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What is Red Hat Network?
1 What is Red Hat Network?
Have you ever read about a new version of a software package and wanted to install it but could not
find it?
Have you ever tried to find an RPM through an Internet search engine or an RPM Repository and been
linked to a site that you have never heard of?
Have you ever tried to find an RPM but instead you are only able to find the source files that you have
to compile yourself?
Have you ever spent hours or even days visiting different websites to see if you have the latest packages
installed on your system, only to have to do it again in a few months?
Those days are over with Red Hat Network (RHN). RHN provides the solution to all your system
software management needs.
Red Hat Network is an Internet solution for managing a Red Hat Linux system or a network of Red
Hat Linux systems. All Security Alerts, Bug Fix Alerts, and Enhancement Alerts (collective known
as Errata Alerts) can be downloaded directly from Red Hat. You can even have updates automatically
delivered directly to your system as soon as they are released.
The three main components of Red Hat Network are as follows:
•
The Red Hat Network Registration Client
•
The Red Hat Network user interface
•
Red Hat Network Daemon
The Red Hat Network Registration Client allows you to create a unique RHN user name and pass-
word and probes the hardware and software on your system to create a System Profile. The System
Profile is sent to RHN and RHN returns a unique System ID to your system (see Chapter 2, Red Hat
Network Registration Client for further information).
You can use either of the two Red Hat Network user interfaces:
•
web interface available at http://www.redhat.com/network/
•
The Red Hat Update Agent
Both the Web interface and the Red Hat Update Agent allow you to view all Errata Alerts included in
the Red Hat Errata list. Only packages relevant to your system are shown. Red Hat Network can also
be configured to verify packages once downloaded, ignore update notifications for certain packages,
and view package details before downloading them.
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