openSUSE / SLES as a subscribed Content Host in Katello

I've managed to get subscription-manager installed on openSUSE 13.2 and
it's attached to Katello 2.0 with an activation key. 'subscription-manager
repos' returns all attached repos, so I know it's communicating. However,
when I run 'yum repolist' I get the following:

yum repolist
>
> Loaded plugins: product-id, subscription-manager
>
> This system is not registered to Red Hat Subscription Management. You can
>> use subscription-manager to register.
>
> /usr/lib64/python2.7/site-packages/rhsm/_certificate.so: undefined symbol:
>> ASN1_OCTET_STRING_it
>
>
Everything works correctly with CentOS.

As a quick hack, I scp'd _certificate.so from a working CentOS 6 host over
to openSUSE 13.2:

scp /usr/lib64/python2.6/site-packages/rhsm/_certificate.so root@suse-host:
/usr/lib64/python2.7/site-packages/rhsm/_certificate.so

…yes, I did notice the python version difference, and the md5s are
different, but hang on. I ran 'yum repolist' again, and symlinked a couple
of missing libraries it complained about, notably:

cd /usr/lib64
ln -s libssl3.so libssl.so.10
ln -s libcrypto.so.30 libcrypto.so.10

and it sort of works (at least, detects the RHSM subscription), but still
doesn't detect any repos:

yum repolist
>
> Loaded plugins: product-id, subscription-manager
>
> This system is receiving updates from Red Hat Subscription Management.
>
> repolist: 0
>
>

Info online is spare for Katello, let alone hooking it up with SUSE/SLES.
It should be possible, since SUSE Manager is Spacewalk underneath as far
as I understand.

As a side question, is katello-agent broken? I got it installed on CentOS
and it provided packages to Katello, but even trying something as simple as
a Package Install doesn't do anything, it just hangs:

Action Type Install package
> User admin
> Started At 1/6/15 5:44 PM
> Finished At
> Parameters iotop ; system 'centos6.bla-domain.com' ; organization
> 'BLA-ORG'
> State running
> Result pending
>

And it remains pending forever, and I have to manually cancel it in Running
Steps. Basically zero documentation on this feature, so I don't even know
if I'm using it right.

Any suggestions on either of those? Unfortunately it's very much a SLES
company, so I'm a bit stuck with it.

Thanks,
Ben

Hi,

> Info online is spare for Katello, let alone hooking it up with SUSE/SLES.
> It should be possible, since SUSE Manager is Spacewalk underneath as far
> as I understand.

Spacewalk is the open source upstream of Red Hat Satellite 5 and SUSE
Manager, while Katello 2.x is the open source upstream of Red Hat
Satellite 6. The technologies used are completely different. What will
help a bit is that yum is also used on SUSE when connecting to SUSE
Manager (AFAIK), so there are already yum packages.

> I've managed to get subscription-manager installed on openSUSE 13.2 and
> it's attached to Katello 2.0 with an activation key.

How did you install subscription-manager?
Using a RPM built for RH/Fedora?

> Any suggestions on either of those? Unfortunately it's very much a SLES
> company, so I'm a bit stuck with it.

To be honest, the steps to get Katello usable for SLES are a bit bigger
than just installing some RPMs. A while ago I submitted two very humble
workarounds to Pulp to be able to get a SLES update channel synced:
http://git.io/2cZW_Q http://git.io/hhA8bQ are both merged for the
upcoming Pulp 2.6 release, while Katello 2.1 will use Pulp 2.5 (you can
patch your instance, of course).

There would be much more required on the Pulp side to get SUSE repos
really imported with all enhancerepo features and deltarpm
functionality.

On the client side it seems there's a stalled effort to get at least a
part of the required software packaged:
https://build.opensuse.org/project/show/systemsmanagement:katello

Maybe some community effort can be made to get that going again and
somebody will speak up here…

However, personally I'd recommend to stick with Spacewalk for now in a
SLES environment as the steps needed to get Katello fully working on
server and client are not that small as it seems in the first place.

Regards

··· On Mon, Jan 05, 2015 at 08:53:46PM -0800, Ben Schofield wrote: -- Michael Moll

>
> How did you install subscription-manager?
> Using a RPM built for RH/Fedora?

Installed from here
<http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/systemsmanagement:/katello/openSUSE_Factory/>,
through zypper.

To be honest, the steps to get Katello usable for SLES are a bit bigger
> than just installing some RPMs. A while ago I submitted two very humble
> workarounds to Pulp to be able to get a SLES update channel synced:
> http://git.io/2cZW_Q
> <http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fgit.io%2F2cZW_Q&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNE_NoS8Qhketjx9Sc41SSjwxOGNww>
> http://git.io/hhA8bQ
> <http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fgit.io%2FhhA8bQ&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNFGeiWJh4-3jRI_HqujT8wyptDIZg> are
> both merged for the
> upcoming Pulp 2.6 release, while Katello 2.1 will use Pulp 2.5 (you can
> patch your instance, of course).

Are those patches likely to resolve the SUSE yum issues? I've looked at the
Katello roadmap but I don't see Pulp 2.6 mentioned. Are you part of the
Katello project, and if so, is Pulp 2.6 likely to land in Katello 2.2?

There would be much more required on the Pulp side to get SUSE repos
> really imported with all enhancerepo features and deltarpm
> functionality.

I'm not too worried about these right now, I'd just be happy to be able to
patch as a minimum. I can see how these would be handy, however deltas have
actually been a headache for me in the past because for centrally unmanaged
hosts I use a proxy which specifically targets RPMs, DEBs, MSIs etc, and
deltas never seem to get caught in these and are sucked from an internet
repo instead of the local cache. Obviously getting SUSE deltas from a local
Katello repo would be the ultimate solution, but right now I'd just be
happy with them grabbing anything, full sized or not.

On the client side it seems there's a stalled effort to get at least a
> part of the required software packaged:
> https://build.opensuse.org/project/show/systemsmanagement:katello

Ahh good, so I was on the right track with that repo.

Maybe some community effort can be made to get that going again and
> somebody will speak up here…
> However, personally I'd recommend to stick with Spacewalk for now in a
> SLES environment as the steps needed to get Katello fully working on
> server and client are not that small as it seems in the first place.

If possible, I'd rather get Katello in by hacks, prayers or witch craft.
It's a big investment in time, testing, training etc to get either
Spacewalk or Katello in. I see Katello as the future (and so does Red Hat,
it seems). I'm not saying that I think Spacewalk will be deprecated, but
since Red Hat are major maintainers of both I have this sinking feeling
that they'll drop Spacewalk like a hot rock soon and concentrate on
Katello. If I can help it, I don't want to have to switch from Spacewalk to
Katello in a couple of years time if all it takes is a few days more to
setup Katello to talk to everything (RHEL/CentOS, SUSE/SLES, Debian/Ubuntu).

Whatever the case, I would like to thank all contributors to Katello (and
The Foreman) in general.

··· On Thursday, 8 January 2015 23:14:44 UTC+13, Michael Moll wrote: > > Hi, > > On Mon, Jan 05, 2015 at 08:53:46PM -0800, Ben Schofield wrote: > > Info online is spare for Katello, let alone hooking it up with > SUSE/SLES. > > It *should* be possible, since SUSE Manager is Spacewalk underneath as > far > > as I understand. > > Spacewalk is the open source upstream of Red Hat Satellite 5 and SUSE > Manager, while Katello 2.x is the open source upstream of Red Hat > Satellite 6. The technologies used are completely different. What will > help a bit is that yum is also used on SUSE when connecting to SUSE > Manager (AFAIK), so there are already yum packages. > > > I've managed to get subscription-manager installed on openSUSE 13.2 and > > it's attached to Katello 2.0 with an activation key. > > How did you install subscription-manager? > Using a RPM built for RH/Fedora? > > > Any suggestions on either of those? Unfortunately it's very much a SLES > > company, so I'm a bit stuck with it. > > To be honest, the steps to get Katello usable for SLES are a bit bigger > than just installing some RPMs. A while ago I submitted two very humble > workarounds to Pulp to be able to get a SLES update channel synced: > http://git.io/2cZW_Q > > http://git.io/hhA8bQ > > are both merged for the > upcoming Pulp 2.6 release, while Katello 2.1 will use Pulp 2.5 (you can > patch your instance, of course). > > There would be much more required on the Pulp side to get SUSE repos > really imported with all enhancerepo features and deltarpm > functionality. > > On the client side it seems there's a stalled effort to get at least a > part of the required software packaged: > https://build.opensuse.org/project/show/systemsmanagement:katello > > Maybe some community effort can be made to get that going again and > somebody will speak up here... > > However, personally I'd recommend to stick with Spacewalk for now in a > SLES environment as the steps needed to get Katello fully working on > server and client are not that small as it seems in the first place. > > Regards > -- > Michael Moll >

Hi,

> Installed from here
> <http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/systemsmanagement:/katello/openSUSE_Factory/>,

OK, the sources of that package have not been touched for over one year
and I think "Factory" is like a Debian/unstable of OpenSUSE, so I
wouldn't expect anything to work. :wink:

> Are those patches likely to resolve the SUSE yum issues?

No. These patches are only to resolve the import of SUSE yum repos into
pulp, no part of the client was involved.

> I've looked at the
> Katello roadmap but I don't see Pulp 2.6 mentioned. Are you part of the
> Katello project, and if so, is Pulp 2.6 likely to land in Katello 2.2?

If needed, these patches can be applied to pulp 2.4 or 2.5 also. 2.6 is
in beta at the moment and probably will be part of the Katello release
after 2.1.

> > There would be much more required on the Pulp side to get SUSE repos
> > really imported with all enhancerepo features and deltarpm
> > functionality.
>
>
> I'm not too worried about these right now, I'd just be happy to be able to
> patch as a minimum. I can see how these would be handy, however deltas have
> actually been a headache for me in the past because for centrally unmanaged
> hosts I use a proxy which specifically targets RPMs, DEBs, MSIs etc, and
> deltas never seem to get caught in these and are sucked from an internet
> repo instead of the local cache. Obviously getting SUSE deltas from a local
> Katello repo would be the ultimate solution, but right now I'd just be
> happy with them grabbing anything, full sized or not.

There's stuff happening: https://github.com/pulp/pulp_rpm/pull/629

> > On the client side it seems there's a stalled effort to get at least a
> > part of the required software packaged:
> > https://build.opensuse.org/project/show/systemsmanagement:katello
>
> Ahh good, so I was on the right track with that repo.
>
> > Maybe some community effort can be made to get that going again and
> > somebody will speak up here…
> > However, personally I'd recommend to stick with Spacewalk for now in a
> > SLES environment as the steps needed to get Katello fully working on
> > server and client are not that small as it seems in the first place.
>
>
> If possible, I'd rather get Katello in by hacks, prayers or witch craft.
> It's a big investment in time, testing, training etc to get either
> Spacewalk or Katello in. I see Katello as the future (and so does Red Hat,
> it seems).

As said, the client side is unavailable for SLES as the
systemsmanagement:katello repo is outdated and IMHO the packages were
never really finished. You can feed the repos generated by pulp to yum
or even zypper, but you won't have any additional functionality
available.

If you are interested in getting the SLES client functionality going, it
would IMHO be needed to form a group of people with the necessary
knowledge of SLES and the packaging specifics there and the motivation
to interact with the Katello community to have changes flowing in both
directions. I recommend to get in touch with the people having done
systemsmanagement:katello and get the packages updated and building on
SLES as a start.

> If I can help it, I don't want to have to switch from Spacewalk to
> Katello in a couple of years time if all it takes is a few days more to
> setup Katello to talk to everything (RHEL/CentOS, SUSE/SLES, Debian/Ubuntu).

RHEL/CentOS is no problem, SUSE/SLES still requires a lot of work
regarding the client side, as outlined above.

Debian/Ubuntu support for pulp is in early stages: http://git.io/osPFGA
Once deb/apt support is in pulp, the repos are at least consumable by
apt and probably apt repos can be created and synced also in Katello
with very little work. Then the heavy lifting of porting the Katello
client side to Debian/Ubuntu can start and there would be also a decent
group of people required for that…

TL;DR: There's a lot of work to be done and we need people with SUSE
knowledge and a connection to the SUSE community for SLES support and
the same is true for Debian/Ubuntu.

Pull Requests welcome. :wink:

Regards

··· On Sun, Jan 11, 2015 at 04:21:37PM -0800, Ben Schofield wrote: -- Michael Moll