How do I register my Red Hat Enterprise Linux Virtual Guest system with Red Hat Network Classic?

Solution Verified - Updated

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 guests with the latest version of up2date
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 guests
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 guests
  • Red Hat Network (RHN) Classic
  • Red Hat Network (RHN) Satellite
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Advanced Platform entitlements

Issue

Note : Red Hat Enterprise Linux Advanced Platform entitlements are retired entitlements and we now have This content is not included.Flex Guests.

  • How to register my Red Hat Enterprise Linux Virtual Guest system with RHN Classic / RHN Satellite?

Resolution

Note : This procedure will work for both fully-virtualized and para-virtualized guests. Please run all commands as the 'root' user.

  1. The host system (or dom0 for Xen) must be registered with the Red Hat Network. Follow the standard procedure to register this system with Red Hat Network (RHN).

  2. Under the System Properties page, subscribe the base system to the appropriate Virtualization Channel.

    ** Virtualization allows for up to 4 Virtual guest registrations, while Virtualization Platform allows for an unlimited number of Virtual guest registrations.
    *** Virtualization is available with all Red Hat Enterprise Linux server entitlements and Virtualization Platform with our Red Hat Enterprise Linux Advanced Platform entitlements. With RHEL 6, the numbers of virtualized guests/instances varies as per your subscriptions(http://www.redhat.com/rhel/server/compare/).

  3. Make sure that the virtualization add on entitlement is checked "Add-On Entitlements: Virtualization (0 open entitlements)". This is available via access.redhat.com --> SUBSCRIPTIONS --> Registered Systems --> Click on the host system --> Click Edit These Properties --> Check the add on entitlements box (Virtualization) --> Click update properties. If you have an Advanced Platform entitlement, you can check the "Virtualization Platform" box instead to be able to register an unlimited number of guests for this host.

  4. Make sure that rhn-virtualization-common and rhn-virtualization-host are installed on the Host system. If they are not installed, then subscribe the system to Red Hat Network Tools Channel and run:

    # yum install rhn-virtualization-common rhn-virtualization-host

    For more details on how to subscribe the system to Red Hat Network Tools child channel refer This content is not included.How do I subscribe a system to a sub-channel or a child channel using Red Hat Network (RHN)?.

  5. Install the Virtual guest and make sure that the Virtual guest is running.

  6. From the command line on the Host system, run:

    # rhn_check

  7. To re-sync the package profile from the command line on the Host system, run:

    # rhn-profile-sync

  8. From the Virtual guest, run:

    # rhn_register

Now the Virtual Guest will show up as a registered, Virtualized system.

Troubleshooting:

  • If you have completed all the above steps and rhn_register still tries to use a full entitlement, try using rhnreg_ks which has been known to allow virtualized guests to register using the correct entitlements.  For more information on rhnreg_ks, please refer to the man page (man rhnreg_ks).
# rhnreg_ks --username <rhnlogin> --password <rhnpassword> --profilename <hostname>

  • If it is a RHEL 5.5 Xen full-virt guest, there is a bug that would cause the guest consume a regular RHEL entitlement during registration or it will fail to register if there are no available regular RHEL entitlements. Please update the package mentioned in this RHBA-2010-0328 to fix the problem. See this kbase article for more information: RHEL5.5 Full-virt guest consume regular RHEL subscription

  • If still the issue persists, please contact Red Hat Support.

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