The vagrant-registration plugin for Vagrant allows developers to easily register their guests for updates on systems with a subscription model (like Red Hat Enterprise Linux).

This plugin would run register action on vagrant up before any provisioning and unregister on vagrant halt or vagrant destroy. The actions then call the registration capabilities that have to be provided for the given OS.

Installation

Install vagrant-registration as any other Vagrant plugin:

$ vagrant plugin install vagrant-registration

If you are on Fedora, you can install the packaged version of the plugin by running:

# dnf install vagrant-registration

Usage

The plugin is designed in a registration-manager agnostic way, which means, that the plugin itself, depends neither on any OS nor on the way of registration. The vagrant-registration plugin only calls registration capabilities for the given guest, passes the configuration options to them and handles interactive registration.

That being said, this plugin currently ships only with registration capability files for RHEL’s Subscription Manager and rhn_register. Feel free to submit others.

To configure the plugin, always include the configuration options mentioned in this file within the following configuration block in your Vagrantfile.

Vagrant.configure('2') do |config|
  ...
end

General Configuration

  • skip skips the registration. If you wish to skip the registration process altogether, you can do so by setting a skip option to true:

  config.registration.skip = true

  • unregister_on_halt disables or enables automatic unregistration on halt (on shut down). By default the plugin unregisters on halt, you can however change that by setting the option to false so that the box will unregister only on destroy:

  config.registration.unregister_on_halt = false

  • manager selects the registration manager provider. By default the plugin will use the subscription_manager as the registration manager provider. You can however, change that by setting the option to a different manager:

  config.registration.manager = 'subscription_manager'

Credential Configuration

You can set up the credentials as follows:

Vagrant.configure('2') do |config|
  ...
  if Vagrant.has_plugin?('vagrant-registration')
    config.registration.username = 'foo'
    config.registration.password = 'bar'
  end

  # Alternatively
  if Vagrant.has_plugin?('vagrant-registration')
    config.registration.org = 'foo'
    config.registration.activationkey = 'bar'
  end
  ...
end

This should go, preferably, into the Vagrantfile in your Vagrant home directory (defaults to ~/.vagrant.d), to make it available for every project. It can be later overridden in an individual project’s Vagrantfile if needed.

If you prefer not to store your username and/or password on your filesystem, you can optionally configure vagrant-registration plugin to use environment variables such as:

Vagrant.configure('2') do |config|
  ...
  config.registration.username = ENV['SUB_USERNAME']
  config.registration.password = ENV['SUB_PASSWORD']
  ...
end

If you do not configure your credentials as outlined above, you will receive a maximum of 3 prompts for them during the vagrant up process.

Please note that the interactive mode asks you for the preferred registration pair only for the configured manager.

HTTP Proxy Configuration

HTTP Proxy can be configured via the proxy, proxyUser and proxyPassword configuration options:

Vagrant.configure('2') do |config|
  ...
  if Vagrant.has_plugin?('vagrant-registration')
    config.registration.proxy = 'mongo:8080'
    config.registration.proxyUser = 'flash'
    config.registration.proxyPassword = 'zarkov'
  end
  ...
end

As described in the credentials configuration section, these settings can be placed either into the Vagrantfile in the Vagrant home directory or provided as environment variables.

subscription-manager Configuration

The vagrant-registration plugin uses subscription_manager as the default manager. This can also be explicitly configured by setting the manager option to subscription_manager:

Vagrant.configure('2') do |config|
  ...
  if Vagrant.has_plugin?('vagrant-registration')
    config.registration.manager = 'subscription_manager'
  end
  ...
end

In case you choose subscription_manager as the manager, you would be asked for your user credentials, such as the username and password.

The vagrant-registration plugin supports all the options for the subscription-manager’s register command. You can set any option easily by setting config.registration.OPTION_NAME = 'OPTION_VALUE' in your Vagrantfile (please see the subscription-manager’s documentation for option description).

subscription-manager Default Options

  • --force: Subscription Manager will fail if you attempt to register an already registered machine (see the man page for explanation), therefore vagrant-registration appends the --force flag automatically when subscribing. If you would like to disable this feature, set force option to false:

  config.registration.force = false

  • --auto-attach: Vagrant would fail to install packages on registered RHEL system if the subscription is not attached, therefore vagrant-registration appends the --auto-attach flag automatically when subscribing. To disable this option, set auto_attach option to false:

  config.registration.auto_attach = false

Note that the auto_attach option is set to false when using org/activationkey for registration or if pools are specified.

subscription-manager Options Reference

  # The username to subscribe with (required)
  config.registration.username

  # The password of the subscriber (required)
  config.registration.password

  # Give the hostname of the subscription service to use (required for Subscription
  # Asset Manager, defaults to Customer Portal Subscription Management)
  config.registration.serverurl

  # A path to a CA certificate, this file would be copied to /etc/rhsm/ca and
  # if the file does not have .pem extension, it will be automatically added
  config.registration.ca_cert

  # Give the hostname of the content delivery server to use to receive updates
  # (required for Satellite 6)
  config.registration.baseurl

  # Give the organization to which to join the system (required, except for
  # hosted environments)
  config.registration.org

  # Register the system to an environment within an organization (optional)
  config.registration.environment

  # Name of the subscribed system (optional, defaults to hostname if unset)
  config.registration.name

  # Auto attach suitable subscriptions (optional, auto attach if true,
  # defaults to true)
  config.registration.auto_attach

  # Attach existing subscriptions as part of the registration process (optional)
  config.registration.activationkey

  # Set the service level to use for subscriptions on that machine
  # (optional, used only used with the --auto-attach)
  config.registration.servicelevel

  # Set the operating system minor release to use for subscriptions for
  # the system (optional, used only used with the --auto-attach)
  config.registration.release

  # Force the registration (optional, force if true, defaults to true)
  config.registration.force

  # Set what type of consumer is being registered (optional, defaults to system)
  config.registration.type

  # Skip the registration (optional, skip if true, defaults to false)
  config.registration.skip

  # Specify a HTTP proxy to use. This config option if of the format [<host>|<ip>:<port>], eg mongo:8080
  config.registration.proxy

  # Specify a username to use with an authenticated HTTP proxy
  config.registration.proxyUser

  # Specify a password to use with an authenticated HTTP proxy
  config.registration.proxyPassword

  # Attach to specified pool(s) (optional)
  #
  # Example:
  #   config.registration.pools = [ 'POOL-ID-1', 'POOL-ID-2' ]
  config.registration.pools

rhn-register Configuration

vagrant-registration will use the rhn_register manager only if explicitly configured by setting the manager option to rhn_register:

Vagrant.configure('2') do |config|
  ...
  if Vagrant.has_plugin?('vagrant-registration')
    config.registration.manager = 'rhn_register'
  end
  ...
end

In case of a rhn_register manager, the preferred registration pair is the username/password/serverurl combination.

vagrant-registration supports most of the options of rhnreg_ks’s command. You can set any option easily by setting config.registration.OPTION_NAME = 'OPTION_VALUE' in your Vagrantfile (please see the `rhnreg_ks’s documentation for option description).

rhn_register manager reuses the naming of `subscription-manager’s command options where possible.

rhn-register Default Options

  • --force: rhnreg_ks command will fail if you attempt to register an already registered machine (see the man page for explanation), therefore vagrant-registration appends the --force flag automatically when subscribing. If you would like to disable this feature, set force option to false:

  config.registration.force = false

rhn-register Options Reference

  # The username to register the system with under Spacewalk Server, Red Hat Satellite or
  # Red Hat Network Classic. This can be an existing Spacewalk, Red Hat Satellite or
  # Red Hat Network Classic username, or a new  user‐name.
  config.registration.username

  # The password associated with the username specified with the `--username` option.
  # This is an unencrypted password.
  config.registration.password

  # Give the URL of the subscription service to use (required for registering a
  # system with the "Spacewalk Server", "Red Hat Satellite" or "Red Hat Network Classic").
  # The configuration name is mapped to the `--serverUrl` option of rhnreg_ks command.
  #
  # The serverurl is mandatory and if you do not provide a value,
  # you will be prompted for them in the "up process."
  config.registration.serverurl

  # A path to a CA certificate file (optional)
  # The configuration name is mapped to the `--sslCACert` option of rhnreg_ks command.
  #
  # The CA certificate file is be uploaded to /usr/share/rhn/<ca_file_name> in guest
  # and the configuration  in `/etc/sysconfig/rhn/up2date` is updated to:
  # `sslCACert=/usr/share/rhn/<ca_file_name>`
  #
  # As default only the configuration in `/etc/sysconfig/rhn/up2date` is updated
  # to point to the CA certificate file that is present on Fedora, CentOS and RHEL:
  # `sslCACert=/usr/share/rhn/RHNS-CA-CERT`
  config.registration.ca_cert

  # Give the organization to which to join the system (required, except for
  # hosted environments)
  # The configuration name is mapped to the `--systemorgid` option of rhnreg_ks command.
  config.registration.org

  # Name of the subscribed system (optional, defaults to hostname if unset)
  # The configuration name is mapped to the `--profilename` option of rhnreg_ks command.
  config.registration.name

  # Attach existing subscriptions as part of the registration process (optional)
  config.registration.activationkey

  # Subscribe this system to the EUS channel tied to the system's redhat-release (optional)
  config.registration.use_eus_channel

  # Do not probe or upload any hardware info (optional)
  config.registration.nohardware

  #  Do not profile or upload any package info (optional)
  config.registration.nopackages

  # Do not upload any virtualization info (optional)
  config.registration.novirtinfo

  # Do not start rhnsd after completion (optional)
  config.registration.norhnsd

  # Force the registration (optional, force if true, defaults to true)
  config.registration.force

  # Skip the registration (optional, skip if true, defaults to false)
  config.registration.skip

  # Specify a HTTP proxy to use. This config option if of the format [<host>|<ip>:<port>], eg mongo:8080
  config.registration.proxy

  # Specify a username to use with an authenticated HTTP proxy
  config.registration.proxyUser

  # Specify a password to use with an authenticated HTTP proxy
  config.registration.proxyPassword

Development

The use of RVM is recommended. Verified to work with ruby-2.2.10.

rvm install 2.2
rvm use 2.2

To install a development environment, clone the repo and prepare dependencies by:

gem install bundler
bundle install

Tests

Minitest

The source contains a set of Minitest based unit tests. They can be run via:

$ bundle exec rake test

Acceptance tests

The source also contains a set of Cucumber based acceptance tests. They can be run via:

$ bundle exec rake features

The tests assume that the CDK box files are available under build/boxes/cdk-<provider>.box. You can either copy the box files manually or use the get_cdk rake task to download them.

As per default, only the scenarios for CDK in combination with VirtualBox are run. You can also run the tests against Libvirt, using the environment variable PROVIDER:

# Run tests against Libvirt
$ bundle exec rake features PROVIDER=libvirt

# Run against VirtualBox and Libvirt
$ bundle exec rake features PROVIDER=virtualbox,libvirt

You can also run a single feature specifying the explicit feature file to use:

$ bundle exec rake features FEATURE=features/<feature-filename>.feature

After test execution the acceptance test reports can be found under build/features_report.html. They can also be opened via:

$ bundle exec rake features:open_report

Releasing

To release a new version of vagrant-registration you will need to do the following:

(only contributors of the GitHub repo and owners of the project at RubyGems will have rights to do this)

  1. First, bump, commit, and push the version in ~/lib/vagrant-registration/version.rb:

  2. Then, create a matching GitHub Release (this will also create a tag):

  3. You will then need to build and push the new gem to RubyGems:

    • rake build

    • gem push pkg/vagrant-registration-1.3.2.gem

  4. Then, when John Doe runs the following, they will receive the updated vagrant-registration plugin:

    • vagrant plugin update

    • vagrant plugin update vagrant-registration

Acknowledgements

The project would like to make sure we thank purpleidea, humaton, strzibny, scollier, puzzle, voxik, lukaszachy, goern, iconoeugen and pvalena (in no particular order) for their contributions of ideas, code and testing for this project.