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Red Hat NETWORK 4.1.0 - CHANNEL MANAGEMENTT GUIDE Manual

Channel management
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Red Hat Network 4.1.0
Channel Management Guide

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Summary of Contents for Red Hat NETWORK 4.1.0 - CHANNEL MANAGEMENTT GUIDE

  • Page 1 Red Hat Network 4.1.0 Channel Management Guide...
  • Page 2 All other trademarks referenced herein 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 1. Introduction ........................1 2. Introduction to RHN Channels..................3 2.1. Base Channels and Child Channels ..............3 2.2. Subscribing to Channels ...................3 2.3. Channel Availability ..................4 2.4. Tools, Repositories, and Practices ..............4 3. Building Custom Packages....................7 3.1. Building packages for Red Hat Network ............7 3.1.1.

  • Page 5: Introduction

    In some instances, this document refers to actions that are performed on the Red Hat Net- work Web servers. For RHN Proxy Server customers, this refers to the central Red Hat Network Servers at https://rhn.redhat.com. For Satellite customers, this refers to the RHN Satellite Server at your site.
  • Page 6 Chapter 1. Introduction...

  • Page 7: Introduction To Rhn Channels

    Chapter 2. Introduction to RHN Channels A Red Hat Network channel is a collection of software packages. Channels help you seg- regate packages by sensible rules: a channel may contain packages from a specific Red Hat distribution, for instance. A channel may contain packages for an application or family of applications.

  • Page 8: Channel Availability

    Chapter 2. Introduction to RHN Channels Install registration — When a system is initially registered through either the Red Hat • Update Agent or the Red Hat Network Registration Client, it is automatically as- signed to the base channel that corresponds to the version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux on the system.
  • Page 9 Chapter 2. Introduction to RHN Channels RHN Package Manager - Use this to push custom packages into custom channels on • your RHN Proxy Server. RHN Push - Use this to push custom packages into custom channels on your RHN •...
  • Page 10 Chapter 2. Introduction to RHN Channels...

  • Page 11: Building Custom Packages

    Chapter 3. Building Custom Packages There are many things that might go wrong when building software packages. This is espe- cially true when these packages must be delivered and installed through Red Hat Network. This chapter provides an overview of how to build packages for successful delivery via Red Hat Network.

  • Page 12: Rhn Rpm Guidelines

    1. Learn RPM. It is crucial to have a fundamental understanding of the important fea- tures of RPM to build packages properly. For more information about RPM, start with the following resources: http://www.rpm.org/RPM-HOWTO/ • http://www.redhat.com/docs/books/max-rpm/ • http://www.rpm.org/mailing_list/ • http://fedora.redhat.com/participate/developers-guide/ch-rpm-building.html •...
  • Page 13 Chapter 3. Building Custom Packages 3. The RPM package must install without using the options. If --force --nodeps you cannot install an RPM cleanly on your build system, Red Hat Network cannot install it automatically on a system. 4. The RPM package filename must be in the NVR (name, version, release) format and must contain the architecture for the package.

  • Page 14: Digital Signatures For Rhn Packages

    Chapter 3. Building Custom Packages 3.2. Digital Signatures for RHN Packages All packages distributed through RHN should have a digital signature. A digital signature is created with a unique private key and can be verified with the corresponding public key. After creating a package, the SRPM (Source RPM) and the RPM can be digitally signed with a GnuPG key.
  • Page 15 Chapter 3. Building Custom Packages be informed of its expiration and supplied with a new public key. It is recommended that you select no expiration date. If you do not choose an expiration date, you are asked to confirm your decision: Key does not expire at all Is this correct (y/n)? Press [y] to confirm your decision.

  • Page 16: Signing Packages

    Chapter 3. Building Custom Packages gpg --export -a ’Your Name’ > public_key.txt Your public key is written to the file public_key.txt This public key is quite important. It’s the key that must be deployed to all client systems that receive custom software through .

  • Page 17: Custom Channel And Package Management

    Chapter 4. Custom Channel and Package Management Custom channels allow administrators to use the Red Hat Network infrastructure to deploy packages built and maintained by their organizations. All channel and package manage- ment activities take place in the Channels tab of the RHN website. The instructions here are used in conjunction with the RHN website chapter of the RHN Reference Guide.

  • Page 18: Manage Software Channels

    Chapter 4. Custom Channel and Package Management 4. Have the user log in to the Red Hat Network website, click the Channels tab on the top navigation bar, and ensure the Manage Software Channels button appears on the corresponding left navigation bar. 4.2.
  • Page 19 Chapter 4. Custom Channel and Package Management an Organization Administrator or a Channel Administrator. Second, the Globally Sub- scribable checkbox on the Details tab must be unchecked, thereby making the channel subscribable by user. On this tab, select the checkboxes of the users to be allowed to sub- scribe systems to this channel and click Update.

  • Page 20: Manage Software Packages

    Chapter 4. Custom Channel and Package Management In addition to the Merge option, previously cloned errata contain values within the Owned Errata column. The erratum label is linked to its details page. The pub and mod flags within parentheses identify whether the cloned erratum has been published or modified from the original advisory.

  • Page 21: Creating A Software Channel

    Chapter 4. Custom Channel and Package Management 4.4. Manage Software Packages In addition to adding and removing packages within channels, you also have the option of deleting packages entirely from both the database and file system. Removal from the file system is delayed by about one hour. This can be done through the Software Package Management page, accessed by clicking Manage Software Packages on the left naviga- tion bar.

  • Page 22: Assigning Packages To Software Channels

    Chapter 4. Custom Channel and Package Management 4. On the New Channel page, define the details of the channel following the instruc- tions on the page. For most channel management actions, the Channel Label is used to identify the channel, so select a meaningful label. View the details of existing channels for ideas.

  • Page 23: Deleting Software Channels

    Chapter 4. Custom Channel and Package Management 4.7. Cloning Software Channels RHN Satellite Server Channel Administrators also have the ability to clone software chan- nels for easy package association. Cloning offers you a complete replica of another chan- nel, enabling you to immediately associate appropriate packages and errata with a custom software channel.
  • Page 24 Chapter 4. Custom Channel and Package Management Removing a channel via the website automatically deletes all packages associated only with that channel. Packages that are also associated with other channels are retained. If you have established that channel on a Proxy connected to a Satellite, you must delete the channel on the RHN Proxy Server.

  • Page 25: Custom Errata Management

    Chapter 5. Custom Errata Management Custom errata enables you to issue errata alerts for the packages in your custom channels. All errata management activities take place in the Errata tab of the RHN website. The instructions here are used in conjunction with the RHN website chapter of the Red Hat Network Reference Guide.

  • Page 26: Unpublished Errata

    Chapter 5. Custom Errata Management 5.1.2. Unpublished Errata The Unpublished Errata page appears when you click Unpublished below Manage Er- rata in the left navigation bar. It displays the errata alerts your organization has created but not yet distributed.. edit existing unpublished errata,...

  • Page 27: Assigning Packages To Errata

    Chapter 5. Custom Errata Management 5.3. Creating and Editing Errata Follow this procedure to make a custom errata alert. 1. On the top navigation bar click on Errata then click Manage Errata on the left navi- gation bar. From the Errata Management page, click on create new erratum. 2.

  • Page 28: Cloning Errata

    Chapter 5. Custom Errata Management 3. After clicking View, the package list for the selected option appears. Note that the page header still lists the errata being edited. 4. In the list, select the checkboxes of the packages to be assigned to the edited errata, and click Add Packages at the bottom-right corner of the page.

  • Page 29: Uploading And Maintaining Custom Packages

    Chapter 6. Uploading and Maintaining Custom Packages Depending upon which Red Hat Network service is used, there are two different mecha- nisms for uploading packages to private channels. Customers of RHN Proxy Server use the RHN Package Manager application, which sends package header information to the central Red Hat Network Servers and places the package itself into the local repository of the Proxy that invoked RHN Package Manager.

  • Page 30: Configuring And Using The Rhn Package Manager

    Chapter 6. Uploading and Maintaining Custom Packages custom packages cannot be downloaded through the RHN website, although they are listed. They must be retrieved by the client system using up2date 6.1.1. Configuring and Using the RHN Package Manager Before you can use RHN Package Manager to upload packages into RHN, you need to first manually copy the packages to the Proxy server itself.
  • Page 31 Chapter 6. Uploading and Maintaining Custom Packages figuration file or via command line options passed to RHN Package /etc/rhn/rhn.conf Manager. Parameters this file read from .rhn_package_manager in the home directory of the user currently logged in and finally from . Make sure all of these files have the /etc/rhn/rhn_package_manager.conf appropriate permissions to prevent others from reading them.
  • Page 32 Chapter 6. Uploading and Maintaining Custom Packages Option Description List the packages in the specified channel(s). -l, --list Check if local directory is in sync with the server. -s, --sync Print the current configuration and exit. -p, --printconf Push only the packages that are newer than those on --newest the server.

  • Page 33: Uploading Packages To Rhn Satellite Server

    Chapter 6. Uploading and Maintaining Custom Packages Option Description Only print a list of the packages to be pushed. --test Display the help screen with a list of options. -?, --help Briefly describe the available options. --usage Only copy packages --copyonly Table 6-1.
  • Page 34 Chapter 6. Uploading and Maintaining Custom Packages 6.2.1. Configuring the RHN Push Application When RHN Push is installed, a central configuration file is installed in . This file contains values for all the options /etc/sysconfig/rhn/rhnpushrc contained in Table 6-2. In addition, the application creates ~/.rhnpushrc upon its initial use.
  • Page 35 Chapter 6. Uploading and Maintaining Custom Packages Option Description Include the RHN username of the user that has -u , --username USERNAME administrative access to the specified channel. If not provided, prompts for the username of a rhnpush valid Channel Administrator. The username and password are cached in for a ~/.rhnpushcache...

  • Page 36: Using The Rhn Push Application

    Chapter 6. Uploading and Maintaining Custom Packages Option Description Push only the packages that are newer than those on --newest the server. Note that source packages are special in that their versions are never compared to each other. Their newness is dependent on their associated binary packages.
  • Page 37 Chapter 6. Uploading and Maintaining Custom Packages 6.2.2. Using the RHN Push application Note It is recommended that you create at least one private channel to receive custom pack- ages prior to upload, since a channel is required for systems to obtain the packages. The following command uploads package headers to the RHN Satellite Server and copies the packages to the RHN Satellite Server package repository: rhnpush -c label_of_private_channel pkg-list...
  • Page 38 Chapter 6. Uploading and Maintaining Custom Packages...

  • Page 39: Index

    Index upload packages to RHN Proxy Server, 25 Manage Errata Channels viewing details, 22 cloning, 19 Managed Channel Details, 14 deleting, 19 managed software channels intro, 3 custom packages, 7 details, 14 building, 7 guidelines, 8 signing, 12 upload to RHN Proxy Server, 25 packages upload to RHN Satellite Server, 29 Solaris and UNIX, 29...
  • Page 40 Software Channel Management, 14 upload packages, 25 website Manage Software Channels, 14 what are benefits of RPM, 7...

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