Monitoring - Red Hat NETWORK 4.1.0 Reference Manual

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Like Management, Provisioning is based upon an organization. It takes this concept a
step further by enabling customers with Provisioning entitlements to kickstart, reconfig-
ure, track, and revert systems on the fly.
In addition to all of the features mentioned in lower service levels, Provisioning provides:
Kickstarting — Systems with Provisioning entitlements may be re-installed through
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RHN with a whole host of options established in kickstart profiles. Options include
everything from the type of bootloader and time zone to packages included/excluded
and IP address ranges allowed. Even GPG and SSL keys can be pre-configured.
Client Configuration — RHN Satellite Server Customers may use RHN to manage the
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configuration files on Provisioning-entitled systems. Users can upload files to custom
configurations channels on the Satellite, verify local configuration files against those
stored on the Satellite, and deploy files from the Satellite.
Snapshot Rollbacks — Provisioning-level users have the ability to revert the package
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profile and RHN settings of systems. RHN Satellite Server customers can also roll back
local configurations files. This is possible because snapshots are captured whenever an
action takes place on a system. These snapshots identify groups, channels, packages,
and configuration files.
Custom System Information — Provisioning customers may identify any type of in-
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formation they choose about their registered systems. This differs from System Profile
information, which is generated automatically, and the Notes, which are unrestricted, in
that the Custom System Information allows you to develop specific keys of your choos-
ing and assign searchable values for that key to each Provisioning-entitled system. For
instance, this feature allows you to identify the cubicle in which each system is located
and search through all registered systems according to their cubicle.

1.4. Monitoring

Monitoring entitlements are available to RHN Satellite Server customers with Red Hat
Enterprise Linux systems.
Monitoring allows an organization to install probes that can immediately detect failures and
identify performance degradation before it becomes critical. Used properly, the Monitoring
entitlement can provide insight into the applications, services, and devices on each system.
Specifically, Monitoring provides:
Probes — Dozens of probes can be run against each system. These range from simple
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checks to custom remote programs designed to return valuable data.
ping
Notification — Alerts can be sent to email and pager addresses with contact methods
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identified by you when a probe changes state. Each probe notification can be sent to a
different method, or address.
Chapter 1. Red Hat Network Overview