Simple Content Access - FAQ
What is Simple Content Access?
Simple content access is a set of capabilities that enables a change in the way Red Hat manages its subscription and entitlement enforcement model. With simple content access, the enforcement model changes from a per-system requirement, where you must attach a subscription to a system before you can access content, to a per-organization requirement, where you can access content on a system without attaching a subscription to that system.
In its simplest form, simple content access provides unlimited access to any content for which you have at least one subscription.
Additional information can be found on the following article: Simple Content Access.
How do I get this capability?
Simple content access can be enabled by an account organization administrators (org admin account role) from options in the Customer Portal.
For systems directly connected to Red Hat Subscription Management
The option is available directly on this page This content is not included.Red Hat Subscription Magement. Enabling Simple Content access from this page will provide the functionality to all of your systems directly connected to Red Hat Subscription Management. This will NOT affect any of your systems that are already registered to a Satellite server.
For systems registered to a Satellite server
You can enable Simple Content Access by editing your current This content is not included.Subscription Allocation. Since each Subscription Allocation represent an organization of your Satellite, you have the flexibility to enable or disable Simple Content Access for specific organizations on your Satellite server(s). The option is available from Satellite version 6.5 and later.
Who can enable Simple Content Access?
Simple content access is available to everyone. Any customer have the capability to enable Simple Content Access directly from the Red Hat Customer Portal, as long as you have the Organization Admin permission.
Is there a product page?
The This content is not included.Subscription Central page contains information about the subscription experience, including simple content access.
How does Simple Content Access relate to Subscription Watch?
Since Simple Content Access will allow you to get unlimited access for which you have at least one subscription, it will become important to keep track of your current usage of entitlements to ensure you are covered by your current subscriptions.
You can access Subscription Watch from This content is not included.console.redhat.com.
If I don't have to attach entitlements to systems, how do I ensure that I do not deploy in excess of what I have valid subscriptions for?
Within Satellite, you can use Content Host Limits to set the maximum number of hosts that can be registered with an activation key. This option can be used in conjunction with reporting to maintain accurate inventory of what has been deployed.
Regarding reporting, it is strongly recommended (but not mandatory) to use Subscription Watch Subscription watch provides an organization-wide view of subscription utilization, and can be used with multiple Satellite servers, Red Hat Insights clients, Red Hat Subscription Management (RHSM), or any combination of them.
What will happen if I deploy more RHEL servers than I'm entitled to?
There will be no limitation from a technical perspective and you will be able to deploy as many systems as you need, regardless of how many entitlements are remaining in your account. As long as you have at least one valid subscription, there will be no mechanism to prevent additional RHEL servers to consume content. However you are required to remain compliant and you are expected to plan on purchasing additional subscriptions to cover your usage. We strongly recommend to use Subscription Watch on a regular basis to track your utilization over time and take actions as needed. The usage of Simple Content Access does not change the contract terms you have with Red Hat.
With Simple Content Access enabled on Satellite, do I need to remove subscriptions from my manifest and from my content hosts?
There is no need to remove subscriptions from your manifest or to unsubscribe content hosts. This action will have no effect. For Satellite 6.5, you can disable auto-attach from your activation keys. Starting from Satellite 6.6, auto-attach is automatically disabled after you enable simple content access.
Do I still need to use virt-who?
Yes. You are still required to track your subscription usage, and virt-who is an essential part of getting valid reporting data. In addition, virt-who is an essential part of providing guest mapping of RHEL servers.
Known issues and limitations
Unable to select Content Access Mode on satellite allocation in RHSM
EUS repositories not available in Satellite after enabling Simple Content Access
Unknown subscription status when using Simple Content Access
What is the scope of support?
Simple Content Access is just an option to enable and we fully support this.
Where and how to engage with Red Hat Support?
If you suspect an issue with Simple Content Access, you can file a support case with selecting a product (Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Red Hat Satellite etc) of the system where the problem has been identified.