How to register and subscribe a RHEL system to the Red Hat Customer Portal using Red Hat Subscription-Manager?

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Red Hat Subscription Management allows users to track their subscription quantity and consumption.

NOTE: With Red Hat Subscription-Manager, registration and utilization of a subscription is actually a two-part process.
First register a system, then apply a subscription.

Red Hat Labs Registration Assistant

We have an online tool to assist you in selecting the most appropriate registration technology for your system. If you would prefer to use this tool, please visit https://access.redhat.com/labs/registrationassistant/.

Register and automatically subscribe in one step

Use the following command to register the system, then automatically associate any available subscription matching that system:

# subscription-manager register --username <username> --password <password> --auto-attach

If the command is unable to attach a subscription, it will indicate that in the output. Then, you can attach the subscription from the Customer Portal, instead (see the next section).

Register first, then attach a subscription in the Customer Portal

Use the following command to register a system without immediately attaching a subscription:

# subscription-manager register

IMPORTANT: If the account enables Simple Content Access, please refer to this article.

Attach a specific subscription through the Customer Portal

After registration, you can assign a subscription to the registered system from the Customer Portal by referring this article.

• After this, refresh the information on your machine using the following command. Be sure to run this any time you add or change the attached subscription from the Customer Portal:

# subscription-manager refresh

Attach a subscription from any available that match the system

After registration, use the following command to attach any available subscription that matches the current system.

# subscription-manager attach --auto

Register with a specific pool

After registration, use the following command to attach a subscription from a specific pool:

# subscription-manager attach --pool=<POOL_ID>

(You can find which pools are available with subscription-manager list --available)
Note: With subscription-manager-1.1.9-1 or later, attach option has been replacing the subscribe option. For more information, please refer to following article: RHBA-2013-0350

If you are not sure of the pool ID needed, these and details such as expiration dates can be viewed using the following command:

# subscription-manager list --available --all

For subscribing systems with RHEL Virtual Data Center subscription, you may refer to the Solution: How to subscribe a VMware or Hyper-V guest using "Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Virtual Datacenter subscription"

Registration via GUI

# subscription-manager-gui

• Systems can also be registered with Customer Portal Subscription Management during the first-boot process or as part of the kick-start setup (both described in the Installation Guide)

Connecting through a HTTP Proxy or Firewall

For systems running behind a corporate Firewall or a HTTP based Proxy, the administrators need to follow the steps shared in the Solution: How to access Red Hat Subscription Manager (RHSM) through a firewall or proxy?

Offline Registration

The offline registration feature of an "air-gapped" system is deprecated. Please refer to the article: How to register and subscribe a system offline to the Red Hat Customer Portal?

Registering Using Activation Key

Activation keys in Red Hat Subscription Management allows you to register and attach subscriptions associated with your account without having to specify your RHSM Username and Password. Organization administrators can use keys to pre-configure subscriptions before they are registered. Once an organization key is created, users can register systems and have all of their required subscriptions attached to their system at once. This can be done by How to register a system to Red Hat Subscription Management using an activation key?

Un-registering a system

# subscription-manager remove --all
# subscription-manager unregister
# subscription-manager clean

Also see How to delete System Profiles for those registered with Red Hat Subscription Manager (RHSM)?

Migrating from RHN Classic to RHSM

• How to migrate a Red Hat Enterprise Linux System from RHN Classic to RHSM

• Subscription-manager for the former Red Hat Network User - a 7-part series

• Additional instructions on registering, un-registering, and re-registering a system using Red Hat Subscription Management can be found in documentation

  • RHEL 6: Red Hat Enterprise Linux Deployment Guide
  • RHEL 7: System Administrator's Guide
  • Subscription Management: Red Hat Subscription Management documentation.
    • Including Using and Configuring Red Hat Subscription Manager
  • Subscription-manager for the former Red Hat Network User - a 7-part series

Troubleshooting

Having trouble? Please check the below solutions for troubleshooting common issues while registering systems:

• How to troubleshoot subscription-manager and yum issues
• Common networking issues while accessing Red Hat Subscription Management (RHSM)
• RHSM Subscription Issues Troubleshooting Dos and Don'ts

RHEL Systems Registration Guide

This document is part of a collection covering RHEL System Registration.
If this is not the right solution for your registration needs and you wish to make a different registration choice, then you can return to the RHEL Systems Registration Guide.