Troubleshooting Renaming SUSE Manager Server

If you change the hostname of the SUSE Manager Server locally, your SUSE Manager installation ceases to work properly. This is because the changes have not been made in the database, which prevents the changes from propagating out your clients and any proxies.

If you need to change the hostname of the SUSE Manager Server, you can do so using the spacewalk-hostname-rename script. This script updates the settings in the 15 database and the internal structures of SUSE Manager.

The spacewalk-hostname-rename script is part of the spacewalk-utils package.

The only mandatory parameter for the script is the newly configured IP address of the SUSE Manager Server.

Procedure: Renaming SUSE Manager Server
  1. Change the network settings of the server on the system level locally and remotely at the DNS server. You also need to provide configuration settings for reverse name resolution. Changing network settings is done in the same way as with renaming any other system.

  2. Reboot the SUSE Manager Server to use the new network configuration and to ensure the hostname has changed.

  3. Run the script spacewalk-hostname-rename script with the public IP address of the server. If the server is not using the new hostname, the script fails. Be aware that this script refreshes the pillar data for all Salt clients: the time it takes to run depends on the number of registered clients.

  4. Skip this step if the clients are managed via a SUSE Manager proxy. Re-configure the clients directly managed to make them aware of the new hostname and IP address. In the Salt client configuration file, you must specify the name of the new Salt master (SUSE Manager Server) (the filename is /etc/venv-salt-bundle/minionor, if you do not use the Salt bundle, /etc/salt/minion):

    master: <new_hostname>
  5. Restart the venv-salt-minion service (if using the Salt bundle):

    systemctl restart venv-salt-minion

    Or the salt-minion service (if not using the Salt bundle):

    systemctl restart salt-minion
  6. To fully propagate the hostname to the Salt client configuration apply the high state. Applying the high state will update the hostname in the repository URLs.

Any proxy must be reconfigured. The new server certificate and key must be copied to the proxy and the configure-proxy.sh script must be run. For more information about configuring a proxy, see SUSE Manager Proxy Setup.

Directly connected traditional clients have the /etc/sysconfig/rhn/up2date configuration file that must be changed. With a re-activation key you can re-register traditional clients (if there are any). For more information, see Register on the Command Line (Salt).

If you use PXE boot through a proxy, you must check the configuration settings of the proxy. On the proxy, run the configure-tftpsync.sh setup script and enter the requested information. For more information, see SUSE Manager Proxy Setup.