Deploy SUSE Manager 5 Server

This quick start guide shows you how to install and configure a SUSE Manager 5 container for x86-64 architecture on SLE Micro 5.5.

For this topic we assume that you already have valid organization credentials with SUSE Customer Center and have obtained a registration code for both the host system and the containerized server, for example from a "SUSE Manager Lifecycle Management+" subscription.

In this quickstart, you will embark on deploying SUSE Manager 5 Server. There are several methods to accomplish this task. You may opt to deploy it in the cloud, or deploy it on SLE Micro. However, for the purpose of this quickstart guide, we’ve chosen to focus on setting up a simple KVM environment, installed on openSUSE Leap, as the lab host.

This guide will lead you through the following steps:

  1. Installing openSUSE openSUSE Leap on a physical machine.

  2. Installing KVM tools and using it to configure a suse.lab network.

  3. Create a new KVM host machine using SLE Micro as the container host.

1. Software and Hardware Requirements for SUSE Manager

This table shows the software and hardware requirements for deploying SUSE Manager Server on KVM. For the purposes of this guide expect to deploy on a virtual machine with 16GB of RAM, and at least 200 GB of disk space.

Table 1. Software and Hardware Requirements
Software and Hardware Recommended

Operating System:

openSUSE Leap 15.5: Clean installation, up-to-date

CPU:

Minimum 4 dedicated 64-bit x86-64 CPU cores

RAM:

Development server Minimum 16 GB

Production server Minimum 32 GB

Disk Space:

Disk space depends on your channel requirements, at least 100 GB

50 GB per SUSE or openSUSE product and 360 GB per Red Hat product

Swap space:

3 GB

Supported operating system for the Container Host

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

Base operating system for the Container Image

SUSE Manager 5 uses SUSE Linux Enterprise 15 SP6 as the base operating system of the container image or BCI.

2. Prepare the Physical Machine

2.1. Install openSUSE Leap 15.5

Install openSUSE Leap 15.5 on a bare metal physical machine, or continue using your existing installation. See: Installing openSUSE Leap

2.2. Update the system

Update the system:

sudo zypper ref && zypper up

2.3. Install KVM Tools

  1. Install KVM server and kvm tools:

    sudo zypper in -t pattern kvm_server kvm_tools
  2. Reboot.

2.4. Setup the KVM Network

This XML configuration builds a KVM subnet using the domain name of suse.lab to setup the required FQDN for your test server.

In a production environment your company’s administration services should provide you with a FQDN.

Procedure: Setup the KVM Network
  1. Open the Virt Machine Manager GUI. In Gnome you can click the windows button on your keyboard and type in virt-manager. Alternatively you can open a command prompt and type: virt-manager and click the Enter.

  2. Select edit  Preferences.

  3. In Preferences under the General tab select the checkbox Enable XML editing. Click the close button when complete.

  4. Double click QEMU/KVM text in the main window or select Edit  Connection Details to open the Connection Details window.

  5. Select the Virtual Networks tab then the XML tab.

  6. If the default network is running, stop it using the X button in the lower left.

  7. Copy and paste the following XML snippet beneath your <uuid> block:

    <forward mode="nat">
        <nat>
          <port start="1024" end="65535"/>
        </nat>
      </forward>
      <bridge name="virbr0" stp="on" delay="0"/>
      <mac address="52:54:00:9f:d0:0b"/>
      <domain name="suse.lab" localOnly="yes"/>
      <ip address="192.168.122.1" netmask="255.255.255.0">
        <dhcp>
          <range start="192.168.122.2" end="192.168.122.254"/>
          <host mac="52:54:00:0A:CC:B8" name="suma-server" ip="192.168.122.10"/>
          <host mac="52:54:00:EE:88:85" name="suma-proxy" ip="192.168.122.11"/>
          <host mac="52:54:00:F2:B0:DF" name="minion-one" ip="192.168.122.12"/>
          <host mac="52:54:00:F2:B0:DG" name="minion-one" ip="192.168.122.13"/>
        </dhcp>
      </ip>
    </network>

3. SLE Micro 5.5 Installation

Get a copy of the SLE Micro 5.5 install media. You can begin installation on either a virtual machine or on a physical server.

For detailed documentation on preparing your machines OS (virtual or physical), see SLE Micro 5.5 Deployment Guide.

3.1. Container Host Preparation

Procedure: Setup the Image in Virtual Machine Manager
  1. Open the Virtual Machine Manager and select File  New virtual machine.

  2. In the New VM window select Local install media (ISO image or CDROM) and click Forward.

  3. Click the Browse Button. In the Volumes field select the openSUSE Leap Micro image you downloaded. Click Choose Volume.

  4. Uncheck the Automatically detect from the installation media/source and type micro in the Choose operating system you are installing field. Select SLE Micro 5.5. Click Forward.

  5. Set Memory to 16 GB and CPUs to 2. Click Forward.

  6. Click in the disk image size field and enter 200 GB. The default is 60.0 GB. Click Forward.

  7. Name the system suma-server. Next check the box Customize configuration before install. Click Finish.

  8. In the settings windows select the NIC device. In the Virtual Machine Manager primary window double click QEMU/KVM. Select the Virtual Networks tab. Select XML. Copy the mac address for the suma-server machine.

  9. Open the virtual machine settings page and paste the mac address into the MAC address: field. Click Apply. Then select Begin Installation in the upper left corner.

  10. Procedure: SLE Micro 5.5 Installation

  11. Use the arrow keys to select Installation.

Procedure: SLE Micro 5.5 Installation
  1. Adjust Keyboard and language. Click the checkbox to accept the License Agreement.

  2. Click Next to continue.

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

    SUSE Manager as an extension

    The SUSE Manager 5 container is installed as an extension. Therefore, in addition to acquiring SUSE Customer Center registration keys for SLE Micro 5.5, you will also need SUSE Customer Center registration codes for the following extensions:

    • SUSE Manager 5 Server

    • SUSE Manager 5 Proxy

    • Retail Branch Server

  4. Enter your SUSE Customer Center Email address.

  5. Enter your registration code for SLE Micro 5.5.

  6. Click Next to continue.

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

  8. Select the SUSE Manager 5 Server extension Checkbox.

  9. Click Next to continue.

  10. Enter your SUSE Manager 5 Server extension registration code.

  11. Click Next to continue.

  12. On the NTP Configuration page click Next.

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

  14. On the Installation Settings page click Install.

This concludes installation of SLE Micro 5.5.

3.2. Update the system

  1. Login at the prompt as root.

  2. Run transactional-update:

    transactional-update
  3. Reboot the system.

  4. Login as root.

  5. Enter the transactional shell:

    transactional-update shell
  6. Install the container utilities:

    zypper in mgradm mgrctl mgradm-bash-completion mgrctl-bash-completion netavark
  7. Exit the transactional shell:

    transactional update # exit
  8. Reboot.

4. Deploy SUSE Manager 5 on SLE Micro 5.5

4.1. Deploy with mgradm

Procedure: Deploy SUSE Manager 5 with mgradm
  1. From the terminal run the following command. Entering your servers FQDN is optional. Leave blank for a default setup.

    mgradm install podman <FQDN>
  2. Enter a database and certificate password when prompted. Press Enter.

  3. Enter the administration account email address. Press Enter.

  4. Wait for deployment to complete. On your local machine, add the new server to your hosts file:

    sudo vi /etc/hosts
  5. Add the following snippet your your hosts file:

    192.168.122.119 suma-server.suse.lab
  6. Open a browser and proceed to your servers FQDN, or IP address.

In this section you learned the basic method for deploying a SUSE Manager 5 Server container.

5. Synchronize with SUSE Customer Center

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

Procedure: Entering Organization Credentials
  1. In the SUSE Manager Web UI, select Admin  Setup Wizard.

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

  3. Click Add a new credential.

  4. In the dialog, enter 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 previously registered with SUSE Customer Center a list of products will populate 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 Filter by product description and Filter by architecture to filter the list of displayed products. If your SUSE Linux Enterprise client is based on x86_64 architecture scroll down the page and select the check box for this channel now.

    • 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/spacewalk/ directory of your server.

When the channel is fully synchronized, the bootstrap repository for it will be automatically created. This is necessary for the successful bootstrapping of a client. This completes the SUSE Manager installation and configuration, with channel preparations for bootstrapping clients.

When the channel synchronization process is complete, you can continue with the client registration. For more instructions, see Client Registration.

6. Entering the container for management

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

sudo mgrctl term