Synchronization CLI Tools

There are two tools for synchronizing clients to the server. For clients that are connected to the SUSE Customer Center, use mgr-sync. For all other clients, use spacewalk-repo-sync.

1. Synchronize SCC Repositories With mgr-sync

The primary use of mgr-sync is to connect to the SUSE Customer Center, retrieve product and package information, and prepare channels for synchronization with the SUSE Manager Server.

This tool is designed for use with a SUSE support subscription. It is not required for open source distributions, including openSUSE, CentOS, and Ubuntu.

The available commands and arguments for mgr-sync are listed in this table. Use this syntax for mgr-sync commands:

mgr-sync [-h] [--version] [-v] [-s] [-d {1,2,3}] {list,add,refresh,delete}
Table 1. mgr-sync Commands
Command Description Example Use

list

List channels, organization credentials, or products

mgr-sync list channels

add

Add channels, organization credentials, or products

mgr-sync add channel <channel_name>

refresh

Refresh the local copy of products, channels, and subscriptions

mgr-sync refresh

delete

Delete existing SCC organization credentials from the local system

mgr-sync delete credentials

sync

Synchronize specified channel or ask for it when left blank

mgr-sync sync channel <channel_name>

To see the full list of options specific to a command, use this command:

mgr-sync <command> --help
Table 2. mgr-sync Optional Arguments
Option Abbreviated option Description Example Use

help

h

Display the command usage and options

mgr-sync --help

version

N/A

Display the currently installed version of mgr-sync

mgr-sync --version

verbose

v

Provide verbose output

mgr-sync --verbose refresh

store-credentials

s

Store credentials a local hidden file

mgr-sync --store-credentials

debug

d

Log additional debugging information. Requires a level of 1, 2, 3. 3 provides the highest amnount of debugging information

mgr-sync -d 3 refresh

no-sync

N/A

Use with the add command to add products or channels without beginning a synchronization

mgr-sync --no-sync add <channel_name>

Logs for mgr-sync are located in:

  • /var/log/rhn/mgr-sync.log

  • /var/log/rhn/rhn_web_api.log

2. Synchronize Repositories with spacewalk-repo-sync

The spacewalk-repo-sync tool synchronizes software repositories into SUSE Manager channels. In most cases, this happens automatically, but you can use the tool to run it manually if required.

The spacewalk-repo-sync tool has these primary commands:

Table 3. spacewalk-repo-sync Options
Option Description Example Use

list

List all custom channels and the repositories assigned to them.

spacewalk-repo-sync --list

channel

Synchronize a single channel to all repositories assigned to it.

spacewalk-repo-sync --channel <custom-channel>

deep-verify

ignore cached package checksums.

spacewalk-repo-sync --deep-verify

force-all-errata

force re-importing all the patches.

spacewalk-repo-sync --deep-verify

no-packages

excludes packages from the operation.

spacewalk-repo-sync --deep-verify --no-packages

For a complete list of options, see the spacewalk-repo-sync manpage:

man spacewalk-repo-sync

3. Troubleshooting Synchronization

If you are having trouble synchronizing with spacewalk-repo-sync you can find out more by watching the HTTP log as the command runs.

Procedure: Troubleshooting Synchronization Problems

  1. Log the HTTP output into /var/log/zypper.log:

    ZYPP_MEDIA_CURL_DEBUG=2 spacewalk-repo-sync --channel <channel-label>

  2. Export the setting:

    export URLGRABBER_DEBUG=DEBUG

  3. Start the synchronization:

    /usr/bin/spacewalk-repo-sync --channel <channel-label> --type yum
    You can increase the debug level, by adding the [option]``-vvv`` option to the command.

  4. When the complete completes, or fails, disable debug mode:

    unset URLGRABBER_DEBUG

3.1. Add Custom Extra HTTP Headers

You can add custom HTTP headers to the requests made by spacewalk-repo-sync at the time of synchronization. The custom HTTP headers are defined in the /etc/rhn/spacewalk-repo-sync/extra_headers.conf configuration file. The headers can be defined by repository name or channel label. You can also define global headers by putting them in the main section. For example:

[testchannel]
X-MY-HEADER-1=VALUE
X-MY-HEADER-2=VALUE

[mychannel]
X-MY-HEADER-3=VALUE
X-MY-HEADER-4=VALUE

[main]
X-MYGLOBAL-HEADER=VALUE

This can be particularly useful when dealing with Red Hat Update Infrastructure (RHUI) repositories in the public cloud.