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15.2.2. Registering from the Command Line

The simplest way to register a machine is to pass the register command with the user account information required to authenticate to Customer Portal Subscription Management. When the system is successfully authenticated, it echoes back the newly-assigned system inventory ID and the user account name which registered it.
The register options are listed in Table 15.2, “register Options”.

Example 15.1. Registering a System to the Customer Portal

[root@server1 ~]# subscription-manager register --username admin-example --password secret

The system has been registered with id: 7d133d55-876f-4f47-83eb-0ee931cb0a97

Example 15.2. Automatically Subscribing While Registering

The register command has an option, --autosubscribe, which allows the system to be registered to the subscription service and immediately attaches the subscription which best matches the system's architecture, in a single step.
[root@server1 ~]# subscription-manager register --username admin-example --password secret --autosubscribe
This is the same behavior as when registering with the default settings in the Subscription Manager UI.

Example 15.3. Registering a System with Subscription Asset Manager

With Subscription Asset Managr or CloudForms System Engine, an account can have multiple, independent subdivisions called organizationst is required that you specify which organization (essentially an independent group or unit within the main account) to join the system to. This is done by using the --org option in addition to the username and password. The given user must also have the access permissions to add systems to that organization.
To register with a subscription service other than Customer Portal Subscription Management, several additional options must be used to identify the environment and organizational divisions that the system is being registered to:
  • The username and password for the user account withint the subscription service itself
  • --serverurl to give the hostname of the subscription service
  • --baseurl to give the hostname of the content delivery service (for CloudForms System Engine only)
  • --org to give the name of the organization under which to register the system
  • --environment to give the name of an environment (group) within the organization to which to add the system; this is optional, since a default environment is set for any organization
    A system can only be added to an environment during registration.
[root@server1 ~]# subscription-manager register --username=admin-example --password=secret --org="IT Department" --environment="dev" --serverurl=sam-server.example.com

The system has been registered with id: 7d133d55-876f-4f47-83eb-0ee931cb0a97

Note

If the system is in a multi-org environment and no organization is given, the register command returns a Remote Server error.

Table 15.2. register Options

Options Description Required
--username=name Gives the content server user account name. Required
--password=password Gives the password for the user account. Required
--serverurl=hostname Gives the hostname of the subscription service to use. The default is for Customer Portal Subcription Management, subscription.rhn.redhat.com. If this option is not used, the system is registered with Customer Portal Subscription Management. Required for Subscription Asset Manager or CloudForms System Engine
--baseurl=URL Gives the hostname of the content delivery server to use to receive updates. Both Customer Portal Subscription Management and Subscription Asset Manager use Red Hat's hosted content delivery services, with the URL https://cdn.redhat.com. Since CloudForms System Engine hosts its own content, the URL must be used for systems registered with System Engine. Required for CloudForms System Engine
--org=name Gives the organization to which to join the system. Required, except for hosted environments
--environment=name Registers the system to an environment within an organization. Optional
--name=machine_name Sets the name of the system to register. This defaults to be the same as the hostname. Optional
--autosubscribe Automatically ataches the best-matched compatible subscription. This is good for automated setup operations, since the system can be configured in a single step. Optional
--activationkey=key Attaches existing subscriptions as part of the registration process. The subscriptions are pre-assigned by a vendor or by a systems administrator using Subscription Asset Manager. Optional
--servicelevel=None|Standard|Premium Sets the service level to use for subscriptions on that machine. This is only used with the --autosubscribe option. Optional
--release=NUMBER Sets the operating system minor release to use for subscriptions for the system. Products and updates are limited to that specific minor release version. This is used only used with the --autosubscribe option. Optional
--force Registers the system even if it is already registered. Normally, any register operations will fail if the machine is already registered. Optional