VHM and SUSE CaaS Platform

You can use a Uyuni VHM to gather instances from SUSE CaaS Platform.

The VHM allows Uyuni to obtain and report information about your virtual machines. For more information on VHMs, see client-configuration:vhm.adoc.

Onboarding CaaSP nodes

You can register each SUSE CaaS Platform node to Uyuni using the same method as you would a Salt client. For more information, see client-configuration:registration-overview.adoc.

We recommend that you create an activation key to associate SUSE CaaS Platform channels, and to onboard the associated nodes. For more on activation keys, see client-configuration:clients-and-activation-keys.adoc.

If you are using cloud-init, we recommended that you use a bootstrap script in the cloud-init configuration. For more on bootstrapping, see client-configuration:registration-bootstrap.adoc.

When you have added the SUSE CaaS Platform nodes to Uyuni, the registered system will be locked automatically. When a system is locked, the Web UI shows a warning and you can schedule actions using the Web UI or the API, but the action will fail.

The locking mechanism works only with plain Salt minions (locking is not supported with salt-ssh minions).

You can enable or disable the system lock by navigating to Formulas  System Lock. Uncheck Lock system and click Save Formula to save. You do not need to apply the highstate for this formula. When the system lock is disabled, all operations are permitted.

The System Lock formula is enabled automatically if SUSE CaaS Platform is detected on the node, or if you perform an action that involves a package. This does not include actions that involve patches.

You can disable the System Lock formula from being automatically applied by editing the configuration file. Open /etc/rhn/rhn.conf and add this line at the end of the file:

  1. Add this line at the end of the /etc/rhn/rhn.conf file:

    java.automatic_system_lock_cluster_nodes = false

Restart the spacewalk service to pick up the changes:

spacewalk-service restart

Updates related to Kubernetes are managed using the skuba-update tool. For more information, see https://documentation.suse.com/suse-caasp/4/html/caasp-admin/_cluster_updates.html.

When using Salt or Uyuni (either via UI or API) on any SUSE CaaS Platform nodes:

  • Do not apply a patch (if the patch is marked as interactive)

  • Do not mark a system to automatically install patches

  • Do not perform an SP migration

  • Do not reboot a node

  • Do not issue any power management action via Cobbler

  • Do not install a package if it breaks or conflicts the patterns-caasp-Node-x.y

  • Do not remove a package if it breaks or conflicts or is one of the packages related with the patterns-caasp-Node-x.y

  • Do not upgrade a package if it breaks or conflicts or is one of the packages related with the patterns-caasp-Node-x.y

Issuing those operations could render your SUSE CaaS Platform cluster unusable. Uyuni will not stop you from issuing these operations if the system is not locked.