Red Hat NETWORK PROXY 5.3.0 - User manual

Red Hat Network
Satellite 5.3.0
Proxy Installation Guide
Red Hat Network Satellite

Proxy Installation Guide
Red Hat Network Satellite 5.3.0 Proxy Installation Guide
Red Hat Network Satellite
Edition 2
Copyright © 2010 Red Hat, Inc.
The text of and illustrations in this document are licensed by Red Hat under a Creative Commons
Attribution–Share Alike 3.0 Unported license ("CC-BY-SA"). An explanation of CC-BY-SA is available
at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/. In accordance with CC-BY-SA, if you distribute this
document or an adaptation of it, you must provide the URL for the original version.
Red Hat, as the licensor of this document, waives the right to enforce, and agrees not to assert,
Section 4d of CC-BY-SA to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law.
Red Hat, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the Shadowman logo, JBoss, MetaMatrix, Fedora, the Infinity
Logo, and RHCE are trademarks of Red Hat, Inc., registered in the United States and other countries.
Linux® is the registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States and other countries.
All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
1801 Varsity Drive
Raleigh, NC 27606-2072 USA
Phone: [phone]
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
PO Box 13588 Research Triangle Park, NC 27709 USA

iii
1. Introduction 1
1.1. Red Hat Network ......................................................................................................... 1
1.2. RHN Proxy Server ....................................................................................................... 1
1.3. Terms to Understand .................................................................................................... 2
1.4. How it Works ............................................................................................................... 3
2. Requirements 5
2.1. Software Requirements ................................................................................................ 5
2.2. Hardware Requirements ............................................................................................... 6
2.3. Disk Space Requirements ............................................................................................ 6
2.4. Additional Requirements ............................................................................................... 7
3. Example Topologies 9
3.1. Single Proxy Topology .................................................................................................. 9
3.2. Multiple Proxy Horizontally Tiered Topology ................................................................... 9
3.3. Multiple Proxy Vertically Tiered Topology ..................................................................... 10
3.4. Proxies with RHN Satellite Server ............................................................................... 11
4. Installation 13
4.1. Base Install ................................................................................................................ 13
4.2. RHN Proxy Server Installation Process ........................................................................ 13
4.2.1. The Answer File .............................................................................................. 16
5. RHN Package Manager 19
5.1. Creating a Private Channel ......................................................................................... 19
5.2. Uploading Packages ................................................................................................... 19
5.3. Command Line Options .............................................................................................. 20
6. Troubleshooting 23
6.1. Managing the Proxy Service ....................................................................................... 23
6.2. Log Files .................................................................................................................... 23
6.3. Questions and Answers .............................................................................................. 23
6.4. General Problems ...................................................................................................... 24
6.5. Host Not Found/Could Not Determine FQDN ............................................................... 25
6.6. Connection Errors ...................................................................................................... 25
6.7. Caching Issues .......................................................................................................... 26
6.8. Proxy Debugging by Red Hat ..................................................................................... 27
A. RHN Proxy Server Installation via Satellite Website 29
B. Sample RHN Proxy Server Configuration File 39
C. Revision History 41
Index 43

iv

Chapter 1.
1
Introduction
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 Proxy Server
An RHN Proxy Server is a package-caching mechanism that reduces the bandwidth requirements
for RHN and enables custom package deployment. Proxy customers cache RPMs, such as Errata
Updates from Red Hat or custom RPMs generated by their organization, on an internal, centrally-
located server. Client systems then receive these updates from the Proxy rather than by accessing the
Internet individually.
Although the packages are served by the Proxy, clients' System Profiles and user information are
stored on the secure, central RHN Servers1, which also serve the RHN website (rhn.redhat.com). The
Proxy acts as a go-between for client systems and Red Hat Network (or an RHN Satellite Server).
Only the package files are stored on the RHN Proxy Server. Every transaction is authenticated, and
the Red Hat Update Agent checks the GPG signature of each package retrieved from the local RHN
Proxy Server.
In addition to storing official Red Hat packages, the RHN Proxy Server can be configured to deliver an
organization's own custom packages from private RHN channels, using the RHN Package Manager.
For instance, an organization could develop its own software, package it in an RPM, sign it with its
Throughout this document, "RHN" may refer to either RHN's Hosted site (http://rhn.redhat.com) or an RHN Satellite Server.

Chapter 1. Introduction
2
own GPG signature, and have the local RHN Proxy Server update all of the individual systems in the
network with the latest versions of the custom software.
Advantages of using RHN Proxy Server include:
• Scalability — there can be multiple local RHN Proxy Servers within one organization.
• Security — an end-to-end secure connection is maintained: from the client systems, to the local
RHN Proxy Server, to the Red Hat Network servers.
• Saves time — packages are delivered significantly faster over a local area network than the Internet.
• Saves bandwidth — packages are downloaded from RHN only once (per local Proxy Server's
caching mechanism) instead of downloading each package to each client system.
• Customized updates — create a truly automated package delivery system for custom software
packages, as well as official Red Hat packages required for the client systems. Custom private RHN
channels allow an organization to automate delivery of in-house packages.
• Customized configuration — restrict or grant updates to specific architectures and OS versions.
• Only one Internet connection required — Because clients connect only to the RHN Proxy Server
and not the Internet, they require only a Local Area Network connection to the Proxy. Only the RHN
Proxy Server needs an Internet connection to contact the RHN Servers, unless the RHN Proxy
Server is using a RHN Satellite Server, in which case only the RHN Satellite Server requires an
Internet connection.
1.3. Terms to Understand
Before understanding RHN Proxy Server, 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 with this role can add other users, other 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 and assigning packages to channels. This role can
be assigned by an Organization Administrator through the Users tab of the RHN website.
Red Hat Update Agent
The Red Hat Update Agent is the Red Hat Network client application (up2date or yum) that
allows users to retrieve and install new or updated packages for the client system on which the
application is run.

How it Works
3
Traceback
A traceback is a detailed description of "what went wrong" that is useful for troubleshooting the
RHN Proxy Server. Tracebacks are automatically generated when a critical error occurs and are
emailed to the individual(s) designated in the RHN Proxy Server's configuration file.
For more detailed explanations of these terms and others, refer to the Red Hat Network Reference
Guide available at http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/satellite/ and the Help page on the Satellite
Web user interface.
1.4. How it Works
The Red Hat Update Agent or Package Updater on the client systems does not directly contact a
Red Hat Network Server. Instead, the client (or clients) connects in turn to an RHN Proxy Server that
connects to the Red Hat Network Servers or to a RHN Satellite Server. Thus, the client systems do not
need direct access to the Internet. They need access only to the RHN Proxy Server.
Important
Red Hat strongly recommends that clients connected to an RHN Proxy Server be running
the latest update of Red Hat Enterprise Linux to ensure proper connectivity.
Clients that access RHN directly are authenticated by the RHN servers. Clients that access an
RHN Proxy Server are still authenticated by RHN; however, in this case the Proxy provides both
authentication and route information to RHN. After a successful authentication, the Red Hat Network
Server informs the RHN Proxy Server that it is permitted to execute a specific action for the client. The
RHN Proxy Server downloads all of the updated packages (if they are not already present in its cache)
and delivers them to the client system.
Requests from the Red Hat Update Agent or Package Updater on the client systems are still
authenticated on the server side, but package delivery is significantly faster since the packages are
cached in the HTTP Proxy Caching Server or the RHN Proxy Server (for local packages); the RHN
Proxy Server and client system are connected via the LAN and are limited only by the speed of the
local network.
Authentication is done in the following order:
1. The client performs a login action at the beginning of a client session. This login is passed through
one or more RHN Proxy Servers until it reaches a Red Hat Network Server.
2. The Red Hat Network Server attempts to authenticate the client. If authentication is successful,
the server then passes back a session token via the chain of RHN Proxy Servers. This token,
which has a signature and expiration, contains user information, including channel subscriptions,
username, etc.
3. Each RHN Proxy Server caches this token on its local file system in /var/cache/rhn/. Caching
reduces some of the overhead of authenticating with Red Hat Network Servers and greatly
improves the performance of Red Hat Network.
4. This session token is passed back to the client machine and is used in subsequent actions on Red
Hat Network.
From the client's point of view, there is no difference between an RHN Proxy Server and a Red Hat
Network Server. From the Red Hat Network Server's point of view, an RHN Proxy Server is a special

Chapter 1. Introduction
4
type of RHN client. Clients are thus not affected by the route a request takes to reach a Red Hat
Network Server. All the logic is implemented in the RHN Proxy Servers and Red Hat Network Servers.
Optionally, the RHN Package Manager can be installed and configured to serve custom packages.
Any package that is not an official Red Hat package, including custom packages written specifically
for an organization, can only be served from a private software channel (also referred to as a custom
software channel). After creating a private RHN channel, the custom RPM packages are associated
with that channel by uploading the package headers to the RHN Servers. Only the headers are
uploaded, not the actual package files. The headers are required because they contain crucial RPM
information, such as software dependencies, that allows RHN to automate package installation. The
actual custom RPM packages are stored on the RHN Proxy Server and sent to the client systems from
inside the organization's local area network.
Configuring a computer network to use RHN Proxy Servers is straightforward. The Red Hat Network
applications on the client systems must be configured to connect to the RHN Proxy Server instead of
the Red Hat Network Servers. Refer to the RHN Client Configuration Guide for details. On the proxy
side, one has to specify the next proxy in the chain (which eventually ends with a Red Hat Network
Server). If the RHN Package Manager is used, the client systems must be subscribed to the private
RHN channel.

Chapter 2.
5
Requirements
These requirements must be met before installation. The Satellite itself must be of a version greater
than or equal to the version of the Proxy that you are trying to install. For example, if you want to install
RHN Proxy Server 5.1, the Satellite version should be 5.1 or later, and can not be 5.0 or lower.
2.1. Software Requirements
To perform an installation, the following software-related components must be available:
• Base operating system — RHN Proxy Server is supported with Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS 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.
Note
Each purchased RHN Proxy product includes one supported instance of Red Hat
Enterprise Linux Server. RHN Proxy must be installed onto a fresh installation of
Enterprise Linux where RHN Proxy is the only application and service provided by
the OS. Using the Red Hat Enterprise Linux OS included in RHN Proxy to run other
daemons, applications, or services within your environment is not supported.
Each version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux requires a certain package set to support RHN
Proxy Server. Adding more packages can cause errors during installation. Therefore, Red Hat
recommends obtaining the desired package set in the following ways:
Note
For kickstarting, specify the following package group: @Base
For installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux via CD or ISO image, select the following
package group: Minimal
Warning
If you are running Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS 4, Security-enhanced Linux (SELinux)
must be disabled prior to installation of RHN Proxy Server. If you use Red Hat
Enterprise Linux 5 Server, SELinux can be left enabled when installing RHN Proxy
Server.
You can disable SELinux in one of several ways:
• During CD or ISO image installation, select Disabled when presented with options
for SELinux support.
• To do this for kickstart installation, include the command selinux --disabled
• After the installation is complete, edit the /etc/selinux/config file to read
SELINUX=disabled and reboot the system.

Chapter 2. Requirements
6
• Finally, you can use the system-config-securitylevel-tui command and
reboot the system.
• An available RHN Proxy Server entitlement within your RHN Satellite Server account.
• An available Provisioning entitlement within your RHN Satellite Server account (which should come
packaged with your RHN Proxy Server entitlement).
• Access to the Red Hat Network Tools channel for the installed version of Red Hat Enterprise
Linux. This channel includes the spacewalk-proxy-installer package that contains the
configure-proxy.sh installation program required to install RHN Proxy Server.
• All rhncfg* packages installed on the Proxy (from the RHN Tools channel).
• Either the rhns-certs-tools package installed on the Proxy (from the RHN Tools channel) for
RHN Hosted users, or the secure sockets layer (SSL) CA certificate password used to generate the
parent server certificate for RHN Satellite Server users.
• Configuration of the system to accept remote commands and configuration management through
Red Hat Network if using the deprecated Web UI installation method. Refer to Section 4.2, “RHN
Proxy Server Installation Process” for instructions.
2.2. Hardware Requirements
The following hardware configuration is required for the RHN Proxy Server:
• A Pentium IV Processor or equivalent
• 512 MB of memory
• At least 5 GB storage for base install of Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• 25+ GB storage per distribution/channel
The load on the Apache Web server is directly related to the frequency with which client systems
connect to the Proxy. If you reduce the default interval of four hours (or 240 minutes) as set in the /
etc/sysconfig/rhn/rhnsd configuration file of the client systems, you will increase the load on
this component significantly.
Note
RHN Proxy Server does not support kickstart provisioning on multi-homed network
topologies. Kickstarts will not function properly on a Proxy server that has more than one
network interface.
2.3. Disk Space Requirements
The caching mechanism used by RHN Proxy Server is the Squid HTTP proxy, which saves significant
bandwidth for the clients. It should have a reasonable amount of space available. The cached
packages are stored in /var/spool/squid. The required free space allotment is 6 GB storage per
distribution/channel.

Additional Requirements
7
If the RHN Proxy Server is configured to distribute custom, or local packages, make sure that the
/var mount point on the system storing local packages has sufficient disk space to hold all of the
custom packages, which are stored in /var/spool/rhn-proxy. The required disk space for local
packages depends on the number of custom packages served.
2.4. Additional Requirements
The following additional requirements must be met before the RHN Proxy Server installation can be
considered complete:
Full Access
Client systems need full network access to the RHN Proxy Server services and ports.
Firewall Rules
RHN strongly recommends firewalling the RHN Proxy Server solution from the Internet. However,
various TCP ports must be opened on the Proxy, depending on your implementation of RHN Proxy
Server:
Port Direction Reason
80 Outbound Proxy uses this port to reach
rhn.redhat.com, xmlrpc.rhn.redhat.com,
and your Satellite URL (depending on
whether RHN Proxy is talking to either
RHN Hosted or a Satellite Server).
80 Inbound Client requests come in via either http or
https
443 Inbound Client requests come in via either http or
https
443 Outbound Proxy uses this port to reach
rhn.redhat.com, xmlrpc.rhn.redhat.com,
and your Satellite URL (depending on
whether RHN Proxy is talking to either
RHN Hosted or a Satellite Server).
4545 Outbound If your Proxy is connected to an RHN
Satellite Server, Monitoring makes
connections to rhnmd running on client
systems via this TCP port, if Monitoring
is enabled and probes configured to
registered systems.
5222 Inbound Opening this port allows osad client
connections to the jabberd daemon
on the Proxy when using RHN Push
technology.
5269 Outbound If your Proxy is connected an RHN
Satellite Server, this port must be open to
allows server-to-server connections via
jabberd for RHN Push Technology.
Table 2.1. Ports to open on the Proxy

Chapter 2. Requirements
8
Synchronized System Times
There is great time sensitivity when connecting to a Web server running SSL (Secure Sockets
Layer); it is imperative the time settings on the clients and server are reasonably close together so
the that SSL certificate does not expire before or during use. It is recommended that Network Time
Protocol (NTP) be used to synchronize the clocks.
Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN)
The system upon which the RHN Proxy Server will be installed must resolve its own FQDN
properly.
A Red Hat Network Account
Customers who will be connecting to the central Red Hat Network Servers to receive incremental
updates must have a Red Hat Network account. The sales representative assists with the setup of
this account at the time of purchase.
Backups of Login Information
It is imperative that customers keep track of all primary login information. For RHN Proxy Server,
this includes usernames and passwords for the Organization Administrator account and SSL
certificate generation. Red Hat strongly recommends this information be copied onto two separate
floppy disks, printed out on paper, and stored in a fireproof safe.
Distribution Locations
Since the Proxy forwards virtually all local HTTP requests to the central RHN Servers, you must
take care to put files destined for distribution (such as in a kickstart installation tree) in the non-
forwarding location on the Proxy: /var/www/html/pub/. Files placed in this directory can be
downloaded directly from the Proxy. This can be especially useful for distributing GPG keys or
establishing installation trees for kickstarts.
In addition, Red Hat recommends that the system running the code not be publicly available. No users
but the system administrators should have shell access to these machines. All unnecessary services
should be disabled. You can use ntsysv or chkconfig to disable services.
Finally, you should have the following technical documents in hand for use in roughly this order:
1. The RHN Proxy Server Installation Guide — This guide, which you are now reading, provides the
essential steps necessary to get an RHN Proxy Server up and running.
2. The RHN Client Configuration Guide — This guide explains how to configure the systems to be
served by an RHN Proxy Server or RHN Satellite Server. (This will also likely require referencing
The RHN Reference Guide, which contains steps for registering and updating systems.)
3. The RHN Channel Management Guide — This guide identifies in great detail the recommended
methods for building custom packages, creating custom channels, and managing private Errata.
4. The RHN Reference Guide — This guide describes how to create RHN accounts, register and
update systems, and use the RHN website to its utmost potential. This guide will probably come in
handy throughout the installation and configuration process.

Chapter 3.
9
Example Topologies
The RHN Proxy Server can be configured in multiple ways. Select one method depending on the
following factors:
1. The total number of client systems to be served by the RHN Proxy Server
2. The maximum number of clients expected to connect concurrently to the RHN Proxy Server.
3. The number of custom packages and channels to be served by the RHN Proxy Server.
4. The number of RHN Proxy Servers being used in the customer environment.
The rest of this chapter describes possible configurations and explains their benefits.
3.1. Single Proxy Topology
The simplest configuration is to use a single RHN Proxy Server to serve your entire network. This
configuration is adequate to service a small group of clients and a network that would benefit from
caching Red Hat RPMs and storing custom packages on a local server.
The disadvantage of using one RHN Proxy Server is that performance will be compromised as the
number of clients requesting packages grows.
Figure 3.1. Single Proxy Topology
3.2. Multiple Proxy Horizontally Tiered Topology
For larger networks, a more distributed method may be needed, such as having multiple RHN Proxy
Servers all connecting to Red Hat Network individually. This horizontally tiered configuration balances
the load of client requests while enabling each Proxy to simultaneously synchronize with RHN.
A disadvantage of this horizontal structure is that custom packages loaded to an individual Proxy must
be distributed to its sibling servers. This situation can be addressed in one of two ways:
• The rsync file transfer program can be used to synchronize packages between the Proxies

Chapter 3. Example Topologies
10
• A Network File System (NFS) share can be established between the Proxies and the custom
channel repository.
Either of these solutions will allow any client of any RHN Proxy Servers to have all custom packages
delivered to them.
Figure 3.2. Multiple Proxy Horizontally Tiered Topology
3.3. Multiple Proxy Vertically Tiered Topology
An alternative method for multiple RHN Proxy Servers is to establish a primary Proxy that the others
connect to for RPMs from Red Hat Network and custom packages created locally. In essence, the
secondary Proxies act as clients of the primary. This alleviates the need to establish synchronization
between the RHN Proxy Servers as they use the up2date functionality inherent with the product.
Like the horizontally tiered configuration, this vertical method allows any client of any RHN Proxy
Servers to have all custom packages delivered to them. The Proxy merely looks in its repository to see
if it can find the package on its file system. If not, it then makes the attempt from the next level up.
This vertically tiered configuration ensures that the secondary Proxies depend upon the primary for
updates from RHN, as well as for custom packages. Also, custom channels and packages must be
placed on the primary Proxy only, to ensure distribution to the child Proxies. Finally, the configuration
files of the secondary Proxies must point to the primary, instead of directly at Red Hat Network.

Proxies with RHN Satellite Server
11
Figure 3.3. Multiple Proxy Vertically Tiered Topology
3.4. Proxies with RHN Satellite Server
In addition to the methods described in detail within this chapter, customers also have the option of
using RHN Proxy Server in conjunction with RHN Satellite Server. This works similarly to the vertically
tiered Proxy configuration but increases capacity significantly, as Satellites can serve a much greater
number of client systems.
For a thorough description of this combination, refer to the Example Topologies chapter of the RHN
Satellite Server Installation Guide. Linking the two products' SSL certificates is described in the RHN
Client Configuration Guide. To find out how channels and packages are shared between them, refer to
the RHN Channel Management Guide.

12

Chapter 4.
13
Installation
This chapter describes the initial installation of the RHN Proxy Server. It presumes the prerequisites
listed in Chapter 2, Requirements have been met. However, if you are upgrading to a newer version of
RHN Proxy Server, contact your Red Hat representative for assistance.
4.1. Base Install
The RHN Proxy Server is designed to run on the Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system.
Therefore, the first phase is to install the base operating system, either from disc, ISO image, or
kickstart. During and after operating system installation, make sure you:
• Allocate sufficient space to the partition that will be used to store packages, according to the
hardware requirements set forth earlier. The default location for cached Red Hat packages is /var/
spool/squid, while custom packages are located in /var/spool/rhn-proxy.
Note
The installation program automatically calcutes the available space on the partition
where /var/spool/squid is mounted and allocates up to 60 percent of the free
space for RHN Proxy Server use.
• Install the packages required by RHN Proxy Server.
Note
You must install only the base packages, as others will cause the RHN Proxy Server
installation to fail.
Refer to Section 2.1, “Software Requirements” for the method to obtain the correct package group
needed for each version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
• Enable Network Time Protocol (NTP) on the Proxy and select the appropriate time zone. All client
systems should already be running the ntpd daemon and be set to the correct time zone.
• Disable the ipchains and iptables services after installation.
4.2. RHN Proxy Server Installation Process
The following instructions describe the RHN Proxy Server installation process:
1. Register the newly-installed Red Hat Enterprise Linux system with Red Hat Network (either the
central RHN Servers or your RHN Satellite Server) using the organizational account containing the
RHN Proxy Server entitlement with the command: rhn_register.
2. To perform an installation, type the following command:
configure-proxy.sh

Chapter 4. Installation
14
The command-line installation program leads users through a series of prompts regarding RHN
Proxy Server installation and initial configuration details such as installation options and SSL
certificate generation. The following instructions describe the installation process:
Tip
If you press Enter at a prompt instead of typing in an entry, the RHN Proxy Server
command-line installation program uses the default response enclosed in brackets.
Alternatively, if you want to use default answers without any user interaction, use the
--non-interactive option, which will use all default responses.
3. The first series of prompts are site-specific details about the installation.
Proxy version to activate [5.3]:
The Proxy version prompts you to confirm the version of RHN Proxy Server you wish to install.
RHN Parent [satserver.example.com]:
The RHN Parent is the domain name or address of the system that serves the Proxy, which could
be the RHN Hosted servers (xmlrpc.rhn.redhat.com), or an RHN Satellite Server server.
Traceback email []:
The Traceback email is the email address to which error-related traceback messages are mailed,
usually the email of the Proxy administrator. Use commas to separate more than one email
address at this prompt.
4. The next series of prompts are related to configuring the details for generating an SSL certificate,
which is recommended to secure traffic to and from the RHN Proxy Server.
Use SSL [Y/n]: y
In the Use SSL prompt, type y to configure the RHN Proxy Server to support SSL.
CA Chain [/usr/share/rhn/RHN-ORG-TRUSTED-SSL-CERT]:
In the CA Chain prompt, press Enter to use the default path for the Certificate Authority (CA)
Chain, which if the RHN Proxy is communicating with an RHN Satellite then this value is usually /
usr/share/rhn/RHN-ORG-TRUSTED-SSL-CERT. If it is communicating with RHN Hosted, it is
usually the /usr/share/rhn/RHNS-CA-CERT file.
HTTP Proxy []:

RHN Proxy Server Installation Process
15
If the RHN Proxy Server connects through an HTTP proxy, enter the proxy hostname and port
number, such as corporate.proxy.example.com:3128
Regardless of whether you enabled SSL for the connection to the Proxy Parent
Server, you will be prompted to generate an SSL certificate.
This SSL certificate will allow client systems to connect to this Spacewalk Proxy
securely. Refer to the Spacewalk Proxy Installation Guide for more information.
Organization: Example Company
Organization Unit [proxy1.example.com]:
Common Name: proxy1.example.com
City: New York
State: New York
Country code: US
Email [[email protected]]:
Enter the required details necessary to generate a proper SSL server certificate, including the
Organzation name, the Organization Unit (such as Engineering), the Common Name (the
domain name), as well as the details for City, State and Country. Finally, enter the email address
for the administrator or technical contact in charge of SSL certificates.
5. The command-line installation program prompts you to install monitoring support to RHN Proxy
Server, allows you to create and populate a configuration channel for future RHN Proxy Server
installations, finalizes SSL configuration, and restarts any service daemons that had modified
configurations as a result of running the RHN Proxy Server installation program.
You do not have monitoring installed. Do you want to install it?
Will run 'yum install spacewalk-proxy-monitoring'. [Y/n]:n
Confirm whether or not you want to install Monitoring support on the Proxy server.
Generating CA key and public certificate:
CA password:
CA password confirmation:
Copying CA public certificate to /var/www/html/pub for distribution to clients:
Generating SSL key and public certificate:
CA password:
Backup made: 'rhn-ca-openssl.cnf' --> 'rhn-ca-openssl.cnf.1'
Rotated: rhn-ca-openssl.cnf --> rhn-ca-openssl.cnf.1
Installing SSL certificate for Apache and Jabberd:
Preparing packages for installation...
rhn-org-httpd-ssl-key-pair-proxy1.example-1.0-1
The configure-proxy.sh program then configures SSL, prompting you to create a Certificate
Authority password and confirm it before generating the SSL keys and the public certificate.
Create and populate configuration channel rhn_proxy_config_1000010000? [Y]:
Using server name satserver.example.com
Red Hat Network username: admin
Password:
Creating config channel rhn_proxy_config_1000010000
Config channel rhn_proxy_config_1000010000 created
using server name satserver.example.com
Pushing to channel rhn_proxy_config_1000010000:

Chapter 4. Installation
16
Local file /etc/httpd/conf.d/ssl.conf -> remote file /etc/httpd/conf.d/ssl.conf
Local file /etc/rhn/rhn.conf -> remote file /etc/rhn/rhn.conf
Local file /etc/rhn/cluster.ini -> remote file /etc/rhn/cluster.ini
Local file /etc/squid/squid.conf -> remote file /etc/squid/squid.conf
Local file /etc/httpd/conf.d/cobbler-proxy.conf -> remote file /etc/httpd/conf.d/cobbler-
proxy.conf
Local file /etc/httpd/conf.d/rhn_proxy.conf -> remote file /etc/httpd/conf.d/
rhn_proxy.conf
Local file /etc/httpd/conf.d/rhn_broker.conf -> remote file /etc/httpd/conf.d/
rhn_broker.conf
Local file /etc/httpd/conf.d/rhn_redirect.conf -> remote file /etc/httpd/conf.d/
rhn_redirect.conf
Local file /etc/jabberd/c2s.xml -> remote file /etc/jabberd/c2s.xml
Local file /etc/jabberd/sm.xml -> remote file /etc/jabberd/sm.xml
The installer then asks whether or not you wish to create a configuration channel based on the
configuration files created while running configure-proxy.sh. The installer will then create a
RHN Satellite Server configuration channel based on the name of the client system upon which
RHN Proxy Server is installed (in the example above the sysID is 1000010000), and collects
the various httpd, SSL, squid, and jabberd server files that will comprise the configuration
channel for the Proxy server.
6. Finally, the installer starts and restarts all RHN Proxy Server related services and exits when
completed.
Enabling Satellite Proxy
Shutting down rhn-proxy...
Shutting down Jabber router: [ OK ]
Stopping httpd: [ OK ]
Stopping squid: [ OK ]
Done.
Starting rhn-proxy...
init_cache_dir /var/spool/squid... Starting squid: . [ OK ]
Starting httpd: [ OK ]
Starting Jabber services [ OK ]
Done.
4.2.1. The Answer File
If you want to automate some of the process of installing RHN Proxy Server on your systems, the
configure-proxy.sh program allows administrators to create answer files that contain pre-filled
responses to prompts in the installation program.
The following is an example answer file that contains pre-filled answers related to version number,
the RHN Satellite Server server that serves as the parent server, SSL, and other configuration
parameters. For more information about creating and using answer files, refer to the configure-
proxy.sh manual page by typing man configure-proxy.sh at a shell prompt.
# example of answer file for configure-proxy.sh
# for full list of possible option see
# man configure-proxy.sh
VERSION=5.2
RHN_PARENT=rhn-satellite.example.com
[email protected]
USE_SSL=1