Activating Ubuntu Pro

What is Ubuntu Pro?

Ubuntu Pro is a subscription service from Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu. It's designed for running Ubuntu in production and adds several features on top of the standard release:

• Extended Security Maintenance (ESM): security updates and patches for up to 10 years, much longer than the standard support period.
• Livepatch: critical kernel patches are applied without rebooting, which keeps downtime to a minimum. Especially useful for servers where uptime matters.
• Expanded security coverage: security updates for a wider set of applications and packages, including ones outside the main Ubuntu repository.

Livepatch is the most interesting part for a node operator: it installs kernel updates without having to reboot your system afterwards.

Activate it on your node

1. Create an Ubuntu One account if you don't have one yet: login.ubuntu.com
2. Log in on ubuntu.com and subscribe to Ubuntu Pro: ubuntu.com/pro/subscribe
3. Select Myself and click Register.

   

4. Once registered, you're taken to the dashboard, where you'll find your personal token: ubuntu.com/pro/dashboard
5. Connect to your node and activate the service with the token from the previous step (replace XXXXXXXXX with your actual token):

   sudo pro attach XXXXXXXXX

6. You should see output like this:

   

7. Run the update command to make sure your system is up to date:

   sudo apt -y update && sudo apt -y upgrade

8. That's it! Ubuntu Pro is now active, including Livepatch, so kernel updates no longer need a reboot.