Deploy Uyuni 2024.03 Server

In this quickstart, you will embark on deploying Uyuni 2024.03 Server. There are several methods to accomplish this task.

You may opt to deploy it in the cloud, or deploy it on a local host running openSUSE Leap Micro or openSUSE Leap 15.5. However, for the purpose of this quickstart guide, we’ve chosen to focus on setting up a KVM environment, installed on openSUSE Leap with Gnome Desktop, as the initial step. Installation on openSUSE Leap Micro is done via the command line and is outside the scope of this quickstart.

1. Software and Hardware Requirements for Uyuni

This table shows the software and hardware requirements for deploying Uyuni Server on KVM. For the purposes of this guide expect to deploy on a virtual machine with 16GB of RAM, and at least 200 GB of disk space.

Table 1. Bare metal VM Host Software and Hardware Requirements
Software and Hardware Recommended

Operating System:

openSUSE Leap 15.5: Clean installation, up-to-date

CPU:

Minimum 4 dedicated 64-bit x86-64CPU cores

RAM:

Development server Minimum 16 GB

Production server Minimum 32 GB

Disk Space:

Disk space depends on your channel requirements, at least 100 GB

50 GB per SUSE or openSUSE product and 360 GB per Red Hat product

Swap space:

3 GB

2. Prepare the Physical Machine

Install openSUSE Leap on a bare metal physical machine, or continue using your existing installation. See: Installating openSUSE Leap

For this guide you can also use Tumbleweed as the KVM host. However, keep in mind that openSUSE Leap 15.5 is officially supported.

Update the system:

sudo zypper ref && zypper up

3. Install KVM Tools

  1. Install KVM server and kvm tools:

    sudo zypper in -t pattern kvm_server kvm_tools

  2. Reboot.

4. Setup KVM Network

This XML configuration builds a KVM subnet using the domain name of container.lab to setup a FQDN for your test server.

In a production environment your company’s administration services should provide you with a FQDN.
Procedure: Setup the KVM Network

  1. Open the Virt Machine Manager GUI. In Gnome you can click the windows button on your keyboard and type in virt-manager. Alternatively you can open a command prompt and type: virt-manager and click the Enter.

  2. Select edit  Preferences.

  3. In Preferences under the General tab select the checkbox Enable XML editing. Click the close button when complete.

  4. Double click QEMU/KVM text in the main window or select Edit  Connection Details to open the Connection Details window.

  5. Select the Virtual Networks tab then the XML tab.

  6. If the default network is running, stop it using the X button in the lower left.

  7. Copy and paste the following XML snippet beneath your <uuid> block:

    <forward mode="nat">
    <nat>
      <port start="1024" end="65535"/>
    </nat>
  </forward>
  <bridge name="virbr0" stp="on" delay="0"/>
  <mac address="52:54:00:9f:d0:0b"/>
  <domain name="uyuni.lab" localOnly="yes"/>
  <ip address="192.168.122.1" netmask="255.255.255.0">
    <dhcp>
      <range start="192.168.122.2" end="192.168.122.254"/>
      <host mac="52:54:00:0A:CC:B8" name="uyuni-server" ip="192.168.122.10"/>
      <host mac="52:54:00:EE:88:85" name="minion-one" ip="192.168.122.11"/>
      <host mac="52:54:00:F2:B0:DF" name="minion-two" ip="192.168.122.12"/>
    </dhcp>
  </ip>
</network>

5. Aquire the openSUSE Leap Micro Image

Proceed to: Download openSUSE Leap Micro 5.5

Select and download the Offline Image, then move it to the default KVM image store:

cd Downloads/
sudo mv openSUSE-Leap-Micro-5.5-DVD-x86_64-Media.iso /var/lib/libvirt/images/

6. Container Host Preparation and Installation

Procedure: Setup the Image in Virtual Machine Manager (Step 1)

  1. Open the Virtual Machine Manager and select File  New virtual machine.

  2. In the New VM window select Local install media(ISO image or CDROM) and click Forward.

  3. Click the Browse Button. In the Volumes field select the openSUSE Leap Micro image you downloaded. Click Choose Volume.

  4. Uncheck the Automatically detect from the installation media/source and type micro in the Choose operating system you are installing field. Select SLE Micro 5.5. Click Forward.

  5. Set Memory to 16 GB and cpus to two. Click Forward.

  6. Click in the disk image size field and enter 200 GB. The default is 60.0 GB. Click Forward.

  7. Name the system uyuni-server. Next check the box Customize configuration before install. Click Finish.

  8. In the settings windows select the NIC device. In the Virtual Machine Manager primary window double click QEMU/KVM. Select the Virtual Networks tab. Select XML. Copy the mac address for the leapmicro machine.

  9. Open the virtual machine settings page again and paste the mac address into the MAC address: field. Click Apply. Then select Begin Installation in the upper left corner.

  10. Procedure: openSUSE Leap Micro 5.5 Installation

  11. Use the arrow keys to select Installation.

  12. On the Language, Keyboard and license Agreement page click Next.

  13. On the NTP Configuration page click Next.

  14. On the Authentication for the System page enter a password for the root user. Click Next.

  15. On the Installation Settings page click Install.

7. Update the system and Install Container Tools

  1. Login at the prompt as root.

  2. Run transactional-update:

    transactional-update

  3. Reboot the system.

  4. Login as root.

  5. Enter the transactional shell:

    transactional-update shell

  6. Add the continer utility repository:

    zypper ar https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/systemsmanagement:/Uyuni:/Master:/ContainerUtils/openSUSE_Leap_Micro_5.5/systemsmanagement:Uyuni:Master:ContainerUtils.repo

  7. Refresh the repository list and accept the key:

    zypper ref

  8. Install the container tools:

    zypper in mgradm mgrctl mgradm-bash-completion mgrctl-bash-completion netavark

  9. Reboot the host.

8. Deploy Uyuni with mgradm

Uyuni is deployed as a container using the mgradm tool. There are two methods of deploying a Uyuni server as a container. In this section we will focus on basic container deployment.

For information on using a custom configuration file to deploy see, Configuration and deployment with mgradm and a custom yaml file.

For additional information, you can explore further by running mgradm --help from the command line.

Procedure: Deploying an Uyuni container with Podman

  1. From the terminal run the following command as root.

    mgradm install podman

    You must deploy the container as root. The following error will be displayed at the terminal if you miss this step. openSUSE Leap Micro by default uses the root account.

    INF Setting up uyuni network
9:58AM INF Enabling system service
9:58AM FTL Failed to open /etc/systemd/system/uyuni-server.service for writing error="open /etc/systemd/system/uyuni-server.service: permission denied"

  2. Input a password for the CA certificate, an administrative account password and your email for notifications:

leapmicro:~ # mgradm install podman
3:07PM INF Welcome to mgradm
3:07PM INF Executing command: podman
Password for the CA certificate to generate:
Administrator password:
Administrator's email: admin@example.com

  1. The container will take some minutes to deploy.

  2. Once complete open a browser and visit https://leapmicro.uyuni.lab to begin working with Uyuni.

9. Optional: Synchronizing Products from SUSE Customer Center

SUSE Customer Center (SCC) maintains a collection of repositories which contain packages, software and updates for all supported enterprise client systems. These repositories are organized into channels each of which provide software specific to a distribution, release, and architecture. After synchronizing with SCC, clients can receive updates, be organized into groups, and assigned to specific product software channels.

This section covers synchronizing with SCC from the Web UI and adding your first client channel.

For Uyuni, synchronizing products from SUSE Customer Center is optional.

Before you can synchronize software repositories with SCC, you will need to enter organization credentials in Uyuni. The organization credentials give you access to the SUSE product downloads. You will find your organization credentials in https://scc.suse.com/organizations.

Enter your organization credentials in the Uyuni Web UI:

Optional Procedure: Entering Organization Credentials

  1. In the Uyuni Web UI, navigate to Admin  Setup Wizard.

  2. In the Setup Wizard page, navigate to the Organization Credentials tab.

  3. Click Add a new credential.

  4. Enter a username and password, and click Save.

A check mark icon is shown when the credentials are confirmed. When you have successfully entered the new credentials, you can synchronize with SUSE Customer Center.

Optional Procedure: Synchronizing with SUSE Customer Center

  1. In the Uyuni Web UI, navigate to Admin  Setup Wizard.

  2. From the Setup Wizard page select the SUSE Products tab. Wait a moment for the products list to populate. If you previously registered with SUSE Customer Center a list of products will populate the table. This table lists architecture, channels, and status information.

  3. If your SUSE Linux Enterprise client is based on x86_64 architecture scroll down the page and select the check box for this channel now.

  4. Add channels to Uyuni by selecting the check box to the left of each channel. Click the arrow symbol to the left of the description to unfold a product and list available modules.

  5. Click Add Products to start product synchronization.

When a channel is added, Uyuni will schedule the channel for synchronization. Depending on the number and size of this channels, this can take a long time. You can monitor synchronization progress in the Web UI.

For more information about using the setup wizard, see Wizard.

When the channel synchronization process is complete, you can register and configure clients. For more instructions, see Client Registration.