CentOS channels on Satellite

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Hello,

Today I have Satellite v5.5 for my RHEL systems and a Spacewalk v1.8 for my CentOS systems. I'd like to manage all my machines in one place.

As a test I added Cent repos and channels for 5, 6 & 7 to my Satellite. I can make activation keys, bootstrap and patch CentOS test machines just like they were on a Spacewalk server; no errors. I can't think of any reason this would not work in the first place.

Anyone else doing this?
Anyone know of any gotchas or pitfalls to consolidating?

I know that RH will not provide any support for the Cent channels or help fix any damage that may somehow come from this; that is a given.

Being overdue to upgrade my Satellite to a supported version of 5 (or even 6.x) I'm tempted to make a single machine big enough to handle all my servers. I don't expect to have Cent and RHEL systems co-existing in the same channels etc. I probably still have the same amount of config to do in the setup, but this gives me fewer interfaces and the spacewalk-report's are single source.

I opened a support case on the topic and the reply was:
"From the case description I understand that you want to manage CentOS system via Satellite 6. I would like to inform you that Red Hat officially does not support this. However, you can manage this as I have seen this in community discussion. You can sync third party repository and manage content for this. Having said that any issue identified at centos will not covered and troubleshoot by Red Hat."

Responses

Hi Chris,

I'm curious, how did you add the centos channels to your satellite server? Did you do a dump of the current rpm tree dump from some location? or use an install ISO? Just curious,

thanks

  1. Channels tab > Manage Software Channels > Manage Repositories > Create New Repository >> added a name and URL eg. "http://mirrorlist.centos.org/?release=6&arch=x86_64&repo=os".

  2. Manage Repositories > Create New Channel >> Filled in the fields and clicked create.

  3. Back to my new channel > Repositories tab >> picked my repo, clicked update and then clicked sync.

  4. Rinse and repeat a bunch of times for the other releases, updates, etc (making as children where needed).

After a while they were populated. That is the exact process I would have followed on the Spacewalk server.

Ah ok that works great for connected satellite servers, I have eight disconnected satellite servers.

It's a kludge, but you can always take your CentOS media, make an Rsync server sharing-out the media and then reference it into Satellite similar to the OP's method for an Internet-connected host.

We never really bothered with CentOS in Satellite because (at the time) managing CentOS hosts counted against our managed-objects license-limit.

That's very good to know Tom, thanks

Tom,

I think you have hit on a big 'gotcha'; the Management Entitlement.

When I add or remove a Cent system from my Satellite it counts against my usage. I see it right away in the GUI and via:
spacewalk-report entitlements | grep "RHN Management Entitled Servers"

On the "System Entitlements Across RHN Satellite" page under "Management (Base)" it says "A single Management (Base) entitlement is required for all systems registered to satellite".

Unless I'm confused that certainly puts a wrench in this plan of consolidation of mine. I have +2K CentOS systems and +1K RHEL with less than 2K in the Management Entitlement. If every Cent system takes up one of these seats than then this doesn't work.

This is on my 5.5. When you say "at the time" what version was it?

Thanks for the help

First, I wouldn't go to 6.x until you've had time to experiment in a non-prod environment. As far as your current 5 environment I would definitely get upgraded to the latest supported version. But as far as the CentOS management is concerned, it's just another repository and kickstart tree to be managed by Satellite. It should work just the same as the RHEL supported channels.

We have one of our satellites at 6.x - we're delaying the others for now - thanks Will

Thanks Will.

For updated sat6 other distros (rpm based RHEL bases Centos,SL, OL , debian debs and non linux aix solaris thread -> https://access.redhat.com/discussions/1293233 https://serverfault.com/questions/678373/centos-7-with-red-hat-satellite-6

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