Tips and tricks: Registering Xen guests with RHN

Question: How do I register my Red Hat Enterprise Linux Xen Guest system with the Red Hat Network?

Answer:

Important: For Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 fully-virtualized guests install the latest version of up2date.

This procedure will work for both fully-virtualized and para-virtualized guests.

1. The host system (dom0) must be registered with Red Hat Network. Follow standard procedures to register this system with Red Hat Network (RHN).
2. Under the System Properties page, subscribe the base system to the appropriate Virtualization Channel. Virtualization allows for up to 4 Xen guest registrations, while Virtualization Platform allows for an unlimited number of Xen guest registrations.
3. Make sure that the virtualization add on entitlement is checked “Add-On Entitlements: Virtualization *(0 open entitlements)*”. This is available via rhn.redhat.com –> Systems (Top Red Bar) –> Click on the host
   system –> Click Edit These Properties –> Check the add on entitlements
   box (Virtualization) –> Click update properties. If you have Advanced
   Platform entitlement you can check the “Virtualization Platform” box
   instead to be able to register an unlimited number of guests for this host.

4. Make sure that rhn-virtualization-common and rhn-virtualization-host are installed on the host system. If they are not installed, run:

   yum install rhn-virtualization-common rhn-virtualization-host
   

5. Install the Xen guest.
6. Make sure that the Xen guest is running. Please note that xenguest is the name of the Xen guest.

   xm create xenguest
   

7. From the command line on the host system, run:

   rhn_check
   

8. From the command line on the host system, run:

   rhn-profile-sync
   

9. From the Xen guest, run:

   rhn_register
   

Now the Xen guest will show up as a registered, virtualized system.

Red Hat’s customer service and support teams receive technical support questions from users all over the world. Red Hat technicians add the questions and answers to Red Hat Knowledgebase on a daily basis. Access to Red Hat Knowledgebase is free. Red Hat Magazine offers a preview into the Red Hat Knowledgebase by highlighting some of the most recent entries. The information provided in this article is for your information only. The origin of this information may be internal or external to Red Hat. While Red Hat attempts to verify the validity of this information before it is posted, Red Hat makes no express or implied claims to its validity.