Redeeming Subscriptions on a Machine
Systems can be set up with pre-existing subscriptions already available to that system. For some systems which were purchased through third-party vendors, a subscription to CentOS products is included with the purchase of the machine. Companies using the Subscription Asset Manager can allocate subscriptions to their own systems by creating activation keys which are used to claim those assigned subscriptions.
CentOS Subscription Manager pulls information about the system hardware and the BIOS into the system facts to recognize the hardware vendor. If the vendor and BIOS information matches a certain configuration, then the subscription can be redeemed, which will allow the system to be automatically subscribed to the entitlements purchased with the machine.
This diverges from the normal subscription process by adding an extra step:
- The machine is registered first ("Registering, Unregistering, and Reregistering a System"). This can be done as normal or the activation keys can be submitted with command-line registrations.
- The subscriptions are redeemed using the given activation keys.
- The system is then subscribed to its subscriptions ("Handling Subscriptions").
Activation keys may be generated by a hardware vendor (external to your organization). Activation keys may also be generated using the Subscription Asset Manager, which is a local subscription service, which is described in the Subscription Asset Manager documentation and "Working with Subscription Asset Manager".
Redeeming Subscriptions through the GUI
The Activate Subscription Button
If the machine does not have any subscriptions to be redeemed, then the Activate Subscription button is not there.
- Launch the CentOS Subscription Manager GUI. For example:
subscription-manager-gui
- At the top of the main window, click the Activate Subscription button.
- In the pop-up window, enter the email address to send the notification to when the redemption is complete.
- Click the Activate button.
It can take up to ten minutes for the confirmation email to arrive.
Redeeming Subscriptions on a Machine through the Command Line
The machine subscriptions are redeemed by running the
redeemcommand, with an email address to send the redemption email to when the process is complete.# subscription-manager redeem --email=jsmith@example.comIn a multi-organization environment, it is also necessary to specify the organization which issued the activation keys. For example:
# subscription-manager redeem --email=jsmith@example.com --org="IT Dept"The machine must be registered first so that the subscription service can properly identify the system and its subscriptions.