Registering Ubuntu 16.04 and 18.04 Clients

This section contains information about registering Salt clients running Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, 18.04 LTS operating systems.

Uyuni supports Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and 18.04 LTS clients using Salt.

Traditional clients are not supported.

Canonical does not endorse or support Uyuni.

Bootstrapping is supported for starting Ubuntu clients and performing initial state runs such as setting repositories and performing profile updates. However, the root user on Ubuntu is disabled by default, so to use bootstrapping, you will require an existing user with sudo privileges for Python.

Add Software Channels

Before you register Ubuntu clients to your Uyuni Server, check that you have the Ubuntu product enabled, and the required channels are fully synchronized.

The channels you need for this procedure are:

Table 1. Ubuntu Channels - CLI
OS Version	Base Channel	Base Uyuni Channel	Updates Channel	Security Channel	Universe Uyuni Channel	Universe Updates Channel	Client Channel
Ubuntu 16.04	ubuntu-1604-pool-amd64-uyuni	ubuntu-1604-amd64-main-uyuni	ubuntu-1604-amd64-main-updates-uyuni	ubuntu-1604-amd64-main-security-uyuni	ubuntu-1604-amd64-universe-uyuni	ubuntu-1604-amd64-universe-updates-uyuni	ubuntu-1604-amd64-uyuni-client
Ubuntu 18.04	ubuntu-1804-pool-amd64-uyuni	ubuntu-1804-amd64-main-uyuni	ubuntu-1804-amd64-main-updates-uyuni	ubuntu-1804-amd64-main-security-uyuni	ubuntu-1804-amd64-universe-uyuni	ubuntu-1804-amd64-universe-updates-uyuni	ubuntu-1804-amd64-uyuni-client

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_name> \
<child_channel_name_1> \
<child_channel_name_2> \
... <child_channel_name_n>

You need all the new channels fully synchronized, including Universe (Universe contains important dependencies for Salt), before bootstrapping any Ubuntu client.

Check Synchronization Status

Procedure: Checking Synchronization Progress

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 will need to check all the base and child channel log files to be sure that the synchronization is complete.

Ubuntu channels can be very large. Synchronization can sometimes take several hours.

Trust GPG Keys on Clients

By default, some operating systems do not trust the GPG key for the Uyuni client tools. The clients can be successfully bootstrapped without the GPG key being trusted. However, you will not be able to install new client tool packages or update them until the keys are trusted.

Procedure: Trusting GPG Keys on Clients

On the Uyuni Server, at the command prompt, check the contents of the /srv/www/htdocs/pub/ directory. This directory contains all available public keys. Take a note of the key that applies to the client you are registering.
Open the relevant bootstrap script, locate the ORG_GPG_KEY= parameter and add the required key. For example:
```
uyuni-gpg-pubkey-0d20833e.key
```
You do not need to delete any previously stored keys.
If you are bootstrapping clients from the Uyuni Web UI, you will need to use a Salt state to trust the key. Create the Salt state and assign it to the organization. You can then use an activation key and configuration channels to deploy the key to the clients.

Root Access

The root user on Ubuntu is disabled by default. You can enable it by editing 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 will be used to bootstrap the client in the Web UI:
```
<user>  ALL=NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/python, /usr/bin/python2, /usr/bin/python3
```

This procedure grants root access without requiring a password, which is required for registering the client. When the client is successfully installed it will run 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.

Register Clients

To register your Ubuntu 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 --with-custom-channels

For more information on registering your clients, see Client Registration Overview.