Linux Server Support - How to Register a Red Hat Server

Objective

Following these steps will register a Red Hat server for use on the MSU network.

Environment

Linux

Before You Begin

MSU uses the Satellite server “satellite.itservices.msu.edu” instead of using the RHEL mirrors directly. If you are using MSU’s Red Hat Enterprise Linux site license, you will need to use that as your server for your updates and licensing. You may download installation media from our Satellite as well: http://satellite.itservices.msu.edu/pub/iso/

Steps

New Registrations

1. Install the version of Red Hat that you need.
2. DNS must resolve for the Satellite server for the certificate to match on update. If necessary, add an entry for “satellite.itservices.msu.edu” to your /etc/hosts file resolving to 35.9.245.251
   If the above IP does not resolve, then use 35.8.0.4.
3. As root, run this command to get the certificate:
   1. curl -k https://satellite.itservices.msu.edu/pub/katello-ca-consumer-latest.noarch.rpm -o /root/katello-ca-consumer-latest.noarch.rpm
   2. yum install /root/ katello-ca-consumer-latest.noarch.rpm
4. As root, run the following command replacing ACTIVATION_KEY with the key that was given to you in your request:
   • subscription-manager register --org="msu_site_license" --activationkey="${ACTIVATION_KEY}"
5. As root, or with sudo, confirm everything is set up (and update your system) with this command:
   • yum check-update
6. Install the katello-agent
   • yum install katello-agent
     This command fails for a fresh rhel 8 install because the legacy rhel 6.x repo is not enabled by default. See RHEL KB https://access.redhat.com/solutions/3192402

Migrating from Satellite 5

1. DNS must resolve for the Satellite server for the certificate to match on update. If necessary, add an entry for “satellite.itservices.msu.edu” to your /etc/hosts file resolving to 35.9.245.251
2. Ensure that subscription-manager is installed:
   • yum install subscription-mananger
3. Clear yum cache
   • yum clean all
4. Backup old registration
   • mv /etc/sysconfig/rhn/systemid /etc/sysconfig/rhn/systemid.bkp
5. Disable the RHN classic yum plugin, edit /etc/yum/pluginconf.d/rhnplugin.conf and change enabled = 1 to enabled = 0
6. As root, run this command to get the certificate:
   • curl -k https://satellite.itservices.msu.edu/pub/katello-ca-consumer-latest.noarch.rpm -o /root/katello-ca-consumer-latest.noarch.rpm
   • yum install /root/ katello-ca-consumer-latest.noarch.rpm
7. As root, run the following command replacing ACTIVATION_KEY with the key that was given to you in your request:
   • subscription-manager --org="msu_site_license" --activationkey="${ACTIVATION_KEY}"
8. As root, or with sudo, confirm everything is set up (and update your system) with this command:
   • yum check-update
9. Install the katello-agent
   • yum install katello-agent
     This command fails for a fresh rhel 8 install because the legacy rhel 6.x repo is not enabled by default. See RHEL KB https://access.redhat.com/solutions/3192402

Additional Info

• If EPEL is installed, you will need to add the following lines to the EPEL repo configuration to prevent problems with gopherd:
  • exclude = qpid-proton-c* python2-qpid-proton*
• To UNREGISTER a server, as root (or with sudo), run:
  • subscription-manager unregister