SUSE Customer Center (SCC) enablement for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11

This document (7024042) is provided subject to the disclaimer at the end of this document.

Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP4
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP3

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 for SAP Applications SP4
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 for SAP Applications SP3

Situation

The Novell Customer Center (NCC) is no longer available for systems running SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11.
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 Servers that are currently registered to the Novell Customer Center (NCC) will need to be enabled or migrated to the SUSE Customer Center (SCC) in order to receive future maintenance updates.

When attempting to register a new SLES 11 system with the following type of command, if this adjustment to SCC has not been made, the following error will occur:

suse_register -a regcode-sles=<registration_key> -a email=<email_address>

ERROR: No registration key for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP4 was provided.
Registration failed.(99)

Resolution

SLES 11 SP3 LTSS & SLES 11 SP4 LTSS

Existing firewall rules must not interfere with scc.suse.com (which is implied with the manual URL change) and updates.suse.com (where updates will be downloaded from) in order to receive updates in the future.

A. Automatic migration of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 systems from to SCC from NCC.

An RPM update will be or is distributed to enable automatically migration to SCC from NCC.

The key points of the automatic migration to SCC:

1. Requires cron
2. Logs are written to syslog and tagged with "suse_register"
3. Three log levels are being used: "info"(default), "debug" and "error"
4. Successful migration is marked in the logs with "info" level by "Migration completed successfully."
5. The update script is schedule by a file in /etc/cron.d and will be removed automatically when changes were done.
6. In case of an error, suse_register's logs are written to /root/.suse_register.log
7. The location of migration script is /usr/lib/suseRegister/bin/cron_migration_to_scc. Could be ran also manually, logs to syslog not to stdout.

B. Manual enablement to SCC

1. Server connected directly to SCC

New SLES-11 Installation (not supported anymore):

For new SLES-11 installation from DVD media please skip the registration.
After installation, run the registration directly to SCC as shown below.

Migration SLES-11 to SCC:

Adapt the URL to point the registration to SCC instead of NCC - specifically, change the following line in the /etc/suseRegister.conf file:

url = https://secure-www.novell.com/center/regsvc/

to:

url = https://scc.suse.com/ncc/center/regsvc

The change can be simply done by:

sed -i 's#https://secure-www.novell.com/center/regsvc/#https://scc.suse.com/ncc/center/regsvc#g' /etc/suseRegister.conf

The change can be verified with:

grep 'url = ' /etc/suseRegister.conf

In case /etc/suseRegister.conf was accidentally deleted (for instance, by following the TID 000019054), you may re-create it - with the following content:

url = https://scc.suse.com/ncc/center/regsvc
listParams = command=listparams
register = command=register
listProducts = command=listproducts
addRegSrvSrc = true

Registration:

# suse_register -a email=<your-email@example.com> -a regcode=<SLES-Key>

Registration finished successfully,refresh all services
 # zypper refs
Refreshing service 'scc_suse_com'.
All services have been refreshed.

# zypper lr
# | Alias                                    | Name                        | Enabled | Refresh
--+------------------------------------------+-----------------------------+---------+--------
1 | scc_suse_com:SLE11-Public-Cloud-Module   | SLE11-Public-Cloud-Module   | Yes     | Yes
2 | scc_suse_com:SLE11-SP4-Debuginfo-Pool    | SLE11-SP4-Debuginfo-Pool    | No      | Yes
3 | scc_suse_com:SLE11-SP4-Debuginfo-Updates | SLE11-SP4-Debuginfo-Updates | No      | Yes
4 | scc_suse_com:SLE11-Security-Module       | SLE11-Security-Module       | No      | Yes
5 | scc_suse_com:SLES11-Extras               | SLES11-Extras               | No      | Yes
6 | scc_suse_com:SLES11-SP4-Pool             | SLES11-SP4-Pool             | Yes     | Yes
7 | scc_suse_com:SLES11-SP4-Updates          | SLES11-SP4-Updates          | Yes     | Yes

2 Client connected directly to SMT-12 (SMT on SLES 11 SP4 is not supported)

New SLES-11 Installation (no longer supported):

Install SLES-11 from DVD media and skip the registration.
Run the client SMT re-registration.

Installed SLES-11 clients

No changes on client needed as SMT is connected to SCC

How to migrate SMT to access SCC (SUSE Customer Center) and register SLES 12 servers is documented in TID 7015836

3 Client connected directly to SUSE MANAGER

New SLES-11 Installation:

Install SLES-11 from DVD media and skip the registration.
Run the client SUSE MANAGER traditional or salt re-registration.

Installed SLES-11 clients

No changes on client need as SUSE MANAGER is connected to SCC

Cause

The former Novell Customer Center (NCC) is no longer used for any SUSE server registrations.

Additional Information

More information about the SUSE Customer Center can be found here: https://scc.suse.com/docs/help

Please read the following TID before trying to use the information contained in this document:

SMT running on SLES11 SP4 can no longer synchronize any repository content
https://www.suse.com/support/kb/doc/?id=000021070

Disclaimer

This Support Knowledgebase provides a valuable tool for SUSE customers and parties interested in our products and solutions to acquire information, ideas and learn from one another. Materials are provided for informational, personal or non-commercial use within your organization and are presented "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND.