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Chapter 5 Registering Client Systems With Spacewalk

This chapter describes how to register client systems with Spacewalk. Before you register a system with Spacewalk, you should create an activation key to use with client systems, as described in Chapter 3, Working With Activation Keys in Spacewalk. It is possible to register a system without an activation key by providing a user name and password, but Spacewalk does not perform channel subscription or package installation in this case. Rather than using a default activation key, Oracle recommends using an activation key that is specific to the Oracle Linux release and system architecture.

Spacewalk registration is usually performed by Spacewalk's provisioning service. For existing or manually installed systems, you can alternatively use the rhnreg_ks command to register the system with Spacewalk.

Note

Do not register a Spacewalk server or client with ULN. Oracle recommends that you register the Spacewalk server as a client of itself after you have set up the software channels. Include the Spacewalk server channel in the list of software channels to which the server is subscribed.

5.1 Registering a Client System by Using Kickstart

If you install a system by using a kickstart file that is generated from a Spacewalk profile, Spacewalk automatically registers the system as a Spacewalk client if the following conditions are met:

The Spacewalk Client channel must be selected on the Modify Operating System page under the profile's Kickstart Details tab.
An activation key is associated with the profile on the Kickstart Details page under the profile's Activation Keys tab.

5.2 Installing the Spacewalk Client Software and Registering a Client System

Note

Starting with Oracle Linux 7 Update 1 and Oracle Linux 6 Update 9, you do not need to install the Spacewalk Client software for Relesae 2.7 before you register an Oracle Linux 7 or Oracle Linux 6 server with Spacewalk. See Section 5.3, “Registering a Client System by Using rhnreg_ks Without First Installing the Spacewalk Client Software”.

To install the Spacewalk Client software on an Oracle Linux server and register the server as a Spacewalk client:

Enable access to the repositories that contain the Spacewalk Server and any dependent packages on the Oracle Linux yum server at https://yum.oracle.com.

For Oracle Linux 6, do the following:
1. Ensure that your system is up to date and that you have transitioned to use the modular yum repository configuration by installing the oraclelinux-release-el6 package and running the /usr/bin/ol_yum_configure.sh script.
```
# yum install oraclelinux-release-el6
# /usr/bin/ol_yum_configure.sh
```
2. Install the oracle-spacewalk-client-release-el6 release package to install appropriate yum repository configuration.
```
# yum install oracle-spacewalk-client-release-el6
```
  The ol6_spacewalk27_client repository is enabled by default in the repository configuration file.
For Oracle Linux 7, do the following:
1. Ensure that your system is up to date and that you have transitioned to use the modular yum repository configuration by installing the oraclelinux-release-el7 package and running the /usr/bin/ol_yum_configure.sh script.
```
# yum install oraclelinux-release-el7
# /usr/bin/ol_yum_configure.sh
```
2. Install the oracle-linux-manager-client-release-el7 release package to install appropriate yum repository configuration. This package reflects the new naming convention but includes the proper information for Spacewalk 2.7.
```
# yum install oracle-linux-manager-client-release-el7
```
  Then enable the correct Spacewalk repositories for Spacewalk 2.7.
```
# yum-config-manager --disable ol7_oracle-linux-manager210_client
# yum-config-manager --enable ol7_spacewalk27_client
```
Install the Spacewalk Client software.
```
# yum install rhn-client-tools rhn-check rhn-setup rhnsd m2crypto yum-rhn-plugin
```
This command replaces the existing packages and deletes any previous registration with ULN.
Download the CA certificate file (RHN-ORG-TRUSTED-SSL-CERT) to the server.

In a browser, navigate to http://swksvr_FQDN/pub, where swksvr_FQDN is the fully qualified domain name of the Spacewalk server, and download the CA certificate file (RHN-ORG-TRUSTED-SSL-CERT) to the /usr/share/rhn/ directory.

You can download the file by using the wget command, for example:
```
# wget -q -O /usr/share/rhn/RHN-ORG-TRUSTED-SSL-CERT \
  http://swksvr_FQDN/pub/RHN-ORG-TRUSTED-SSL-CERT
```
Alternatively, you can install the package that is automatically generated when you install SSL certificates, for example:
```
# yum install http://swksvr_FQDN/pub/rhn-org-trusted-ssl-cert-1.0-1.noarch.rpm
```
Note that you might need to specify a different URL if you replaced the SSL certificates after installing and configuring the Spacewalk server software.
Register the system with Spacewalk by using the rhnreg_ks command, using the --sslCACert option to specify the certificate:
```
# rhnreg_ks --sslCACert=/usr/share/rhn/RHN-ORG-TRUSTED-SSL-CERT \
  --serverUrl=https://swksvr_FQDN/XMLRPC --activationkey=activation_key
```
Make sure to specify the Spacewalk server or proxy by its fully qualified domain name.

If you need to re-register a Spacewalk client with a Spacewalk server, additionally specify the --force option.
Disable access to the Spacewalk Client repository in the Oracle Linux yum server repository configuration file or delete /etc/yum.repos.d/spacewalk27-client.repo.

5.3 Registering a Client System by Using rhnreg_ks Without First Installing the Spacewalk Client Software

Starting with Oracle Linux 7 Update 1 and Oracle Linux 6 Update 9, you do not need to install the Spacewalk Client software before you register an Oracle Linux 7 or Oracle Linux 6 server with Spacewalk.

To register an Oracle Linux server as a Spacewalk client:

Download the CA certificate file RHN-ORG-TRUSTED-SSL-CERT to the server.

In a browser tab, navigate to http://swksvr_FQDN/pub, where swksvr_FQDN is the fully qualified domain name of the Spacewalk server, and download the CA certificate file RHN-ORG-TRUSTED-SSL-CERT to /usr/share/rhn/.

Alternatively, you can use wget from the command line, for example:
```
# wget -q -O /usr/share/rhn/RHN-ORG-TRUSTED-SSL-CERT \
  http://swksvr_FQDN/pub/RHN-ORG-TRUSTED-SSL-CERT
```
Register the system with Spacewalk by using the rhnreg_ks command with the --sslCACert option to specify the certificate.
```
# rhnreg_ks --sslCACert=/usr/share/rhn/RHN-ORG-TRUSTED-SSL-CERT \
  --serverUrl=https://swksvr_FQDN/XMLRPC --activationkey=activation_key
```
Specify the Spacewalk server or proxy by its fully qualified domain name.

If you need to re-register a Spacewalk client with a Spacewalk server, additionally specify the --force option.
To install the Spacewalk Client software after registration, subscribe the server to a Spacewalk client software channel and use the yum command to install the packages:
```
# yum install rhn-client-tools rhn-check rhn-setup rhnsd m2crypto yum-rhn-plugin
```
Note

Oracle recommends that you install the Spacewalk Client software after registration to support all of the features provided by Spacewalk, which include provisioning and auditing.