Registering AlmaLinux Clients

This section contains information about registering clients running AlmaLinux operating systems.

When created at AWS, AlmaLinux instances always have the same machine-id id at /etc/machine-id. Make sure you regenerate the machine-id after the instance is created. For more information, see Troubleshooting Registering Cloned Clients.

1. Add Software Channels

Registering AlmaLinux clients to Uyuni is tested with the default SELinux configuration of enforcing with a targeted policy. You do not need to disable SELinux to register AlmaLinux clients to Uyuni.

Before you can register AlmaLinux clients to your Uyuni Server, you need to add the required software channels, and synchronize them.

The architectures currently supported are: x86_64 and aarch64, on version 9 additionally ppc64le and s390x. For full list of supported products and architectures, see Supported Clients and Features.

In the following section, descriptions often default to the x86_64 architecture. Replace it with other architectures if appropriate.

The channels you need for this procedure are:

Table 1. AlmaLinux Channels - CLI
OS Version Base Channel Client Channel AppStream Channel

AlmaLinux 9

almalinux9

almalinux9-uyuni-client

almalinux9-appstream

AlmaLinux 8

almalinux8

almalinux8-uyuni-client

almalinux8-appstream
Procedure: Adding Software Channels at the Command Prompt

  1. At the command prompt on the Uyuni Server, as root, use the spacewalk-common-channels command to add the appropriate channels. Ensure you specify the correct architecture:

    spacewalk-common-channels \
-a <architecture> \
<base_channel_name> \
<child_channel_name_1> \
<child_channel_name_2> \
... <child_channel_name_n>

  2. If automatic synchronization is turned off, synchronize the channels:

    spacewalk-repo-sync -p <base_channel_label>-<architecture>

  3. Ensure the synchronization is complete before continuing.

The client tools channel provided by spacewalk-common-channels is sourced from Uyuni and not from SUSE.

For AlmaLinux 9 and AlmaLinux 8 clients, add both the Base and AppStream channels. You require packages from both channels. If you do not add both channels, you cannot create the bootstrap repository, due to missing packages.

If you are using modular channels, you must enable the Python 3.6 module stream on the AlmaLinux 8 client. If you do not provide Python 3.6, the installation of the spacecmd package will fail.

You might notice some disparity in the number of packages available in the AppStream channel between upstream and the Uyuni channel. You might also see different numbers if you compare the same channel added at a different point in time. This is due to the way that AlmaLinux manages their repositories. AlmaLinux removes older version of packages when a new version is released, while Uyuni keeps all of them, regardless of age.

2. Check Synchronization Status

Procedure: Checking Synchronization Progress from the Web UI

  1. In the Uyuni Web UI, navigate to Software  Manage  Channels, then click the channel associated to the repository.

  2. Navigate to the Repositories tab, then click Sync and check Sync Status.

Procedure: Checking Synchronization Progress from the Command Prompt

  1. At the command prompt on the Uyuni Server, as root, use the tail command to check the synchronization log file:

    tail -f /var/log/rhn/reposync/<channel-label>.log

  2. Each child channel generates its own log during the synchronization progress. You need to check all the base and child channel log files to be sure that the synchronization is complete.

3. Create an Activation Key

You need to create an activation key that is associated with your AlmaLinux channels.

For more information on activation keys, see Activation Keys.

4. Manage GPG Keys

Clients use GPG keys to check the authenticity of software packages before they are installed. Only trusted software can be installed on clients.

Trusting a GPG key is important for security on clients. It is the task of the adminstrator to decide which keys are needed and can be trusted. Because a software channel cannot be used when the GPG key is not trusted, the decision of assigning a channel to a client depends on the decision of trusting the key.

For more information about GPG keys, see GPG Keys.

5. Register Clients

To register your clients, you need a bootstrap repository. By default, bootstrap repositories are automatically created, and regenerated daily for all synchronized products. You can manually create the bootstrap repository from the command prompt, using this command:

mgr-create-bootstrap-repo

For more information on registering your clients, see Client Registration.

6. Manage Errata

When you update AlmaLinux clients, the packages include metadata about the updates.