Activation Keys

Activation keys are used with both traditional and Salt clients to ensure that your clients have the correct software entitlements, are connecting to the appropriate channels, and are subscribed to the relevant groups. Each activation key is bound to an organization, which you can set when you create the key.

This section goes over activation key core concepts. To learn how to create activation keys for manual registration see:

Managing Activation Keys

What are Activation Keys?

An activation key in SUSE Manager is a group of configuration settings with a label. You can apply all configuration settings associated with an activation key by adding its label as a parameter to a bootstrap script. Under normal operating conditions best practices suggest using an activation key label in combination with a bootstrap script.

An activation key can specify:

  • Channel Assignment

  • System Types (Traditionally called Add-on Entitlements)

  • Contact Method

  • Configuration Files

  • Packages to be Installed

  • System Group Assignment

Activation keys are just a collection of configuration settings which have been given a label name and then added to a bootstrap script. When the bootstrap script is executed all configuration settings associated with the label are applied to the system the script is run on.

Provisioning and Configuration

provision config keys
Figure 1. Provisioning and Configuration Overview

Activation Keys Best Practices

There are a few important concepts which should be kept in mind when creating activation keys. The following sections provide insight when creating and naming your activation keys.

Key Label Naming

One of the most important things to consider during activation key creation is label naming. Creating names which are associated with your organization’s infrastructure will make it easier for you when performing more complex operations. When naming key labels keep the following in mind:

  • OS naming (mandatory): Keys should always refer to the OS they provide settings for

  • Architecture naming (recommended): Unless your company is running on one architecture only, for example x86_64, then providing labels with an architecture type is a good idea.

  • Server type naming: What is, or what will this server be used for?

  • Location naming: Where is the server located? Room, building, or department?

  • Date naming: Maintenance windows, quarter, etc.

  • Custom naming: What naming scheme suits your organizations needs?

Example activation key label names:

sles12-sp2-web_server-room_129-x86_64
sles12-sp2-test_packages-blg_502-room_21-ppc64le

Channels which will be Included

When creating activation keys you also need to keep in mind which channels (software sources) will be associated with it.

Default Base Channel

Keys should have a specific base channel assigned to it, for example SLES12-SP2-Pool-x86_64. If this is not the case SUSE Manager cannot use specific stages. Using the default base channel is not recommended and may cause problems.

  • Channels to be included:

    • suse-manager-tools

  • Typical packages to be included:

    • osad (pushing tasks)

      • Installs python-jabberpy and pyxml as dependencies

    • rhncfg-actions (Remote Command, Configuration Managment)

      • Installs rhncfg and rhncfg-client as dependencies

Combining Activation Keys

You can combine activation keys when executing the bootstrap script on your clients. Combining keys allows for more control on what is installed on your systems and reduces duplication of keys for large complex environments.

combine keys
Figure 2. Combining Activation Keys
combine keys2
Figure 3. Combining Activation Keys 2

Using Activation Keys and Bootstrap with Traditional Clients (Non-Salt)

Create the initial bootstrap script template from the command line on the SUSE Manager server with:

# mgr-bootstrap

This command will generate the bootstrap script and place them in /srv/www/htdocs/pub/bootstrap.

Alternatively you may use the Web UI to create your bootstrap script template. For more information, see xref:FILENAME.adoc#s3-sattools-config-bootstrap[].

Use the Web UI to create your keys. From the Web UI proceed to menu:Overview[Tasks