Activating Red Hat Enterprise Linux


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The university has a Red Hat Site Subscription entitling all students, faculty, staff, and departments to use most Red Hat software, including Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). The Division of IT offers RHEL ISOs through TERPware and they can be activated by following the instructions on this page.

Getting an activation key

  1. Log in to the Special Identity Management System (SIMS) using your Directory ID and passphrase.
  2. From the Request New Identity section, click the System drop-down box and select redhat.
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  3. Give your activation key a name and description.
    • These fields are only used in the SIMS interface so that if you have multiple keys, like a personal key and a department key, you can tell them apart.
    • You can also provide a list of other people who are responsible for the key in the Administrators field. They will have the ability to renew the key and can take ownership of it if you leave the university.
  4. After submitting the request, SIMS will show you the activation key.
    1. This is the only time it will be displayed, so take note of it. If you lose it, you can submit a reset password request for the key on the SIMS home page and it will give you a new activation key.
      Confirmation screen with activation key in red box.

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Registering a new Red Hat host (RHEL 7/8/9)

Note: The host should be configured with a unique hostname before attempting to register it with Satellite.

  1. Install the Red Hat Satellite 6 CA certificates:

    # rpm -ivh https://www.rhelops.umd.edu/pub/katello-ca-consumer-latest.noarch.rpm
    Retrieving https://www.rhelops.umd.edu/pub/katello-ca-consumer-latest.noarch.rpm
    Preparing...                                      ################################# [100%]
    Updating / installing...
    1:katello-ca-consumer-master.rhelop################################# [100%]

  2. Perform the registration using your activation key:

    # subscription-manager register --org="umd" --activationkey="fake-21af8-0ee62-f6dff-fake"
    The system has been registered with ID: c57127f2-fake-fake-fake-3b970fc8bd12
    The registered system name is: rhel7 Installed Product Current Status:
    Product Name: Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation
    Status:              Subscribed

  3. List enabled and available repositories, and select any new ones you want:

    #   subscription-manager repos

    +----------------------------------------------------------+

    Available Repositories in /etc/yum.repos.d/redhat.repo

    +----------------------------------------------------------+

    Repo ID:   rhel-workstation-rhscl-7-rpms
    Repo Name: Red Hat Software Collections RPMs for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Workstation
    Repo URL:  https://master.rhelops.umd.edu/pulp/repos/umd/Library/daily/content/dist/rhel/workstation/7
    /$releasever/$basearch/rhscl/1/os Enabled:           0

    Repo ID:   rhel-7-workstation-optional-rpms
    Repo Name: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Workstation - Optional (RPMs)
    Repo URL:  https://master.rhelops.umd.edu/pulp/repos/umd/Library/daily/content/dist/rhel/workstation/7
    /$releasever/$basearch/optional/os Enabled:           0 

    Repo ID:   rhel-7-workstation-extras-rpms
    Repo Name: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Workstation - Extras (RPMs)
    Repo URL:  https://master.rhelops.umd.edu/pulp/repos/umd/Library/daily/content/dist/rhel/workstation/7
    /7Workstation/$basearch/extras/os Enabled:           0 

    Repo ID:   rhel-7-workstation-rpms
    Repo Name: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Workstation (RPMs)
    Repo URL:  https://master.rhelops.umd.edu/pulp/repos/umd/Library/daily/content/dist/rhel/workstation/7
    /$releasever/$basearch/os
    Enabled:           1

     # subscription-manager repos --enable=rhel-7-workstation-optional-rpms
    Repository 'rhel-7-workstation-optional-rpms' is enabled for this system.

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Registering a new Red Hat host (RHEL 10)

  1. Set the hostname

    Ensure the system has the correct and unique hostname:

    hostnamectl set-hostname [hostname] 

  2. Connect to a UMD network
    The host must be connected to either a campus network or the UMD VPN. Activation will not work outside of these networks.

  3. Obtain an activation key
    • Send an email to request@umd.edu to request an activation key and a command to execture on the host to activate.

  4. Run the curl registration command
    Wait for the Enterprise Linux Services (ELS) team to send you the curl registration command. It will look like this:

    set -o pipefail && curl --silent --show-error   'https://satellite-dit.umd.edu/register?activation_keys=[activationkey]&download_utility=curl&location_id=2&operatingsystem_id=2&organization_id=3&update_packages=false' --header 'Authorization: Bearer eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjo0LCJpYXQiOjE3NTQ5MTg0MzAsImp0aSI6Ijc5ODEzZTRmOTI0N2M0ODU0NzRjNjhlNDgxYWZkNmIzNjczMWM1ZTA4MTJjZGUzODI4ZWU3YTU0NDg4YmU2NDEiLCJleHAiOjE3NTQ5MzI4MzAsInNjb3BlIjoicmVnaXN0cmF0aW9uI2dsb2JhbCByZWdpc3RyYXRpb24jaG9zdCJ9.iXZ872kTaWEvRxw6S2nfxsp2mOTsZdyQN3V5T7HiE6U' | bash

  5. Check the subscription status
    Confirm that the system is properly registered:

    subscription-manager status

  6. Enable additional repositories (if needed)
    List the available repositories:

    subscription-manager repos

    Enable any specific ones you need. Example for enabling the optional RPMs:

    subscription-manager repos --enable=rhel-10-x86_64-baseos-rpms

Usage information

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