Red Hat Network Daemon; Configuring; Viewing Status; Disabling - Red Hat NETWORK SATELLITE 5.1.1 Reference Manual

Chapter 3.

Red Hat Network Daemon

The Red Hat Network Daemon (rhnsd) periodically connects to Red Hat Network to check for
updates and notifications. The daemon, which runs in the background, is typically started from the
initialization scripts in /etc/init.d/rhnsd or /etc/rc.d/init.d/rhnsd.
To check for updates, rhnsd runs an external program called rhn_check located in /usr/sbin/.
This is a small application that makes the network connection to RHN. The Red Hat Network Daemon
does not listen on any network ports or talk to the network directly. All network activity is done via the
rhn_check utility.

3.1. Configuring

The Red Hat Network Daemon can be configured by editing the /etc/sysconfig/rhn/rhnsd
configuration file. This is actually the configuration file the rhnsd initialization script uses. The most
important setting offered by the daemon is its check-in frequency. The default interval time is four
hours (240 minutes). If you modify the configuration file, you must (as root) restart the daemon with the
command service rhnsd restart or /etc/rc.d/init.d/rhnsd restart.
Important
The minimum time interval allowed is one hour (60 minutes). If you set the interval
below one hour, it will default to four hours (240 minutes).

3.2. Viewing Status

You can view the status of the rhnsd by typing the command service rhnsd status or /etc/
rc.d/init.d/rhnsd status at a shell prompt.

3.3. Disabling

To disable the daemon, (as root) run the ntsysv utility and uncheck rhnsd. You can also (as root)
execute the command chkconfig rhnsd off. Using these two methods only disables the service
the next time the system is started. To stop the service immediately, use the command service
rhnsd stop or /etc/rc.d/init.d/rhnsd stop.

3.4. Troubleshooting

If you see messages indicating that checkins are not taking place, the RHN client on your system is
not successfully reaching Red Hat Network. Make certain:
• your client is configured correctly.
• your system can communicate with RHN via SSL (port 443). You may test this by running the
following command from a shell prompt:
telnet xmlrpc.rhn.redhat.com 443
• the Red Hat Network Daemon is activated and running. You may ensure this by running the
following commands:
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