Introduction - Red Hat NETWORK 3.6 - CLIENT Configuration Manual

Chapter 1.

Introduction

This best practices guide is intended to help customers of RHN Satellite Server and RHN Proxy Server
more easily configure their client systems.
By default, all Red Hat Network client applications are configured to communicate with central Red
Hat Network Servers. When connecting clients to RHN Satellite Server or RHN Proxy Server, how-
ever, many of these settings must be altered. Altering client settings for a system or two may be
relatively simple. But a large enterprise environment, containing hundreds or thousands of systems,
will likely benefit from the mass reconfiguration steps described here.
Because of the complexity of this undertaking, customers have been given the option of generating and
using a pre-populated script that automates many of the tasks required to get your systems using your
RHN Server. Refer to Chapter 5 Using RHN Bootstrap for details. Nevertheless, Red Hat believes
you should understand the implications of these changes and therefore describes the manual steps for
reconfiguration in earlier chapters. Use your best judgement in determining the ideal solution for your
organization.
Although many of the commands provided within this guide can be applied as they appear, it is impos-
sible to predict all of the potential network configurations adopted by customers. Therefore, Red Hat
encourages you to use these commands as references that must take into account your organization's
individual settings.