Subscription Management Tool for SUSE Linux Enterprise

Questions

1. What is the Subscription Management Tool for SUSE Linux Enterprise?
2. What challenges does the Subscription Management Tool address?
3. What is new with the Subscription Management Tool for SUSE Linux Enterprise 11?
4. What are the technical requirements for the Subscription Management Tool?
5. How can I manage my SUSE Linux Enterprise subscriptions?
6. What does the Subscription Management Tool do?
7. How can I install the Subscription Managenent Tool for SUSE Linux Enterprise 11?
8. What if I choose not to install the Subscription Management Tool?
9. How easy is it to setup the Subscription Management Tool?
10. How can I migrate from my current update configurations to the Subscription Management Tool?
11. How do I obtain the Subscription Management Tool? How much does it cost?
12. How is the Subscription Management Tool different from Novell ZENworks Linux Management?
13. Does the Subscription Management Tool scale?
14. How will I manage my subscriptions when using the Subscription Management Tool?
15. Does the Subscription Management Tool have reporting capabilities?
16. What support does the Subscription Management Tool offer for staging?
17. How can I customize the updates I want to apply to a specific SUSE Linux Enterprise device?
18. What is the Subscription Management support policy?
19. What are mirroring credentials and how does the Subscription Management Tool handle them?
20. What ports are used by the Subscription Management Tool?

Answers

1. What is the Subscription Management Tool for SUSE Linux Enterprise?

   The Subscription Management Tool allows enterprise customers to optimize the management of SUSE Linux Enterprise software updates and subscription entitlements. It establishes a proxy system for Novell Customer Center with repository and registration targets. This helps you centrally manage software updates within the firewall on a per-system basis, while maintaining your corporate security policies and regulatory compliance

   The tool allows you to provision updates for all of your devices running a SUSE Linux Enterprise-based product. By downloading these updates only once and distributing them throughout the enterprise, you can set more restrictive firewall policies and, where applicable, avoid significant network usage stemming from repeated downloads of the same updates by each device. The Tool is fully supported and available as a download to customers with an active SUSE Linux Enterprise product subscription.

2. What challenges does the Subscription Management Tool address?

   The Subscription Management Tool addresses the following challenges:

   • Firewall policy and regulatory compliance during the software update process
   • Bandwidth requirements during the software update process
   • Automated server entitlement tracking across large server deployments and effective measurement of subscription use so you can easily determine how many entitlements are in need of renewal at the end of a billing cycle without having to physically walk through the data center to manually update spreadsheets
   • Maintaining a fully supported solution to manage SUSE Linux Enterprise subscriptions without losing the existing interface with Novell Customer Center (NCC)–please see the NCC-SMT Interface FAQs for more detailed information on the technical interface between NCC and SMT
   
   
3. What is new with the Subscription Management Tool for SUSE Linux Enterprise 11?

   The Subscription Management Tool for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 comes with a several exciting and innovative capabilities in systems management. These capabilities include

   • The possibility to stage patches to internal managed area under full control of the site administrator. This gives the administrator the option to carry out integration testing before they fully enable these new patches onsite.
   • The ability to centrally push packages to managed devices
   • Improved set-up and the facilitated operation for fully disconnected ("sneakernet") configurations
   • New support for System z as server hosting architecture (in addition to x86 and x86_64)
   • Full integration with the new supportability infrastructure delivered with SUSE Linux Enterprise (Novell Support Link integrated in SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 and Novell Support Advisor from Novell Technical Services). This helps easily facilitate problem reporting and troubleshooting.
   
   
4. What are the technical requirements for the Subscription Management Tool?

   The Subscription Management Tool for SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 supports the following clients:

   • SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 based products and subsequent releases, all architectures, all NU/NCC-based products.
   • SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 SP2 based products and subsequent releases, all architectures, all NU/NCC-based products.
   • SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 base product hosting the current Open Enterprise Server release (OES10 SP1), exclusively for OES customers.
   • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3, 4, 5 that are part of the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server with Expanded Support offer, exclusively for registration and package update. Additional functionality requires a supported SUSE Linux Enterprise distribution.

   The Subscription Management Tool is packaged as an add-on product to be installed on an SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 hosting server on the following architectures:

   • x86
   • x86_64
   • System z

   SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 hosted servers are not supported by the Subscription Management Tool for SUSE Linux Enterprise 11.

   For the installation and deployment of the Subscription Management Tool for SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 you need a SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 entitled device on x86, x86_64, or System z.

   All SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 system requirements apply.

   The more you need

   • a valid DNS host name such as smt.mycompany.com.
   • Storage space as needed to support the products that are locally in deployment–10GB per product is the suggested minimum storage amount.


5. How can I manage my SUSE Linux Enterprise subscriptions?

   Novell Customer Center and Novell Update (NU) are the two primary vehicles through which you can manage your subscriptions. The Subscription Management Tool is a package proxy system that mirrors NCC and NU at your site. It's fully integrated with NCC. The tool also provides a repository identical to Novell Update, as well as a registration target syncing with NCC.

6. What does the Subscription Management Tool do?

   The Subscription Management Tool informs the SUSE Linux Enterprise devices throughout the network of available software updates. Each device then obtains the required software updates from the Tool. The installation of the Tool does not alter the current end-user experience and interactions–either within NCC and on the local system.

   Upon installation, administrator interaction with NCC remains the same (as is currently handled via direct communication with NCC) and continues to access the NCC in the same way to manage subscriptions, monitor usage and process renewals upon expiration. The way you receive notification of SUSE Linux Enterprise software updates, and how you select to install your updates, remains unchanged from the existing process.

   The Subscription Management Tool improves the interaction among SUSE Linux Enterprise devices in a more secure manner within the network and improves how you receive your system updates. The Tool can enable an infrastructure for several hundred SUSE Linux Enterprise devices per instance of each installation (depending on the specific utilization profile) ensuring more accurate and efficient server tracking. The Tool also handles update transactions securely using SSL. Additionally, the Tool supports fully disconnected operations at highly secure sites, such as installations at military or other highly classified deployments that are severed from the Internet. The figure below shows how the Subscription Management Tool interfaces with SUSE Linux Enterprise devices inside the enterprise and also with NCC and NU.

   
7. How can I install the Subscription Managenent Tool for SUSE Linux Enterprise 11?

   There are a several options for installation. You can install SMT along with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 as an add-on upon base product installation or later. If you want to add the Subscription Management Tool

   • During the base product installation:
     • Select the "Include Add-On Products from Separate Media" box on the installation mode screen
     • Depending on your installation, you can add the Subscription Management Tool from CD1 or from a remote installation source, such as an FTP server, on the next screen
   • After you have installed SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11:
     • Under YaST2, select "Software"–"Add-On Product", add CD1 of the Subscription Management Tool or a remote installation SMT source
     • Follow the installation workflow steps presented
   
   
8. What if I choose not to install the Subscription Management Tool?

   Installing the Subscription Management Tool is optional for customers, and although end-user experience remains the same, it improves the interaction among SUSE Linux Enterprise devices within the network and how they receive their system updates. The default configuration of SUSE Linux Enterprise, without a proxy, requires opening the firewall to an outbound connection for each of the devices that need to receive updates. This often violates corporate security policies and may be seen as a threat to regulatory compliance by some organizations. Each device receiving updates directly from NU may also cause bandwidth concerns in some large or connectivity-constrained deployments.

9. How easy is it to setup the Subscription Management Tool?

   Setting up the Subscription Management Tool is very simple. Please view the figure 2 below for a sample configuration setup:

   

   The base configuration is limited to credentials and administrator identification. A few additional items (such as "Database and Reporting", or "Scheduled SMT Jobs") can be customized. The minimum requirement during the installation of an SUSE Linux Enterprise device is to key in the URL to your Subscription Management Tool server.

   For a screenshot of the Subscription Management Tool Management Console, please view the figure 3 below.

   
10. How can I migrate from my current update configurations to the Subscription Management Tool?

    You may choose to maintain your direct connection to NCC as currently used. No change is necessary for those who choose not to install the Subscription Management Tool.

    However, in order to maximize the security of your software update process, it is recommended to install the Subscription Management Tool. You are required to have a subscription to SUSE Linux Enterprise and direct the local SUSE Linux Enterprise devices to access the Subscription Management Tool server at install time.

    Alternatively, it is possible to run a script provided with the Subscription Management Tool (clientSetup4SMT) to change the configuration of a client to use the Tool as a registration server, or to manually add and delete update sources in the update stack.

11. How do I obtain the Subscription Management Tool? How much does it cost?

    The new version of the Subscription Management Tool is available for download at no extra cost to customers with an active subscription to SUSE Linux Enterprise 11. However, for deployment of your Subscription Management Tool server, you need to have available one server system on x86 or x86-64 architecture running SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11, or an IBM System z Mainframe running SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for System z 11. The Subscription Management Tool is under the GPL V2 license.

12. How is the Subscription Management Tool different from Novell ZENworks Linux Management?

    The Subscription Management Tool is an update management proxy system integrated with Novell Customer Center to maintain registration information. The Tool notifies connected SUSE Linux Enterprise devices of the availability of software updates, and the SUSE Linux Enterprise devices then obtain updates from the Tool as needed.

    Novell ZENworks Linux Management is an enterprise system management solution. It offers additional capabilities to selectively distribute updates to a selected group of SUSE Linux Enterprise devices, and provides much more extensive capabilities in both software management and other areas.

13. Does the Subscription Management Tool scale?

    The Subscription Management Tool server can supply updates for up to a thousand SUSE Linux Enterprise devices per server depending on the utilization profile.

14. How will I manage my subscriptions when using the Subscription Management Tool?

    There are no changes in how you manage your subscription through Novell Customer Center.

15. Does the Subscription Management Tool have reporting capabilities?

    The Subscription Management Tool provides support for the new supportability infrastructure integrated in SUSE Linux Enterprise 11. By using the Novell Support Link, you can issue reports and requests across the local firewall to Novell. The default configuration is that local copies of these reports are retained at the Subscription Management Tool server under a canonical path for your site administrators use. These reports are not forwarded to Novell unless instructed to by the administrator. The most common use case for this function is when a site administrator wishes to be the only interface to Novell Technical Services. The administrator allows the submission of Novell Support Link reports to the Subscription Management Tool server, where he parses the files using the Novell Support Advisor. He then forwards those reports he cannot address himself to Novell–again, using the Novell Support Advisor user interface.

16. What support does the Subscription Management Tool offer for staging?

    The Subscription Management Tool offers support for basic staging. Inside the Tool, there are three independent sets of repositories. The administrator can manipulate one view while keeping the others untouched, and then switch them as needed. One view is for current mirror of the repository, another one view can be used for testing available software updates against test devices, before being made available to other servers and the third one is for making the validated updates available to all production systems. If you have more extensive or complex staging needs, you should use ZENworks Linux Management or another equivalent product.

17. How can I customize the updates I want to apply to a specific SUSE Linux Enterprise device?

    The Subscription Management Tool informs a SUSE Linux Enterprise device about available updates when a device connects to it. You can choose and customize the packages you want to apply during an update. You may want to apply only critical updates. Your ability to select and apply the SUSE Linux Enterprise device updates remains the same with the introduction of the Subscription Management Tool.

    Also, an administrator can perform local customization by bringing in packages from other sources and making them available in a custom Subscription Management Tool channel. For example, in a desktop deployment at an academic institution, the administrator can provision updates for third-party software (such as Matlab) via the Tool by configuring the server to assign an additional "local maintenance" channel to a registered product. These local updates must be packaged as RPM files.

18. What is the Subscription Management support policy?

    The Subscription Management Tool is a fully supported Novell product. Your support rights are defined by your SUSE Linux Enterprise Server support agreement with Novell.

19. What are mirroring credentials and how does the Subscription Management Tool handle them?

    Mirroring credentials are specific credentials you can request within your NCC account. They enable a tool to access all of your purchased product updates that fall under each active subscription. Mirroring credentials are designed for use by enterprise management solutions, such as the Subscription Management Tool.

20. What ports are used by the Subscription Management Tool?

    The Subscription Management Tool uses ports 443 and (optionally) 80 on the server side. The client side update stack remains unchanged.