Registering Red Hat Enterprise Linux Clients with RHUI
If you are running Red Hat Enterprise Linux clients directly, rather than using SUSE Linux Enterprise Server with Expanded Support, you need to use Red Hat sources to retrieve and update packages.
This section contains information about using Red Hat update infrastructure (RHUI) to register traditional and Salt clients running Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating systems.
Traditional clients are available on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 only. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 clients are supported as Salt clients.
If you are running your clients in a public cloud, such as Amazon EC2, use this method.
It is possible to use RHUI in conjunction with the Red Hat content delivery network (CDN) to manage your Red Hat Enterprise Linux subscriptions. For information about using Red Hat CDN, see Registering Red Hat Enterprise Linux Clients with CDN.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux clients are based on Red Hat and are unrelated to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server with Expanded Support, RES, or SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. You are responsible for connecting SUSE Manager Server to the Red Hat update infrastructure. All clients that get updates using this RHUI certificate need to be correctly licensed, please check with your cloud provider and the Red Hat terms of service for more information. |
When Red Hat Enterprise Linux clients registered with RHUI are switched off, Red Hat might declare the certificate invalid. In this case, you need to turn the client on again, or get a new RHUI certificate. |
1. Import Entitlements and Certificates
In the past it was required to import the certificates and entitlement data manual into SUSE Manager Server. We automated this task now by using the same mechanism as for SUSE PAYG instances. See also Connect PAYG instance.
This guide covers clients registered to Red Hat update infrastructure (RHUI). You must have at least one system registered to RHUI, with an authorized subscription for repository content.
For information about using Red Hat content delivery network (CDN) instead, see Registering Red Hat Enterprise Linux Clients with CDN.
Satellite certificates for client systems require a Satellite server and subscription. Clients using Satellite certificates are not supported with SUSE Manager Server. |
The PAYG connection regular checks with the client to get the latest authentication data. It is important that the client stays running and is regular updated. If this does not happen, repository synchronization will fail with authentication errors at some point in time. |
Update any Red Hat 7 instance before connecting it. |
A Red Hat 9 instance needs to be configured with the crypto policy |
2. Connecting to Red Hat update infrastructure
-
In the SUSE Manager Web UI, navigate to
, and click Add PAYG. -
Start with the page section
PAYG connection Description
. -
In the
Description
field, add the description. -
Move to the page section
Instance SSH connection data
. -
In the
Host
field, enter the instance DNS or IP address to connect from SUSE Manager. -
In the
SSH Port
field, enter the port number or use default value 22. -
In the
User
field, enter the username as specified in the cloud. -
In the
Password
field, enter the password. -
In the
SSH Private Key
field, enter the instance key. -
In the
SSH Private Key Passphrase
field, enter the key passphrase.
Authentication keys must always be in PEM format. |
If you are not connecting directly to the instance, but via SSH bastion, proceed with Procedure: Adding SSH bastion connection data.
Otherwise, continue with Procedure: Finishing Red Hat connecting.
-
Navigate to the page section
Bastion SSH connection data
. -
In the
Host
field, enter the bastion hostname. -
In the
SSH Port
field, enter the bastion port number. -
In the
User
field, enter the bastion username. -
In the
Password
field, enter the bastion password. -
In the
SSH Private Key
field, enter the bastion key. -
In the
SSH Private Key Passphrase
field, enter the bastion key passphrase.
Complete the setup with Procedure: Finishing Red Hat connecting.
-
To complete adding new Red Hat connection data, click Create.
-
Return to PAYG connection data
Details
page. The updated connection status is displayed on the top section namedInformation
. -
Connection status is shown in
Admin > Setup Wizard > Pay-as-you-go
screen, too. -
If the authentication data for the instance is correct, the column
Status
showsCredentials successfully updated.
If invalid data is entered at any point, the newly created instance is shown in |
As soon as the authentication data is available on the server, repositories were added for all available repositories on the connected instance.
The repositories can be seen in Software > Manage > Repositories
A Red Hat connection will create custom repositories which are owned by organization 1 by default.
If a different organization should own the autogenerated repositories, configure |
This only defines and updates the repositories. If you want to use a repository for a managed client, you need to specify a Software Channel and connect the repositories to it.
3. Add Software Channels
Before you register Red Hat clients to your SUSE Manager Server, you need to add the required software channels, and synchronize them.
In the following section, descriptions often default to the |
Your SUSE Manager subscription entitles you to the tools channels for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server with Expanded Support (also known as Red Hat Expanded Support or RES). You must use the client tools channel to create the bootstrap repository. This procedure applies to both Salt and traditional clients.
The products you need for this procedure are:
OS Version | Product Name |
---|---|
Red Hat 9 |
RHEL and Liberty 9 Base |
Red Hat 8 |
RHEL or SLES ES or CentOS 8 Base |
Red Hat 7 |
RHEL7 Base x86_64 |
-
In the SUSE Manager Web UI, navigate to
. -
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. -
Click Add Products and wait until the products have finished synchronizing.
The AppStream repository provides modular packages. This results in the SUSE Manager Web UI showing incorrect package information. You cannot perform package operations such as installing or upgrading directly from modular repositories using the Web UI or API. Alternatively, you can use Salt states to manage modular packages on Salt clients, or use the |
4. Prepare Custom Channels
To mirror the software from RHUI, you need to create custom channels in SUSE Manager that are linked to autogenerated repositories.
The channels you need for this procedure are:
OS Version | Base Product | Base Channel |
---|---|---|
Red Hat 9 |
RHEL and Liberty 9 Base |
el9-pool-x86_64 |
Red Hat 8 |
RHEL or SLES ES or CentOS 8 Base |
rhel8-pool-x86_64 |
Red Hat 7 |
RHEL7 Base x86_64 |
rhel7-pool-x86_64 |
-
On the SUSE Manager Server Web UI, navigate to
. -
Click Create Channel and set the appropriate parameters for the channels.
-
In the
Parent Channel
field, select the appropriate base channel. -
Click Create Channel.
-
Repeat for all channels you need to create. There should be one custom channel for each custom repository.
You can check that you have created all the appropriate channels and repositories, by navigating to
.
For Red Hat 8 clients, add both the Base and AppStream channels. You require packages from both channels. If you do not add both channels, you cannot create the bootstrap repository, due to missing packages. |
When you have created all the channels, you can associate them with the repositories you created:
-
On the SUSE Manager Server Web UI, navigate to
, and click the channel to associate. -
Navigate to the
Repositories
tab, and check the repository to associate with this channel. -
Click Update Repositories to associate the channel and the repository.
-
Repeat for all channels and repositories you need to associate.
-
OPTIONAL: Navigate to the
Sync
tab to set a recurring schedule for synchronization of this repository. -
Click Sync Now to begin synchronization immediately.
5. Check Synchronization Status
-
In the SUSE Manager Web UI, navigate to
and select theProducts
tab. This dialog displays a completion bar for each product when they are being synchronized. -
Alternatively, you can navigate to
, then click the channel associated to the repository. Navigate to theRepositories
tab, then clickSync
and checkSync Status
.
-
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
-
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.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux channels can be very large. Synchronization can sometimes take several hours. |
6. Manage GPG Keys
Clients use GPG keys to check the authenticity of software packages before they are installed. Only trusted software can be installed on clients.
Trusting a GPG key is important for security on clients. It is the task of the administrator to decide which keys are needed and can be trusted. Because a software channel cannot be used when the GPG key is not trusted, the decision of assigning a channel to a client depends on the decision of trusting the key. |
For more information about GPG keys, see GPG Keys.
7. Register Clients
To register your clients, you need a bootstrap repository. By default, bootstrap repositories are automatically created, and regenerated daily for all synchronized products. You can manually create the bootstrap repository from the command prompt, using this command:
mgr-create-bootstrap-repo
For more information on registering your clients, see Client Registration.