Red Hat Satellite 6 Administration

Activation keys are defined within an organizational context. You must select an organization to access the Activation Keys page in the Satellite web UI.

To create an activation key by using the Satellite web UI, first log in as the admin user and select the appropriate organization. Then, navigate to Content → Activation Keys, click Create Activation Key, and enter a name for your activation key. To set the maximum number of systems that you can register by using this activation key, clear the Unlimited Hosts checkbox and enter the maximum number in the Limit field. Optionally add a brief description for the activation key. In the Environment section, select the environment to use with this activation key. After you select an environment, a list is displayed beneath the Content View section. Select a content view to use and then click Save.

Alternatively, use the hammer command to create an activation key:

[root@satellite ~]# hammer activation-key create \
--name "Activation_Key_Name" \
--unlimited-hosts \
--description "Example description" \
--lifecycle-environment "Example environment" \
--content-view "Example content view" \
--organization "Organization_Name"

If your organization uses SCA, then the organization's entitled repositories are enabled at the organization level, and become available for immediate use on all registered hosts in that organization, with the content views implementing necessary limitations. Thus, you do not need to add subscriptions to the activation keys.

If your organization does not use SCA, then you can associate subscriptions with activation keys, so that hosts that use the activation keys are automatically attached to the associated subscriptions when they register with Satellite Server.

To associate subscriptions with your activation keys by using the Satellite web UI, first navigate to Content → Activation Keys. Then, click the name of an activation key to configure, and click the Subscriptions tab to list the current subscriptions that are associated with the activation key.

The Auto-Attach checkbox is enabled by default. If you enable the auto-attach option on an activation key and subscriptions are associated with the key, then the subscription management service selects and attaches the best-matched associated subscriptions. The auto-attach feature is not necessary in an organization that uses SCA, because the activation keys do not perform client-side subscription management when SCA is enabled. The criteria to attach the subscriptions are based on the currently installed products, architecture, and preferences, such as the service level.

You can also enable auto-attach but without subscriptions that are associated with the key. Use this type of key to register virtual machines without the virtual machine consuming a Red Hat Enterprise Linux subscription.

To add a subscription, click the Add tab, select the checkbox for the subscription to add, and then click Add Selected. To remove a subscription, click the List/Remove tab, select the checkbox for the subscription to remove, and then click Remove Selected.

Alternatively, use the hammer command to add a subscription to an activation key:

You can associate host collections with activation keys so that hosts that use those activation keys are automatically added to the associated host collections when they register with Satellite Server.

In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Content → Activation Keys. Click the name of an activation key to configure. Click the Host Collections tab to list current host collections that are associated with the activation key.

You can add or remove a host collection by clicking the Add or List/Remove tab, selecting the checkbox for the host collection to interact and then clicking Add Selected or Remove Selected.

You can associate a content host with multiple activation keys, which Satellite combines to define the host settings. In the event 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:

[root@satellite ~]# hammer hostgroup set-parameter \
--name kt_activation_keys \
--value name_of_first_key, name_of_second_key,... \
--hostgroup hostgroup_name

Before you register a host to Satellite Server, to ensure proper interaction between the Satellite Server and the host, use the timedatectl command and chronyd tool to verify the date and time synchronization on both systems.

Then, download the consumer certificate RPM for your Satellite Server. This RPM installs the necessary certificates for accessing repositories on Satellite Server and configures Red Hat Subscription Manager to use the Satellite Server URL. The RPM is in the /pub directory on the Satellite's web server. For example, for a Satellite Server with the satellite.example.com hostname, enter the following command on the host:

[root@host ~]# dnf localinstall \
http://satellite.example.com/pub/katello-ca-consumer-latest.noarch.rpm

The following command registers the host to the default organization on Satellite Server and uses the --activationkey option to reference the TestKey activation key:

[root@host ~]# subscription-manager register --org  "Default_Organization" \
--activationkey TestKey
The system has been registered with ID: 3244ed9d-ce23-4a2a-a39d-112324d84b3c
The registered system name is: host.example.com

After you register a host to Satellite Server, the host gains access to repository contents. However, before you can manage packages and errata, you must install the Katello Agent on the host system.

[root@host ~]# dnf install katello-agent

In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Hosts → Content Hosts to verify successful registration of a host.