SUSE Manager clients registration troubleshooting

This document (7023241) is provided subject to the disclaimer at the end of this document.

Environment

SUSE Manager 3.2
SUSE Manager 3.1
SUSE Manager 3

Situation

A client needs to be registered into SUSE Manager, either by using salt or by registering it as a traditional client. However an error is encountered that prevents the registration (the error message can vary depending on the situation).

Resolution

There are some general checks that should be performed regardless of the error being returned, the following should be verified:

A. That the basic requirements are met, especially a minimum of 16 GB of RAM should be provided. This requirement is raised in the case of a productive system up to a minimum of 32 GB, for more information see the online SUSE Manager documentation.

B. The Network is properly configured, especially if there are firewalls or proxies in the environment. See the online SUSE Manager documentation for information on the required ports. Regarding the proxy, it should be set up in the SUSE Manager web-UI and also on the Operating System level. The former can be checked under the tab "Admin" -> "HTTP Proxy" and the latter can be checked by running as root "yast proxy".

C. DNS (Domain Name Resolution) is working for all systems and FQDN's (Fully Qualified Domain Names) should be configured for the entire environment. This is also a requirement, see the requirements section in the online SUSE Manager documentation.

D. NTP (Network Time Protocol) is configured for the environment. Time drifts may lead to registration problems since certificates are involved, and these rely on the time. NTP can be configured by running "yast ntp-client".

E. The patch status of the SUSE Manager server, make sure it is fully patched. Updates for SUSE Manager are released on a regular basis and most issues can be resolved by simply making sure the system is fully patched:

zypper ref && zypper patch && zypper patch

After patching it is needed to restart specific services or the server should be rebooted if an update affects for example the kernel.

F. In the case of a new Database schema after patching, it should be applied by running:

spacewalk-service stop && spacewalk-schema-upgrade && spacewalk-service start

G. The nightly sync of channels should be checked, the path for the log files is:

/var/log/spacewalk/reposync

H. The bootstrap repository should be checked (/srv/www/htdocs/pub/repositories/) and it should contain all the needed packages. If in doubt, it can always be re-generated. Note that this operation is harmless and can be performed at any time. It actually is good practice to re-generate the bootstrap repository from time to time, whenever the SUSE Manager tools repositories receive new packages.

1. For SLES clients

mgr-create-bootstrap-repo

2. For Red Hat clients, a child channel with the ISO should be provided and once this is set up, the command to re-generate the bootstrap repository would be different:

mgr-create-bootstrap-repo --with-custom-channels

For more information see the SUSE Manager wiki page.

I. Activation key(s), especially verify that the needed child channels are correct (pool and updates channels are included, and SUSE Manager tools are not forgotten). For more information see the SUSE Manager online documentation.

J. The bootstrap script (in case one is being used), it is possible that something was recently added to it:

1. For traditional clients

mgr-bootstrap --traditional

2. For salt clients

mgr-bootstrap

In both cases, the script should be adapted afterwards, namely the variables ORG_GPG_KEY and ACTIVATION_KEYS should contain the proper information (the content of "ls /srv/www/htdocs/pub/*.key" can be checked for the former), and should there be an "exit 1" in the early beginning of the script, it should be commented or removed.

Should the problem persist after all of the above have been checked please contact SUSE support for additional assistance. When doing so include the following:

1. A supportconfig of the SUSE Manager server.

2. The session log as a text file of all the above checks.

NOTE: Systems not meeting the minimum requirements may not be supported regardless of the issue being encountered.

Cause

Additional Information

Disclaimer

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