Chapter 5. Using system purpose with Red Hat Subscription Manager

You use system purpose to record the intended use of a Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) system. Setting system purpose allows you to specify system attributes, such as the role, service level agreement, and usage. The following values are available for each system purpose attribute by default.

Role

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Compute Node

Service Level Agreement

  • Premium
  • Standard
  • Self-Support

Usage

  • Production
  • Development/Test
  • Disaster Recovery

Configuring system purpose offers the following benefits:

  • In-depth system-level information for system administrators and business operations
  • Reduced overhead when determining why a system was procured and its intended purpose

You can set system purpose data in any of the following ways:

  • During activation key creation
  • During image creation
  • During installation using the Connect to Red Hat screen to register your system
  • During installation using the syspurpose Kickstart command
  • After installation using the subscription-manager CLI tool

Additional resources

5.1. Listing available values for system purpose attributes

As the root user, you can enter the subscription-manager syspurpose command and the role, usage, service-level, or addons subcommand with the --list option to list available values for all system purpose attributes. Listing system purpose values for an unregistered system requires you to enter additional information on the command line.

The following examples show how to list the available system purposes values for the role attribute for registered and unregistered systems.

When the system is registered, enter the following command: 

[root@localhost ~]# subscription-manager syspurpose role --list

When the system is unregistered, enter the following command with the --username, --password, --org, and --token authentication options, as required: 

[root@localhost ~]# subscription-manager syspurpose role --list --username=<username> --password=<password> --org=<organization_ID> --token=<token>

where: The --username option specifies the name of a user with organization administrator authority in your Red Hat account. The --password option specifies the associated password. The --org option specifies the organization ID number. The --token option specifies the token of the virt-who service account.

Note

Specifying the organization ID is only required if you have multiple organizations and need to specify a particular organization.

Note

Specifying the token is only required if you have configured virt-who to connect to OpenShift Virtualization.

When you enter the command on a registered system or on an unregistered system with authentication options, the expected output is the list of available values for the role attribute: 

+-------------------------------------------+
               Available role
+-------------------------------------------+
 - Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation
 - Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server
 - Red Hat Enterprise Linux Compute Node

System purpose addons are specific to your organization and do not appear in the list of available values. If you try to list available system purpose addons with the --list option, then subscription-manager displays a warning message. For example: 

# subscription-manager syspurpose addons --list
There are no available values for the system purpose "addons" from the available subscriptions in this organization.

5.2. Setting custom values for system purpose attributes

If the value you want to set is not included in the list of valid values for the account, you can enter a custom system purpose value with the --set option. To set a custom value, you must enter the command on a registered system or enter the command with authentication options on an unregistered system.

The following examples show how to set a custom value of “foo” for the system purpose role attribute on registered and unregistered systems.

When the system is registered, enter the following command: 

[root@localhost ~]# subscription-manager syspurpose role --set=”foo”

When the system is unregistered, enter the following command with the --username, --password, --org, and --token authentication options, as required: 

[root@localhost ~]# subscription-manager syspurpose role --set=”foo” --username=<username> --password=<password> --org=<organization_ID> --token=<token>

where: The --username option specifies the name of a user with organization administrator authority in your Red Hat account. The --password option specifies the associated password. The --org option specifies the organization ID number. The --token option specifies the token of the virt-who service account.

Note

Specifying the organization ID is only required if you have multiple organizations and need to specify a particular organization.

Note

Specifying the token is only required if you have configured virt-who to connect to OpenShift Virtualization.

When you set a custom value on a registered system or on an unregistered system with authentication options, the expected output displays a warning message because the custom value is considered invalid. However, the output also displays a confirmation message because subscription-manager sets the custom value despite the warning. 

Warning: Provided value "foo" is not included in the list of valid values
 - Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation
 - Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server
 - Red Hat Enterprise Linux Compute Node
role set to "foo".
Important

Subscription Manager only outputs the warning message if the system is registered or if you enter authentication credentials on an unregistered system. If your system is unregistered and you do not enter authentication options, Subscription Manager sets the custom value without displaying the warning message.