Registering Raspberry Pi OS Clients

Table of Contents

1. Prepare to Register
2. Add Software Channels
3. Check Synchronization Status
4. Create an Activation Key
5. Manage GPG Keys
6. Root Access
7. Register Clients

This section contains information about registering clients running Raspberry Pi OS operating systems.

Bootstrapping can be used with Raspberry Pi OS clients for performing initial state runs, and for profile updates.

1. Prepare to Register

Some preparation is required before you can register Raspberry Pi OS clients to the Uyuni Server:

Ensure DNS is correctly configured and provides an entry for the client. Alternatively, you can configure the /etc/hosts files on both the Uyuni Server and the client with the appropriate entries.
The client must have the date and time synchronized with the Uyuni Server before registration.

2. Add Software Channels

Before you register Raspberry Pi OS clients to your Uyuni Server, you need to add the required software channels, and synchronize them.

The architectures currently supported are: arm64 and armhf. For full list of supported products and architectures, see Supported Clients and Features.

The channels you need for this procedure are:

Table 1. Raspberry Pi OS Channels - CLI
Channel description	arm64	armhf
Base Channel	raspberrypios-12-pool-arm64-uyuni	raspberrypios-12-pool-armhf-uyuni
Client Channel	raspberrypios-12-arm64-uyuni-client	raspberrypios-12-armhf-uyuni-client
Updates Channel	raspberrypios-12-arm64-main-updates-uyuni	-
Contributions Channel	raspberrypios-12-arm64-contrib-uyuni	raspberrypios-12-armhf-contrib-uyuni
Non Free Channel	raspberrypios-12-arm64-non-free-uyuni	raspberrypios-12-armhf-non-free-uyuni
Non Free Firmware Channel	raspberrypios-12-arm64-non-free-firmware-uyuni	-
Raspberry Channel	raspberrypios-12-arm64-raspberry-uyuni	raspberrypios-12-armhf-raspberry-uyuni
Contribution Updates	raspberrypios-12-arm64-contrib-updates-uyuni	-
Non Free Updates	raspberrypios-12-arm64-non-free-updates-uyuni	-
Non Free Firmware Updates	raspberrypios-12-arm64-non-free-firmware-updates-uyuni	-
Security Main Channel	raspberrypios-12-arm64-main-security-uyuni	-
Security Contribution Channel	raspberrypios-12-arm64-contrib-security-uyuni	-
Security Non Free Channel	raspberrypios-12-arm64-non-free-security-uyuni	-
Security Non Free Firmware Channel	raspberrypios-12-arm64-non-free-firmware-security-uyuni	-
RPI Channel	-	raspberrypios-12-armhf-rpi-uyuni

Procedure: Adding Software Channels at the Command Prompt

At the command prompt on the Uyuni Server, as root, use the spacewalk-common-channels command to add the appropriate channels:

spacewalk-common-channels \
<base_channel_label> \
<child_channel_label_1> \
<child_channel_label_2> \
... <child_channel_label_n>

If automatic synchronization is turned off, synchronize the channels:
```
spacewalk-repo-sync -p <base_channel_label>
```
Ensure the synchronization is complete before continuing.

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

You need all the new channels fully synchronized before bootstrapping any Raspberry Pi OS client.

3. Check Synchronization Status

Procedure: Checking Synchronization Progress from the Web UI

In the Uyuni Web UI, navigate to Software Manage Channels, then click the channel associated to the repository.
Navigate to the Repositories tab, then click Sync and check Sync Status.

Procedure: Checking Synchronization Progress from the Command Prompt

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
```
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.

Raspberry Pi OS channels can be very large. Synchronization can sometimes take several hours.

4. Create an Activation Key

You need to create an activation key that is associated with your Raspberry Pi OS channels.

For more information on activation keys, see Activation Keys.

5. 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 administrator 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.

Raspberry Pi OS clients can require multiple GPG keys to be installed.

When synchronizing third-party Raspberry Pi OS repositories, you will need to import the appropriate GPG key on the server. If the GPG key is missing, synchronization will fail.

For Raspberry Pi OS repositories, only the metadata is signed. Therefore importing a GPG key for the software channel is not needed. Packages will not be re-signed by Uyuni.

To see which GPG keys are already imported to Uyuni Server, run the following command:

sudo gpg --homedir /var/lib/spacewalk/gpgdir --list-keys

To import a new GPG key, use the --import parameter:

sudo gpg --homedir /var/lib/spacewalk/gpgdir --import <filename>.gpg

6. Root Access

The root user on Raspberry Pi OS is disabled by default for SSH access.

To be able to onboard using a regular user, you need to edit the sudoers file.

Procedure: Granting Root User Access

On the client, edit the sudoers file:
```
sudo visudo
```
Grant sudo access to the user by adding this line at the end of the sudoers file. Replace <user> with the name of the user that is bootstrapping the client in the Web UI:
```
<user>  ALL=NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/python, /usr/bin/python2, /usr/bin/python3, /var/tmp/venv-salt-minion/bin/python
```

This procedure grants root access without requiring a password, which is required for registering the client. When the client is successfully installed it runs with root privileges, so the access is no longer required. We recommend that you remove the line from the sudoers file after the client has been successfully installed.

7. 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.