Deploy SUSE Manager 5.0 Server

This guide shows you how to install and configure a SUSE Manager 5.0 container on SLE Micro 5.5.

1. Hardware Requirements for SUSE Manager

This table shows the software and hardware requirements for deploying SUSE Manager Server on your bare metal machine. For the purposes of this guide your machine should have 16 GB of RAM, and at least 200 GB of disk space.

Table 1. Software and Hardware Requirements
Software and Hardware Recommended

Operating System:

SLE Micro 5.5

Architecture

x86-64, ARM, s390x, ppc64le

Processor: (CPU)

Minimum of four (4) 64-bit CPU cores

RAM:

16 GB

Disk Space:

200 GB

Channel Requirements

50 GB per SUSE or openSUSE product

360 GB per Red Hat product

Swap space:

3 GB
Supported operating system for the Server Container Host

The supported operating system for the container host is SLE Micro 5.5.

Container host

A container host is a server equipped with a container engine like Podman, which lets it manage and deploy containers. These containers hold applications and their essential parts, such as libraries, but not a full operating system, making them lightweight. This setup ensures applications run the same way in different environments. The container host supplies the necessary resources such as CPU, memory, and storage for these containers.

Server deployment mandates the use of a fully qualified domain name (FQDN). In the absence of automatic DNS provision of an FQDN by your router or network, the deployment process will not proceed successfully. An FQDN typically follows the format <host>.<domain>.com.

For instance:

  • suma.example.com

  • suma.container.lab

For more information, see the section on network requirements in Network Requirements.

2. Persistent Volumes

SUSE Manager 5.0 defines the required persistent storage volumes by default. These are created during installation by the mgradm tool if they do not already exist.

These volumes are created in /var/lib/containers/storage/volumes/, where Podman stores its volumes by default.

Recommendations

You can leverage the simplicity of storage by mounting an external storage device to this directory. Since it will store the PostgreSQL database, binary packages for repositories, caches, operating system images, autoinstallation distributions, and configuration files, we have three recommendations:

Fast Storage

This mount point should ideally be NVMe or SSD-class devices. Slower storage will adversely affect SUSE Manager performance.

Large Capacity

Recommended minimum size for this is at least 300 GB, and larger if there will be multiple Linux distributions or architectures to manage.

Recommended Filesystem

XFS (though any supported filesystem for SLE Micro 5.5 could work).
Optional

You can provide custom storage for the volumes by mounting disks on the expected volume path inside it such as /var/lib/containers/storage/volumes/var-spacewalk. This adds to the complexity of a SUSE Manager deployment, and may affect the resilience the default storage recommendation provides.

For a list of all persistent volumes in the container, see List of persistent storage volumes.

3. SLE Micro 5.5 Installation

Procedure: Download the Installation Media

  1. Locate the SLE Micro 5.5 installation media at https://www.suse.com/download/sle-micro/.

  2. You will need an account with SUSE Customer Center and must be logged in to download the ISO image.

  3. Download SLE-Micro-5.5-DVD-x86_64-GM-Media1.iso.

  4. Prepare a DVD or USB flash drive for installation.

  5. Insert the DVD or USB flash drive (USB disk or key) containing the installation image for SLE Micro 5.5.

  6. Boot or reboot your system.

    For more information about preparing your machines (virtual or physical), see SLE Micro 5.5 Deployment Guide.

Procedure: SLE Micro 5.5 Installation

  1. Use the arrow keys to select Installation.

  2. Adjust keyboard and language.

  3. Click the checkbox to accept the license agreement.

  4. Click Next to continue.

  5. Select the registration method. For this example, we will register the server with SUSE Customer Center.

    Registering SUSE Manager as an Extension during Installation

    The SUSE Manager 5.0 container is installed as an extension. Therefore, in addition to acquiring SUSE Customer Center registration codes for SLE Micro 5.5, you will also need SUSE Customer Center registration codes for the following extensions:

    • SUSE Manager 5.0 Server

    • SUSE Manager 5.0 Proxy

    • Retail Branch Server

    The following section uses a registration code for the x86-64 architecture. To register ARM or s390x architectures replace with the correct registration code.

  6. Enter your SUSE Customer Center email address.

  7. Enter your registration code for SLE Micro 5.5.

  8. Click Next to continue.

  9. On the Extension and Module Selection page, uncheck the Hide Development Versions checkbox.

  10. Select the SUSE Manager 5.0 Server extension Checkbox.

  11. Click Next to continue.

  12. Enter your SUSE Manager 5.0 Server extension registration code.

  13. Click Next to continue.

  14. On the NTP Configuration page click Next.

  15. On the Authentication for the System page enter a password for the root user. Click Next.

  16. On the Installation Settings page click Install.

This concludes installation of SLE Micro 5.5 and SUSE Manager 5.0 as an extension.

3.1. Registration from the Command Line (Optional)

If you added SUSE Manager 5.0 as an extension during SLE Micro 5.5 installation then you can skip this step. However, optionally you may skip registration during SLE Micro 5.5 installation by selecting the Skip Registration button. This section provides steps on registering your products after SLE Micro 5.5 installation.

Procedure: Post Installation Product Registration

  1. Register SLE Micro 5.5 to SUSE Customer Center from the command line run the following commands on the container host:

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

  2. Use the registration code you obtained from your SUSE Customer Center account for SLE Micro 5.5.

    The following section uses a registration code for the x86-64 architecture. To register ARM or s390x architectures replace it with the correct registration code.

  3. Next add the SUSE Manager Server Extension 5.0 x86_64 (Beta) Extension. List available extensions with the following command:

    transactional-update --quiet register --list-extensions

  4. Use your SUSE Manager Server Extension 5.0 x86_64 registration code with the following command:

    transactional-update register -p SUSE-Manager-Server/5.0/x86_64 -r <reg_code>

  5. Reboot.

3.2. Update the system

  1. Log in as root.

  2. Run transactional-update:

    transactional-update

  3. Reboot.

4. Deploy with mgradm

Procedure: Deploy SUSE Manager 5.0 Using mgradm

  1. Log in as root.

  2. Execute the following command, replacing <suma.example.com> with your fully qualified domain name:

    mgradm install podman <suma.example.com>

    If the above command fails ensure that you have registered SUSE Manager 5.0. If you skipped registration during installation and now need to register from the command line, follow the steps below to log in to the registry:

    podman login -u <EMAIL> -p <REGISTRATION-CODE> registry.suse.com

    Use the SUSE Manager 5.0 registration key when prompted.

  3. Enter a certificate and administrator account password when prompted.

    The administrator account password must be at least 5 characters and less than 48 characters in length.

  4. Press Enter.

  5. Enter the email address of the administration account. Press Enter.

  6. Wait for deployment to complete.

  7. Open a browser and proceed to your servers FQDN.

  8. Enter your username (default is admin) and the password you set during the deployment process.

In this guide you deployed SUSE Manager 5.0 Server as a container. Proceed to the next section to add your organization credentials for syncing with SUSE Customer Center.

5. Connect SUSE Manager 5.0 to SUSE Customer Center

This section covers synchronizing with SCC from the Web UI and adding your first client channel.

Procedure: Entering Organization Credentials

  1. Open a browser and proceed to your servers FQDN.

  2. Enter your username (default is admin) and the password you set during the deployment process.

  3. In the SUSE Manager Web UI, select Admin  Setup Wizard.

  4. From the Setup Wizard page select the Organization Credentials tab.

  5. Click Add a new credential.

  6. Point your browser to the SUSE Customer Center.

  7. Select your organization from the left navigation.

  8. Select the users tab from the top of the page then Organization Credentials.

  9. Make a note of your Mirroring credentials.

  10. Back in the SUSE Manager Web UI enter your Username and Password, and confirm with Save.

When the credentials are confirmed with a green check-mark icon, proceed with Procedure: Synchronizing with SUSE Customer Center.

Procedure: Synchronizing with SUSE Customer Center

  1. In the Web UI, navigate to Admin  Setup Wizard.

  2. From the Setup Wizard page select the SUSE Products tab. If you recently registered with SUSE Customer Center a list of products will begin populating the table. This operation could take up to a few minutes. You can monitor the progress of the operation in section on the right Refresh the product catalog from SUSE Customer Center. The table of products lists architecture, channels, and status information. For more information, see Wizard.

    admin suse products

  3. Use the Filter by product description and Filter by architecture to filter the list of displayed products. The channels listed on the Products page provide repositories for clients.

    • Add channels to SUSE Manager by selecting the check box to the left of each channel. Click the arrow symbol to the left of the description to unfold a product and list available modules.

    • Click Add Products at the top of the page to start product synchronization.

After adding the channel, SUSE Manager will schedule the channel to be synchronized. This can take a long time as SUSE Manager will copy channel software sources from the SUSE repositories located at SUSE Customer Center to the local /var/lib/containers/storage/volumes/var-spacewalk/ directory of your server.

When the channel is fully synchronized, a bootstrap repository for it will be automatically generated. This step is crucial for successfully bootstrapping clients, ensuring that the channel synchronization and distribution are operational on the client side. This completes the installation and configuration of SUSE Manager, along with preparing the channels necessary for bootstrapping clients.

When the channel synchronization process is complete, you can proceed with registering the SUSE Manager 5.0 Proxy or additional clients.

For more instructions, see Client Registration.

6. Entering the container for management

To get to a shell inside the container, run on the container host:

mgrctl term