Red Hat NETWORK SATELLITE 5.3.0 - CHANNEL MANAGEMENT User manual

Red Hat Network
Satellite 5.3.0
Installation Guide
Red Hat Network Satellite

Installation Guide
Red Hat Network Satellite 5.3.0 Installation Guide
Red Hat Network Satellite
Edition 2
Copyright © 2010 Red Hat, Inc.
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iii
1. Introduction 1
1.1. Red Hat Network ......................................................................................................... 1
1.2. RHN Satellite ............................................................................................................... 1
1.3. Terms to Understand .................................................................................................... 2
1.4. How it Works ............................................................................................................... 3
1.5. Summary of Steps ....................................................................................................... 4
1.6. Upgrades ..................................................................................................................... 6
1.6.1. Satellite Certificate ............................................................................................. 6
1.6.2. Satellite Upgrade Documentation Package (rhn-upgrade) ................................. 6
1.6.3. New Installation ISO .......................................................................................... 7
2. Requirements 9
2.1. Software Requirements ................................................................................................ 9
2.2. Hardware Requirements ............................................................................................. 10
2.2.1. x86 and x86_64 Hardware Requirements .......................................................... 10
2.2.2. s/390 Hardware Requirements ......................................................................... 11
2.2.3. Additional Requirements .................................................................................. 12
2.3. Database Requirements ............................................................................................. 12
2.4. Additional Requirements ............................................................................................. 14
3. Example Topologies 19
3.1. Single Satellite Topology ............................................................................................. 19
3.2. Multiple Satellite Horizontally Tiered Topology .............................................................. 19
3.3. Satellite-Proxy Vertically Tiered Topology ..................................................................... 20
4. Installation 23
4.1. Base Install ................................................................................................................ 23
4.2. RHN Satellite Installation Program ........................................................................... 23
4.2.1. Options to the Satellite Installation Program ...................................................... 32
4.3. Automated RHN Satellite Server Installation ................................................................. 33
4.4. Sendmail Configuration ............................................................................................... 34
4.5. MySQL Installation ..................................................................................................... 35
5. Entitlements 37
5.1. Receiving the Certificate ............................................................................................. 37
5.2. Uploading the RHN Entitlement Certificate ................................................................... 38
5.3. Managing the RHN Certificate with RHN Satellite Activate .......................................... 38
5.3.1. Command Line Entitlement Options .................................................................. 38
5.3.2. Activating the Satellite ...................................................................................... 39
5.4. Satellite Entitlement Certificate Expiration .................................................................... 39
6. Importing and Synchronizing 41
6.1. Exporting with RHN Satellite Exporter ........................................................................ 41
6.1.1. rhn-satellite-exporter ........................................................................... 41
6.1.2. Exporting ......................................................................................................... 42
6.2. Importing with RHN Satellite Synchronization Tool .................................................... 43
6.2.1. satellite-sync ........................................................................................... 43
6.2.2. Preparing for Import from Local Media .............................................................. 45
6.2.3. Running the Import .......................................................................................... 47
6.3. Synchronizing ............................................................................................................. 48
6.3.1. Synchronizing Errata and Packages Directly via RHN ........................................ 49
6.3.2. Synchronizing Errata and Packages via Local Media .......................................... 49
6.4. Inter-Satellite Sync ..................................................................................................... 50
6.4.1. Recommended Models for Inter-Satellite Sync ................................................... 50

Installation Guide
iv
6.4.2. Configuring the Master RHN Satellite Server ..................................................... 51
6.4.3. Configuring the Slave RHN Satellite Servers ..................................................... 52
6.5. Using Inter-Satellite Sync ............................................................................................ 52
6.5.1. Syncing between a Development Staging Server and a Production Satellite ......... 53
6.5.2. Bi-directional sync ............................................................................................ 53
6.6. Synchronizing by Organization .................................................................................... 53
7. Troubleshooting 55
7.1. Gathering information with spacewalk-report .......................................................... 55
7.2. Log Files .................................................................................................................... 56
7.3. General Problems ...................................................................................................... 57
7.4. Host Not Found/Could Not Determine FQDN ............................................................... 58
7.5. Connection Errors ...................................................................................................... 59
7.6. SELinux Issues .......................................................................................................... 60
7.7. Updated Software Components ................................................................................... 60
7.8. Satellite Debugging by Red Hat .................................................................................. 60
8. Maintenance 63
8.1. Managing the Satellite with rhn-satellite .............................................................. 63
8.2. Updating the Satellite ................................................................................................. 63
8.3. Backing Up the Satellite ............................................................................................. 64
8.4. Using RHN DB Control .............................................................................................. 65
8.4.1. DB Control Options .......................................................................................... 65
8.4.2. Backing up the Database ................................................................................. 66
8.4.3. Verifying the Backup ........................................................................................ 67
8.4.4. Restoring the Database ................................................................................... 67
8.5. Cloning the Satellite with Embedded DB ...................................................................... 68
8.6. Establishing Redundant Satellites with Stand-Alone DB ................................................ 68
8.7. Conducting Satellite-Specific Tasks .............................................................................. 69
8.7.1. Using the Tools menu ..................................................................................... 70
8.7.2. Deleting Users ................................................................................................. 71
8.8. Automating Synchronization ........................................................................................ 72
8.9. Implementing PAM Authentication ............................................................................... 73
8.10. Enabling Push to Clients ........................................................................................... 73
A. Sample RHN Satellite Configuration File 75
B. Revision History 77
Index 79

Chapter 1.
1
Introduction
RHN Satellite provides a solution to organizations requiring absolute control over and privacy of the
maintenance and package deployment of their servers. It allows Red Hat Network customers the
greatest flexibility and power in keeping servers secure and updated.
Two types of RHN Satellite are available: One with a stand-alone database on a separate machine
and one with an embedded database installed on the same machine as the Satellite. This guide
describes the installation of both types of Satellite.
Although the two types of RHN Satellite are functionally similar, some differences do exist. These
variations are primarily isolated to hardware requirements, installation steps, and maintenance
activities. They may also appear during troubleshooting. This guide identifies distinctions between
the Satellite types by marking the differing instructions as either Stand-Alone Database or Embedded
Database.
1.1. Red Hat Network
Red Hat Network (RHN) is the environment for system-level support and management of Red
Hat systems and networks of systems. Red Hat Network brings together the tools, services, and
information repositories needed to maximize the reliability, security, and performance of their systems.
To use RHN, system administrators register the software and hardware profiles, known as System
Profiles, of their client systems with Red Hat Network. When a client system requests package
updates, only the applicable packages for the client are returned (based upon the software profile
stored on the RHN Servers).
Advantages of using Red Hat Network include:
• Scalability — with Red Hat Network, a single system administrator can set up and maintain
hundreds or thousands of Red Hat systems more easily, accurately, and quickly than they could
maintain a single system without Red Hat Network.
• Standard Protocols — standard protocols are used to maintain security and increase capability. For
example, XML-RPC gives Red Hat Network the ability to do much more than merely download files.
• Security — all communication between registered systems and Red Hat Network takes place over
secure Internet connections.
• View Errata Alerts — easily view Errata Alerts for all your client systems through one website.
• Scheduled Actions — use the website to schedule actions, including Errata Updates, package
installs, and software profile updates.
• Simplification — maintaining Red Hat systems becomes a simple, automated process.
1.2. RHN Satellite
RHN Satellite allows organizations to utilize the benefits of Red Hat Network without having to provide
public Internet access to their servers or other client systems. System Profiles are stored locally on the
customer's RHN Satellite. The Red Hat Network website is served from a local Web server and is not
accessible from the Internet. All package management tasks, including Errata Updates, are performed
through the local area network.
Advantages of using RHN Satellite include:

Chapter 1. Introduction
2
• Security — an end-to-end secure connection is maintained from the client systems to the RHN
Satellite without connecting to the public Internet.
• Efficiency — packages are delivered significantly faster over a local area network.
• Control — clients' System Profiles are stored on the local RHN Satellite, not on the central Red Hat
Network Servers.
• Customized updates — create a truly automated package delivery system for custom software
packages required by client systems, as well as Red Hat packages. Custom channels allow fine-
grained control of the delivery of custom packages.
• Access control — system administrators can be restricted to access only those systems within their
maintenance responsibilities.
• Bandwidth management — the bandwidth used for transactions between the clients and the RHN
Satellite is controlled by the organization on the local area network; RHN Satellite clients do not
have to compete with other clients accessing the central Red Hat Network file servers.
• Scalability — RHN Satellite may oversee an entire organization's servers in combination with RHN
Proxy Server.
1.3. Terms to Understand
Before understanding RHN Satellite, it is important to become familiar with the following Red Hat
Network terms:
•Channel — A channel is a list of software packages. There are two types of channels: base
channels and child channels. A base channel consists of a list of packages based on a specific
architecture and Red Hat release. A child channel is a channel associated with a base channel that
contains extra packages.
•Organization Administrator — An Organization Administrator is a user role with the highest level
of control over an organization's Red Hat Network account. Members of this role can add other
users, systems, and system groups to the organization as well as remove them. A Red Hat Network
organization must have at least one Organization Administrator.
•Channel Administrator — A Channel Administrator is a user role with full access to channel
management capabilities. Users with this role are capable of creating channels, assigning packages
to channels, cloning channels, and deleting channels. This role can be assigned by an Organization
Administrator through the Users tab of the RHN website.
•Certificate Authority — A certificate authority distributes digital signatures to users as part of public
key infrastructure for encrypted authentication and communication.
•Red Hat Update Agent — The Red Hat Update Agent is the Red Hat Network client application
that allows users to retrieve and install new or updated packages for the client system on which
the application is run. For Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 users, use the yum command; for Red Hat
Enterprise Linux 4 and lower, use the up2date command.
•
Traceback — A traceback is a detailed description of "what went wrong" that is useful for
troubleshooting the RHN Satellite. Tracebacks are automatically generated when a critical error
occurs and are mailed to the individual(s) designated in the RHN Satellite's configuration file.

How it Works
3
For more detailed explanations of these terms and others, refer to the Red Hat Network Reference
Guide.
1.4. How it Works
RHN Satellite consists of the following components:
• Database — for the Stand-Alone Database, this may be the organization's existing database or,
preferably, a separate machine. RHN Satellite supports Oracle Database 10g Release 2, Standard
or Enterprise Edition. For the Embedded Database, the database comes bundled with RHN Satellite
and is installed on the same machine as the Satellite during the installation process.
•
RHN Satellite — core "business logic" and entry point for Red Hat Update Agent running on client
systems. The RHN Satellite also includes an Apache HTTP Server (serving XML-RPC requests).
• RHN Satellite Web interface — advanced system, system group, user, and channel management
interface.
• RPM Repository — package repository for Red Hat RPM packages and custom RPM packages
identified by the organization.
• Management Tools:
• Database and file system synchronization tools
• RPM importing tools
• Channel maintenance tools (Web-based)
• Errata management tools (Web-based)
• User management tools (Web-based)
• Client system and system grouping tools (Web-based)
•Red Hat Update Agent on the client systems
The Red Hat Update Agent on the client systems must be reconfigured to retrieve updates from the
organization's internal RHN Satellite instead of the central Red Hat Network Servers. After this one-
time reconfiguration, client systems may retrieve updates locally using the Red Hat Update Agent, or
system administrators may schedule actions through the RHN Satellite website.
Important
Red Hat strongly recommends that clients connected to RHN Satellite be running the
latest update of Red Hat Enterprise Linux to ensure proper connectivity.
When a client requests updates, the organization's internal RHN Satellite queries its database,
authenticates the client system, identifies the updated packages available for the client system, and
sends the requested RPMs back to the client system. Depending upon the client's preferences, the
package may also be installed. If the packages are installed, the client system sends an updated
package profile to the database on the RHN Satellite; those packages are removed from the list of
outdated packages for the client.

Chapter 1. Introduction
4
The organization can configure the website for the RHN Satellite to be accessible from the local area
network only or from both the local area network and the Internet. The Satellite's version of the RHN
website allows full control over client systems, system groups, and users.
The RHN Satellite management tools are used to synchronize the RHN Satellite database and
package repository with Red Hat Network. The RHN Satellite import tool allows the system
administrator to include custom RPM packages in the package repository.
RHN Satellite can be used in conjunction with RHN Proxy Server to deliver a distributed, self-
contained Red Hat Network deployment for the organization. For example, an organization can
maintain one RHN Satellite in a secure location. Red Hat systems with local network access to the
RHN Satellite can connect to it. Other remote offices can maintain RHN Proxy Server installations that
connect to the RHN Satellite. The different locations inside the organization must be networked, but
this can be a private network; an Internet connection is not required for any of the systems. Refer to
the RHN Proxy Server Installation Guide for more information.
Figure 1.1. Using RHN Satellite and RHN Proxy Server Together
1.5. Summary of Steps
Implementing a fully functional RHN Satellite requires more than installing software and a database.
Client systems must be configured to use the Satellite. Custom packages and channels should be
created for optimal use. Since these tasks extend beyond the basic installation, they are covered in
detail in other guides, as well as this RHN Satellite Installation Guide. For a full list of the necessary
technical documents, refer to Chapter 2, Requirements.

Summary of Steps
5
For this reason, this section seeks to provide a definitive list of all required and recommended steps,
from evaluation through custom package deployment. They should take place in roughly this order:
1. After an evaluation, you contact your Red Hat sales representative to purchase RHN Satellite.
2. Your Red Hat contact sends you an RHN Entitlement Certificate via email.
3. Your Red Hat contact creates a Satellite-entitled account on the RHN website and sends you the
login information.
4. Log into the RHN website (rhn.redhat.com) and download the distribution ISOs for Red Hat
Enterprise Linux AS 4 or Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 and RHN Satellite. These can be found within
the Downloads tab of the respective Channel Details pages. Refer to the RHN Reference Guide
for instructions.
5. While still logged into the RHN website, download the Channel Content ISOs to be served by your
Satellite, also available through the Downloads tab of your Satellite's Channel Details page.
These Channel Content ISOs differ from the distribution ISOs previously mentioned in that they
contain metadata necessary for parsing and serving packages by Satellite.
6. If installing a Stand-Alone Database, prepare your database instance using the formula provided
in Chapter 2, Requirements.
7. Install Red Hat Enterprise Linux and then RHN Satellite on the Satellite machine.
8. Create the first user account on the Satellite by opening the Satellite's hostname in a Web browser
and clicking Create Account. This will be the Satellite Administrator's (also referred to as the
Organization Administrator) account.
9. Use the RHN Satellite Synchronization Tool to import the channels and associated packages
into the Satellite.
10. Register a representative machine for each distribution type, or channel (such as Red Hat
Enterprise Linux 4 or 5), to the Satellite.
11. Copy (using SCP) the rhn_register and up2date configuration files from the /etc/
sysconfig/rhn/ directory of each machine individually to the /pub/ directory on the Satellite.
The rhn-org-trusted-ssl-cert-*.noarch.rpm will already be there.
12. Download and install from the Satellite the configuration files and rhn-org-trusted-ssl-
cert-*.noarch.rpm on the remaining client systems of the same distribution type. Repeat this
and the previous step until all distribution types are complete.
13. Through the Satellite's website, create an Activation Key for each distribution aligned to
the appropriate base channel. At this point, system groups and child channels may also be
predefined.
14. Run the Activation Key from the command line (rhnreg_ks) of each client system. Note that this
step can be scripted to batch register and reconfigure all remaining client systems in a distribution.
15. Record all relevant usernames, passwords and other login information and store in multiple secure
places.
16. Now that the Satellite is populated with standard Red Hat channels and packages and all clients
are connected to it, you may begin creating and serving custom channels and packages. Once

Chapter 1. Introduction
6
the custom RPMs are developed, you can import them into the Satellite using RHN Push and add
custom channels in which to store them through the Satellite's website. Refer to the RHN Channel
Management Guide for details.
1.6. Upgrades
To upgrade a Satellite from one version to another, the following items are required:
• Satellite Certificate
• Satellite Upgrade Documentation Package (rhn-upgrade)
• New Installation ISO
1.6.1. Satellite Certificate
To obtain a Satellite certificate, visit Red Hat support at http://support.redhat.com.
1.6.2. Satellite Upgrade Documentation Package (rhn-upgrade)
To install the rhn-upgrade package, ensure the satellite is registered to RHN and to the Red
Hat Network Satellite Channel, then using the package updating tool for your version of Red Hat
Enterprise Linux to install the rhn-upgrade package with the following commmand (on Red Hat
Enterprise Linux 5 and above):
yum install rhn-upgrade
For Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 users, run the following command:
up2date rh-upgrade
You may also download the package directly from Red Hat Network by performing the following steps:
1. Log into the RHN Hosted web interface at https://rhn.redhat.com/.
2. Click the Channels tab.
3. Under Filter by Product Channel select Red Hat Network Products, then your current version
of RHN Satellite, and finally your Satellite server's architecture from the drop-down menus.
4. Press the Filter button.
5. Click to expand the Red Hat Enterprise Linux tree for your version of the base operating system.
6. Click the link in the Architecture column corresponding to Red Hat Network Satellite.
7. Click on the Packages subtab.
8. In the Filter by Package text box, type rhn-upgrade and press Go.
9. Click on the latest rhn-upgrade package release for the version of Satellite to which you are
upgrading.

New Installation ISO
7
10. Click the Download Package link.
11. Copy the package to the Satellite server.
12. On the Satellite server run the following command:
rpm -Uvh rhn-upgrade-version.rpm
1.6.3. New Installation ISO
This ISO can be downloaded by performing the following steps:
1. Log into RHN
2. Click on Software Downloads on the left-hand side of the screen
3. Navigate to the version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux you are currently using
4. Click on the latest version of RHN Satellite
5. Then choose if you want the embedded Oracle Database ISO or the non-embedded version
Once you have followed all steps, refer to the instructions for a Satellite upgrade within the /etc/
sysconfig/rhn/satellite-upgrade/README file in the rhn-upgrade package.

8

Chapter 2.
9
Requirements
These requirements must be met before installation.
2.1. Software Requirements
To perform an installation, the following software components must be available:
• Base operating system — RHN Satellite is supported with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 or Red Hat
Enterprise Linux 5. The operating system can be installed from disc, local ISO image, kickstart, or
any of the methods supported by Red Hat, but must provide the @Base package group, as the RHN
Satellite installation program will install the RHN Satellite packages as well as additional Red Hat
Enterprise Linux packages not provided in @Base but are needed for RHN Satellite.
Note
Each purchased RHN Satellite product includes one supported instance of Red Hat
Enterprise Linux Server. RHN Satellite must be installed on a fresh installation of
Enterprise Linux where RHN Satellite is the only application and service provided by
the OS. Using the Red Hat Enterprise Linux OS included with RHN Satellite to run other
daemons, applications, or services within your environment is not supported.
• RHN Satellite supports SELinux targeted policy in enforcing or permissive mode on Red Hat
Enterprise Linux 5.1 or later. SELinux is a set of secure software policies that implement mandatory
access control to Red Hat Enterprise Linux and other operating systems. SELinux is activated
by default on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.1, and now users can have SELinux in enforcing or
permissive mode with the targeted policy set during installation of Proxy or Satellite.
Warning
Security-enhanced Linux (SELinux) on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 must be disabled
or in permissive mode prior to installation of RHN Satellite. To do this during CD or
ISO image installation, select Permissive when presented with options for SELinux
support. To do this for kickstart installation, include the command selinux --
permissive or wait for the install to complete, edit the /etc/selinux/config file to
read SELINUX=permissive and reboot the system.
More in-depth coverage of SELinux is available at http://www.redhat.com/docs/. You
may also refer to the Red Hat Knowledgebase article on SELinux and RHN Satellite at
http://kbase.redhat.com/faq/.
• Satellite installation disc or ISO — this contains the RHN Satellite Installation Program. All
packages required in order to suport the Program are installed automatically, and require no
intervention from the user.
Note
Additional packages beyond @Base are required to install Red Hat Network Satellite. The
Satellite installer will prompt you to either install the listed packages or ask if you want it

Chapter 2. Requirements
10
to download the files from RHN. If your system is not registered to RHN, you should have
the Red Hat Enterprise Linux installation media available during the Satellite installation
process to install these additional packages as needed.
The files necessary for Satellite installation are listed in the rhelrpms file located in the
updates directory on the Satellite installation ISO image.
• Channel content — All software packages and data exported for all entitled Red Hat channels.
This content may be loaded directly on the Satellite after installation using the RHN Satellite
Synchronization Tool or obtained from your Red Hat representative if synchronization is not
possible, such as in a disconnected environment.
When installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS 4 or later from CD or ISO image, there is no need to
select any package groups, only the base install is required. When installing either operating system
via kickstart, select the @ Base package group.
2.2. Hardware Requirements
RHN Satellite supports several hardware architectures. The following table illustrates the architecture
support for RHN Satellite on both Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.
RHEL Version x86 x86_64 s390 s390x
RHEL 4 yes yes yes yes
RHEL 5 yes yes no yes
Table 2.1. RHN Satellite on Red Hat Enterprise Linux Architecture Support
2.2.1. x86 and x86_64 Hardware Requirements
The following table shows the required and recommended hardware configurations on the x86 and
x86_64 platform for the two types of RHN Satellite:
Stand-Alone Database Embedded Database
Required - Intel Core processor, 2.4GHz, 512K
cache or equivalent
Required - Intel Core processor, 2.4GHz, 512K
cache or equivalent
Recommended - Intel multi-core processor,
2.4GHz dual processor, 512K cache or
equivalent
Recommended - Intel multi-core processor,
2.4GHz dual processor, 512K cache or
equivalent
Required - 2 GB of memory Required - 2 GB of memory
Recommended - 8 GB of memory Strongly recommended - 8 GB of memory
5 GB storage for base install of Red Hat
Enterprise Linux
5 GB storage for base install of Red Hat
Enterprise Linux
At least 30 GB storage per software channel
(including Base and child channels), in /var/
satellite/, configurable at install
At least 30 GB storage per software channel
(including Base and child channels), in /var/
satellite/, configurable at install
Recommended - an external SAN for more
reliable backups
Recommended - an external SAN for more
reliable backups
12 GB storage for the database repository, in the
/rhnsat partition (local storage only)

s/390 Hardware Requirements
11
Stand-Alone Database Embedded Database
Strongly recommended - a SCSI drive connected
to a level 5 RAID
Separate partition (or better, a separate set of
physical disks) for storing backups. This can be
any directory specifiable at backup time.
Table 2.2. Stand-Alone Database and Embedded Database Satellite Hardware Requirements
The following hardware configuration is required for the Stand-Alone Database:
• Two processors
• 2 GB of memory
See Section 2.3, “Database Requirements” for instructions on estimating the tablespace of the
database and setting its environment variables.
Keep in mind, the frequency with which client systems connect to the Satellite is directly related to
load on the Apache Web server and the database. Reducing the default interval of four hours (or
240 minutes) as set in the /etc/sysconfig/rhn/rhnsd configuration file of the client systems
significantly increases the load on those components.
2.2.2. s/390 Hardware Requirements
For the s/390 mainframe platform, the following table shows the requirements and recommended
configurations for both standalone and embedded databases.
Stand-Alone Database Embedded Database
Required - 1 IFL, either in LPAR configuration or
shared through z/VM
Required - 1 IFL, either in LPAR configuration or
shared through z/VM
Recommended - 2+ IFLs on z9 or earlier, 1+ IFL
on z10
Recommended - 2+ IFLs on z9 or earlier, 1+ IFL
on z10
Required - 2 GB of storage (memory) Required - 2 GB of storage (memory)
Recommended - 8 GB of memory Recommended - 8 GB of memory
Required - 1 GB swap on ECKD DASD Required - 1 GB swap on ECKD DASD
Recommended - 512 MB swap on VDISK + 1 GB
swap on ECKD DASD
Recommended - 512 MB swap on VDISK + 1 GB
swap on ECKD DASD
Required - 1xMod3 ECKD DASD or ≥ 2 GB FCP
SCSI LUN for OS install
Required - 1xMod3 ECKD DASD or ≥ 2 GB FCP
SCSI LUN for OS install
Recommended - 1xMod9 ECKD DASD or ≥ 2
GB multipathed FCP SCSI LUN for Red Hat
Enterprise Linux installation
Recommended - 1xMod9 ECKD DASD or ≥ 2
GB multipathed FCP SCSI LUN for Red Hat
Enterprise Linux installation
Estimated 12 GB disk space for embedded
database
At least 30 GB storage per software channel
(including Base and child channels), in /var/
satellite/, configurable at install
At least 30 GB storage per software channel
(including Base and child channels), in /var/
satellite/, configurable at install
Recommended - z/VM 5.3 or later1Recommended - z/VM 5.3 or later

Chapter 2. Requirements
12
Stand-Alone Database Embedded Database
Recommended - VSWITCH or Hipersocket LAN
for high speed connections to guests
Recommended - VSWITCH or Hipersocket LAN
for high speed connections to guests
z/VM required for kickstart/provisioning of guests.
Table 2.3. Stand-Alone Database and Embedded Database Satellite Hardware Requirements for
s/390 Platform
2.2.3. Additional Requirements
Additional hardware requirements include:
• The Stand-Alone Database must not run on the same server as the RHN Satellite.
• The package repository may be any large storage device easily and securely accessed by the
other components. The space requirements depend on the number of packages that will be stored.
Default Red Hat channels contain approximately 3 GB of packages each, and that size grows with
each synchronization; customers must also account for the space requirements of packages in their
own private channels. Whatever storage solution the customer chooses, its mount point may be
defined during the installation process.
If you are installing RHN Satellite with Embedded Database, skip to Section 2.4, “Additional
Requirements”.
2.3. Database Requirements
This section applies only to RHN Satellite with Stand-Alone Database as the requirements for the
Embedded Database are included in the Satellite machine's hardware requirements. Red Hat supports
RHN Satellite 5.2.0 installations in conjunction with Oracle Database 10g Release 2, Standard or
Enterprise Edition. The Stand-Alone Database must not run on the same server as the RHN Satellite.
A single 6 GB tablespace is recommended as more than sufficient for most installations. It is
possible for many customers to function with a smaller tablespace. An experienced Oracle database
administrator (DBA) will be necessary to assess sizing issues. The following formula should be used to
determine the required size of your database:
• 192 KB per client system
• 64 MB per channel
For instance, an RHN Satellite containing 10 channels serving 10,000 systems would require 1.92 GB
for its clients and 640 MB for its channels. If custom channels are to be established for testing and
staging of packages, they must be included in this formula.
Keep in mind, the database storage needs may grow rapidly, depending upon the variance of the
following factors:
• The number of public Red Hat packages imported (typical: 5000)
• The number of private packages to be managed (typical: 500)
• The number of systems to be managed (typical: 1000)
• The number of packages installed on the average system (typical: 500)

Database Requirements
13
Although you should be generous in your database sizing estimates, you must consider that size
affects the time to conduct backups and adds load to other system resources. If the database is
shared, its hardware and spacing are entirely dependent on what else is using it.
Additionally, block sizes must be a minimum of 8 KB for RHN Satellite to install properly.
The Oracle database should have a user assigned to RHN Satellite with full DDL and DML access to
that user's default tablespace. The user needs standard connection information for the database at the
time of installation.
The precise access levels required by the Oracle user are as follows:
• ALTER SESSION
• CREATE SEQUENCE
• CREATE SYNONYM
• CREATE TABLE
• CREATE VIEW
• CREATE PROCEDURE
• CREATE TRIGGER
• CREATE TYPE
• CREATE SESSION
Additional database requirements include:
• Security Identifier (SID)
• Listener Port
• Username
• UTF-8 character set
Two additional suggested recommendation for user's default tablespace include:
• Uniform Extent Size
• Auto Segment Space Management
Note
Ensure that the NLS/charset setting is set to "UTF8"' when using an external database,
not 'AL32UTF8' or other charsets. Using other charsets may lead to problems later.
The disk layout on the database machine is independent of the RHN Satellite and entirely up to the
customer.

Chapter 2. Requirements
14
2.4. Additional Requirements
The following additional requirements must be met before the RHN Satellite installation:
• Full Access
Client systems need full network access to the RHN Satellite solution's services and ports.
•
Firewall Rules
RHN strongly recommends firewalling the RHN Satellite solution from the Internet. However, various
TCP ports must be opened on the Satellite, depending on your implementation of RHN Satellite:
Port Direction Reason
67 Inbound Open this port to configure the Satellite
system as a DHCP server for systems
requesting IP addresses.
69 Inbound Open this port to configure Satellite as a
PXE server and allow installation and re-
installation of PXE-boot enabled systems.
80 Outbound Satellite uses this port to reach
rhn.redhat.com1, xmlrpc.rhn.redhat.com2
and satellite.rhn.redhat.com3(unless
running in a disconnected mode for
Satellite)
80 Inbound WebUI and client requests come in via
either http or https
443 Inbound WebUI and client requests come in via
either http or https
443 Outbound To reach rhn.redhat.com4,
xmlrpc.rhn.redhat.com5 and
satellite.rhn.redhat.com6(unless running in
a disconnected mode for Satellite)
4545 Outbound RHN Satellite Monitoring makes
connections to rhnmd running on client
systems, if Monitoring is enabled and
probes are configured for registered
systems.
5222 Inbound If you plan to push actions to client
systems
5269 Inbound If you push actions to an RHN Proxy
Server
Table 2.4. Ports to open on the Satellite
•
Synchronized System Times
There is great time sensitivity when connecting to a Web server running SSL (Secure Sockets
Layer); it is imperative that the time settings on the clients and server be reasonably close together

Additional Requirements
15
so the SSL certificate does not expire before or during use. For this reason, Red Hat requires
the Satellite and all client systems to use Network Time Protocol (NTP). This also applies to the
separate database machine in RHN Satellite with Stand-Alone Database, which must also be set to
the same time zone as the Satellite.
•
Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN)
The system upon which the RHN Satellite will be installed must resolve its own FQDN properly. If
this is not the case, cookies will not work properly on the website.
Note
It is important that the hostname of a Satellite contains no uppercase letters. A
hostname that includes uppercase letters can cause jabberd to fail.
Changing your hostname after installing Satellite is a complex process that is not
recommended.
•
Functioning Domain Name Service (DNS)
For the RHN Satellite's domain name to be resolved by its clients, it and they must all be linked to a
working DNS server in the customer environment.
•
An Entitlement Certificate
The customer will receive, via email from the sales representative, a signed Entitlement Certificate
explaining the services provided by Red Hat through RHN Satellite. This certificate will be required
during the installation process.
If you do not have an Entitlement Certificate at installation time, contact Red Hat Global Support
Services at:
https://www.redhat.com/apps/support/
• A Red Hat Network Account
Customers who connect to the central Red Hat Network Servers to receive incremental updates
must have an external account with Red Hat Network. This account should be set up at the time of
purchase with the sales representative.
Warning
Do not subscribe your RHN Satellite to any of the following child channels available on
RHN Hosted:
• Red Hat Developer Suite
• Red Hat Application Server
• Red Hat Extras

Chapter 2. Requirements
16
Subscribing to these channels and updating your Satellite (such as by running yum on
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 or up2date or earlier versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux)
may install newer, incompatible versions of critical software components, causing the
Satellite to fail.
• Backups of Login Information
It is imperative that customers keep track of all primary login information. For RHN Satellite, this
includes usernames and passwords for the Organization Administrator account on rhn.redhat.com,
the primary administrator account on the Satellite itself, SSL certificate generation, and database
connection (which also requires a SID, or net service name). Red Hat strongly recommends this
information be copied onto two separate floppy disks, printed out on paper, and stored in a fireproof
safe.
In addition to these requirements, it is recommended that the RHN Satellite be configured in the
following manner:
• The entire RHN Satellite solution should be protected by a firewall if the Satellite accesses or is
accessed via the Internet. An Internet connection is not required for RHN Satellites running in
completely disconnected environments. This feature instead uses Channel Content ISOs that can
be downloaded to a separate system to synchronize the Satellite with the central Red Hat Network
Servers. All other RHN Satellites should be synchronized directly over the Internet.
Note
If you are running a disconnected Satellite that is not registered to RHN Hosted the
installation program will note and return a list of any missing additional packages
needed beyond @base to be installed, then the installation program will exit. This allows
you to install those packages. You may want to use the installation ISO image or DVD
media to create a repository for those additional packages, and then rerun the Satellite
installer.
• All unnecessary ports should be firewalled off. Client systems connect to RHN Satellite over ports
80, 443, and 4545 (if Monitoring is enabled). In addition, if you plan to enable the pushing of actions
from the Satellite to client systems, as described in Section 8.10, “Enabling Push to Clients”, you
must allow inbound connections on port 5222. Finally, if the Satellite will also push to an RHN Proxy
Server, you must also allow inbound connections on port 5269.
• No system components should be directly, publicly available. No user other than the system
administrators should have shell access to these machines.
•
All unnecessary services should be disabled using ntsysv or chkconfig.
•
The httpd service should be enabled.
•
If the Satellite serves Monitoring-entitled systems and you wish to acknowledge via email the
alert notifications you receive, you must configure sendmail to properly handle incoming mail as
described in Section 4.4, “Sendmail Configuration”.