Need advice on Satellite server
We are on Satellite 5 with mostly RHEL 6. We are trying deployment of some RHEL 7, but thinking it might be better getting Satellite 6 build up before moving on.
I want to build a new Satellite 6, parallel with our current Satellite 5; then do a slow(manual?) migration.
Recommendations/advises on how to approach will be appreciated.
Responses
Yes, your approach is good. You can install and configure [1] a Satellite6 server (on rhel7). You can use bootstrap.py script [2] to easily move servers from Satellite 5 to 6. You can keep the Satellite5 install until you migrate all the servers to Satellite 6.
When I migrated the systems from our Satellite 5.x systems to our 6.2.x systems, I followed the Red Hat recommendations they gave at various Red Hat summits, where they say to stand up a new Sat 6.2.x system (use most current version), and drain the systems from the 5.x satellite to the 6.2.x satellite. Also, here's the Red Hat Transition guide from Sat 5.x to 6.2.x. But wait, there's more, see this 2017 guide from Red Hat (Thomas Cameron) that offers very good detail
We created necessary organizations, activation keys, and provisioned (exported) the Content View from Red Hat using Rich Jerrido's method, see this article/video at Red Hat (not the one in the official documentation, because Red-Hatter Rich Jerrido's method is far superior). (important note, last sentence, that's useful for an air-gapped satellite, if your RH satellite server can "see" the public internet, you won't need to do that) I assigned the proper content views to the activation keys. I can provide more detail later this week.
R. Hinton, thank you for this reply. As a technical writer for Red Hat Satellite, I'm curious about your comment "not the one in the official documentation, because Red-Hatter Rich Jerrido's method is far superior). I'm concerned that the "official documentation" is deficient. To which document were you referring? I would like to see it improved.
EDITED
Hello Russell, The last time I checked, the official documentation procedure has a consequence of only channel being exported at at time, which ends up with some stridently unfortunate issues I can't detail here. The content-view export by Red-Hatter Rich Jerrido averts this, and there's much more to this than I can put here. I do have a case open for this, I'll be happy to discuss in detail even over the phone. the case number is 01910936. please feel free to contact me. Ever since I've been using Red-Hatter Rich Jerrido's method, I've averted the insufferable issues experienced with what's in the Red Hat documentation. The procedure I'm using is a mixture of mostly what he has documented in that article, and a tiny bit of what I've discovered. Again, I'll be happy to discuss over the phone, and see the case I mentioned.
Kind Regards, -RJ
Hi,
Others already gave you good information.
Satellite 5 and 6 ca co-exist.
Even more, for reasons beyond the scope of your question, at one stage we had to move back a group of 40-odd RHEL7 systems from Satellite 6 to Satellite 5. That works too.
One way or another, migration forward and backward is possible and not very difficult but requires good planning.
Regards,
Dusan Baljevic (amateur radio VK2COT)
Since you are experimenting with deployment of RHEL 7 I think it's a perfect time to begin with Satellite 6.3. If you begin now with a new major version of RHEL, combined with a new major version of Red Hat Satellite, including its significant provisioning features, you will gain the most from the combination. Be aware that Satellite 6.3 is supported only on RHEL 7.
To add to the excellent advice already provided in this discussion, I suggest you consider the following tips:
- Wait for the release of Red Hat Satellite 6.3.
- Watch the Red Hat Satellite 6 Getting Started Video Series.
- Read the Satellite 6.3 Transition Guide (currently published for the Satellite 6.3 Beta release).
- Read the Transitioning from Red Hat Satellite 5 to Satellite 6 knowledgebase article.
- Ask questions here or raise Support Tickets as needed.
Standing up Satellite 6 itself is a matter of a few hours to build a server, install Satellite and go Downloading content? few hours to days depending on how much you need.
Getting it ready to provision hosts? trivial
Defining the processes and standards to make Satellite a great tool? months , maybe years :D I kid. Its really very easy, and from what I've seen of Satellite 6.3 today, its even easier than before.
Hi All, Could someone explain the new licensing model for the Satellite server.
We are about to renew our Satellite server and Smart Management subscriptions which expire this month.
It now looks like since the 1st March 2018 there is no longer a Satellite server subscription and you only need the Smart Management element to license the Satellite server.
I'm assuming the Satellite server itself will now need a RedHat Enterprise Linux Server subscription as this was previously included.
Kind Regards Jonathan
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