第10章 Managing Activation Keys
Activation keys provide a method to automate system registration and subscription attachment. You can create multiple keys and associate them with different environments and Content Views. For example, you might create a basic activation key with a subscription for Red Hat Enterprise Linux workstations and associate it with Content Views from a particular environment.
You can use activation keys during content host registration to improve the speed, simplicity and consistency of the process. Note that activation keys are used only when hosts are registered. If changes are made to an activation key, it is applicable only to hosts that are registered with the amended activation key in the future. The changes are not made to existing hosts.
Activation keys can define the following properties for content hosts:
- Associated subscriptions and subscription attachment behavior
- Available products and repositories
- A life cycle environment and a Content View
- Host collection membership
- System purpose
Content View Conflicts between Host Creation and Registration
When you provision a host, Satellite uses provisioning templates and other content from the Content View that you set in the host group or host settings. When the host is registered, the Content View from the activation key overwrites the original Content View from the host group or host settings. Then Satellite uses the Content View from the activation key for every future task, for example, rebuilding a host.
When you rebuild a host, ensure that you set the Content View that you want to use in the activation key and not in the host group or host settings.
Using the Same Activation Key with Multiple Content Hosts
You can apply the same activation key to multiple content hosts if it contains enough subscriptions. However, activation keys set only the initial configuration for a content host. When the content host is registered to an organization, the organization’s content can be attached to the content host manually.
Using Multiple Activation Keys with a Content Host
A content host can be associated with multiple activation keys that are combined to define the host settings. In case of conflicting settings, the last specified activation key takes precedence. You can specify the order of precedence by setting a host group parameter as follows:
$ hammer hostgroup set-parameter \ --name kt_activation_keys \ --value name_of_first_key, name_of_second_key,... \ --hostgroup hostgroup_name
10.1. Creating an Activation Key
You can use activation keys to define a specific set of subscriptions to attach to hosts during registration. The subscriptions that you add to an activation key must be available within the associated Content View.
Subscription Manager attaches subscriptions differently depending on the following factors:
- Are there any subscriptions associated with the activation key?
- Is the auto-attach option enabled?
- For Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 hosts: Is there system purpose set on the activation key?
Note that Satellite automatically attaches subscriptions only for the products installed on a host. For subscriptions that do not list products installed on Red Hat Enterprise Linux by default, such as the Extended Update Support (EUS) subscription, use an activation key specifying the required subscriptions and with the auto-attach disabled.
Based on the previous factors, there are three possible scenarios for subscribing with activation keys:
Activation key that attaches subscriptions automatically.
With no subscriptions specified and auto-attach enabled, hosts using the activation key search for the best fitting subscription from the ones provided by the Content View associated with the activation key. This is similar to entering the
subscription-manager --auto-attachcommand. For Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 hosts, you can configure the activation key to set system purpose on hosts during registration to enhance the automatic subscriptions attachment.Activation key providing a custom set of subscription for auto-attach.
If there are subscriptions specified and auto-attach is enabled, hosts using the activation key select the best fitting subscription from the list specified in the activation key. Setting system purpose on the activation key does not affect this scenario.
Activation key with the exact set of subscriptions.
If there are subscriptions specified and auto-attach is disabled, hosts using the activation key are associated with all subscriptions specified in the activation key. Setting system purpose on the activation key does not affect this scenario.
Custom Products
If a custom product, typically containing content not provided by Red Hat, is assigned to an activation key, this product is always enabled for the registered content host regardless of the auto-attach setting.
Procedure
To create an activation key, complete the following steps:
- In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Content > Activation keys and click Create Activation Key.
- In the Name field, enter the name of the activation key.
- If you want to set a limit, clear the Unlimited hosts check box, and in the Limit field, enter the maximum number of systems you can register with the activation key. If you want unlimited hosts to register with the activation key, ensure the Unlimited Hosts check box is selected.
- In the Description field, enter a description for the activation key.
- From the Environment list, select the environment to use.
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From the Content View list, select a Content View to use. If you want to use this activation key to register hosts, the Content View must contain the Satellite Tools 6.8 repository because it is required to install the
katello-agent. - Click Save.
- Optional: For Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 hosts, in the System Purpose section, you can configure the activation key with system purpose to set on hosts during registration to enhance subscriptions auto attachment.
For CLI Users
Create the activation key:
# hammer activation-key create \ --name "My_Activation_Key" \ --unlimited-hosts \ --description "Example Stack in the Development Environment" \ --lifecycle-environment "Development" \ --content-view "Stack" \ --organization "My_Organization"
Optional: For Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 hosts, enter the following command to configure the activation key with system purpose to set on hosts during registration to enhance subscriptions auto attachment.
# hammer activation-key update \ --organization "My_Organization" \ --name "My_Activation_Key" \ --service-level "Standard" \ --purpose-usage "Development/Test" \ --purpose-role "Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server" \ --purpose-addons "addons"
Obtain a list of your subscription IDs:
# hammer subscription list --organization "My_Organization"Attach the Red Hat Enterprise Linux subscription UUID to the activation key:
# hammer activation-key add-subscription \ --name "My_Activation_Key" \ --subscription-id ff808181533518d50152354246e901aa \ --organization "My_Organization"
List the product content associated with the activation key:
# hammer activation-key product-content \ --name "My_Activation_Key" \ --organization "My_Organization"
Override the default auto-enable status for the Satellite Tools 6.8 repository. The default status is set to disabled. To enable, enter the following command:
# hammer activation-key content-override \ --name "My_Activation_Key" \ --content-label rhel-7-server-satellite-tools-6.8-rpms \ --value 1 \ --organization "My_Organization"
