Release notes for SUSE Manager 3.1 Server

Version 3.1.3
Monday December 18, 2017

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Version Revision History

About SUSE Manager

You have more than just a few Linux servers to manage, maybe even a mixed environment of RHEL and SLES?

Then SUSE Manager is the answer.

SUSE Manager gives you best-in-class open source infrastructure management with new enhancements focused on improving DevOps efficiency, with both RHEL and SLES support from one unified console, maintained and improved by the guys who wrote the fastest and most advanced Linux update stack on the planet.

SUSE Manager gives you the lowest possible Total Cost of Ownership for your Linux environment, from bare metal provisioning to daily patch management. SUSE Manager is an open source (GPLv2) Linux systems management solution that allows you to:

Stay up-to-date

You can stay up-to-date regarding information about SUSE Manager and SUSE products:

Installation

Requirements

SUSE Manager 3.1 Server is an extension for SLES 12 SP3 for x86-64 or z Systems (s390x).

This means that installation is done in two steps

This addresses the need of enterprise deployments to standardize on the base operating system as well as specific storage setups.

It is strongly recommended to use SUSE Manager with the embedded database. PostgreSQL is only supported as a local (embedded) database.

Registration code

The SUSE Manager 3.1 Server registration code, matching your hardware architecture, can be used to register the SLES 12 SP3 base system as well.

Installing the SUSE Manager 3.1 Server extension on SLES 12 SP3

You'll need a physical or virtual SLES 12 SP3 x86_64 or s390x system to install SUSE Manager 3.1 Server.

When you install and register SLES 12 SP3, SUSE Manager 3.1 Server will show up in the list of available extensions.

You'll need a valid SUSE Manager 3.1 Server registration code to access this extension.

Update from previous versions of SUSE Manager Server

You can update from SUSE Manager 3.0 Server to SUSE Manager 3.1 Server.

Updates from older versions are not supported.

The actual upgrade can be done as a two-step or a one-step approach.

The two-step approach migrates the SUSE Manager 3.0 Server to SLES 12 SP3 first, followed by an update to SUSE Manager 3.1 Server.

The one-step approach migrates the SUSE Manager 3.0 Server to SUSE Manager 3.1 Server together with the service pack migration of the base system from SLES 12 SP1 to SLES 12 SP3.

See the best practices manual for detailed instructions on how to upgrade.

All connected clients will continue to run and are manageable unchanged.

Migrating from RHN Satellite

Is conditionally supported with SUSE Manager 3.1 Server.

If you have the need to migrate from RHN Satellite to SUSE Manager 3.1 Server, please get in contact with a SUSE sales engineer or a SUSE consultant before starting the migration.

Major changes since SUSE Manager Server 3.1 GA

Features and changes

Version 3.1.3

Database cleanup migration

After several reports about duplicate package ids in the database, a cleanup task was introduced in spacewalk-schema-upgrade to repair such cases.

Warning In case your database is corrupted with duplicate package ids, this cleanup task can take hours to complete. Runtimes of 4-5 hours are normal.

Here is how to check for duplicate package ids 

  echo "select min(id) as id \
         from rhnpackageevr \
        group by version, release, epoch \
          having count(*) > 1;" \
    | spacewalk-sql --select-mode-direct -

  echo "select min(id) as id \
          from rhnPackageCapability \
          group by name, version \
          having count(*) > 1;"\
    | spacewalk-sql --select-mode-direct -

These read-only checks can be run during normal operation of SUSE Manager. Just running the checks can take a long time (up to 1hr in some of our test scenarios. YMMV).

If any of these queries returns a non-empty result, it can be stopped immediately. Your database has duplicate package ids in this case and the next run of spacewalk-schema-upgrade will take hours.

Take this under consideration before starting the upgrade to SUSE Manager 3.1.3.

Check for duplicate minion ids

With this update we introduce a unique constraint on minion_id in the database.

When multiple systems exists already with the same minion_id, the schema migration will fail.

There will be a list of the duplicates in the schema migration log. In this case, duplicate minion_id need a manual cleanup:

Minion power management

Power management (power on, off, and reboot systems via the IPMI protocol if the systems are IPMI-enabled) is now enabled for Salt minions.

PostgreSQL backup configuration

During the migration of PostgreSQL from 9.4 to 9.6, the backup configuration might get lost and needs to be recreated with smdba.

Documentation

The 'image building' chapter was improved and moved to the Advanced Topics manual.

Removal of Certification Module for SLES 12 SP2 and SP3

Certification Module was accidently provided for SLES12 SP2 and SP3.

But this module does not exist for these service packs and got removed in SUSE Manager.

If you have mirrored this module for SP2 or SP3, please remove the channels using spacewalk-remove-channel command

New products supported

Version 3.1.2

PostgreSQL 9.6 support

A new version of the PostgreSQL database is available in SLES 12 SP2 and can be used for SUSE Manager 3.1 Server.

New installations of SUSE Manager 3.1 Server based on SLES 12 SP3 will automatically pick up this version.

Migrating from PostgreSQL 9.4 to PostgreSQL 9.6

Note: SUSE Manager 3.1 Server must NOT be migrated to SLES 12 SP3 before migrating PostgreSQL to version 9.6.

The migration needs PostgreSQL 9.4 and 9.6 installed in parallel and PostgreSQL 9.4 is only available in SLES 12 SP2

You should have an up-to-date database backup before attempting the migration.

Existing installations of SUSE Manager 3.1 Server will need to run 

      /usr/lib/susemanager/bin/pg-migrate.sh

to migrate from PostgreSQL 9.4 to PostgreSQL 9.6

Your SUSE Manager Server installation will not be accessible during the migration.

Migration will create a copy of the database under /var/lib/pgsql and thus needs sufficient disk space to hold two copies (9.4 and 9.6) of the database.

Since it does a full copy of the database, it also needs considerable time depending on the size of the database and the IO speed of the storage.

If your system is scarce on disk space you can do an fast, in-place migration by running 

      /usr/lib/susemanager/bin/pg-migrate.sh fast

The fast migration usually only takes minutes and no additional disk space. However, in case of failure you need to restore the database from a backup.

This wiki page contains additional information about the migration.

SUSE Manager Server enabled for SLES 12 SP3

SUSE Manager 3.1 is now based on SLES 12 SP3.

If you already have a SUSE Manager 3.1 Server or Proxy deployed, you can now initiate a service pack migration as outlined in the SLES documentation.

Please migrate to PostgreSQL 9.6 as outlined above before starting the service pack migration.

If you deploy a SUSE Manager 3.1 Server or Proxy anew, please start with SLES 12 SP3 as the base operating system.

Release notes and documentation have been adapted to reflect this.

Channel changes on minions

This update brings an important change in semantics when changing channel assignments on minions.

In the past, channel assignment changes were executed immediately, without respecting config change time slots. Effectively doing a 'change of client configuration outside of a maintenance window'.

This is fixed with 3.1.2 by delaying state application until

A respective web UI information is also shown for the client.

SUSE CaaS Platform / Kubernetes integration

This update brings the initial integration of SUSE Manager with the SUSE CaaS Platform

You can now search containers running on the SUSE CaaS Platform for

The SUSE CaaS Platform / Kubernetes infrastructure data can also be visualized via the Systems > Visualization page.

Container inspection / Image import

Inspection of containers build by SUSE Manager was already part of the 3.1 release.

Now you can also import and inspect any 'foreign' container image available in the configured container registry.

This feature is currently limited to SLES-based containers. The container needs to have Python installed.

Version 3.1.1

Bugfix release

New products supported

Patches

The SUSE Patch Finder is a simple online service to view released patches.

Version 3.1.3

Server

cobbler:

nutch:

osad:

spacecmd:

spacewalk-backend:

spacewalk-branding:

spacewalk-certs-tools:

spacewalk-java:

spacewalk-reports:

spacewalk-search:

spacewalk-web:

supportutils-plugin-salt:

supportutils-plugin-susemanager:

susemanager:

susemanager-docs_en:

susemanager-schema:

susemanager-sls:

susemanager-sync-data:

virtual-host-gatherer:

Salt

salt:

Client tools

cobbler:

osad:

spacecmd:

spacewalk-backend:

spacewalk-oscap:

supportutils-plugin-salt:

zypp-plugin-spacewalk:

Version 3.1.2

Client tools

spacecmd:

spacewalk-backend:

supportutils-plugin-salt:

Salt

The following security issue has been fixed:

Additionally, the following non-security issues have been fixed:

Server

salt-netapi-client:

smdba:

spacecmd:

spacewalk:

spacewalk-backend:

spacewalk-branding:

spacewalk-config:

spacewalk-doc-indexes:

spacewalk-java:

spacewalk-web:

supportutils-plugin-salt:

susemanager:

susemanager-docs_en:

susemanager-schema:

susemanager-sls:

susemanager-sync-data:

virtual-host-gatherer:

python-websocket-client:

Version 3.1.1

jabberd:

osad:

salt-netapi-client:

smdba:

spacecmd:

spacewalk-backend:

spacewalk-branding:

spacewalk-certs-tools:

spacewalk-java:

spacewalk-search:

spacewalk-utils:

spacewalk-web:

susemanager:

susemanager-docs_en:

susemanager-schema:

susemanager-sync-data:

Major changes since SUSE Manager 3.0 Server

Upgrade of base system to SLES 12 SP2

SUSE Manager 3.1 is based on SLES 12 SP2 as its base operating system.

SUSE Manager Proxy versions

SUSE Manager 3.1 Server can work with version 3.0 of SUSE Manager Proxy.

When upgrading, upgrade the server first, followed by proxies. See the advanced topics manual for detailed upgrade instructions.

Spacewalk 2.6

SUSE Manager 3.1 Server is based on Spacewalk 2.6 with many new features added by SUSE.

Managing Container Images

You can now enable Salt minions to act as container build hosts.

Manage and audit your container images by creating image stores, define image profiles and build images.

For more information see 'Building Containers' in the reference manual.

UI and Usability

Reduced vertical waste

The page header has been improved to dramatically reduce the space wasted, giving more visibility to the actual page content.

New navigation structure

The horizontal navigation items have been moved from the page header to the left navigation plane. See 'Navigation' in the reference manual.

Action buttons visibility

Action buttons, historically placed at the end of lists, have been moved to the top and will stay visible even if the list is scrolled down.

Top of page button

A shortcut to scroll up to the top of the page has been added to the lower right corner of the UI.

Visualization

You can now visualize your systems infrastructure. This feature allows you to search, filter and partition systems by name, base channel, check-in date, etc.

The initial release focusses on data from the SUSE Manager database.

Future improvements will enrich this with data from external systems, like monitoring systems or virtualization hosts.

Scalability

SUSE Manager 3.1 Server provides many scalability enhancements over SUSE Manager 3.0 Server. Some operations have seen a ten-fold speed improvement over previous releases.

We will continue to invest into this area in further maintenance updates.

Automatic product installation

If a newly added child channel provides a SUSE product (like a SLES module or extension), this product is automatically installed.

Salt

Salt update to 2016.11.4

Salt has been upgraded to the 2016.11.4 release. This represents the 'latest & greatest' release from upstream at time of 'code freeze' for SUSE Manager 3.1.

We do intend to upgrade Salt regularly to more recent versions.

Minions in the system set manager

The system set manager (SSM) now supports minions. You can as well add or remove a minion from the current set.

The System Set Manager Overview page has an 'Apply Highstate' button now.

Bootstrap defaults to SALT now

The 'bootstrap' script by default installs a Salt minion now.

The --salt option is deprecated.

Use --traditional to install a traditional (non-Salt) client.

OpenSCAP for minions

You can now work with OpenSCAP and Salt minions. To begin using OpenSCAP with Salt minions you can follow the traditional setup guide

This feature does not yet work for minions attached via salt-ssh.

Change of jabberd database

jabberd now uses sqlite in place of the berkeley db database to improve stability and performance. sqlite is the preferred database option for jabberd.

Fresh installations of SUSE Manager 3.1 Server will use sqlite by default.

Existing installation need to manually switch to this database as follows 

      # systemctl stop jabberd
      # spacewalk-setup-jabberd
      # systemctl start jabberd

jabberd removal and recreation

Notice that the sqlite variant of the jabberd database does not get re-created automatically.

The workaround for corruptions of the old database - regular removal - does not apply anymore.

In case you erroneously deleted the sqlite database, jabberd will not be able to re-create it.

You need to run /usr/share/spacewalk/setup/jabberd/create_sqlite3_database to create the database schema and restart jabberd.

Formulas with Forms

Salt formulas can be integrated with the Manager UI. A sample Formula with Form to configure locale-related settings (timezone/locale/keyboard) is included.

Upstream changes since SUSE Manager 3.0

Note: Changes from the upstream project are listed here as-is. There's no guarantee that all of them are actually available in SUSE Manager 3.1 Server.

Spacewalk 2.6

Spacewalk 2.5

Support

Supportconfig confidentiality disclaimer

When handling Service Requests, supporters and engineers may ask for the output of the supportconfig tool from the SUSE Manager Server or clients.

The standard disclaimer applies: 

  Detailed system information and logs are collected and organized in a
  manner that helps reduce service request resolution times.
  Private system information can be disclosed when using this tool.
  
  If this is a concern, please prune private data from the log files.
  
  Several startup options are available to exclude more sensitive
  information. Supportconfig data is used only for diagnostic purposes
  and is considered confidential information.

In the SUSE Manager Server's case, please be aware that supportconfig's output will contain information about clients as well.

In particular, debug data for the Subscription Matching feature contain a list of the registered clients, their installed product and some minimal hardware information (CPU socket count). It also contains a copy of subscription data available from the SUSE Customer Center.

If this is a concern, please prune data in the subscription-matcher directory in the spacewalk-debug tarball.

Supportability of embedded software components

All software components embedded into SUSE Manager, like Cobbler for PXE booting, are only supported in the context of SUSE Manager. Stand-alone usage is not supported.

Red Hat Channels

Managing Red Hat clients requires availability of appropriate Red Hat packages. These are not available through the SUSE Customer Center (SCC) but must be provided by other means, e.g. from a retired Red Hat Satellite installation.

Support for EOL'ed products

The SUSE Manager engineering team provides 'best effort' support for products past their end-of-life date. See the Product Support Lifecycle page.

This support is limited to scenarios to bring production systems to a supported state. Either by migrating to a supported service pack or by upgrading to a supported product version.

Support for SLES 10 based systems

The SUSE Manager client stack for SLES10 based systems is identical to the one used on SLES11 based systems. SLES 10 systems managed by SUSE Manager will have the ZENworks Managemen Daemon (ZMD) and the rug command line tool removed.

Salt is not available for SLES 10.

Note that SLES 10 has already reached its end-of-life date and engineering only provides 'best effort' support.

spacewalk-utils

spacewalk-utils, a packaged set of command line tools, continues to be L1* supported only - with some exceptions. Any of these commands needs expertise and can break your system. However, we consider these tools valuable enough to be included, but not fully supported.

* L1 (Problem determination, which means technical support designed to provide compatibility information, usage support, on-going maintenance, information gathering and basic troubleshooting using available documentation.)

The following tools of spacewalk-utils are fully supported:

Providing feedback to our products

In case of encountering a bug please report it through your support contact.

Documentation and other information

Technical Information: SUSE Manager contains additional or updated documentation for SUSE Manager Server 3.1.

These Release Notes are available online. Further information about SUSE Manager is available in the Wiki

Visit http://www.suse.com for the latest Linux product news from SUSE and http://www.suse.com/download-linux/source-code.html for additional information on the source code of SUSE Linux Enterprise products.

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