Why should I use Red Hat Subscription Management?

Solution Unverified - Updated

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux(RHEL)

Issue

  • Why should I use This content is not included.Red Hat Subscription Management tools for managing my subscriptions when RHN Classic works just fine for me?
  • What is Subscription Management and what is need to use it?
  • I would like to register my RHEL7 beta machine for subscription. I have requested for a subscription and received a install key, etc. However, when I attempt to do the rhn_register, I only get a menu for the satellite server. How do I set my machine up to utilize the beta subscription?
  • Want registration for RHEL server beta subscription. Do I need to use subscription management to register my RHEL 7 beta machine for subscription?

Resolution

You are required to use subscription-manager and related tools to entitle RHEL 7 systems (except when This content is not included.using Red Hat Satellite 5.6). Although optional for entitling other RHEL systems, Subscription Management tools make it easier to manage and report your subscription usage for most versions of RHEL.

Root Cause

  • You need to subscribe a RHEL 7 system or you need more refined management of your other RHEL entitlements.

Diagnostic Steps

As a system administrator, using Red Hat Subscription Management (RHSM) tools to register and entitle your systems will help you if you have any of the following needs:

  • RHEL 7: You are entitling a RHEL 7 system and do not have a Red Hat Satellite server v5.6 or newer (RHN classic is not supported in this case).
  • Assigning specific entitlements: You want specific entitlements to be assigned to specific systems. For example, this can help you if multiple cost centers in your organization are drawing from subscriptions associated with the same account. You can view and choose which subscriptions to use based on such things as contract number, expiration date, support levels, included products, or other features.
  • Reporting: You need to report on which entitlements are being used for each system.
  • Flexibility: RHSM offers stackable SKUs, which provide more flexibility in managing your system entitlements. For example, if you have a system with eight CPU sockets, you can use four two-socket entitlements instead of having to purchase entitlements that exactly match the number of sockets.
  • Physical or cloud: RHSM can assist in managing your subscription from physical to virtual and cloud deployments.
  • Subscription status: Using the Subscription Management window, red, yellow, or green status indicators provide an easy way to assess which of your systems are properly entitled to be in compliance with your Red Hat contracts.
  • Subscription Asset Manager or Red Hat Customer Portal: Using the Red Hat Customer portal, you can view all your entitled systems in one place. If your site doesn't have access to the Red Hat Customer portal, you can configure Subscription Asset Manager to provide an on-premise facility for managing your subscriptions.
  • Yum repositories: Unlike RHN Classic, RHSM does not use software channels to provide access to Red Hat software. Instead, RHSM lets you enable yum repositories to get software that is associated with your subscriptions. This lets you use well-known yum-related tools for managing your software repositories.

Learn More


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