Troubleshooting Renaming SUSE Manager Server

If you change the hostname of the SUSE Manager Server locally, your SUSE Manager installation ceases to work properly. This is because the changes have not been made in the database, which prevents the changes from propagating out your clients and any proxies.

1. Rename Server

If you need to change the hostname of the SUSE Manager Server, you can do so using the spacewalk-hostname-rename script. This script updates the settings in the PostgreSQL database and the internal structures of SUSE Manager.

1.1. Server Configuration

The spacewalk-hostname-rename script is part of the spacewalk-utils package.

The only mandatory parameter for the script is the newly configured IP address of the SUSE Manager Server.

Procedure: Renaming SUSE Manager Server

  1. Change the network settings of the server on the system level locally and remotely at the DNS server. You also need to provide configuration settings for reverse name resolution. Changing network settings is done in the same way as with renaming any other system.

  2. Reboot the SUSE Manager Server to use the new network configuration and to ensure the hostname has changed.

  3. On the container host, from the command line, execute the following command to configure the public IP address of the server:

    mgrctl exec -ti -- spacewalk-hostname-rename <PUBLIC_IP_ADDRESS>
    shell

    If the server is not using the new hostname, the script fails. Be aware that this script refreshes the pillar data for all Salt clients: the time it takes to run depends on the number of registered clients.

1.2. Directly Managed Clients Reconfiguration

Skip this procedure if clients are managed via a SUSE Manager proxy.

With the following procedure, reconfigure directly managed clients to make them aware of the new hostname and IP address.

Procedure: Reconfiguring Directly Managed Clients

  1. On the every client, in the Salt client configuration file, specify the name of the new Salt master (SUSE Manager Server). The filename is /etc/venv-salt-minion/minion.d/susemanager.conf or, if you do not use the Salt bundle, /etc/salt-minion/minion.d/susemanager.conf:

    master: <new_hostname>

  2. On every client, restart Salt service. Either run:

    systemctl restart venv-salt-minion
    shell

    Or, if you do not use the Salt bundle, run:

    systemctl restart salt-minion
    shell

1.3. Client Connection with Applying High State

Finally, to fully propagate the hostname to the Salt client configuration, apply the high state. Applying the high state will update the hostname in the repository URLs.

2. Reconfigure Proxy

Every proxy must be reconfigured. The new server certificate and key must be copied to the proxy. For more information, see Install SUSE Manager Proxy.

If you use PXE boot through a proxy, you must check the configuration settings of the proxy. If you use PXE boot through non-containerized SUSE Manager Proxy 4.3, tftpsync needs to be reconfigured.

On the container host, execute:

mgrctl exec -ti -- configure-tftpsync.sh
shell