Creating Child Channel for Red Hat Base Media in SUSE Manager 3.1

SUSE Manager 3.1

In certain circumstances having the Red Hat base media available for dependency issues is necessary.  This TID will describe how to add the Red Hat base media as a child channel in SUSE Manager 3.1

In order to populate the child channel the appropriate Red Hat base media needs to be made available to SUSE Manager spacewalk sync.  The easiest way to accomplish this is to use the ISO for the required base media.

On the SUSE Manager server:

Mount the ISO desired (RES 7.3 media used for this example)

# mkdir /mnt/res73/

Using the directory created above we can now mount the ISO to that directory:

# mount -o loop /some/path/rhel-server-7.3-x86_64-dvd.iso /mnt/res73/

Next we need to create a child channel (with a relevant name) under the appropriate parent channel (for example: RHEL x86_64 Server 7 for RES7 media and RHEL x86_64 Server 6 for RES6 media) to sync the media to.

This can be accomplished via the SUSE Manager webUI or via spacecmd

webUI method:

1. In the webUI goto Software --> Channels --> Manage Software Channels --> Overview
2. Click on "+ Create Channel" in the upper right corner
3. Fill out the required items (the following is just an example):

    Channel Name:          RES 7.3 Media
    Channel Label:           res73-media
    Parent Channel:         RHEL x86_64 Server 7
    Architecture:               x86_64
    Channel Summary:   RES 7.3 Media

The other items can be filled out as necessary.  NOTE: It is important to ensure that the correct parent channel is selected.

4. Select Create Channel
5. Open a terminal on the SUSE Manager server and run the following command to populate the channel that was just created:

# spacewalk-repo-sync -c res73-media -u file:///mnt/res73/

spacecmd method:

1. Run the following to create the channel:

#spacecmd -u <webUI admin name>

          <enter webUI admin password if requested>

At the spacecmd prompt enter the following (ie :  spacecmd {SSM:0}> ):

spacecmd {SSM:0}>  softwarechannel_create -n "RES 7.3 Media" -l res73-media -p rhel-x86_64-server-7 -a x86_64

         Where the options are:
             -n NAME
             -l LABEL
            -p PARENT_CHANNEL
            -a ARCHITECTURE

2. Type "exit" to leave spacecmd
3. Populate the newly created channel with spacewalk-repo-sync:

# spacewalk-repo-sync -c res73-media -u  file:///mnt/res73/

The new channel can now be added to existing RES 7.3 clients and to the activation key used to bootstrap RES 7.3 clients.