Update your Cloud Instances from the Cloud with SUSE Manager 4.2 – New PAYG Capabilities

If you are running SUSE Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) instances in the cloud, SUSE Manager has some good news for you!

The SUSE Cloud team has created a robust infrastructure for updating PAYG systems.  There is built-in repository infrastructure that aligns with the systems you build on AWS, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud.

But what if you wish to register those systems with SUSE Manager?  Or what if you wish to make use of the bundled client for SUSE Manager included with PAYG SLES for SAP systems?

Register Cloud Clients to SUSE Manager

For several releases we have documented ways to register these cloud clients to SUSE Manager.

Previously this required an entitlement that allowed SUSE Manager to get content via SUSE Customer Center and Content Delivery Network.  If all you have is PAYG instances in the cloud, you may not have that entitlement.  And it would need to pull in the same content that is already available through the SUSE update infrastructure right there in that same cloud.

Enter SUSE Manager 4.2.5, and the new Pay-As-You-Go addition to the ‘Setup Wizard’!  All the entitlements and repositories your PAYG client brings to SUSE Manager can become the source content for channel synchronization.  Let’s explore how this works.

Configure SUSE Manager to use Pay-as-you-go systems for channel synchronization

Official documentation for this feature is here:

https://documentation.suse.com/suma/4.2/en/suse-manager/installation/connect-payg.html

Basic steps are:

1 –  Build your SUSE Manager server  in the same public cloud region as the Pay-as-you-go instance which has your entitlement

2 – Tell SUSE Manager how to connect via SSH to that system

3 – As soon as the authentication data is available on the server, the list of available products is updated.

4 – Choose the products you need, and allow SUSE Manager to synchronize channels!

Available products now listed in SUMA are all versions of the same product family and architecture as the one installed in the Pay-as-you-go instance. For example, if the instance has the SLES 15 SP1 product installed, SLES 15 SP2 and SLES 15 SP3 are automatically shown in Admin > Setup Wizard > Products.

Keep this PAYG system available to SUSE Manager to maintain authorization for the channels you wish to add.

Your channel synchronization logs (/var/log/rhn/reposync/) will look something like this – note the cloud-based URL in this snippet:

2022/03/04 01:34:16 -04:00 Command: ['/usr/bin/spacewalk-repo-sync', '--channel', 'sle-product-sles_sap15-sp3-pool-x86_64', '--type', 'yum', '--non-interactive']
2022/03/04 01:34:16 -04:00 Sync of channel started.
2022/03/04 01:34:18 -04:00 Repo URL: https://SCC_819745ccc0484f749e726c2739299858:*******@smt-ec2.susecloud.net/repo/SUSE/Products/SLE-Product-SLES_SAP/15-SP3/x86_64/product/
2022/03/04 01:34:18 -04:00 Packages in repo: 2
2022/03/04 01:34:18 -04:00 Packages already synced: 0
2022/03/04 01:34:18 -04:00 Packages to sync: 2
2022/03/04 01:34:18 -04:00 New packages to download: 2
2022/03/04 01:34:18 -04:00 Downloading packages:
2022/03/04 01:34:19 -04:00 1/2 : SLES_SAP-release-15.3-47.1.x86_64.rpm
2022/03/04 01:34:19 -04:00 2/2 : skelcd-control-SLES4SAP-15.3.1-1.74.x86_64.rpm
2022/03/04 01:34:19 -04:00 Importing packages started.
2022/03/04 01:34:19 -04:00 
2022/03/04 01:34:19 -04:00 Importing packages to DB:
2022/03/04 01:34:22 -04:00 Package batch #1 of 1 completed...
2022/03/04 01:34:22 -04:00 Importing packages finished.

Note that your other entitlements through SCC continue working if you have them.  It will merge the PAYG credential rights with any that SCC accounts provide in the Product list.

Now you can create Activation Keys and/or Content Lifecycle Projects as needed!  Register your PAYG systems (including this entitlement instance) to SUSE Manager as a client as well.

Here is the official documentation on registering a cloud instance to SUSE Manager:

https://documentation.suse.com/suma/4.2/en/suse-manager/client-configuration/clients-pubcloud.html

You can update your SUSE Manager 4.2 server to take advantage of this feature (and others) by following this guide:

https://documentation.suse.com/suma/4.2/en/suse-manager/upgrade/server-z.html

Stephen Mogg has created a short demo video showing how to connect a PAYG instance:

Demonstration – Connecting a PAYG instance in SUSE Manager 4.2.5+