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Chapter 2. Getting started with Cloud Access

The Cloud Access program has recently been redesigned to create a better experience and deliver more value for customers using Red Hat products in the cloud.

The redesign Cloud Access experience includes the following priorities:

  • Less onboarding friction makes it easier for customers to get started.
  • More value-add capabilities help customers manage their RHEL deployments across their hybrid cloud infrastructures.

The redesigned program offers the following customer benefits:

  • A new onboarding experience for value-add services includes gold images, instance auto-registration, and advanced RHEL subscription usage reporting.
  • Customers no longer need to register or enable their Red Hat subscriptions for Cloud Access.
  • Customers have more freedom in choosing a cloud provider destination.

Cloud Access customers now have an expanded set of options to choose from. We encourage customers to start with the option that best suits their needs, but there is no reason why customers cannot choose multiple options or make different choices as their needs change over time.

The following sections describe the options available and the experience customers can expect for each option.

2.1. Option 1: Frictionless

This option provides choice and flexibility without any specific onboarding requirements. It is designed for customers who want to get started quickly with the least amount of help from Red Hat.

Option 1 is best for customers with the following priorities:

  • You have active and unused Red Hat subscriptions that you want to use in the cloud.
  • You are able to build and maintain virtual machine images and understand how to import those images into your cloud choice.
  • You do not need or want to use gold images.
  • You do not want help tracking Red Hat subscription usage in the cloud.
  • You understand and comply with the eligibility guidelines for Red Hat product and cloud providers.

2.2. Option 2: Subscription tracking and gold image access

This option provides choice and flexibility with a minimal set of onboarding requirements. It is a traditional Cloud Access experience that features a more curated experience to help customers match their Red Hat products to appropriate cloud providers, allows customers to keep track of their subscription usage in the cloud and provides access to gold images.

Option 2 is best for customers with the following priorities:

  • You have active and unused Red Hat subscriptions that you want to use in the cloud.
  • You want a single place to view and manage their Red Hat subscriptions and intended entitlement usage across your hybrid cloud infrastructures.
  • You do not want to worry about Red Hat product and cloud provider eligibility guidelines.
  • You want an easy way to request access to gold images.
  • You want to manage this environment using an API rather than the user interface.

Procedure

  1. Go to the Cloud Access Customer Interface on the Red Hat Customer Portal and sign in to your Red Hat account.
  2. New Cloud Access customers need to add a new provider by clicking Enable a new provider.
  3. Select one of the certified providers from the drop-down list, enter the provider account information, and then enter the entitlement quantity for each product you intend to use on the provider’s infrastructure.

  4. Click Enable.

    Note

    The product enablement process allows you to keep track of the entitlements and providers you intend to use and does not alter or affect the underlying product subscriptions in any way.

Once the new provider has been added, you will see the provider, along with the product entitlements and provider account information that you entered on the main Cloud Access user interface page. You can change or update this information as your cloud strategy changes.

Existing Cloud Access customers will see all of the providers that have been previously added, can make changes to their existing providers, or add additional providers and products as necessary.

2.3. Option 3: Advanced RHEL management

This option is built around Red Hat management, automation, and IT optimization services that are hosted on Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console. It features a simplified onboarding experience for customers that use RHEL in the cloud and automatic connection of RHEL (8.3.1+) instances into Red Hat.

Advanced RHEL management is best for customers with the following priorities:

  • You have active and unused RHEL subscriptions that you want to use in AWS and Azure.
  • You want a single place to view your actual RHEL subscription usage across your hybrid cloud infrastructures.
  • You have enabled simple content access.
  • You want your RHEL instances on AWS and Azure to automatically connect to value-add services such as Insights.
  • You want access to gold images (Currently AWS and Azure only).

Procedure

  1. Go to the Hybrid Cloud Console and sign in to your Red Hat account.

    Note

    The Hybrid Cloud Console view might look different for new and existing customers. Those customers already using Red Hat hosted services see a summary of their connected systems and links to more detailed system information and other recommendations. New customers will see links to help them learn more about the available services.

  2. Create a connection between your Red Hat account and your cloud provider account in the Integrations service.

    1. Navigate to the Settings section.
    2. Select the cloud provider that you want to use.
    Note

    Gold images through Cloud Integrations are currently only available on AWS and Azure.

For an AWS source

  1. Enter a descriptive name for the source, for example, AWS_prod, and click Next.
  2. Select the configuration mode you want to use, provide your AWS access key ID and secret access keys, and click Next.

  3. Select the RHEL management bundle application and click Next.

    Note

    Cost Management is only used for Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform.

  4. Review the details and click Add to finish the AWS source creation.

For an Azure source

  1. Enter a descriptive name for the source, for example, Azure_build, and click Next.

  2. Select the RHEL management bundle service and click Next.

    Note

    Cost Management is only used for Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform.

  3. Follow the steps to create an offline token.
  4. Complete the configuration steps in Azure Lighthouse.
  5. When you return to the wizard click Next
  6. Log in to your Azure account and navigate to your subscriptions. Copy the subscription ID you want to use and paste it into the Subscription ID field.
  7. Click Next
  8. Review the details of your integration, and then click Add to add the integration.

If you want to complete registration in Azure using an Ansible script, use the following steps:

Prerequisites

You can run the Ansible commands on any system with package ansible-galaxy installed that also has access to an Azure instance running inside your Azure account.

  1. Follow the steps to create an offline token. See Red Hat API Tokens to generate an offline token.

    Note

    If you have generated an offline token in the last thirty days, you do not need to generate a new token.

  2. Save the offline token where it can be easily accessed for the next step.

  3. Download the Ansible playbook and run the Ansible commands remotely against a running Azure VM, substituting your Azure instance hostname or IP address and your offline token. 

    [user@machine ~] ansible-galaxy collection install redhatinsights.subscriptions

[user@machine ~] ansible-playbook -i <{Microsoft}_VM_HOSTNAME_OR_IP>, -u azureuser -b ~/.ansible/collections/ansible_collections/redhatinsights/subscriptions/playbooks/verify_account.yml -e rh_api_refresh_token=<OFFLINE_AUTH_TOKEN> --private-key ./<PEM_FILE_FOR_VM_AUTH>

    You can also run the following commands directly on a running Azure VM: 

    [azureuser@vm ~]$ ansible-galaxy collection install redhatinsights.subscriptions

[azureuser@vm ~]$ ansible-playbook -i <AZURE_VM_HOSTNAME>, --connection=local -b ~/.ansible/collections/ansible_collections/redhatinsights/subscriptions/playbooks/verify_account.yml -e rh_api_refresh_token=<OFFLINE)AUTH_TOKEN>
    Note

    The integration will be represented in the Integrations list, but will not reflect true status or resources for this integration. You cannot monitor this integration from the Integrations service in the Hybrid Cloud Console.

  4. When the Ansible commands complete successfully, click Next.
  5. Review the details and then click Add to finish the Azure integration creation.

You can use the Integrations configuration dashboard to view, modify, or remove any of your cloud integrations. It also provides links where you can learn more about related Red Hat services, such as Insights and Subscription Services.

Additional resources

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