procedure: Adding Software Channels at the Command Prompt

  1. At the command prompt on the SUSE Manager Server, as root, use the mgr-sync command to add the appropriate channels:

    mgr-sync add channel <channel_label_1>
mgr-sync add channel <channel_label_2>
mgr-sync add channel <channel_label_n>

  2. Synchronization starts automatically. If you want to synchronize the channels manually, use:

    mgr-sync sync --with-children <channel_name>

  3. Ensure the synchronization is complete before continuing.

2. Check Synchronization Status

Procedure: Checking Synchronization Progress from the Web UI

  1. In the SUSE Manager Web UI, navigate to Admin  Setup Wizard and select the Products tab. This dialog displays a completion bar for each product when they are being synchronized.

  2. Alternatively, you can navigate to Software  Manage  Channels, then click the channel associated to the repository. Navigate to the Repositories tab, then click Sync and check Sync Status.

Procedure: Checking Synchronization Progress from the Command Prompt

  1. At the command prompt on the SUSE Manager Server, as root, use the tail command to check the synchronization log file:

    tail -f /var/log/rhn/reposync/<channel-label>.log

  2. Each child channel generates its own log during the synchronization progress. You need to check all the base and child channel log files to be sure that the synchronization is complete.

3. Create an Activation Key

You need to create an activation key that is associated with your Amazon Linux channels.

For more information on activation keys, see Activation Keys.

4. Trust GPG Keys on Clients

By default, operating systems trust only their own GPG keys when they are installed, and do not trust keys provided by third party packages. The clients can be successfully bootstrapped without the GPG key being trusted. However, you cannot install new client tool packages or update them until the keys are trusted.

Salt clients are set to trust SUSE tools channels GPG keys when they are bootstrapped. For all other clients and channels, you need to manually trust third party GPG keys.

If you are bootstrapping Salt clients from the SUSE Manager Web UI, you can use a Salt state to trust the key. For more information on custom Salt states, see Custom Salt States.
Procedure: Trusting GPG Keys on Clients Using a Bootstrap Script

  1. On the SUSE Manager Server, at the command prompt, check the contents of the /srv/www/htdocs/pub/ directory. This directory contains all available public keys. Take a note of the key that applies to the channel assigned to the client you are registering.

  2. Open the relevant bootstrap script, locate the ORG_GPG_KEY= parameter and add the required key. For example:

    uyuni-gpg-pubkey-0d20833e.key

    You do not need to delete any previously stored keys.

Trusting a GPG key is important for security on clients. It is the task of the admin to decide which keys are needed and can be trusted. Trusting the key is done manually, either by writing a Salt state or adding the keys to the bootstrap script.

5. Register Clients

Amazon Linux clients are registered in the same way as all other clients. For more information, see Client Registration Overview.