Red Hat NETWORK SATELLITE 5.1.0 - CHANNEL MANAGEMENT User manual

Red Hat Network Satellite

Client Configuration

Guide 5.1.0

5.1

ISBN: N/A

Publication date:

Red Hat Network Satellite

Red Hat Network Satellite: Client Configuration Guide 5.1.0

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Red Hat Network Satellite

1. Introduction ........................................................................................................... 1

2. Client Applications ................................................................................................. 3

1. Deploying the Latest Red Hat Network Client RPMs ......................................... 3

2. Configuring the Client Applications .................................................................. 4

2.1. Registering with Activation Keys ........................................................... 5

2.2. Using the --configure Option ............................................................. 6

2.3. Updating the Configuration Files Manually ............................................ 8

2.4. Implementing Server Failover ............................................................... 9

3. Configuring the Red Hat Network Alert Notification Tool with Satellite ..........10

3. SSL Infrastructure .................................................................................................11

1. A Brief Introduction To SSL ...........................................................................11

2. The RHN SSL Maintenance Tool .................................................................12

2.1. SSL Generation Explained ..................................................................13

2.2. RHN SSL Maintenance Tool Options .................................................14

2.3. Generating the Certificate Authority SSL Key Pair ................................18

2.4. Generating Web Server SSL Key Sets .................................................19

3. Deploying the CA SSL Public Certificate to Clients ..........................................20

4. Configuring Client Systems ............................................................................21

4. Importing Custom GPG Keys .................................................................................23

5. Using RHN Bootstrap ...........................................................................................25

1. Preparation ...................................................................................................25

2. Generation ...................................................................................................26

3. Script Use ....................................................................................................27

4. RHN Bootstrap Options ................................................................................27

6. Manually Scripting the Configuration ......................................................................31

7. Implementing Kickstart ..........................................................................................33

A. Sample Bootstrap Script ........................................................................................35

Index .......................................................................................................................39

Introduction

This best practices guide is intended to help customers of RHN Satellite Server and RHN Proxy

Server configure their client systems more easily.

By default, all Red Hat Network client applications are configured to communicate with central

Red Hat Network Servers. When connecting clients to RHN Satellite Server or RHN Proxy

Server instead, many of these settings must be altered. Altering client settings for a system or

two may be relatively simple. A large enterprise environment, containing hundreds or thousands

of systems, will likely benefit from the mass reconfiguration steps described here.

Due to the complexity of this undertaking, customers may utilize a pre-populated script that

automates many of the tasks necessary to access their Satellite or Proxy server; refer to

Chapter 5, Using RHN Bootstrap for details. Red Hat believes that understanding the

implications of these changes is helpful and therefore describes the manual steps for

reconfiguration in the opening chapters. Use your best judgement in determining the ideal

solution for your organization.

Although many of the commands provided within this guide can be applied as they appear, it is

impossible to predict all potential network configurations adopted by customers. Therefore, Red

Hat encourages you to use these commands as references that must take into account your

organization's individual settings.

Note

Unix client configuration information may be found in the RHN Satellite Server

Reference Guide in the Unix Support chapter.

Chapter 1.

Client Applications

In order to utilize most enterprise-class features of Red Hat Network, such as registering with a

RHN Satellite, configuration of the latest client applications is required. Obtaining these

applications before the client has registered with Red Hat Network can be difficult. This paradox

is especially problematic for customers migrating large numbers of older systems to Red Hat

Network. This chapter identifies techniques to resolve this dilemma.

Important

Red Hat strongly recommends that clients connected to a RHN Proxy Server or

RHN Satellite Server be running the latest update of Red Hat Enterprise Linux to

ensure proper connectivity.

Additionally, if client firewalls are configured, ports 80 and 443 should be open

for proper functionality with Red Hat Network.

1. Deploying the Latest Red Hat Network Client RPMs

Red Hat Update Agent (up2date) and Red Hat Network Registration Client (rhn_register)

are prerequisites for using much of Red Hat Network's enterprise functionality. It is crucial to

install them on client systems before attempting to use RHN Proxy Server or RHN Satellite

Server in your environment.

There are several sensible approaches to accomplish this update of the RHN client software.

One of which involves storing the RPMs in a location that is accessible by all client systems and

deploying the packages with the simplest command possible. In nearly all cases, a manual

deployment of up2date and rhn_register (if RHEL 2.1) do not need to be performed. Those

client tools should have no issues connecting to your RHN Satellite or Proxy environment.

These discussion below assumes that the "out of box" up2date and rhn_register are not the

latest and do not work for your environment.

Remember, only systems running Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1 must use the Red Hat Network

Registration Client to register with RHN. Systems running Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 and

later can use the registration functionality built into the Red Hat Update Agent.

This document presumes that the customer has installed at least one RHN Satellite Server

and/or RHN Proxy Server on their network. The example below demonstrates a simple

approach of deploying up2date and rhn_register for the first time by an administrator

assuming the machines don't already have a working RHN. The administrator has populated the

/var/www/html/pub/ directory with a copy of the up2date and rhn_register (for RHEL 2.1

systems) RPMs that his client systems need, and then has simply deployed those RPMs onto

his client systems with a simple rpm -Uvh command. Run from a client, this command installs

the RPMs to that client, assuming the domain name, paths, and RPM versions are correct:

Chapter 2.

rpm -Uvh \

http://your_proxy_or_sat.your_domain.com/pub/rhn_register-2.9.12-1.2.1AS.i386.rpm

http://your_proxy_or_sat.your_domain.com/pub/rhn_register-gnome-2.9.12-1.2.1AS.i386.rpm

http://your_proxy_or_sat.your_domain.com/pub/up2date-2.9.14-1.2.1AS.i386.rpm

http://your_proxy_or_sat.your_domain.com/pub/up2date-gnome-2.9.14-1.2.1AS.i386.rpm

Note the inclusion of the associated gnome RPMs. Keep in mind, the architecture (in this case,

i386) may need to be altered depending on the systems to be served.

2. Configuring the Client Applications

Not every customer must connect securely to a RHN Satellite Server or RHN Proxy Server

within their organization. Not every customer needs to build and deploy a GPG key for custom

packages. (Both of these topics are explained in detail later.) Every customer who uses RHN

Satellite Server or RHN Proxy Server must reconfigure the Red Hat Update Agent (up2date)

and possibly the Red Hat Network Registration Client (rhn_register) to redirect it from Red

Hat Network to their RHN Satellite Server or RHN Proxy Server.

Important

Although this is not configurable, note that the port used by the Red Hat Update

Agent is 443 for SSL (HTTPS) and 80 for non-SSL (HTTP). By default, up2date

uses SSL only. For this reason, users should ensure that their firewalls allow

connections over port 443. To bypass SSL, change the protocol for serverURL

from https to http in /etc/sysconfig/rhn/up2date. Similarly, to use RHN's

Monitoring feature and probes requiring the Red Hat Network Monitoring

Daemon, note that client systems must allow connections on port 4545 (or port

22, if using sshd instead).

By default, the Red Hat Network Registration Client and the Red Hat Update Agent refer to

the main Red Hat Network Servers. Users must reconfigure client systems to refer to their RHN

Satellite Server or RHN Proxy Server.

Note that the latest versions of the Red Hat Update Agent can be configured to accommodate

several RHN Servers, thereby providing failover protection in case the primary server is

inaccessible. Refer to Section 2.4, “Implementing Server Failover” for instructions on enabling

this feature.

The next sections describe three methods of configuring the client systems to access your RHN

Satellite Server or RHN Proxy Server: using an Activation Key, up2date --configure, and

manually updating the configuration files.( To see how virtually all reconfiguration can be

scripted, see Chapter 6, Manually Scripting the Configuration.)

Chapter 2. Client Applications

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