Page 1 Red Hat Network 3.4 Management Reference Guide...
Page 2 All other trademarks and copyrights referred to are the property of their respective owners. The GPG ﬁngerprint of the security@redhat.com key is: CA 20 86 86 2B D6 9D FC 65 F6 EC C4 21 91 80 CD DB 42 A6 0E...
Page 3: Table Of Contents
Table of Contents Introduction............................i 1. Document Conventions......................i 2. More to Come ........................iv 2.1. Send in Your Feedback ..................iv 1. What is Red Hat Network? ......................1 1.1. Demo..........................2 1.2. Update ..........................2 1.3. Management........................2 1.4.
Page 4 4.4.6. Advanced Search....................58 4.4.7. Activation Keys....................58 4.5. Errata..........................59 4.5.1. Relevant Errata....................59 4.5.2. All Errata......................60 4.5.3. Advanced Search....................61 4.6. Channels........................... 61 4.6.1. Software Channels .................... 61 4.6.2. Channel Entitlements ..................64 4.6.3. Easy ISOs......................64 4.6.4.
Page 5: Introduction
Red Hat Update Agent, which has registration functionality built in. Refer to Chapter 2 Red Hat Update Agent for instructions. For an overview of Red Hat Network offerings, please review the descriptions available at http://www.redhat.com/software/rhn/ . 1. Document Conventions When you read this manual, certain words are represented in different fonts, typefaces, sizes, and weights.
Page 6 Introduction application This style indicates that the program is an end-user application (as opposed to system software). For example: Use Mozilla to browse the Web. [key] A key on the keyboard is shown in this style. For example: To use [Tab] completion, type in a character and then press the [Tab] key. Your terminal displays the list of ﬁles in the directory that start with that letter.
Page 7 Introduction [stephen@maturin stephen]$ leopard login: user input Text that the user has to type, either on the command line, or into a text box on a GUI screen, is displayed in this style. In the following example, text is displayed in this style: To boot your system into the text based installation program, you must type in the text com- mand at the prompt.
Page 8: More To Come
2.1. Send in Your Feedback If you would like to make suggestions about the Red Hat Network Management Reference Guide, please submit a report in Bugzilla: http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/ Be sure to select the Red Hat Network product and the Documentation component. To easily associate the problem with this guide, mention its identiﬁer:...
Page 9: What Is Red Hat Network
Chapter 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 found only the source ﬁles that you had to compile yourself?
Page 10: Demo
Chapter 1. What is Red Hat Network? For a comparison chart of RHN service levels, refer to http://www.redhat.com/software/rhn/table/. 1.1. Demo The RHN Demo service level is the complimentary service level. All users receive one free subscrip- tion to RHN Demo. All that is required is the completion of a brief survey once every 60 days.
Page 11: Provisioning
To create an account that can be used to entitle systems to RHN Management, go to https://rhn.redhat.com/ and click on the Create Account link under the Sign In ﬁelds. On the Sign Up for Red Hat Network page, click Create a new corporate account. After creating a corporate account, you may add users within your organization to it.
Page 12: Errata Notiﬁcations And Scheduled Package Installations
Red Hat’s GNU Privacy Guard (GPG) signature to ensure authenticity. Red Hat Network incorporates the following security measures: 1. Your System Proﬁle available at http://rhn.redhat.com is accessible only with an RHN-veriﬁed username and password. 2. A Digital Certiﬁcate is written to the client system after registration and is used to authenticate the system during each transaction between the client and Red Hat Network.
Page 13 Chapter 1. What is Red Hat Network? Warning The SSL certiﬁcate packaged with older versions of the Red Hat Update Agent and the Red Hat Network Registration Client reached its end of life August 28, 2003. Users attempting to connect using this certiﬁcate will receive SSL connection or certiﬁcate veriﬁcation errors.
Page 14 Chapter 1. What is Red Hat Network?
Page 15: Red Hat Update Agent
Chapter 2. Red Hat Update Agent The Red Hat Update Agent is your connection to Red Hat Network. It enables you to register your systems, create System Proﬁles, and alter the settings by which your organization and RHN interact. Once registered, your systems can use the Red Hat Update Agent to retrieve the latest software packages from Red Hat.
Page 16 Chapter 2. Red Hat Update Agent If you choose the last option and start the application from a shell prompt, you can specify the options in Table 2-1 to the Red Hat Update Agent. To view these options, type the command up2date --help For example, use the following command to specify the directory in which to download the updated...
Page 17: Registration
Chapter 2. Red Hat Update Agent Figure 2-1. Conﬁgure Proxy Server The second dialog box to appear will prompt you to install the Red Hat GPG key, as shown in Figure 2-2. This key is used to verify the packages you download for security purposes. Click Yes to install the key, and you will not see this message again.
Page 18 Network registration process is used to create a System Proﬁle, which is essential to receiving update notiﬁcations about your system. If after reading the statement you have any questions about how your information is being used, please contact us at < >. When satisﬁed, click feedback@redhat.com Forward.
Page 19: Registering A User Account
Red Hat software packages. Note If you are already a member of redhat.com, you can use the same username and password. However, you will still need to continue with the registration process to create your System Proﬁle. Your username and password have the following restrictions: Must be at least four characters long •...
Page 20 Chapter 2. Red Hat Update Agent Cannot contain any line feeds • Cannot contain the characters &, +, %, or ’ • Figure 2-5. Create a User Account You must choose a unique username. If you enter one already in use, you will see an error message (see Figure 2-6).
Page 21 Unlike other details, your company name can be changed only through redhat.com. To make this change, go to http://www.redhat.com/ and click the Account link near the top-right corner. Sign in if you are not already logged in, and then click the Account Details link. In the Edit Account Details page, replace your company name in the appropriate ﬁeld and click the Finish button at the bottom.
Page 22: Registering A System Proﬁle
Chapter 2. Red Hat Update Agent Figure 2-7. Register a User Account Once satsﬁed with the information supplied, click Forward to continue. 2.2.2. Registering a System Proﬁle Now that you have a user account, you can create a System Proﬁle that consists of hardware and software information about your Red Hat Enterprise Linux system.
Page 23 Chapter 2. Red Hat Update Agent Disk sizes • Mount points • The next step is choosing a proﬁle name for your system as shown in Figure 2-8. The default value is the hostname for the system. You may modify this to be a more descriptive string, such as Email Server for Support Team, if you ﬁnd it more helpful.
Page 24 Chapter 2. Red Hat Update Agent you must include packages in your proﬁle to have RHN send you Errata regarding them. You should also note if you use an older version of a package and deselect it from the list, it will not be replaced with a newer version.
Page 25 Chapter 2. Red Hat Update Agent 2.2.2.2.2. Choosing RPM Packages to Exclude from the System Proﬁle By default, all RPM packages in your RPM database are included in your System Proﬁle to be updated by Red Hat Network. To exclude a package, uncheck the package from the list by clicking the check- box beside the package name.
Page 26: Setup And Use
Chapter 2. Red Hat Update Agent Figure 2-12. Finished Collecting Information for System Proﬁle Figure 2-13 shows the progress bar you will see while your proﬁle is being sent. This process may take some time depending on your connection speed. Figure 2-13.
Page 27: Choosing A Software Channel
Chapter 2. Red Hat Update Agent Before you proceed, however, you should consider ensuring you have the latest version of the Red Hat Update Agent, as development on it is continuous. This task is as simple as running the tool against its own package.
Page 28 Chapter 2. Red Hat Update Agent Figure 2-15. Retrieve Update Information While you see this dialog box, the Red Hat Update Agent uses your unique Digital Certiﬁcate ) to determine if there are any updated packages available for /etc/sysconfig/rhn/systemid your system. If there are no updated packages available for your system, the dialog box in Figure 2-16 appears.
Page 29 Chapter 2. Red Hat Update Agent Figure 2-17. Packages Flagged to be Skipped If you want to view the advisory for the RPM Alert, click the View Advisory button. This will display what type of Errata Alert it is and what problem(s) it addresses as shown in Figure 2-18. Click OK to close the advisory.
Page 30 Chapter 2. Red Hat Update Agent Figure 2-18. View Advisory The Available Package Updates screen is the next to appear. If your system is not up-to-date, your customized list of available updated packages is displayed as shown in Figure 2-19.
Page 31 Chapter 2. Red Hat Update Agent Figure 2-19. List of Available Updates By default, no packages are selected for download. To select a package for download (and installation, if you chose that option), click its checkbox. To select all the packages listed, click the checkbox next to Select all packages.
Page 32: Installing Updated Packages
Chapter 2. Red Hat Update Agent Figure 2-21. Retrieval Finished 2.3.3. Installing Updated Packages After downloading the packages through the Red Hat Update Agent, they must be installed. If you chose not to have the packages installed via the Red Hat Update Agent, skip to Section 2.3.5.2 Manual Package Installation for further instructions.
Page 33: Update Agent Finished
Chapter 2. Red Hat Update Agent Figure 2-22. Installation Finished 2.3.4. Update Agent Finished When the Red Hat Update Agent has ﬁnished downloading the desired packages (and installing them if you chose the install option), you will see the screen in Figure 2-23. Click Finish to exit the Red Hat Update Agent.
Page 34: Command Line Version
Chapter 2. Red Hat Update Agent Figure 2-23. Update Agent Finished 2.3.5. Command Line Version If you are not running X, you can still run the Red Hat Update Agent from a virtual console or remote terminal. If you are running X but want to use the command line version, you can force it not to display the graphical interface with the following command: up2date --nox The command line version of the Red Hat Update Agent allows you to perform advanced functions...
Page 35 Chapter 2. Red Hat Update Agent Argument Description Download packages only; do not install them. This argument --download temporarily overrides the conﬁguration option Do not install packages after retrieval. Use this option if you prefer to install the packages manually. Specify an alternate RPM database to use temporarily.
Page 36 (as root): /usr/bin/gpg --import /usr/share/rhn/RPM-GPG-KEY If you need to download the Red Hat GPG key ﬁrst, you may obtain it from https://www.redhat.com/security/team/key.html . Here’s an example: Type bits/keyID Date User ID 1024D/650D5882 2001-11-21 Red Hat, Inc. (Security Response Team)
Page 37 Chapter 2. Red Hat Update Agent Version: GnuPG v1.2.1 (GNU/Linux) mQGiBDv70vQRBADh701rf8WUzDG88kqlV/N5KQ1PF0amnODB/1EeuAD7n6bCBRmV ekQWJCdfab0Rf1S+VsFg6IAAAmDIarVnacTLQzqCdGJqTpXm/rGVpLv+mCh+OmT9 QRFbjSzB0uPJOpiIvJwSS00D/wJ8XKzHkVNgW3DiJ9Qz2BHYszU2ISI6FwCgxY6d IVjWT5jblkLNjtD3+fR024ED/i0e2knetTX3S9LjC+HdGvP8Eds92Ti2CnJLaFJk Rp749PucnK9mzxPcO2jSHgdtjWAXst/st+gWFVbFmkjBQDVSd00B/xEwI1T1+LN8 V7R8BElBmg99IlJmDvA2BI/seXvafhzly9bxSHScFnceco/Az9umIs3NXwv3/yOm ZakDBAC6SAGHBmpVkOdeXJDdb4LcbEhErFU3CpRCjZ6AOnFuiV1MGdulZXvEUgBA I6/PDE5nBHfZY3zPjyLPZVtgYioJpZqcRIx/g+bX2O8kPqvJEuZ19tLCdykfZGpy bsV7QdSGqBk3snNOizmFj543RaHyEbnwKWbNADhujWMeUAxN+7Q8UmVkIEhhdCwg SW5jLiAoU2VjdXJpdHkgUmVzcG9uc2UgVGVhbSkgPHNlY2FsZXJ0QHJlZGhhdC5j b20+iFcEExECABcFAj3GczYFCwcKAwQDFQMCAxYCAQIXgAAKCRBeVICDZQ1YghAU AJoCeQfuMR2dKyLft/10O6qUs+MNLQCggJgdO8MUO2y11TWID3XOYgyQG+2InAQT AQIABgUCPtyYpQAKCRDurUz9SaVj2e97A/0b2s7OhhAMljNwMQS4I2UWVGbgtxdu D+yBcG/3mwL76MJVY7aX+NN/tT9yDGU+FSiQZZCL/4OFOHMvjpcDqfJY+zpTlBii ZMAPJWTs2bB+0QaXxUgWlwW84GVf2rA6RSbvMLTbDjTH8t7J1RGP9zAqu8SgraTA QbQdao6TNxVt+ohGBBMRAgAGBQI+3LjCAAoJECGRgM3bQqYOf5MAoIjiJDe+hDOj 9+jlR0qDs9lIi/C2AJ9SBBfd4A8hyR4z3lY7e0LzjWF51LkCDQQ7+9O3EAgA8tMs xdUmuTfA+X78fMXh7LCvrL4Hi28CqvNM+Au81XJjDLNawZvpVmFlMmd9h0Xb5Jt2 BZWLR13rcDUByNdw1EWhVAzCz6Bp9Z3MIDhcP00iIBctIHn7YP9fi5vV0G03iryT XE01mhWoBlC233wr3XHwsqxFfZzaCZqqNKTl0+PNfEAIzJRgtYiW8nzFTPpIR05E oRn6EvmQfayOF2uYDX9Sk//lOD7T7RLtKjM/hPW/9NoCGwwROaG+VUzVv4aelh1L dJGEjpFtdxcrOUMD8xbkuGMznu0mpDI+J2BUDh5n57yOyEMaGrQ0jfY1ZqdqDvZg osY1ZHa6KlmuCWNTnwADBQf/XYhCicp6iLetnPv6lYtyRfFRpnK98w3br+fThywC t81P2nKv8lio6OsRbksGc1gX8Zl6GoHQYfDe7hYsCHZPoWErobECFds5E9M7cmzV TTyNTvrELrs07jyuPb4Q+mHcsYPILGR3M+rnXKGjloz+05kOPRJaBEBzP6B8SZKy QNqEfTkTYU4Rbhkzz/UxUxZoRZ+tqVjNbPKFpRraiQrUDsZFbgksBCzkzd0YURvi CegO2K7JPKbZJo6eJA10qiBQvAx2EUijZfxIKqZeLx40EKMaL7Wa2CM/xmkQmCgg Hyu5bmLSMZ7cxFSWyXOst78dehCKv9WyPxHV3m4iANWFL4hGBBgRAgAGBQI7+9O3 AAoJEF5UgINlDViCKWcAoMCeYStWVKXJTytzHEL6Wl8rXr8WAKCHuapJIA4/eFsf 4ciWtjY8cO0v8Q== =yOVZ -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- Save the text ﬁle and import it into your keyring using the method applicable for your version of RPM.
Page 38: Conﬁguration
Chapter 2. Red Hat Update Agent 2.3.5.3. Synchronizing Your System Proﬁle If you conﬁgured the Red Hat Update Agent to install the latest packages, then your System Proﬁle stored by Red Hat Network will be updated after the packages are installed. However, if you only download the latest RPM packages using the Red Hat Update Agent, download the RPM packages from the website, or upgrade/install/remove RPM packages yourself, your System Proﬁle will not be updated automatically.
Page 39 Chapter 2. Red Hat Update Agent Figure 2-24. General Settings In addition, RHN Proxy and Satellite customers have the option of selecting Red Hat Network Servers here. These customers should refer to the RHN Client Conﬁguration Guide for detailed instructions. 2.4.1.2.
Page 40 Chapter 2. Red Hat Update Agent Figure 2-25. Retrieval/Installation Settings The following package retrieval options can be selected (see Figure 2-25): Do not install packages after retrieval — download selected RPM packages to desired directory • and ignore the installation preferences Do not upgrade packages when local conﬁguration ﬁle has been modiﬁed —...
Page 41: Command Line Version
Chapter 2. Red Hat Update Agent To deﬁne a set of packages to be excluded according to the package name, enter a character string including wild cards (*) in the Add new text ﬁeld under in the Package Names to Skip section. A wild card at the end of the character string means all packages beginning with the character string will be excluded from the list.
Page 42: Registering With Activation Keys
Chapter 2. Red Hat Update Agent pkgSkipList [’kernel*’] storageDir /var/spool/up2date adminAddress [’root@localhost’] noBootLoader 10. serverURL https://xmlrpc.rhn.redhat.com/XMLRPC 11. fileSkipList 12. sslCACert /usr/share/rhn/RHNS-CA-CERT 13. noReplaceConfig 14. useNoSSLForPackage No 15. systemIdPath /etc/sysconfig/rhn/systemid 16. enableProxyAuth 17. retrieveSource 18. versionOverride 19. headerFetchCount 20. networkRetries 21. enableProxy 22.
Page 43 Chapter 2. Red Hat Update Agent Note Systems running Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1 need version 2.9.3-1 or higher of the rhn_register package. It is highly recommended you obtain the latest version before using activation keys. Before using an activation key, you must ﬁrst generate one through the RHN website. Refer to Section 4.4.7 Activation Keys for precise steps.
Page 44 Chapter 2. Red Hat Update Agent...
Page 45: Red Hat Network Alert Notiﬁcation Tool
Chapter 3. Red Hat Network Alert Notiﬁcation Tool The Red Hat Network Alert Notiﬁcation Tool is a notiﬁer that appears on the panel and alerts users when software package updates are available for their systems. The list of updates is retrieved from the RHN Servers.
Page 46: Notiﬁcation Icons
Chapter 3. Red Hat Network Alert Notiﬁcation Tool Figure 3-2. HTTP Proxy Conﬁguration If your network connection requires you to use an HTTP Proxy Server to make HTTP connec- tions, on the Proxy Conﬁguration screen, type your proxy server in the text ﬁeld with the for- mat HOST:PORT.
Page 47: Viewing Updates
Chapter 3. Red Hat Network Alert Notiﬁcation Tool If you see the icon, it is highly recommended that you apply the updates. Refer to Section 3.4 Applying Updates for information on applying updates. If you have scheduled updates to be installed, you can watch the applet icon to determine when updates are applied.
Page 48 Chapter 3. Red Hat Network Alert Notiﬁcation Tool...
Page 49: Red Hat Network Website
In a Web browser, go to http://rhn.redhat.com. The page shown in Figure 4-1 will be displayed. Figure 4-1. RHN Website If you have not registered a system yet or do not have a redhat.com account, create a new account by clicking Create Account. After creating a new user account, you must register your system before using RHN.
Page 50 Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website Your RHN — Obtain a quick overview of your account. It notiﬁes you if your systems need • attention, provides a quick link to go directly to them, and displays the most recent Errata Alerts for your account.
Page 51: Errata Alert Icons
Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website Archived Actions — List completed actions that have been selected to archive. • Users — View and manage users for your organization. • User List — List users for your organization. • 4.2.1. Errata Alert Icons Throughout Red Hat Network you will see three Errata Alert icons.
Page 52 Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website If you are new to the RHN website, it is recommended that you read Section 4.2 Introduction to the Website to become familiar with the layout and symbols used throughout the website. Figure 4-2. Your Red Hat Network The top of the page shows how many systems need attention, provides a link to quickly view those systems, and displays a summary of scheduled actions.
Page 53: Your Account
Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website Recently Failed Actions — Number of scheduled actions that did not succeed. • Pending Actions — Number of scheduled actions that have not yet been completed. • Recently Completed Actions — Number of scheduled actions that succeeded. •...
Page 54: Buy Now
Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website Email Notiﬁcations — Determine whether you want to receive email every time an Errata Alert is • applicable to one or more systems in your RHN account. Important This setting also enables Management customers to receive a daily summary of system events. These include actions affecting packages, such as scheduled Errata Updates, and system reboots or failures to check in.
Page 55: Systems
Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website 4.3.5.3. FAQ The FAQ page lists Frequently Asked Questions and answers to those questions. These are broken down into the following categories, each represented by a separate button and page: Top Ten, General, Account Management, Getting Started, Service Levels, Using RHN, Technical Questions, Manage- ment Service, Privacy/Legal, Policies, Deﬁnitions, and All.
Page 56: Overview
Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website 4.4.1. Overview The Overview page provides a summary of your systems, including their status, number of associated Errata and packages, and entitlement level. Clicking on the name of a system takes you to its System Details page.
Page 57 Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website Important If the RHN website identiﬁes package updates for the system, yet the Red Hat Update Agent responds with "Your system is fully updated" when run, a conﬂict likely exists in the system’s pack- age proﬁle or in the conﬁguration ﬁle.
Page 58 Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website 4.4.2.2. Out of Date The Out of Date page displays the registered systems that have applicable Errata Alerts that have not been applied. 4.4.2.3. Unentitled The Unentitled page displays the registered systems that have not yet been entitled for Red Hat Network service.
Page 59 Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website Overview — A summary of the system’s details. In addition to the system status message, • the Overview subtab contains basic System Info, Subscribed Channels, and System Properties. Clicking the Alter Channel Subscriptions link takes you to the Channels tab, while clicking the Edit these properties link takes you to the Properties subtab.
Page 60 Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website To help users determine whether an update has been scheduled, a Status column exists within the Errata table. Possible values are: None, Pending, Picked Up, Completed, and Failed. This column identiﬁes only the latest action related to an Errata. For instance, if an action fails and you resched- ule it, this column will show the status of the Errata as Pending only (with no mention of the previous failure).
Page 61: System Groups
Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website pulldown menu and click the Modify Base Channel button. Refer to Section 4.6.1 Software Channels for more information. Groups — Lists the system’s associated groups and enables you to change these associations. To • modify the system’s groups, select or unselect their checkboxes and click the Update Membership button.
Page 62 Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website Figure 4-4. System Group List The System Groups list contains several columns for each group: Select — Enables you to add groups to the System Set Manager. To select groups, mark the • appropriate checkboxes and click the Update button below the column. Selected groups are added to the System Set Manager.
Page 63: System Set Manager
Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website 4.4.3.1. Creating Groups To add a new system group, click the create new group button on the top-left corner. Type a name and description and click the Create Group button. Make sure you use a name that clearly sets this group apart from others.
Page 64 Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website Apply Errata updates • Upgrade packages to the most recent versions available • Add/remove systems to/from system groups • Subscribe/unsubscribe systems to/from channels • Update system proﬁles • Modify system preferences such as scheduled download and installation of packages •...
Page 65: System Entitlements
Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website Misc — Links to update System Proﬁles and preferences for the system set: • System Proﬁle Updates — Clicking Update Hardware Proﬁle, then the Conﬁrm Refresh • button schedules a hardware proﬁle update. Clicking Update Package Proﬁle, then the Conﬁrm Refresh button schedules a package proﬁle update.
Page 66: Advanced Search
Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website Provisioning — offers the highest level of functionality. It should be used to provision multiple sys- • tems that will need to be re-installed and reconﬁgured regularly. The Provisioning offering provides tools for kickstarting machines, managing their conﬁguration ﬁles, conducting snapshot rollbacks, and inputting searchable custom system information, as well as all of the functionality included in the Management service level.
Page 67: Errata
Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website 2. Click the create new key link at the top-left corner. 3. Provide the following information: Description — User-deﬁned description to identify the generated activation key. • Usage Limit — The number of times the key can be used to register a system before the •...
Page 68: All Errata
Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website Figure 4-5. Errata List Clicking on the Advisory takes you to the Details tab of the Errata Details page. Clicking on the number of associated systems takes you to the Affected Systems tab of the Errata Details page. Refer to Section 4.5.2.2 Errata Details for more information.
Page 69: Advanced Search
Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website Important If you use scheduled package installation, the packages will be installed via the RHN Daemon. You must have the RHN Daemon enabled on your systems. Refer to Chapter 5 Red Hat Network Daemon for more details.
Page 70: Software Channels
Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website 4.6.1. Software Channels The Software Channels page is the ﬁrst to appear in the Channels category. A software channel is a list of Red Hat Enterprise Linux packages grouped by use. Channels are used to choose packages to be installed on a system.
Page 71 Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website Figure 4-6. Software - Relevant Channels 4.6.1.2. All Channels The All Channels page can be retrieved by clicking All below Software Channels in the left nav- igation bar. It works identically to the Relevant button with one exception; It displays all software channels offered by Red Hat Network, regardless of whether you have systems associated with them.
Page 72: Channel Entitlements
Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website Subscribers — List of users who have subscription permissions to the channel. This tab appears • on two conditions: First, the logged in user must be an Organization Administrator or a Channel Administrator. Second, the Globally Subscribable checkbox on the Details tab must be unchecked, thereby making the channel subscribable by user.
Page 73: Package Search
URL from the location bar, and paste it into the curl or wget command. Once downloaded, either burn the images to CD-Rs or CD-RWs or copy them to the machine for direct installation. Refer to http://www.redhat.com/download/howto_download.html for additional download instructions and steps to burn images to discs. Refer to the operating system’s respective installation guide for instructions on installing from CD-ROM or hard drive, available at http://www.redhat.com/docs/.
Page 74 Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website Important If you use scheduled package installation, the packages will be installed via the RHN Daemon. You must have the RHN Daemon enabled on your systems. Refer to Chapter 5 Red Hat Network Daemon for more details.
Page 75: Schedule
Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website 4.6.5.3. Package Details If you click on the name of any package in the website, the Package Details page will appear. This page contains the following tabs: Details — Details about the package, including subtabs for overview, dependencies, change log, •...
Page 76: Pending Actions
Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website 4.7.1. Pending Actions As shown in Figure 4-7, the Pending Actions page is shown by default when you click Schedule in the top navigation bar. It displays actions that have not started or are in progress. Figure 4-7.
Page 77: Users
Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website pending action, it is not canceled; The action item just moves from the Pending Actions list to the Archived Actions list. Action — Type of action to perform such as Errata Update or Package Install. Clicking an ac- •...
Page 78 Be careful when creating users, because no interface exists for their deletion. Unless you are an RHN Satellite Server customer, you must contact rhn-support@redhat.com to have users removed. RHN Satellite Server customers may use the button on the User Details page.
Page 79 Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website To assign a user the role of Organization Administrator or Channel Administrator, select the ap- propriate checkbox. Organization Administrators are automatically granted channel administration privileges. When satisﬁed with the changes, click Update. System Groups — List of system groups that the user may administer. To add or remove system •...
Page 80 Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website...
Page 81: Red Hat Network Daemon
Red Hat Network. Make certain: your client is conﬁgured correctly. • your system can communicate with RHN via SSL (port 443). You may test this by running the • following command from a shell prompt: telnet xmlrpc.rhn.redhat.com 443...
Page 82 Chapter 5. Red Hat Network Daemon the Red Hat Network Daemon is activated and running. You may ensure this by running the follow- • ing commands: chkconfig --level 345 rhnsd on service rhnsd start If these are correct and your systems still indicate they are not checking in, please contact our technical support team.
Page 83: Red Hat Network Registration Client
Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Registration Client Before you begin using Red Hat Network, you need to create a username, password, and System Proﬁle. The Red Hat Network Registration Client walks you through this process. Warning Only systems running Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1 need to use this separate Red Hat Network Registration Client before starting the Red Hat Update Agent.
Page 84 To start the command line version, use the command: rhn_register --nox --configure It has more conﬁguration options than the graphical version. You will be presented with a list of options and their current values: enableProxyAuth noSSLServerURL http://xmlrpc.rhn.redhat.com/XMLRPC oemInfoFile /etc/sysconfig/rhn/oeminfo enableProxy networkSetup httpProxy...
Page 85: Starting The Red Hat Network Registration Client
System Proﬁle — be sure this is what you want to do before you choose Yes. If you overwrite an existing system registration, you can delete the unused proﬁle via the website at https://rhn.redhat.com.
Page 86 Red Hat Network registration process is used to create a System Proﬁle. The System Proﬁle is essential if you wish to receive update notiﬁcations about your system. If you have any questions about how your information is being used, please contact us at < >. feedback@redhat.com...
Page 87: Registering A User Account
Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Registration Client Figure 6-5. Red Hat Privacy Statement 6.3. Registering a User Account Before you can create a System Proﬁle, you must create a user account. The only required information in this section is a unique username, password, and a valid email address. In the screen shown in Figure 6-7, you must choose a username and password.
Page 88 Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Registration Client Note If you are already a member of redhat.com, you can use the same user name and password. How- ever, you will still need to continue with the registration process to create your System Proﬁle.
Page 89: Registering A System Proﬁle
Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Registration Client the system will be added to the organization’s Red Hat Network account. Your Organization Admin- istrator can then create your user account through the Users category of the RHN website. Refer to Section 4.8.1.1 Create User for instructions. Click Next to continue.
Page 90: Software System Proﬁle
Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Registration Client Figure 6-8. System Proﬁle - Hardware 6.4.2. Software System Proﬁle The software System Proﬁle consists of a list of RPM packages for which you wish to receive notiﬁ- cations. The Red Hat Network Registration Client shows you a list of all RPM packages listed in the RPM database on your system and then allows you to customize the list by deselecting packages.
Page 91 Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Registration Client Figure 6-10. RPM Package Information 6.4.2.2. Choosing RPM Packages to Exclude from the System Proﬁle By default, all RPM packages in your RPM database are included in your System Proﬁle to be up- dated by Red Hat Network.
Page 92: Finishing Registration
Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Registration Client Figure 6-11. Choose which RPM Packages to Exclude from System Proﬁle 6.5. Finishing Registration As seen in Figure 6-12, the last step of registration is to conﬁrm that you want to send your System Proﬁle to the Red Hat Network.
Page 93 Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Registration Client Figure 6-12. Finished Collecting Information for System Proﬁle Figure 6-13 shows the progress bar you will see while your proﬁle is being sent. This process may take some time depending on your connection speed. Figure 6-13.
Page 94: Entitling Your System
Demo entitlement after creating an account by registering a system for RHN or creating a redhat.com account. To entitle a system, go to http://rhn.redhat.com and log in using the same username and password you just used in the Red Hat Network Registration Client. Click Systems on the top navigation bar and then Systems Entitlements in the left navigation bar.
Page 95 Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Registration Client 6.7. Text Mode RHN Registration Client If you are not running the X Window System, the Red Hat Network Registration Client starts in text mode. You can force the Red Hat Network Registration Client to run in text mode with the command: rhn_register --nox The screens for the text mode Red Hat Network Registration Client are almost identical to the screens for the graphical Red Hat Network Registration Client.
Page 96 Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Registration Client...
Page 97: Rhn Api Access
(API) available. This interface can be found by clicking Help at the top-right corner of the RHN website, then clicking API in the left navigation bar. Or you may go directly to: https://rhn.redhat.com/rpc/api/. You should use this URL for your XMLRPC server, as well as your browser.
Page 98: Viewing The Cid
Appendix A. RHN API Access A.4. Viewing the cid Like servers, channels have their own IDs. This value, the cid, is a required parameter for some meth- ods, including set_base_channel and set_child_channels. Also like the sid, the cid can be obtained through the RHN website.
Page 99 Appendix A. RHN API Access ############################################################################ System calls. ############################################################################ # This next call returns a list of systems available to the user. # syntax of this call is described at: http://$HOST/rpc/api/system/list_user_systems/ # In the code snippet below, we dump data about our systems, and we # capture the ID of the first system we find for future operations.
Page 100 Appendix A. RHN API Access...
Page 101: Glossary
An Errata Alert that pertains to a bug ﬁx. Bugzilla Bugzilla is an online application (http://www.redhat.com/bugzilla) that allows users to commu- nicate directly with the developers. From Bugzilla, users can submit bug reports and feature requests for Red Hat Enterprise Linux and related open source packages.
Page 102 Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The information includes the topics of the Errata, Bugzilla bug IDs, relevant releases/architectures, solutions including required RPMs, and MD5 check- sums for veriﬁcation. Errata are also available at http://www.redhat.com/errata/. Each RHN Er- rata Alert is based on the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Errata List.
Page 103 Glossary team tests new packages they are placed on the Red Hat Public File Server and on the Red Hat Network Server and an Errata is generated. Errata Alert RHN Errata Alert that updated packages based on Red Hat Errata are available for one or more systems within an organization.
Page 104 Glossary Registered System A system that is registered with Red Hat Network. Also known as a client system. Red Hat Network Daemon The RHN client daemon ( ) that periodically polls Red Hat Network for updates and noti- rhnsd ﬁcations. Red Hat Network Registration Client The RHN client application ( ) that collects information about the client system,...
Page 105 Glossary Security Alert An Errata Alert that pertains to system security. Service Level A Red Hat Network subscription service. Different service levels offer different features of RHN. There are three paid service levels currently available: RHN Update, RHN Management, and RHN Provisioning.
Page 106 Glossary...
Page 107: Index
Index daemon, 73 deleting a system, 50 Demo service level, 2 account Digital Certiﬁcate, 4 deactivate, 45 download ISO images, 64 action completed systems, 69 details, 69 failed systems, 69 in progress systems, 69 email address activation key, 58 change, 45 deleting, 59 changing, 70 disabling, 59...
Page 108 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1 List Navigation requiring the Red Hat Network Registration Client, explanation of, 43 i, 7 Red Hat Network an introduction to, 1 components Management primary, 1 service level, 2 Red Hat Network Alert Notiﬁcation Tool adding to panel, 37 applying Errata Updates, 39 conﬁguring, 37 icons, 38...
Page 109 synchronizing system proﬁle, 30 certiﬁcate veriﬁcation, 4 reference guide subscribe to channel, 62 bug reporting, iv system group, 53 conventions, i adding and removing, 55 introduction to the, i creating, 55 registering deleting, 55 with activation keys, 34 editing details, 55 Registration, 75 list of, 53 as part of an organization, 80...
Page 110 User List, 69 website, 41 activation keys, 58 All Errata, 60 Buy Now, 46 Channel List, 62 Channels, 61 Errata, 59 Errata Search, 61 Help, 46 logging in, 41 navigation bar, 41 overview, 41 Purchase History, 46 Relevant Errata, 59 Schedule, 67 Software Channel Details, 63 Software Search, 65...

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