Red Hat NETWORK 4.1.0 -, Manual

Page 1: ...Red Hat Network 4 1 0 Channel Management Guide ...

Page 2: ...vailable at http www opencontent org openpub Distribution of substantively modified versions of this document is prohibited without the explicit permission of the copyright holder Distribution of the work or derivative of the work in any standard paper book form for commercial purposes is prohibited unless prior permission is obtained from the copyright holder Red Hat and the Red Hat Shadow Man lo...

Page 3: ... 4 3 Managed Software Channel Details 14 4 4 Manage Software Packages 16 4 5 Creating a Software Channel 17 4 6 Assigning Packages to Software Channels 18 4 7 Cloning Software Channels 18 4 8 Deleting Software Channels 19 5 Custom Errata Management 21 5 1 Manage Errata 21 5 1 1 Published Errata 21 5 1 2 Unpublished Errata 21 5 2 Managed Errata Details 22 5 3 Creating and Editing Errata 22 5 4 Assi...

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Page 5: ... to the Red Hat Network 4 1 0 Satellite Installation Guide and the Red Hat Network 4 1 0 Proxy Installation Guide for details as well as the Red Hat Network Client Configuration Guide 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 S...

Page 6: ...2 Chapter 1 Introduction ...

Page 7: ...gned to the base channel that corresponds to the system s version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux Once a system is regis tered its default base channel may be changed to a private base channel on a per system basis via the RHN website Alternately you can have activation keys associated with a custom channel so that systems registering with those keys are automatically associated with the custom channe...

Page 8: ... Red Hat Network Website chapter of the RHN Reference Guide 2 3 Channel Availability There are many channels in Red Hat Network Some are available to all users some are available to users in a particular organization and some are available only if you have purchased access to them Channels fall into these main categories Paid Service Channels These channels are available if you who have purchased ...

Page 9: ...as a corresponding package repository Both RHN Package Manager and RHN Push require the creation of a temporary staging directory for placement of custom packages that are uploaded to the Proxy or Satellite You need to delete these staging directories after use Tip Red Hat recommends archiving your custom packages externally from Red Hat Network If you are using both RHN Proxy Server and RHN Satel...

Page 10: ...6 Chapter 2 Introduction to RHN Channels ...

Page 11: ... a tool that provides users with a simple method for installing uninstalling upgrad ing and verifying software packages It also allows software developers to package the source code and compiled versions of a program for end users and developers 3 1 1 RPM Benefits RPM provides the following advantages Easy Upgrades Using RPM you upgrade individual components of a system without completely re insta...

Page 12: ...defaults and changes made to get the software to build properly are easily visible using this technique Keeping sources pristine may seem important only to developers but it results in higher quality software for end users as well 3 1 2 RHN RPM Guidelines The strength of RPM lies in its ability to define dependencies and identify conflicts accu rately Red Hat Network relies on this aspect of RPM R...

Page 13: ...void ambiguities 7 No RPM package may obsolete itself 8 If a package is split into separate packages be extremely careful with the depen dencies Do not split an existing package unless there is a compelling reason to do so 9 No package may rely upon interactive pre install post install pre uninstall or post uninstall scripts If the package requires direct user intervention during installation it c...

Page 14: ...ur passphrase you want to generate the keypair as root The root user can lock memory pages which means the information is never written to disk After executing the command to generate a keypair you see an introductory screen con taining key options similar to the following gpg GnuPG 1 2 6 Copyright C 2004 Free Software Foundation Inc This program comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY This is free soft...

Page 15: ...Mix your passphrase with uppercase and lowercase letters use numbers and or include punctuation marks Once you enter and verify your passphrase your keys are generated A message similar to the following appears We need to generate a lot of random bytes It is a good idea to perform some other action type on the keyboard move the mouse utilize the disks during the prime generation this gives the ran...

Page 16: ... need to configure your rpmmacros file to include the following _signature gpg _gpg_name B7085C8A Replace the _gpg_name key ID value of B7085C8A with the key ID from your GPG keyring that you use to sign packages This value tells RPM which signature to use To sign the package package name 1 0 1 noarch rpm use the following com mand rpm resign package name 1 0 1 noarch rpm Enter your passphrase To ...

Page 17: ... might be development or staging servers not live pro duction systems These temporary channels are then deleted using the steps described in Section 4 8 Deleting Software Channels 4 1 Channel Management Privileges In order to perform any channel management tasks users must have obtained the proper permissions as a Channel Administrator These permissions can be modified through the Red Hat Network ...

Page 18: ...a channel name opens the Details tab while clicking its number of packages opens the List Remove subtab of the Packages tab Refer to Section 4 3 Managed Software Channel Details for a full explana tion of these areas 4 3 Managed Software Channel Details Virtually all custom channel management tasks are carried out within the Managed Soft ware Channel Details page accessed by clicking Manage Softwa...

Page 19: ... their checkboxes and click Remove Errata on the bottom right hand cor ner of the page A confirmation page appears listing the errata to be removed Click Confirm to complete the action Add Enables the addition of errata to the channel All of the errata potentially applicable to the channel are listed To add errata to the channel select the appropriate checkboxes and click Add Errata Refer to Chapt...

Page 20: ...urrently associated with the custom channel and provides a means to cancel that association To remove packages from the channel select their checkboxes and click Remove Packages on the bottom right hand corner of the page A confirmation page appears with the packages to be removed listed Click Confirm to complete the action Important This list differs from the package list available through the st...

Page 21: ...tored on the RHN Proxy Server its custom packages cannot be downloaded through the RHN website although they are listed They must be retrieved by the client system using up2date Since the RHN Satellite Server provides its own website its custom packages are accessible via HTTP or Red Hat Update Agent To obtain custom packages the client system must be subscribed to the channel containing the packa...

Page 22: ...on the left navigation bar In the Software Channel Management page click the name of the channel to receive packages In the Managed Software Channel Details page click the Packages tab and then the Add subtab To associate packages with the channel being edited select the option now containing the packages from the View dropdown menu and click View Packages already associated with the channel being...

Page 23: ...ing the radio buttons within the Clone field identify the target channel using the Clone From dropdown menu and click Create Channel On the New Software Channel page complete the fields as described in Section 4 5 Creating a Software Channel The default values often suffice When satisfied click Create Channel If you selected either the original or current option you are directed to the Details tab...

Page 24: ...a 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: ...llite Server you must manage er rata only on the Satellite since the Proxy servers receive updates directly from it Manag ing errata on a Proxy in this combined configuration risks putting your servers out of sync Clicking on an advisory within the Errata Management list takes you to the Details tab of the Managed Errata Details page Refer to Section 5 2 Managed Errata Details for a full explanati...

Page 26: ...and type related product bugs description solution keywords references and notes To change any of this in formation make your modifications in the appropriate fields and click Update Errata Channels Shows the channels associated with the selected errata To change these as sociations select or deselect the appropriate checkboxes and click the Update Channels button Packages Enables you to manage th...

Page 27: ...ck its advisory in the Errata Management page make your changes in the appropriate fields of the Details tab and click the Update Errata button Click on the Channels tab to alter the errata s channel association Click on the Packages tab to view and modify its packages To delete errata select their checkboxes in the Errata Management page click the Delete Errata button and confirm the action Note ...

Page 28: ...ediately at the top of the page 5 5 Cloning Errata You may clone errata for easy replication and distribution as part of RHN Satellite Server Only errata potentially applicable to one of your channels can be cloned Errata can be ap plicable to a channel if that channel was cloned from a channel to which the errata applies To access this functionality click Errata on the top navigation bar then Clo...

Page 29: ...sh The Proxy Satellite combination requires custom packages and channels be uploaded to the Satellite only From there the Proxy servers obtain the packages and distribute them to client systems 6 1 Uploading Packages to RHN Proxy Server RHN Package Manager allows an organization to serve custom packages associated with a private RHN channel through the RHN Proxy Server If you want the RHN Proxy Se...

Page 30: ...created to receive these packages Be sure you use the precise channel label specified during its creation If you have one or more channels specified using c or channel the uploaded package headers are linked to all the channels identified If you do not specify a channel the pack ages are deposited in the No Channels section of the Package Management page Re fer to Section 4 6 Assigning Packages to...

Page 31: ...argument into the specified channel without uploading to the Satellite This is useful when a channel on a RHN Proxy Server is missing a package and you don t want to reimport all of the packages in the channel rhn_package_manager c channel name copyonly path to missing file You can also use RHN Package Manager to retrieve a list of packages in a channel as they are stored by the RHN Server rhn_pac...

Page 32: ...packages and does not require an associated binary package to be uploaded first source Upload the indicated source packages Doing this treats them as plain stand alone packages and not as special source packages associated with another pre existing binary package For example you can use this when you want to distribute application source to developers and testers outside of regular source control ...

Page 33: ...f you want the RHN Satellite Server to serve only official Red Hat Enterprise Linux packages you do not need to install RHN Push To use RHN Push install the rhnpush package and its dependencies This package is available to registered RHN Satellite Server systems and is installed by running up2date rhnpush RHN Push uploads RPM header information to the RHN Satellite Server database and places the R...

Page 34: ... the software channel to be populated the home directory configuration file to include the username to be invoked and the central configuration file to identify the server to receive the packages Table 6 2 contains all command line options for the rhnpush command Option Description v verbose Increase verbosity option can be used multiple times that is vv vvv and so forth d dir DIRECTORY Process pa...

Page 35: ...hnpush prompts for the password of a valid Channel Administrator The username and password are cached in rhnpushcache for a limited time five minutes being the default Use new cache to force a new username and password s stdin Read package list from standard input for example from a piped ls command X exclude GLOB Exclude packages that match this glob expression force Force upload of a package eve...

Page 36: ...es not require an associated binary package to be uploaded first header Upload only the headers source Upload the indicated source packages Doing this treats them as plain stand alone packages and not as special source packages associated with another pre existing binary package For example you can use this when you want to distribute application source to developers and testers outside of regular...

Page 37: ...hese packages Be sure you use the precise channel label specified during its creation If you have one or more channels specified using c or channel the uploaded package headers are linked to all the channels identified If you do not specify a channel the pack ages are deposited in the No Channels section of the Package Management page Re fer to Section 4 6 Assigning Packages to Software Channels f...

Page 38: ...34 Chapter 6 Uploading and Maintaining Custom Packages ...

Page 39: ...kages 29 generate a GnuPG key 10 retrieve channel package list 27 upload packages to RHN Proxy Server 25 M Manage Errata viewing details 22 Managed Channel Details 14 managed software channels details 14 P packages Solaris and UNIX 29 R RHN Package Manager 25 channels specifying 26 configuration file 26 configuring 26 copy missing packages to Satellite 27 installing 25 retrieve channel package lis...

Page 40: ...36 S Software Channel Management 14 U upload packages 25 W website Manage Software Channels 14 what are benefits of RPM 7 ...