Chapter 3. Prerequisites

3.1. Program and Product Requirements

3.1.1. Program Membership, Accounts, and Entitlements

To certify cloud images, an active membership in the Certified Cloud and Service Provider (CCSP) Program is required. If you are not already a member, visit Red Hat Connect for Business Partners to learn more and become a member.

During the CCSP program sign-up process a Red Hat Single Sign-On (SSO) account will be created for you. This SSO account and its credentials will be used throughout the certification process to access Red Hat products, the certification toolset, and other Red Hat assets.

After you have an active membership in the CCSP program and an SSO account, the account must be entitled with certification privileges. To do this, open a case and include the following information in the Problem Statement field:

Problem Statement:

  • Partner Certification: CCSP Certification Access for {Red Hat SSO Username} at {Partner Name}

    Optionally, include all of the following information in the What do you expect to see field to have a Red Hat associate service your case and create the first certification request for you:

  • Name of the Cloud or the Cloud Service Offering
  • Public Catalog URL/Public URL of the Cloud or Cloud Service Offering
  • Supported Regions (Global/Australia & New Zealand/ASEAN/EMEA/Japan/LATAM/North America/Public Sector):
  • Supported Languages
  • Any 3rd Party Certifications Acquired (E.g. FedRAMP, Systrust, SAS 70, PCI, Other Non-NA Certs, etc.):
  • RHEL Version (6.x or 7.x) of the first certification desired to be achieved

Attach File:

Attached Partner Brand Logo (PNG 256x256)

3.1.2. Image Requirements

As a Certified Cloud and Service Provider (CCSP), you are required to certify images that you publish in a catalog. The certification process provides your Red Hat customers with the assurance that they will have a consistent experience across cloud providers, that the customer’s experience comes with the highest level of support, and that good security practices are available to the customers.

Your image needs to meet the complete list of image requirement policies outlined in the CCSP Program Guide and the Technical and Operations requirements Guide available in Red Hat Connect for Business Partners. The certification specific policies and requirements are covered in the CCSP Policy Guide.

3.2. Prepare the Test Environment

3.2.1. Test Environment Overview

The following diagram depicts the environment setup required for testing of RHEL 6 or RHEL 7 image-under-test (whichever is applicable) using Red Hat Certification web UI. The diagram includes the certification packages that need to be installed on each host (color coded).

Test Environment Overview

The primary application that is implemented in the Red Hat Certification workflow is a client server application.You can launch Red Hat Certification web user interface on a different host (test server), and use the web UI to run certification tests on a cloud image-under-test (test client). The test server communicates with the the image-under-test or the test client and triggers certification tests on the image-under-test/test client host. Using the Red Hat Certification web user interface you can:

  • Generate requests for new certifications
  • Submit logs
  • Conduct discussions with the certification team

Although it is not mandatory, Red Hat recommends that you set up an independent test server to run certification tests on the image-under-test/test client. This allows testing of multiple images/test clients from a single host/test server, provides detailed validation reports on the test server and prevents resource constraints. The validated test results/reports are also saved on Red Hat Certification server and can be viewed on Red Hat Certification web user interface. After the data is submitted, partners can maintain the Red Hat Certification web user interface for further communication with certification team if required.

Note

You may use the Red Hat Certification Command-Line Interface if Red Hat Certification web UI is inaccessible or if the image-under-test does not have access to the internet. Red Hat supports the usage of Red Hat Certification CLI as documented for this release of CCSP certification.

3.2.2. Prepare the Image-under-Test

The software packages required on the image-under-test have to be installed manually from Red Hat Customer Portal. This ensures minimum modifications to the default content of the image-under-test.

Note

If the image-under-test does not have internet access, we recommend that you download the required software packages on any other connected RHEL 6/7 host (whichever is applicable) and then transfer the RPM files to the image-under-test. After installation of the required packages on the image-under-test, Red Hat recommends using Red Hat Certification CLI to run certification tests and complete the rest of the process.

To download and install the required software packages manually from Red Hat Customer Portal, complete the following steps:

  1. Log in to Red Hat Customer Portal and open the Red Hat Certification Downloads Page.

  2. Select the relevant version of RHEL from the Version list. Select an appropriate architecture from the Architecture list.

    Download Options

  3. Click the Download Latest button next to the redhat-certification-backend and redhat-certification-cloud packages.

    Download Latest
  4. Install the RPM files/packages downloaded in the previous step on the image-under-test.

  5. Run the following command to start Red Hat Certification back-end server and the server listener process on the image-under-test: 

    # rhcertd start

Result

The image-under-test is now prepared for certification testing.

3.2.3. Prepare the Test Server

The software packages required on the test server must be installed by subscribing to Red Hat Certification channel via Red Hat web user interface or Satellite. This ensures that the required dependencies are automatically installed.

To install the required software packages on the test server, complete the following steps:

  1. Select a persistent RHEL 7 host which can act as the test server host. The chosen RHEL 7 host should be able to access Red Hat services including the certification channels and use the same network as the RHEL 6 or RHEL 7 image-under-test.

  2. Run the following command to register your host using Red Hat Subscription Management: 

    # subscription-manager register

    Use your RHN credentials for the registration.

  3. Run the following command to display the list of available subscriptions for your system: 

    # subscription-manager list --available

    From the list of available subscriptions, search for the subscription which provides the Red Hat Certification (for RHEL Server) repository. Make a note of the subscription and its Pool ID.

    Important

    The Red Hat Certification (for RHEL Server) repository provides the certification packages.

  4. Run the following command to attach the subscription which provides the Red Hat Certification (for RHEL Server) repository to your system: 

    # subscription-manager attach --pool=[pool_ID]

    Replace [pool_ID] with the Pool ID of the subscription which provides the Red Hat Certification (for RHEL Server) repository.

    It is mandatory to use the correct Pool ID with the # subscription-manager attach --pool command to attach the required subscription to the system.

    Tip

    To verify the list of subscriptions your system has currently attached, at any time, run the # subscription-manager list --consumed command. Ensure that the subscription which provides the Red Hat Certification (for RHEL Server) repository is attached to your system.

  5. Run the following command to subscribe to Red Hat Certification channel: 

    # subscription-manager repos --enable=rhel-7-server-cert-rpms
    # yum install redhat-certification

  6. Run the following commands to start Apache, Red Hat Certification back-end server and the server listener process: 

    # systemctl start httpd
# rhcertd start

Result

The test server (RHEL 7.x host) is now prepared. The redhat-certification package provides Red Hat Certification web UI which can be used to run certification tests on the image-under-test/test client.