Connect Pay-as-you-go instance

In the three major public cloud providers (AWS, GCP and Azure), SUSE:

  • provides customized Pay-as-you-go product images for SLES, SLES for SAP, etc.

  • operates per-region RMT Servers mirroring repositories for products available as Pay-as-you-go

This document describes how to connect existing Pay-as-you-go instance to Uyuni server, and gives basic information about credentials collection from the instance. The goal of the connection is to extract authentication data so Uyuni server is able to connect to cloud RMT host.

Before using the Pay-as-you-go feature ensure:

  • the Pay-as-you-go instance is launched from the correct SUSE product image (e.g. SLES, SLES for SAP, SLE HPC) to allow access to the desired repositories

  • Uyuni server has connectivity to the Pay-as-you-go instance (ideally in the same region) either directly or via a bastion

  • valid SUSE Customer Center credentials are entered in Admin  Setup Wizard  Organization Credentials, even they provide only limited access to products

1. Connecting Pay-as-you-go instance

Procedure: Connecting new Pay-as-you-go instance

  1. In the Uyuni Web UI, navigate to Admin  Setup Wizard  Pay-as-you-go, and click Add Pay-as-you-go.

  2. Start with the page section Pay-as-you-go connection Description.

  3. In the Description field, add the description.

  4. Move to the page section Instance SSH connection data.

  5. In the Host field, enter the instance DNS or IP address to connect from Uyuni.

  6. In the SSH Port field, enter the port number or use default value 22.

  7. In the User field, enter the username as specified in the cloud.

  8. In the Password field, enter the password.

  9. In the SSH Private Key field, enter the instance key.

  10. In the SSH Private Key Passphrase field, enter the key passphrase.

Authentication keys must always be in PEM format.

If you are not connecting directly to the instance, but via SSH bastion, proceed with Procedure: Adding SSH bastion connection data.

Otherwise, continue with Procedure: Finishing Pay-as-you-go connecting.

Procedure: Adding SSH bastion connection data

  1. Navigate to the page section Bastion SSH connection data.

  2. In the Host field, enter the bastion hostname.

  3. In the SSH Port field, enter the bastion port number.

  4. In the User field, enter the bastion username.

  5. In the Password field, enter the bastion password.

  6. In the SSH Private Key field, enter the bastion key.

  7. In the SSH Private Key Passphrase field, enter the bastion key passphrase.

Complete the setup process with with Procedure: Finishing Pay-as-you-go connecting.

Procedure: Finishing Pay-as-you-go connecting

  1. To complete adding new Pay-as-you-go connection data, click Create.

  2. Return to Pay-as-you-go connection data Details page. The updated connection status is displayed on the top section named Information.

  3. Connection status is shown in Admin > Setup Wizard > Pay-as-you-go screen too.

  4. If the authentication data for the instance are correct, the column Status shows "Credentials successfully updated."

If the invalid data are entered at any point, the newly created instance is shown in Admin > Setup Wizard > Pay-as-you-go, with column Status displaying error message.

As soon as the authentication data is available on the server, the list of available products is updated.

Available products are all versions of the same product family and architecture as the one installed in the Pay-as-you-go instance. For example, if the instance has the SLES 15 SP1 product installed, SLES 15 SP2, SLES 15 SP3 and SLES 15 SP4 are automatically shown in Admin > Setup Wizard > Products.

Once the products are shown as available, the user can add a product to Uyuni by selecting the checkbox next to the product name and clicking Add product.

After the success message you can verify the newly added channels in the Web UI, by navigating to Software > Channel List > All.

To monitor the syncing progress of each channel, check the log files in the /var/log/rhn/reposync directory on the Uyuni Server.

1.1. Deleting the instance connection data

The following procedure describes how to delete SSH connection data of the instance.

Procedure: Deleting connection data to instance

  1. Open Admin > Setup Wizard > Pay-as-you-go.

  2. Find the instance on the list of existing instances.

  3. Click on the instance details.

  4. Select Delete and confirm your selection.

  5. You are returned to the list of instances. The one that was just deleted is no longer shown.

2. Instance credential collect status

Uyuni server uses credentails collected from the instance to connect to the RMT server and to download the packages using reposync. These credentials are refreshed every 10 minutes by taskomatic using the defined SSH connection data. Connection to RMT server always uses the last known authentication credentials collected from the Pay-as-you-go instance.

Up-to date status of the Pay-as-you-go instance credentials collect is shown in the column Status or on the instance details page. When the instance is not reachable, the credential update process will fail.

Pay-as-you-go instance remains connected to Uyuni server unless SSH connection data is explicitly deleted. To delete the SSH connection data to the instance, use Procedure: Deleting connection data to instance.

Pay-as-you-go instance may not be accessible from the Uyuni server at all times.

  1. If the instance exists, but is stopped, the last known credentials will be used to try to connect to the instance. How long the credentials remain valid depends on the cloud provider.

  2. If the instance no longer exists, but is still registered with SUMA, its credentials are no longer valid and the authentication will fail. The error message is shown in the column Status.

    The error message only indicates that the instance is not available. Further diagnostics about the status of the instance needs to be done on the cloud provider.