Subscription Management Tools

Subscriptions are managed through GUI and CLI tools called CentOS Subscription Manager. The Subscription Manager tracks and displays what entitlements are available to the local system and what entitlements have been consumed by the local system. The Subscription Manager works as a conduit back to the subscription service to synchronize changes like available product quantities or subscription expiration and renewals.

The CentOS Subscription Manager tools are always run as root because of the nature of the changes to the system. However, CentOS Subscription Manager connects to the subscription service as a user account for the Customer Service Portal.

The Subscription Manager handles both registration and subscriptions for a system. The Subscription Manager is part of the firstboot process for configuring content and updates, but the system can be registered at any time through the CentOS Subscription Manager GUI or CLI. New subscriptions, new products, and updates can be viewed and applied to a system through the CentOS Subscription Manager tools.

The different Subscription Manager clients are covered in .