Channel Availability; Tools, Repositories, And Practices - Red Hat NETWORK 3.7 - CHANNEL MANAGEMENTT GUIDE Manual

4
custom channels through the website. For more information on subscribing to channels online, refer
to the RHN Website chapter of the RHN Reference Guide.

2.3. Channel Availability

There are many channels in Red Hat Network. Some are available to all users, some are available
to users in a particular organization, and others are available only to customers who have purchased
access to them. Channels fall into three main categories:
Paid Service Channels - These channels are available to customers who have purchased access to
•
them either directly or in conjunction with a particular Red Hat product. Red Hat Enterprise Linux
is a paid service channel.
Custom Channels - These channels are created by customers to manage custom packages. These
•
channels, also known as private channels, appear only to the organization who creates them; they
can never be accessed by anyone else.
For immediate and secure service, a customer may create a custom channel for an organization and
host the channel on the organization's private RHN Satellite Server or RHN Proxy Server. This
document focuses on that process.

2.4. Tools, Repositories, and Practices

Before creating and managing channels, you should note the differences between the various tools
and repositories at your disposal. This is especially important if you will be deploying both a RHN
Satellite Server and RHN Proxy Server, as this increases the utilities and storage locations available.
Further, a Proxy-Satellite combination offers certain best practices for optimal performance.
First, become familiar with these package management tools:
RHN Package Manager - This application is used to push custom packages into custom channels
•
on an RHN Proxy Server.
RHN Push - This application is used to push custom packages into custom channels on an RHN
•
Satellite Server.
RHN Satellite Synchronization Tool - This application is used to import and synchronize standard
•
packages on an RHN Satellite Server with Red Hat Network. either via the Internet or CD-ROM.
Each of these tools has a corresponding package repository. Both the RHN Package Manager and
the RHN Push require the creation of a temporary staging directory for placement of custom pack-
ages that will be uploaded to the Proxy or Satellite. The RHN Satellite Synchronization Tool may
also necessitate a temporary directory to hold channel ISOs, if the Satellite is not synchronized over
the Internet. All three of these repositories should be deleted after use. Red Hat recommends first
archiving the custom packages used by RHN Package Manager and RHN Push.
Customers using both RHN Proxy Server and RHN Satellite Server should be using only the RHN
Push (as well as the RHN Satellite Synchronization Tool for importing and syncing) because this
combination requires custom packages and channels be uploaded to the Satellite only. From there, the
Proxies will obtain the packages and distribute them to client systems.
Chapter 2. Introduction to RHN Channels