Migrate Traditional Clients to Salt Clients

To migrate a system from a traditional to a Salt client, the user can create a Salt bootstrap script and re-register the client system with it.

This could be done by:

  • generating a reactivation key for the client,

  • creating a bootstrap script with a specific activation key, and

  • running the bootstrap script to register the client, with the aforementioned reactivation key.

1. Generate Reactivation Key

A reactivation key can be used to re-register the client and regain all SUSE Manager settings. For more information on how to create reactivation key, see client-configuration:activation-keys.adoc#reactivation_keys.

2. Create Bootstrap Script

A bootstrap script can be created with the Web UI or from the command line. For more information about creating bootstrap script, see Register Clients with a Bootstrap Script, and for generating a suitable activation key in advance, see Activation Keys.

Use the activation key you generating in advance when creating the bootstrap script.

When the bootstrap script is generated, it is stored on the server in the /srv/www/htdocs/pub/bootstrap directory. Alternatively, you can access the bootstrap script over HTTPS. Replace <example.com> with the host name of the SUSE Manager Server:

https://<example.com>/pub/bootstrap/bootstrap.sh

Bootstrap script will try to install venv-salt-minion for Salt clients if it is available in the bootstrap repository, or salt-minion if there is no Salt bundle in the bootstrap repository. It is possible to avoid installing Salt bundle and keep using salt-minion if you need it.

For more information, see Salt Bundle.

3. Run Bootstrap Script

As the final step, run the bootstrap script to migrate and register clients.

Procedure: Running the bootstrap script

  1. On the SUSE Manager Server, sign in as root. At the command prompt, change to the bootstrap directory:

    cd /srv/www/htdocs/pub/bootstrap/

  2. Run the following command to execute the bootstrap script on the client. Replace EXAMPLE.COM with the hostname of your client, and REACT_KEY with the reactivation key:

    cat bootstrap-migrate-to-salt.sh | ssh root@EXAMPLE.COM REACTIVATION-KEY=REACT_KEY /bin/bash

  3. Alternatively, on the client, run the command:

    curl -Sks https://server_hostname/pub/bootstrap/bootstrap-migrate-to-salt.sh | REACTIVATION-KEY=REACT_KEY /bin/bash

    The script downloads the required dependencies.

  4. Make sure to accept the new Salt key before looking for your new Salt minion. You can open the SUSE Manager Web UI and navigate to Salt  Keys to accept the client key

  5. When the script has finished running, you can check that your client is registered correctly by opening the SUSE Manager Web UI and navigating to Systems  Overview. Ensure the new client is listed with the Salt instead of the Management system type.

When new packages or updates are installed on the client using SUSE Manager, any end user license agreements (EULAs) are automatically accepted. To review a package EULA, open the package detail page in the Web UI.

For more information about using bootstrap scripts, see Register Clients with a Bootstrap Script.