Course Overview
This course focuses on the types of day-to-day administrative tasks that SUSE Manager makes easy to complete and monitor. Generally, the major topics that are discussed in detail are:
- Exploring the SUSE Manager (SUMA) Web UI Management Console
- Registering target servers as managed clients
- Implementing Channel Management
- Delegating Management Authority in SUMA
- Managing Minions using Salt commands
- Performing common administrative activities
This course prepares students for the SUSE Certified Administrator (SCA) in SUSE Manager 4 certification exam.
Who should attend
This course is designed for:
- Server System Administrators who are tasked with day-to-day server management and support
- Senior System Administrators who are typically 2nd or 3rd level support within their company and act as “team leads” for Server System Administrators.
- Consultants that need to understand how SUSE Manager can significantly lessen the administrative burden of managing hundreds or even thousands of servers.
Prerequisites
Attendees should have the following experience and skills before attending this class:
- Installing and configuring SUMA Servers and Proxy Servers is only reviewed in this training. The attendee is assumed to be responsible day-to-day management. However, detailed information on installation and initial configuration of SUMA is presented in course SUSE Manager Deployment and Initial Configuration (SMGR211V4). Attendance in SMGR211v4 is helpful, not required to be successful in this class
- Have at least one year’s experience managing Linux operating systems
- Be able to work at the Linux command-line and use the vi editor
- Understand how to manually install packages on SUSE Linux Enterprise servers.
Course Objectives
Attendees will be taught the following concepts and skills:
- Review the SUMA Architectural Components (SUMA Server, SUMA Proxy Server, Managed Clients and the Hub Server)
- Understand the parts of the SUMA Web UI and how to access it
- Using the SUMA Web UI to:
- Get an overview of your entire SUMA system via the System Visualization feature
- Locate desired managed clients by using the Web UI’s advanced search capabilities
- View the system details of managed clients
- Understand the Registration Process and what occurs during Registration. Learn how to register target servers using multiple methods
- Create, configure, and manage Registration related object such as Activation Keys, Channels, System Groups, and Salt Keys
- Plan for, and implement Registration using the Web UI and bootstrap scripts
- Implement Channel Management:
- Learn Channel related terminology and channel types
- Clone Channel content
- Implement Configuration Channels
- Understand and implement Content Lifecycle Management (CLM)
- Learn how to delegate management authority in SUMA:
- Understand how and why additional SUMA Organizations may need to be created
- Establishing trust between SUMA Organizations
- Learn about the Administrative Roles and Permission Roles that can be created and assigned to manage SUMA resources
- Creating new Web UI administrative users
- Manage client servers using Salt
- Define Salt and understand its architecture
- Understand Salt grains, pillars, and states
- Learn how to leverage the salt, salt-run, salt-call, and salt-key commands
- Perform common administrative tasks such as:
- Using the Web UI to execute commands on remote client servers
- Using the System Set Manager (SSM) to perform management activities on multiple client servers at one time
- Creating and using Action Chains
- Understand and use various methods for installing RPM packages on client servers
- Create Recurring States and Highstates
Course Content
Section 1: Course Overview
Section 2: Review SUSE Manager (SUMA) 4.x Architecture and Configuration
- Review SUMA Architectural Components
- Review the SUMA 4.x Initial Setup process
Section 3: Using the Web UI to Explore your SUSE Manager Environment
- Introduction to the SUMA Web UI and its organization
- Visualizing your entire SUMA System at a glance
- Locating and viewing information about managed clients
Section 4: Understanding the Registration Process
- Understanding the importance of Registration
- Managing Registration-related Objects
- Planning for Registration
- Introduction to Registration Methods
- Using the various Registration Methods to register target servers
Section 5: Implementing Channel Management
- Understanding Channel Related Terminology
- Cloning Channel Content using the Web UI and spacecmd
- Implementing Custom Channels
- Understanding Content Lifecycle Management
Section 6: Delegating Management Authority in SUSE Manager
- Defining SUSE Manager “Organization”
- Understanding the Administrative Roles in SUMA
- Understanding Permission Roles and their capabilities
- Using the Web UI to manage Users and Grant Permissions
Section 7: Managing Salt Minions in SUMA
- Understanding Salt and its Architecture
- Configuration Files used by Salt and SUMA
- Understanding the types of Salt Commands
- Using the salt command
- Using the salt-run command
- Using the salt-call command
- Using the salt-key command
Section 8: Performing other Common Administrative Tasks in SUMA
- Using the Web UI to execute Remote Commands
- Leveraging the System Set Manager (SSM) to affect many managed servers at once
- Implementing Action Chains
- Using Configuration File Management in SUMA (both Configuration Channels and State Channels)
- Scheduling the enforcement of the Highstate and Recurring Custom States
- Understanding Subscription Matching