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15.6. Setting Preferences for Systems
Auto-attaching and healing (updating) subscriptions selects what subscriptions to attach to a system based on a variety of criteria, including current installed products, hardware, and architecture. It is possible to set two additional preferences for Subscription Manager to use:
- Service levels for subscriptions
- The operating system minor version (X.Y) to use
This is especially useful for healing, which runs daily to ensure that all installed products and current subscriptions remain active.
15.6.1. Setting Preferences in the UI
Both a service level preference and an operating system release version preference are set in the System Preferences dialog box in Subscription Manager.
- Open the Subscription Manager.
- Open the System menu.
- Select the System Preferences menu item.
- Select the desired service level agreement preference from the drop-down menu. Only service levels available to the Red Hat account, based on all of its active subscriptions, are listed.
- Select the operating system release preference in the Release version drop-down menu. The only versions listed are Red Hat Enterprise Linux versions for which the account has an active subscription.
- The preferences are saved and applied to future subscription operations when they are set. To close the dialog, click .
15.6.2. Setting Service Levels Through the Command Line
A general service level preference can be set using the
service-level --set command.
Example 15.5. Setting a Service Level Preference
First, list the available service levels for the system, using the
--list option with the service-level command.
[root@server ~]# subscription-manager service-level --list
+-------------------------------------------+
Available Service Levels
+-------------------------------------------+
Standard
None
Premium
Self-Support
Then, set the desired level for the system.
[root@server ~]# subscription-manager service-level --set=self-support Service level set to: self-support
The current setting for the local system is shown with the
--show option:
[root#server ~]# subscription-manager service-level --show Current service level: self-support
A service level preference can be defined when a subscription operation is being run (such as registering a system or attaching subscriptions after registration). This can be used to override a system preference. Both the
register and subscribe commands have the --servicelevel option to set a preference for that action.
Example 15.6. Autoattaching Subscriptions with a Premium Service Level
[root#server ~]# subscription-manager subscribe --auto --servicelevel Premium Service level set to: Premium Installed Product Current Status: ProductName: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Server Status: Subscribed
Note
The
--servicelevel option requires the --autosubscribe option (for register) or --auto option (for subscribe). It cannot be used when attaching a specified pool or when importing a subscription.
15.6.3. Setting a Preferred Operating System Release Version in the Command Line
Many IT environments have to be certified to meet a certain level of security or other criteria. In that case, major upgrades must be carefully planned and controlled — so administrators cannot simply run
yum update and move from version to version.
Setting a release version preference limits the system access to content repositories associated with that operating system version instead of automatically using the newest or latest version repositories.
For example, if the preferred operating system version is 5.9, then 5.9 content repositories will be preferred for all installed products and attached subscriptions for the system, even as other repositories become available.
Example 15.7. Setting an Operating System Release During Registration
A preference for a release version can be set when the system is registered by using
--release option with the register. This applies the release preference to any subscriptions selected and auto-attached to the system at registration time.
Setting a preference requires the
--autosubscribe option, because it is one of the criteria used to select subscriptions to auto-attach.
[root#server ~]# subscription-manager register --autosubscribe --release=5.9 --username=admin@example.com...Note
Unlike setting a service level preference, a release preference can only be used during registration or set as a preference. It cannot be specified with the
subscribe command.
Example 15.8. Setting an Operating System Release Preference
The
release command can display the available operating system releases, based on the available, purchased (not only attached) subscriptions for the organization.
[root#server ~]# subscription-manager release --list
+-------------------------------------------+
Available Releases
+-------------------------------------------+
5.8
5.9
5Server
The
--set then sets the preference to one of the available release versions:
[root#server ~]# subscription-manager release --set=5.9 Release version set to: 5.9
15.6.4. Removing a Preference
To remove a preference through the command line, use the
--unset with the appropriate command. For example, to unset a release version preference:
[root#server ~]# subscription-manager release --unset Release version set to:
To remove or unset a preference in the UI:
- Open the Subscription Manager.
- Open the System menu.
- Select the System Preferences menu item.
- Set the service level or release version value to the blank line in the corresponding drop-down menu.
- Click .
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