Red Hat NETWORK SATELLITE 5.2 - CHANNEL MANAGEMENT User manual

Red Hat Network

Satellite 5.2

Client Configuration Guide

Red Hat Network Satellite

Client Configuration Guide

Red Hat Network Satellite 5.2 Client Configuration Guide

Red Hat Network Satellite

Edition 5.2

iii

1. Introduction 1

2. Client Applications 3

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

2.2. Configuring the Client Applications ................................................................................ 4

2.2.1. Registering with Activation Keys ......................................................................... 4

2.2.2. Using the --configure Option ........................................................................ 5

2.2.3. Updating the Configuration Files Manually .......................................................... 7

2.2.4. Implementing Server Failover ............................................................................. 8

2.3. Configuring the Red Hat Network Alert Notification Tool with Satellite .......................... 9

3. SSL Infrastructure 11

3.1. A Brief Introduction To SSL ......................................................................................... 11

3.2. The RHN SSL Maintenance Tool ............................................................................... 12

3.2.1. SSL Generation Explained ............................................................................... 13

3.2.2. RHN SSL Maintenance Tool Options ............................................................... 14

3.2.3. Generating the Certificate Authority SSL Key Pair .............................................. 17

3.2.4. Generating Web Server SSL Key Sets .............................................................. 18

3.3. Deploying the CA SSL Public Certificate to Clients ....................................................... 18

3.4. Configuring Client Systems ......................................................................................... 19

4. Importing Custom GPG Keys 21

5. Using RHN Bootstrap 23

5.1. Preparation ................................................................................................................ 23

5.2. Generation ................................................................................................................. 24

5.3. Script Use .................................................................................................................. 25

5.4. RHN Bootstrap Options ............................................................................................. 25

6. Manually Scripting the Configuration 27

7. Implementing Kickstart 29

A. Sample Bootstrap Script 31

B. Revision History 37

Index 39

Chapter 1.

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 2.

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.

2.1. 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:

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://

Chapter 2. Client Applications

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.

2.2. 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 2.2.4, “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.)

2.2.1. Registering with Activation Keys

Red Hat recommends using activation keys for registering and configuring client systems that access

RHN Proxy Server or RHN Satellite Server. Activation keys can be used to register, entitle, and

subscribe systems in a batch. Refer to the Activation Keys section of the Red Hat Update Agent

chapter within the RHN Management Reference Guide for instructions on use.

Registering with an activation key has four basic steps:

1. Generate an Activation Key as described in the Activation Keys section of the Red Hat Update

Agent chapter within the RHN Management Reference Guide

2. Import custom GPG keys.

Using the --configure Option

3. Download and install the SSL Certificate RPM from the /pub/ directory of the RHN Proxy Server or

RHN Satellite Server. The command for this step could look something like this:

rpm -Uvh\ http://your-satellite.com/pub/rhn-org-trusted-ssl-

cert-1.0-1.noarch.rpm

4. Register the system with your RHN Proxy Server or RHN Satellite Server. The command for this

step could look something like:

rhnreg_ks --activationkey mykey --serverUrl https://your-

satellite.com/XMLRPC

Alternatively, most of the above steps can be combined in a shell script that includes the following

lines:

wget -0 - http://your-satellite-DQDN/pub/bootstrap.sh | bash \ &&

rhnreg_ks --activation-key my_key --serverUrl \ https://your-satellite-

FQDN/XMLRPC

The bootstrap script, generated at installation and available for both RHN Satellite Server and RHN

Proxy Server, is such a script. The script and the RHN Bootstrap that generates it are discussed in

detail in Chapter 5, Using RHN Bootstrap.

Warning

Systems running Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1 and versions of Red Hat Linux prior to

8.0 may experience problems using Activation Keys to migrate SSL certificate settings

from rhn_register to up2date. Therefore, the SSL certificate information on those

systems must be set manually. All other settings, such as the server URL, transfer

properly.

2.2.2. Using the --configure Option

Both the Red Hat Network Registration Client and the Red Hat Update Agent that ship with Red

Hat Enterprise Linux provide interfaces for configuring various settings. For full listings of these

settings, refer to the chapters dedicated to the applications in the RHN Management Reference Guide.

Each application offers a graphical user interface (GUI) for configuration that enables you to change

the settings required by RHN Proxy Server or RHN Satellite Server. The GUI requires that the client

system run the X Window System. The command to launch the GUI configuration interface will look

like:

application_filename --configure

To reconfigure the Red Hat Update Agent, issue the following command as root:

up2date --configure

Chapter 2. Client Applications

You are presented with a dialog box offering various settings that may be reconfigured. In the General

tab, under Select a Red Hat Network Server to use replace the default value with the

fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the RHN Satellite Server or RHN Proxy Server, such as

https://your_proxy_or_sat.your_domain.com/XMLRPC. Retain the /XMLRPC at the end.

When finished, click OK.

Figure 2.1. Red Hat Update Agent GUI Configuration

Make sure you enter the domain name of your RHN Satellite Server or RHN Proxy Server correctly.

Entering an incorrect domain or leaving the field blank may prevent up2date --configure from

launching. This may be resolved, however, by editing the value in the up2date configuration file.

Refer to Section 2.2.3, “Updating the Configuration Files Manually” for precise instructions.

Warning

Systems running Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 or newer have registration functionality

built into the Red Hat Update Agent and therefore do not install the Red Hat Network

Registration Client. Systems running Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1 (and versions

of Red Hat Linux prior to 8.0) must reconfigure and use the Red Hat Network

Registration Client, as well as the Red Hat Update Agent.

To reconfigure the Red Hat Network Registration Client, perform an almost identical set of steps. As

root, run the following command:

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