Red Hat NETWORK 3.4 - PROVISIONING Reference Manual page 73

Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website
2. Click the create new key link at the top-left corner.
3. Provide the following information:
Description — User-defined description to identify the generated activation key.
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Usage Limit — The number of times the key can be used to register a system before the
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activation key is disabled. Leave blank for unlimited use.
Base Channel — The primary channel for the key. Selecting nothing will enable you to select
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from all child channels, although systems can be subscribed to only those that are applicable.
Entitlement — The service level for the key, either Management or Provisioning. All systems
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will be subscribed at this level with the key.
Universal default — Whether or not this key should be considered the primary activation
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key for your organization.
Deploy configs — Select to have all stored configuration files installed upon registration.
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Click Create Key.
After creating the unique key, it appears in the list of activation keys along with the number of times
it has been used. At this point, you may associate child channels and groups with the key so systems
registered with it will automatically be subscribed to them.
To change information about a key, such as the channels or groups, click its description in the key list,
make your modifications in the appropriate tabs, and click the Update Key button. To remove a key
entirely, click the delete key link in the top-right corner of the edit page.
If you do not want a key to be used to activate a system, you can disable it by unselecting the corre-
sponding checkbox under the Enabled column in the key list. The key can be re-enabled by selecting
the checkbox. After making these changes, click the Update Keys button on the bottom right-hand
corner of the page.
4.4.7.2. Using Multiple Activation Keys at Once
Provisioning customers should note that multiple activation keys can be included at the command
line or in a single kickstart profile. This allows you to aggregate the aspects of various keys without
having to recreate a new key specific to the desired systems, simplifying the registration and kickstart
processes while slowing the growth of your key list.
Without this stacking ability, your organization would need at least six activation keys to manage
four server groups and subscribe a server to any two groups. Factor in two versions of the operating
system, such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1 and 3, and you need twice the number of activation
keys. A larger organization would need keys in the dozens.
Before specifiying more than one activation key, you must understand how their values are combined
and resolved. These entities are straight unions: server groups, software packages, software child
channels, and config channels. A combination of each of these will be included in the kickstart profile.
The remaining entities must be resolved if different in the following manner:
base software channels — registration fails
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entitlements — registration fails
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enable config flag — configuration management is set
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activation key type — a system-specific reactivation key will generate a failure
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You're now ready to use multiple activation keys at once. This is done with comma separation at the
command line with
rhnreg_ks
page. Refer to Section 2.5 Registering with Activation Keys and Section 4.4.10.3 Creating Kickstarts,
relatively, for instructions.
or in a kickstart profile within the Post tab of the Kickstart Details
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