It would be nice if Red Hat Satellite was smarter about adding subscriptions to a system.
For example if you only have one VM on an ESX host then it doesn't make sense to use a Virtual Data Center subscription.  So you would use a physical/virtual subscription for the VM and not apply a VDC subscription to the ESX host.  But when you get more than 4 VM's on the ESX host then it would make sense to change the subscription.  I have 100's of systems that have Invalid subscriptions and in order to fix them I have to click on each one and click 5 times if I am lucky to fix the subscription.  It would be nice if Red Hat Satellite would just fix the invalid subscriptions and migrate back and forth with the best optimized subscriptions.  If for example you are using a VDC subscription and you drop below the break even of 4 subscriptions or some threshold then you would add to subscription to the VM and remove it from the ESX host.  It would also be nice to have some kind of loaner subscriptions so that it didn't steal subscriptions when it runs out of what it thinks it should be using.  Or it would be nice to have some way to recover back the physical/virtual subscriptions when you run out of VDC subscriptions.  Subscriptions don't really add value to the product to me.  It is just a way for Red Hat to get paid.  I want Red Hat to get paid don't get me wrong.  I spend a lot of time trying to fix subscription problems and it doesn't really make anything better it just makes things work, that shouldn't break in the first place.  The random unlimited subscriptions are hard to manage because everyone is different.  It is hard to attach them to a list of servers since they are all different.  I wish I could say do the needful and have it do it.  So I am forced to use the GUI and click 5 times for every system if I am lucky to fix the subscription or maybe it is 20 times if the ESX host doesn't have a subscription and it doesn't seem to care if it has double subscriptions either.



1. What is the exact nature of the problem trying to be solved with this request?

I spend way to much time (hours and days) trying to fix subscription problems.
I can't select a bunch of servers and have it fix the subscriptions.
Each VDC derived subscription is unique and I need to be able to have a generic way to attach them to multiple servers, but I can't because they are all different.
It is like saying everyone needs a snow flake, I don't care that every snow flake is different, just do the right thing, don't make me click on each server.
I can't do things like select all VM's that are using a physical subscription that I know what hypervisor they are connected to.
I would like to be able to take all VM's that are using a physical subscription that Satellite knows what hypervisor they are running on and remove the physical subscription and add the derived VDC subscription.  I shouldn't have to do this.  Satellite has all of the information about what is going on and should just fix it, don't make he have to click on 100 or more systems and manually touch them all.
When all of the VM's are removed from a hypervisor give me my VDC subscription back.
Kind of like telling you kids, hey when you leave the room turn off the lights, same thing all VM's leave the room, turn off the lights.   Maybe add a check box to the hypervisor to keep the subscription if this is a constant behavior to remove all VM's and then add them back, maybe some kind of testing environment.

Another [RFE] could be it a server doesn't checkin for some threshold remove it.  If I don't see a system for 30 days, remove it.
I would like to see Red Hat Satellite be smart and do house keeping.  Be smart if a VM is the only VM on a hypervisor use the subscription that makes the most sense.


2. List the business requirements.

Fix subscriptions, maybe create rules like:
I only want to use a physical subscription on a VM when, I don't know the hypervisor for 7 days or there are less than 4 VM's on the ESX hosts.   And if you see a hypervisor with a VDC subscription on it give back any physical subscription, and maybe have some kind of lock check box I could check it if I need automation to leave it alone.

Never automatically take a Capsule or Satellite subscription.

We have had to create new organizations because of the subscription stealing problem.


3. Do you have specific timeline dependencies?

ASAP, but will probably need to be in a new release.


4. Can you please explain us the what are the functional requirements? If test cases can be provided this would be even more ideal.

Most of the time this is a result of running out of VDC subscriptions.
There is lots of manual work to remove physical subscriptions from VM's and add the derived VDC subscription back.
Today this is a one server at a time process and only done in the GUI, because every derived VDC subscription is different.
Today he take a 2 hour outage to refresh the manifest if all goes well.


5. Would you be able to assist in testing this functionality if implemented?
Yes, I would be happy to do testing.