SUSE Manager 4.3 Server Deployment as a Virtual Machine - VMware

This chapter provides the required Virtual Machine settings for deployment of SUSE Manager 4.3 as an Image. VMware will be used as a sandbox for this installation.

1. Available Images

The preferred method for deploying SUSE Manager 4.3 Server is to use one of the following available images. All tools are included in these images greatly simplifying deployment.

Images for SUSE Manager 4.3 are available at SUSE Manager 4.3 VM images.

Customized SUSE Manager 4.3 VM images are provided only for SL Micro 6.1. To run the product on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server {bci-mlm}, use the standard SUSE Linux Enterprise Server {bci-mlm} installation media available at https://www.suse.com/download/sles/ and enable the SUSE Manager 4.3 extensions on top of it.

For more information on preparing raw images, see https://documentation.suse.com/sle-micro/6.1/html/Micro-deployment-raw-images-virtual-machines/index.html#deployment-preparing-configuration-device.

For additional information on the self install images, see https://documentation.suse.com/sle-micro/6.1/html/Micro-deployment-selfinstall-images/index.html
Table 1. Available Server Images
Architecture Image Format

aarch64

qcow2, vmdk

x86_64

qcow2, vmdk, raw, Self Installer

ppc64le

raw, Self Installer

s390x *

qcow2, raw

* Two storage options are available for s390x: CDL DASD and FBA.

2. SUSE Manager Virtual Machine Settings - VMware

This sections describes VMware configurations, focusing on the creation of an extra virtual disk essential for the SUSE Manager storage partition within VMware environments.

Procedure: Creating the VMware Virtual Machine

  1. Download SUSE Manager Server .vmdk file then transfer a copy to your VMware storage.

  2. Make a copy of uploaded .vmdk file using VMware web interface. This will convert provided .vmdk file to the format suitable for vSphere hypervisor.

  3. Create and name a new virtual machine based on the Guest OS Family Linux and Guest OS Version SUSE Linux Enterprise 15 (64-bit).

+

  1. Add an additional Hard Disk 2 of 500 GB (or more).

  2. Configure RAM and number of CPUs with minimum values. *)

  3. Set the network adapter as required.

  4. Power on the VM, and follow firstboot dialogs (keyboard layout, license agreement, time zone, password for root).

  5. When installation completes log in as root.

  6. Proceed to the next section.

*) For minimum values, see installation-and-upgrade:hardware-requirements.adoc#proxy-hardware-requirements.

3. Register SL Micro and SUSE Manager 4.3 Server

Before starting obtain your SUSE Manager Registration Code from {scclongform} - https://scc.suse.com.

The SL Micro 6.1 entitlement is included within the SUSE Manager entitlement, so it does not require a separate registration code.

SUSE Manager server hosts that are hardened for security may restrict execution of files from the /tmp folder. In such cases, as a workaround, export the TMPDIR environment variable to another existing path before running mgradm.

For example:

export TMPDIR=/path/to/other/tmp

In SUSE Manager updates, tools will be changed to make this workaround unnecessary.
Procedure: Registering SL Micro and SUSE Manager 4.3

  1. Boot the virtual machine.

  2. Log in as root.

  3. Register SL Micro with SUSE Customer Center.

    transactional-update register -r <REGCODE> -e <your_email>

  4. Reboot.

  5. Register SUSE Manager 4.3 with {scclongform}.

    transactional-update register -p Multi-Linux-Manager-Server/5.1/x86_64 -r <REGCODE>

  6. Reboot

  7. Update the system:

    transactional-update

  8. If updates were applied reboot.

  9. This step is optional. However, if custom persistent storage is required for your infrastructure, use the mgr-storage-server tool.

    For more information, see mgr-storage-server --help. This tool simplifies creating the container storage and database volumes. Use the command in the following manner:

    mgr-storage-server <storage-disk-device> [<database-disk-device>]

    For example:

    mgr-storage-server /dev/nvme1n1 /dev/nvme2n1

    This command will create the persistent storage volumes at /var/lib/containers/storage/volumes.

    For more information, see

  10. Deploy SUSE Manager.

    If you use VM images as a migration target, here as the last step, execute the command mgradm migrate instead of mgradm install.

    Execute one of the following commands, depending on the SSL certificate variant (self-signed or third-party). Replace <FQDN> with your fully qualified domain name of the SUSE Manager Server:

    • Using self-signed certificates provided by SUSE Manager:

      mgradm install podman <FQDN>

    • With importing SSL certificates using third-party SSL certificate flags (the example can adjusted if not all these certificates are needed):

      mgradm install podman <FQDN> \
  --ssl-ca-intermediate <strings> \
  --ssl-ca-root <string> \
  --ssl-server-cert <string> \
  --ssl-server-key <string> \
  --ssl-db-ca-intermediate <strings> \
  --ssl-db-ca-root <string> \
  --ssl-db-cert <string> \
  --ssl-db-key <string>

      For more information, see mgradm install podman --help.