Before You Begin - Red Hat NETWORK 4.0.5 Reference Manual

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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. The file is only readable by the root user on the client system.
3. Red Hat signs all communications with an electronic signature using GPG. RPM can
be used to verify the authenticity of the package before it is installed.
4. Red Hat encrypts all transactions using a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) connection.
5. The Red Hat Quality Assurance Team tests and verifies all packages before they are
added to the Red Hat Errata list and Red Hat Network.

1.7. Before You Begin

By default, all software packages necessary to access Red Hat Network are installed with
Red Hat Enterprise Linux distributions. However, if you chose not to install them during
the installation process, you must obtain the Red Hat Update Agent (
sibly the Red Hat Network Registration Client (
Linux 3 and later, registration functionality is built into the Red Hat Update Agent, while
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1 users will need the Red Hat Network Registration Client.
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 ver-
ification errors. You may view and obtain the versions of these applications containing
new certificates at the RHN Client Software page. In the RHN website, click Help at the
top-right corner, Get RHN Software in the left navigation bar, and scroll down to examine
the packages and versions.
To determine the versions of the client applications installed, run the
lowed by the package name. For instance, for the Red Hat Network Registration Client,
type the following command:
rpm -q rhn_register
If the Red Hat Network Registration Client is installed, it will return something similar
to:
rhn_register-2.9.3-1
Chapter 1. Red Hat Network Overview
). In Red Hat Enterprise
rhn_register
) and pos-
up2date
command fol-
rpm -q