Bootstrapping Cloned Client VMs: Addressing the Issue of Existing Client Removal in SUSE Manager

SUSE Manager Server 4.3

SUSE Manager Server 5.0

You have started bootstrapping your actual client VMs, and so far, several VMs have been successfully bootstrapped.

These VMs are receiving patches and functioning as expected.

However, when you attempt to add an additional VM, it replaces one of the previously added VMs.

There are some error messages in the rhn_web_ui.log:

2025-01-24 07:58:10,633 [salt-event-thread-2] WARN ...........RegisterMinionEventMessageAction - Minion 'TEST021' already registered,
 updating profile to 'TEST003' [38a3492jkjeo93nf0b0e8b1bc89f716b2]

This situation happens when a cloned client is registered to the SUSE Manager.

Please check the system machine ID on the TEST021 and TEST003 systems.

ls -al /etc/machine-id

If the system has duplicated machine-id (means the client is cloned), please follow the next steps to create a new machine-id.

Troubleshooting Registering Cloned Clients   
4.3:
https://documentation.suse.com/suma/4.3/en/suse-manager/administration/troubleshooting/tshoot-registerclones.html

5.0:
https://documentation.suse.com/suma/5.0/en/suse-manager/administration/troubleshooting/tshoot-registerclones.html

If a client is already registered and a clone of that client is created, SUSE Manager is expected to register them as two separate clients. In cases where the machine ID in both the original client and the clone is identical, SUSE Manager registers both clients as a single system, resulting in the existing client data being overwritten with that of the clone.