Red Hat Network Overview - Red Hat NETWORK 4.1.0 Reference Manual

Red Hat Network Overview

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 an unknown site?
Have you ever tried to find an RPM but instead found only source files that you had to
compile yourself?
Have you ever spent hours or even days visiting different websites to see if you have the
latest packages installed on your system, only to have to do it again in a few months?
Those days are over with Red Hat Network (RHN). RHN provides the solution to all your
system software management needs.
Red Hat Network is an Internet solution for managing a single Red Hat Enterprise Linux
system or a network of Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems. All Security Alerts, Bug Fix
Alerts, and Enhancement Alerts (collectively known as Errata Alerts) can be downloaded
directly from Red Hat or your own custom collection. You can even schedule updates for
delivery to your system immediately after release.
The main components of Red Hat Network are as follows:
the Red Hat Update Agent
•
the Red Hat Network website, whether this is hosted by the central RHN Servers, an
•
RHN Satellite Server, or fed through an RHN Proxy Server
Red Hat Network Daemon
•
the Red Hat Network Registration Client - for systems running Red Hat Enterprise
•
Linux 2.1 only.
The Red Hat Update Agent (
work. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 and newer systems use the Red Hat Update Agent to
register with RHN. Registration involves creating a unique RHN username and password,
probing the hardware on your system to create a Hardware Profile, and probing the soft-
ware packages installed on your system to create a Package Profile. This information is
sent to RHN and RHN returns a unique System ID to your system. Once registered, the
Red Hat Update Agent enables channel subscription, package installs, and management of
System Profiles. See Chapter 2 Red Hat Update Agent for further information.
The Red Hat Update Agent, as the base component of RHN, is designed to manage a
single system. It allows the system's superuser to view and apply Errata to the system. The
RHN web interface facilitates the management, monitoring, and provisioning of a large
) provides your initial connection to Red Hat Net-
up2date
Chapter 1.