Managing RH/CentOS with SUSE Manager · Why manage RH/CentOS with SUSE Manager? Common challenges and elements Using SUSE Expanded support and SUSE Manager • Syncing channels •

Managing RH/CentOS with

SUSE® ManagerTUT91274

Don Vosburg

Sales Engineer, SUSE

[email protected]

Gokhan Cetinkaya

Sales Engineer, SUSE

[email protected]

Agenda

● Why manage RH/CentOS with SUSE Manager?

● Common challenges and elements

● Using SUSE Expanded support and SUSE Manager

• Syncing channels

• Client bootstrap process

● Using Native channels

• For RH systems

• For CentOS systems

● Demonstrations

● Resources and links

● Questions2

Why manage RH/CentOS with SUSE Manager?

3

Why manage RH/CentOS with SUSE Manager?

● Unique offering that crosses enterprise distributions

● Like many organizations, you have SUSE and

RH/CentOS

● Other offerings have fallen short

● Terrific value

● The promise of Salt...

4

Common Challenges and Elements

5

What does it take?

● Two supported environments

• Expanded Support subscription from SUSE

• RH Subscription entitlements - SUSE supports

the SUSE Manager functions only, not patch

content

● Patience and effort can produce an effective

management platform6

Challenges

● RHN stack is now “classic”

● Large repositories

• Disk space needed in /var/spacewalk

• Initial channel sync can tax taskomatic

● SUSE only owns package/patch content from

Expanded Support channels

● Documentation is sometimes unclear or non-

specific7

Key common elements

● Increased load/time for initial channel sync

● Monitoring of errata and errata parsing

● Bootstrap repositories - necessary for RH5,

CentOS

● GPG keys for repositories used

● Modified bootstrap scripts to make registration

effective

8

Using SUSE Expanded Support with SUSE Manager

9

Expanded Support features

● Supports both RH and CentOS with the same patch

stream

● SUSE Customer Center is the source of the

channels

• mgr-sync and GUI product integration

• Experience is most like SLE and the standard

documentation

● Like RH - single large channel

● Unlike RH - base media is customer-provided

10

Channels with Expanded Support

● Parent channel has 0 packages

● SUSE Manager can sync three channels

• resX-platform

• resX-ha-platform

• resX-suse-manager-tools-platform

● Base media channel must be added for

dependency resolution

• https://wiki.microfocus.com/index.php/SUSE_Manager/Sync_RH

EL_media11

Expanded Support recommendations

● Add base media repo(s) as child channels

• Use activation keys to assign channels properly

• Keep the parent channel empty if you have both

RH and CentOS clients

● Provision /var/spacewalk adequately

● Increase maximum memory for taskomatic JVM

• https://wiki.microfocus.com/index.php/SUSE_Manager/Tuning_

Central_Config#taskomatic.java.maxmemory_.3D_2048

● Keep in mind the binary relationship with RH

subscriptions 12

Using RH Native Channels with SUSE Manager

13

RH Native Update - advantages

● Full SUSE Manager functionality

● No intermediary software required

● Uses the same entitlement certificates as any RH

update tool

● User gets all the channels subscribed

● It is not Satellite 6

● Errata parsing integrated

• Patch severity and relevance maintained!14

RH Native update - How does it work?

● Requires user-maintained RH entitlement

● Integrates with custom channels

• User supplies channel URL and certificate

information

• User sets synchronization schedule

● Base media included in the server channel

● SUSE Manager tools channel must be created for

client functionality

• Cloned from the res tools channel 15

Using CentOS Native Channels with SUSE Manager

16

CentOS Native update - How does it work?

● Uses the spacewalk-common-channels script

to create custom channels

• User sets synchronization schedule

● Base media included in the base channel

● SUSE Manager tools channel must be created for

client functionality

• Cloned from the res tools channel

● Bootstrap repository from res tools needed17

CentOS Native - Errata parsing

● CentOS native channels will show no patch/errata

info without separate action

● Instructions on the SUSE Manager wiki specific to

this:

• Perl script and errata info must be downloaded

• Specify the channels to include/exclude

• Schedule via cron

● Not supported by SUSE18

Demonstration

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Resources and Links

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Resources for RH and SUSE Manager

Expanded support homepage:

https://www.suse.com/products/expandedsupport

SUSE Manager wiki:

https://wiki.microfocus.com/index.php/SUSE_Manager

Other relevant SUSE Manager sessions at SUSECon 2016:

BOV89033 - Using SUSE Manager's Audit capabilities to improve efficiency and security

CAS91938 - SUSE Manager 3 & SaltStack at Tyson Foods

FUT92726 - The SUSE Manager Roadmap: A journey towards agile management of workloads in the enterprise

HO91268 - SUSE Manager for Smarties - Hands On Salt and SUSE Manager

TUT91318 - Popular Usecases of SUSE Manager in Heterogeneous Environments

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Questions???

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