How to configure virt-who for an ESX/ESXi host with RHSM?

Solution Verified - Updated

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux
  • Red Hat Subscription Management(RHSM)
  • Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console
  • VMware (ESX/ESXi) Hypervisors

Issue

  • How do I setup virt-who for an ESX/ESXi host?
  • I am following How to configure "virt-who" service to use "Virtual Data Center" subscriptions, I want to apply the same to an ESX/ESXi Hypervisor?

Resolution

Configure virt-who on any Virtual System running on any Hypervisors in the environment.

Note: One Virt-who configuration is sufficient to perform the host-guest mapping for the entire environment.

  • Configure virt-who (for virt-who version 0.14+): On the Virtual system, edit the /etc/virt-who.d/ file to identify the location of the ESX/ESXi hosts:

     # vi /etc/virt-who.d/virt-who.conf
 [vmware]
 type=esx
 server=vCenter(FQDN/IP)
 username=vCenter_Username
 password=vCenter_Password
 owner=org ID (From the Command # subscription-manager identity)
 hypervisor_id=hostname

    Note: Do not change the parameters [vmware], type=esx, and hypervisor_id=hostname, because these are the default values which is to be used.

    Note: virt-who ignore env option because the option is deprecated in virt-who-0.24.7-1.el7 and later.
    Refer to [Ignoring unknown configuration option "env" in rhsm.log](https://access.redhat.com/solutions/4618771 "Ignoring unknown configuration option "env" in rhsm.log")

    Do not provide hypervisor details in the template.conf file present in the "/etc/virt-who.d" directory because when the virt-who package is updated, it will clear all the data present in it.

    In order to create the encrypted password use the command virt-who-password

  • After Configuring start and enable the virt-who service.
    The host running virt-who service should be registered first. If not registered, it will return virtwho.destination error with SubscriptionManagerUnregisteredError.

  • Once done, the ESX/ESXi hypervisor will be available on the This content is not included.Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console inventory.

  • Use the below command to register RHEL guests VMs and access the repos directly:-

     # subscription-manager register 
 # yum repolist -v

  • Track the subscription usage in This content is not included.Subscription Watch service available in Hybrid Cloud Console.

  • ESX/ESXi uses 80 and 443 ports for virt-who configuration.

  • Make sure that the virt-who running system should be registered with RHSM.

For more KB articles/solutions related to Virt-who and Virtual Datacenter (VDC) Subscriptions Issues, please refer to the Consolidated Troubleshooting Article for Virt-who and Virtual Datacenter (VDC) Subscriptions Issues

Root Cause

Virtual Datacenter subscriptions require host-guest mapping to enable the derived SKU (unlimited subscriptions).

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