7.2. Defining Subscription Properties of an Activation Key

With activation keys you can define how the content host is subscribed during registration. The subscription behavior defined by the activation key depends on two factors:
  1. Are there any subscriptions associated with the activation key?
  2. Is the auto-attach option enabled?
Based on the above factors, there are three possible scenarios for subscribing with activation keys:
  • Activation key with no subscriptions specified. With no subscriptions specified and auto-attach enabled, hosts using the activation key search for the best fitting subscription from the ones provided by the Satellite Server. This is akin to running the subscription-manager --auto-attach command.
  • Activation key providing a custom subscription pool for auto-attach. If there are subscriptions specified and auto-attach is enabled, hosts using the activation key select the best fitting subscription from the list specified in the activation key.
  • Activation key with the exact set of subscriptions. If there are subscriptions specified and auto-attach is disabled, hosts using the activation key are associated with all subscriptions specified in the activation key.
For instructions on how to add subscriptions see Procedure 7.2, “To Add a Subscription to an Activation Key:”, to learn how to enable auto-attach see Procedure 7.4, “To Enable or Disable Auto-Attach on an Activation Key:”.

Note

If a custom product (typically containing content not provided by Red Hat) is assigned to an activation key, this product is always enabled for the registered content host regardless of the auto-attach setting.

7.2.1. Adding and Removing Subscriptions

This section describes how to add subscriptions to an activation key as well as how to remove them.

Procedure 7.2. To Add a Subscription to an Activation Key:

  1. Click Content → Activation keys.
  2. Click the activation key name you want to edit.
  3. On the Subscriptions tab, select the Add subtab.
  4. From the list of available subscriptions, select the subscriptions you want to add.
  5. Click Add Selected.

Procedure 7.3. To Remove Subscriptions from an Activation Key:

  1. Click Content → Activation keys.
  2. A list of activation keys is displayed. Click the activation key you want to remove subscriptions from.
  3. Click the Subscriptions tab.
  4. Under the List/Remove subtab, a list of attached subscriptions is displayed. Select the subscriptions to be removed.
  5. Click Remove Selected.

7.2.2. Enabling Auto-Attach

When auto-attach is enabled on an activation key and there are subscriptions associated with the key, the subscription management service selects and attaches the best-matched associated subscriptions based on a set of criteria like currently-installed products, architecture, and preferences like service level.
You can enable auto-attach and have no subscriptions associated with the key. This type of key is commonly used to register virtual machines when you do not want the virtual machine to consume a RHEL subscription but to inherit a RHEL Virtual Data Center (VDC) subscription from the hypervisor.
Auto-attach is enabled by default. Disable the option if the desired behavior is to force attach all subscriptions associated with the activation key.

Procedure 7.4. To Enable or Disable Auto-Attach on an Activation Key:

  1. Click Content → Activation keys.
  2. Click the activation key name that you want to edit.
  3. Click the Subscriptions tab.
  4. Click the edit icon next to Auto-Attach.
  5. Select or deselect the check box to enable or disable auto-attach.
  6. Click Save.

Note

To register virtual content hosts to the Satellite Server using an auto-attach activation key, first use the virt-who utility to map those hosts to a hypervisor entitled with the Virtual Datacenter (VDC) subscription. Without this prerequisite, virtual hosts will be registered only with a temporary virtual subscription for 24 hours. For more information see the Red Hat Satellite Virtual Instances Guide.

7.2.3. Setting the Service Level

An activation key can be configured to define a default service level for the new host created with the activation key. Setting a default service level will select only the matching subscriptions to be attached to the host. For example, if the default service level on an activation key is set to Premium, only subscriptions with premium service levels will be attached to the host upon registration.

Procedure 7.5. To Set the Service Level on an Activation Key:

  1. Click Content → Activation keys.
  2. Click the activation key name you want to edit.
  3. Click the Details tab.
  4. Click the edit icon next to Service Level.
  5. Select the required service level from the drop-down list. The drop-down list only contains service levels available to the activation key.
  6. Click Save.