RHEL Subscription Online Registration Issues#
Online Registration Process#
After purchasing RHEL subscription, Chinese customers can register their systems online using the following command:
subscription-manager register --auto-attach --username ********* --password ********
In China, this command often encounters slow speed, timeouts, and other errors due to the need to access servers abroad during the registration process. To speed up the process, a proxy can be set up and the registration process can be routed through the proxy using the following command:
export PROXY="127.0.0.1:18801"
subscription-manager register --proxy=$PROXY --auto-attach --username ********* --password ********
Official knowledge base: https://access.redhat.com/solutions/253273
Debugging#
If the cause of the slow speed is unclear, the rhsm log needs to be opened to determine the cause of the problem. Use the following commands:
sed -i 's/default_log_level = .*/default_log_level = DEBUG/' /etc/rhsm/rhsm.conf
subscription-manager status
cat /var/log/rhsm/rhsm.log
Offline Registration Process#
If the customer's network situation is too unique, an offline registration process can be used. The underlying principle is that after the online registration process, the system downloads a certificate after username and password verification, which is then saved in the system and used for future connections with Red Hat systems.
The offline registration process involves manually downloading this certificate, importing it into the system, and then proceeding with the subsequent steps.
For specific steps, refer to this online knowledge base: https://access.redhat.com/solutions/3121571
CCSP Subscription Registration Process#
CCSP subscription is a subscription method provided for cloud hosting providers. With CCSP subscription, cloud hosting providers need to maintain a RHUI (Red Hat Update Infrastructure) and all RHEL systems in the cloud access RHUI for updates.
RPM CDN Acceleration#
The aforementioned processes are related to registration. After registration, the next step is to download RPMs. Red Hat's RPMs are globally accelerated through CDN. If customers feel that the download speed is slow, they can switch to a domestic CDN using the following commands:
subscription-manager config --rhsm.baseurl=https://china.cdn.redhat.com
subscription-manager refresh
yum clean all
yum makecache
Official knowledge base: https://access.redhat.com/solutions/5090421
Satellite#
Enterprise users' private clouds are usually offline environments. Red Hat provides a product called Satellite, which acts as a proxy for registration servers and a private CDN for RPM sources.
Local Repo Mirror#
If customers find Satellite too complex and difficult to deploy, there is a simpler but less elegant method: register one host, mirror the official Red Hat repo to the local host, start a web service on this host, and turn it into a local repo source. Other hosts can then point to this local source.
Official knowledge base: https://access.redhat.com/solutions/23016