Page 1 Red Hat Network 3.4 Provisioning Reference Guide...
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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....................62 4.4.7. Activation Keys....................62 4.4.8. Stored Proﬁles....................64 4.4.9. Custom System Info..................64 4.4.10. Kickstart......................64 4.5. Errata..........................69 4.5.1. Relevant Errata....................70 4.5.2. All Errata......................70 4.5.3. Advanced Search....................72 4.6. Channels........................... 72 4.6.1. Software Channels .................... 72 4.6.2.
Page 5 A.2.8. Listing All Conﬁg Channels ................107 A.2.9. Removing a File from a Channel ..............108 A.2.10. Deleting a Conﬁg Channel................108 A.2.11. Determining the Number of File Revisions ..........108 A.2.12. Updating a File in a Channel................ 108 A.2.13. Uploading Multiple Files at Once..............109 B.
Page 7: 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 8 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 9 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 10: More To Come
2.1. Send in Your Feedback If you would like to make suggestions about the Red Hat Network Provisioning 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 11: 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 12: 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 13: 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 14: 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 15 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 16 Chapter 1. What is Red Hat Network?
Page 17: 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 18 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 19: 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 20 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 21: 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 22 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 23 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 24: 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 25 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 26 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 27 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 28: 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 29: 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 30 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 31 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 32 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 33 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 34: 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 35: 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 36: 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 37 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 38 (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 39 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 40: 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 41 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 42 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 43: 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 44: 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 45 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 46 Chapter 2. Red Hat Update Agent A key may specify any number of child channels. For each child channel, subscription is attempted. • If the child channel matches the system’s base channel, subscription succeeds. If it does not, the subscription fails silently. Refer to Section 4.6 Channels for more information. Keys created by an Organization Administrator are available for modiﬁcation and use by other •...
Page 47: 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 48: 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 49: 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 50 Chapter 3. Red Hat Network Alert Notiﬁcation Tool...
Page 51: 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 52 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 53: Errata Alert Icons
Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website Schedule — Keep track of your scheduled actions. • Pending Actions — List scheduled actions that have not been completed. • Failed Actions — List scheduled actions that have failed. • Completed Actions — List scheduled actions that have been completed. Completed actions can •...
Page 54: Your Rhn
Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website 4.3. Your RHN After logging into the website of Red Hat Network, the ﬁrst category to appear is Your RHN dis- playing as its ﬁrst page Your RHN. This page contains important information about your systems, including summaries of system status, actions, and Errata Alerts.
Page 55: Your Account
Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website Ungrouped Systems — Each registered system must be a member of at least one system group. • The number of ungrouped systems refers to systems that are not yet members of any system group. Inactive Systems —...
Page 56: Your Preferences
Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website 4.3.2. Your Preferences The Your Preferences page allows you to conﬁgure Red Hat Network options, including: 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 and Provisioning customers to receive a daily summary of system events.
Page 57 Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website 4.3.5.2. Quick Start Guide The Quick Start Guide page contains a brief overview of Red Hat Network and its many features. If you are unfamiliar with RHN, it is recommended you read this guide in its entirety. Topics covered include registering your systems, applying Errata Updates, using one-click updates, and troubleshoot- ing.
Page 58: Systems
Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website 4.4. Systems If you click the Systems tab on the top navigation bar, the Systems category and links appear. The pages in the Systems category allow you to select systems so that you can perform actions on them and create System Proﬁles.
Page 59 Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website Packages — Total number of package updates for the system. Includes packages from Errata Alerts • as well as newer packages that are not from Errata Alerts. For example, if a system is subscribed to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1 i386 channel that contains version 2.5.4 of a package because that is the version that shipped with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1, but the system has version 2.5.2 of the package installed, the newer version of the package will be in the list of updated packages...
Page 60 Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website Links in the left navigation bar below Systems enable you to select and view predeﬁned sets of your systems. All of the options described above can be applied within these pages. 4.4.2.1. All The All page contains the default set of your systems. It displays every system you’ve registered with Red Hat Network.
Page 61 Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website states "Critical updates available" you may click the update now link to apply all relevant Errata Updates to the individual system, as you would under the Errata tab. In addition, some functions can be accessed only on this tab. Most importantly, a system may be locked by clicking the Lock system link near the bottom-left corner of the page.
Page 62 Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website tions. Once the key exists, you may assign a value to it by clicking create new value here. Click the name of the key in the resulting list and enter a value for it in the Description ﬁeld, such as "Cube #456."...
Page 63 Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website Note If you are using version 3.1 or higher, any dependency-related errors generated by the up2date attempted package removal are displayed on the page. Upgrade — Displays a list of packages that have a new version available based on the package •...
Page 64 Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website To manage the conﬁguration of a system, it must have the latest packages installed and rhncfg* a conﬁg-enable created on it. Refer to Section 4.6.6.1 Preparing Systems for Conﬁg Management for instructions. These tools may already be installed on your system, especially if you kickstarted the system with conﬁguration management functionality.
Page 65 Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website Details page. Refer to Section 4.6.6.7 Conﬁguration File Details for instructions. To replicate the ﬁle within a conﬁg channel, select its checkbox, click the Copy to Conﬁg Channel button, and select the destination channel. To remove a ﬁle, select it and click Delete Selected Files. Sandbox —...
Page 66: System Groups
Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website Caution It is imperative the kickstart proﬁle selected match the installation ﬁles supplied. For instance, it is possible a given IP address could be associated with a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1 kickstart proﬁle, but you insert an IP address kickstart CD-ROM built for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3. This would result in errors and cause the kickstart to fail.
Page 67 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 68: System Set Manager
Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website Use in SSM — Clicking the Use Group button in this column loads the group from that row and • launches the System Set Manager immediately. Refer to Section 4.4.4 System Set Manager for more information.
Page 69 Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website 4.4.4. System Set Manager The System Set Manager allows you to perform many actions possible individually through the System Details page on multiple systems at once, including: Apply Errata updates • Upgrade packages to the most recent versions available •...
Page 70 Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website Group button. To add or remove the selected systems in any of the system groups, toggle the appropriate radio buttons and click the Alter Membership button. Channels — Options to manage channel associations. • Channel Subscriptions —...
Page 71: System Entitlements
Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website Lock Systems — Selecting the appropriate systems and then clicking the Lock Systems link • prevents the scheduling of any action through RHN that would affect the systems. This can be reversed by clicking the Unlock Systems link. Delete Systems —...
Page 72: Advanced Search
Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website To change an individual entitlement, select the entitlement from the system’s pulldown menu and click the Update Entitlements button on the bottom right-hand corner of the page. Click the name of a system to see details about it. If no drop-down menu exists for your Update-level system, you may need to purchase a Management entitlement.
Page 73 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 74: Stored Proﬁles
Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website 4.4.8. Stored Proﬁles RHN Provisioning customers can create package proﬁles through the Proﬁles subtab of the Packages tab within the System Details page. Those proﬁles end up here, on the Stored Proﬁles page, where they may be edited and even deleted.
Page 75 Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website 4.4.10.2. Kickstart Explained When a machine is to receive a network-based kickstart, the following events must occur in this order: 1. After being placed on the network and turned on, the machine’s PXE logic broadcasts its MAC address and a request to be discovered.
Page 76 Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website organization, and Comments, or simple notes regarding the proﬁle. You may click the view link to see the actual kickstart conﬁguration ﬁle generated by RHN In addition, you may select lists of ﬁles here that will be preserved during the kickstart process. These ﬁles, typically conﬁguration ﬁles and others that will remain relevant when the server is re- deployed, can be selected using the File Preservation Lists pulldown menu near the bottom of the page.
Page 77 Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website IP Addresses — Identiﬁes the IP address ranges to be presented with this kickstart proﬁle upon • request. Conﬂicts between IP address ranges will not be allowed unless one range is a subset of another, in which case the kickstart associated with the smallest of the enclosing ranges will be presented.
Page 78 Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website Important RHN Satellite Server users should note that channels imported with are made satellite-sync available automatically and do not require the creation of a separate installation tree. For instance, if you have imported and the current release is , this option rhel-i386-es-3 rhel-i386-es-3-u1...
Page 79 Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website http://my.sat.server/kickstart/ks/org/1271287x2c4682f33b87ed1d4dbea8/label/my-rhel3-as-ks IP addressed-based kickstart URLs will look something like this: http://my.sat.server/kickstart/ks/mode/ip_range The kickstart distribution selected by the IP range should match the distribution you are building from, or errors will occur. {ksdevice} is optional, but looks like: ksdevice=eth0 It is possible to change the distribution for a kickstart proﬁle within a family, such as RHEL AS3 to RHEL ES3, by specifying the new distribution label.
Page 80: Errata
Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website 4.5. Errata If you click the Errata tab on the top navigation bar, the Errata category and links appear. The pages in the Errata category allow you to track and manage Errata Updates. If you want to receive an email when Errata Alerts are issued for your system, go to Your RHN => Your Preferences and select Receive email notiﬁcations.
Page 81: All Errata
Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website 4.5.2. All Errata The All Errata page displays a list of all Errata Alerts released by Red Hat. It works much the same as the Relevant Errata page in that clicking either the Advisory or the number of systems affected takes you to related tabs of the Errata Details page.
Page 82: Advanced Search
Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website 4.5.2.2. Errata Details If you click on the Advisory of an Errata Alert in the Relevant or All pages, its Errata Details page appears. This page is further divided into three tabs: The Details tab provides the Errata Report issued by Red Hat. It describes the problem and solution •...
Page 83 Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website A system can be subscribed to multiple child channels of its base channel. Only packages included in a system’s subscribed channels can be installed or updated on that system. Some customers, such as those using RHN Satellite and Proxy, have channel management authority. This authority, granted by RHN as a separate role to certain customers, gives them the ability to create and manage their own custom channels.
Page 84 Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website 4.6.1.3. Software Channel Details If you click on the name of a channel, the Software Channel Details page will appear. This page contains the following tabs: Details — General information about the channel and the parent channel, if it is a child channel. •...
Page 85: Channel Entitlements
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 86: Package Search
Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website 4.6.4. Package Search The Package Search page allows you to search through packages using various criteria. You may search by name or name and summary, within relevant or all channels, or within speciﬁc architectures. Type your keyword, select the criterion to search by, and click the Search button.
Page 87: Manage Conﬁg Channels
Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website 4.6.5.2. Package Download If you do not want to schedule a package installation, you can download the packages immediately. If you download the packages, you must install them manually. To download packages through the Systems category, refer to Section 4.4.2.6 System Details. To download individual RPMs and SRPMs through the Channels category, follow these steps: 1.
Page 88 Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website conﬁguration ﬁles templates that can be deployed across your organization, with the relevant values populated upon individual system installation. 4.6.6.1. Preparing Systems for Conﬁg Management For a system to have its conﬁguration managed through RHN, it must have the appropriate tools and conﬁg-enable ﬁle installed.
Page 89 Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website Links within this list go to different tabs of the Conﬁguration Channel Details page. Clicking on a channel name takes you to the Details tab. Clicking on the ﬁles number takes you to the Files tab. And clicking on the systems number takes you to the Systems tab.
Page 90 Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website Create — Allows you to create a conﬁguration ﬁle from scratch within the interface. The ﬁelds • here work similarly to those on the Upload subtab: Path is the location to which the ﬁle will be deployed.
Page 91 Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website addresses this by allowing the inclusion of macros, or variables, within the conﬁguration ﬁles it man- ages for Provisioning-entitled systems. In addition to variables for custom system information, the following standard macros are supported: rhn.system.sid •...
Page 92: Schedule
Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website This default will be overridden by the actual value on any system containing it. For instructions on developing custom system information keys, refer to Section 4.4.9 Custom System Info. Using the Red Hat Network Conﬁguration Manager ( ) will not translate or alter rhncfg-manager ﬁles, as that tool is system agnostic.
Page 93: Failed Actions
Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website Figure 4-7. Schedule - Pending Actions 4.7.2. Failed Actions The Failed Actions page displays actions that have failed to succeed. If the action returns an error, it will be displayed. 4.7.3. Completed Actions The Completed Actions page displays actions that have succeeded. 4.7.4.
Page 94: Users
Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website Earliest — The earliest day and time the action will be performed. • Succeeded — Number of systems on which this action was successful. • Failed — Number of systems on which this action has been tried and failed. •...
Page 95 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 96 Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Website In addition, you may establish default system groups for the user to capture all systems registered by that user. To do this, select the default group or groups from the dropdown menu at the bottom of the page.
Page 97: 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 98 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 99: 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 100 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 101: 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 102 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 103: 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 104 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 105: 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 106: 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 107 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 108: 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 109 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 110: 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 111 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 112 Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Registration Client...
Page 113: Command Line Conﬁg Management Tools
Appendix A. Command Line Conﬁg Management Tools In addition to the options provided in the RHN website, Red Hat Network offers two command line tools for managing conﬁguration ﬁles: the Red Hat Network Conﬁguration Client and the Red Hat Network Conﬁguration Manager. If you don’t yet have these these tools installed, they can be found within the RHN Provisioning child channel for your operating system.
Page 114: Differentiating Between Conﬁg Files
Appendix A. Command Line Conﬁg Management Tools Config channels: Label Name ----- ---- config-channel-17 config chan 2 config-channel-14 config chan 1 A.1.4. Differentiating between Conﬁg Files To obtain a difference between the conﬁg ﬁles deployed on the system and those for it stored by RHN, issue the command: rhncfg-client diff You should see output resembling:...
Page 115: Creating A Conﬁg Channel
Appendix A. Command Line Conﬁg Management Tools When the Red Hat Network Conﬁguration Manager is run as root, it attempts to pull in needed conﬁguration values from the Red Hat Update Agent. When run as something other than root, you may have to make conﬁguration changes within the ﬁle.
Page 116: Differentiating Between Latest Conﬁg Files
Appendix A. Command Line Conﬁg Management Tools Pushing to channel blah Local file >/path/to/file -> remote file /new/path/to/file.txt A.2.2.1. Add Options The following options are applicable to the add mode: Option Description Display this list of options and exits. --help Required - Use this conﬁg channel.
Page 117: Downloading All Files In A Channel
Appendix A. Command Line Conﬁg Management Tools -n=channel-label1 -r=1 -n=channel-label2 -r=1 /path/to/file.txt You should see output resembling: --- /tmp/dest_path/foo.txt 2004-01-13 14:36:41 config channel: blah2 revision: 1 --- /tmp/dest_path/foo.txt 2004-01-13 14:42:42 config channel: blah3 revision: 1 @@ -1 +1,20 @@ -foo +blaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah +-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- +Version: GnuPG v1.0.6 (GNU/Linux)
Page 118: Removing A File From A Channel
Appendix A. Command Line Conﬁg Management Tools A.2.8. Listing All Conﬁg Channels To list all of your organization’s conﬁguration channels, issue the command: rhncfg-manager list-channels You should see output resembling: Available config channels: blah blah2 blah3 config-channel-14 config-channel-17 Note that this does not list local_override or server_import channels. A.2.9.
Page 119: Updating A File In A Channel
Appendix A. Command Line Conﬁg Management Tools A.2.12. Updating a File in a Channel To create a new revision of a ﬁle in a channel (or add the ﬁrst revision to that channel if none existed before for the given path), issue the command: rhncfg-manager update --channel=channel-label --dest-file=/path/to/file.txt...
Page 120 Appendix A. Command Line Conﬁg Management Tools...
Page 121: 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 122: Viewing The Cid
Appendix B. RHN API Access B.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 123 Appendix B. 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 124 Appendix B. RHN API Access...
Page 125: 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 126 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 127 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 128 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 129 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 130 Glossary...
Page 131: Index
Index details, 79, 80 global, 78 list of, 77 Conﬁg Channels and Files Conﬁg Channel List, 77 account conﬁg management deactivate, 45 system preparation, 78 action Conﬁguration completed systems, 84 Channel List details, 84 Channel Details, 79 failed systems, 84 File Details, 80 in progress systems, 84 conﬁguration ﬁles...
Page 132 package installation getting started, 4 scheduled, 4 GNU Privacy Guard, 4 package list Updating on server, 30, 52 packages details, 77 hardware proﬁle downloading, 77 Updating on server, 51 ﬁlter, 74 Help Desk, 46 installing, 76 overview, 76 password change, 45 preferences ISO images change, 46...
Page 133 troubleshooting, 87 RHN website, 39 using to apply Errata Updates, 51, 71, 76 initial description, 1 viewing status, 87 rhnreg_ks, 62 Red Hat Network Registration Client (rhn)_register) rhnsd, 87 initial description, 1 rhn_register Red Hat Update Agent, 39 (See Registration) Command Line Arguments, 26 RHUA;...
Page 134 System Set Manager, 59 Conﬁguration File Details, 80 Systems custom system information, 64 Advanced Search, 62 Errata, 70 Errata Search, 72 deleting, 50 Help, 46 Entitlements, 61 kickstart proﬁles, 64 entitling, 61 logging in, 41 overview, 48 navigation bar, 41 searching, 62 overview, 41 System Details, 50...

Red Hat NETWORK 3.4 - PROVISIONING Reference Manual

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