[MOVED] patch management
Hey,
Is there a centralized patch management solution that works with RHN? The Windows admins have a patch tool that allows them to approve each patch and push them out to groups of servers. I would like to have this functionality for our Linux servers.
We have a mismash of servers from AS3 to RHEL 6.3. Any version of Redhat still supported on RHN would need to be managed by this servers.
I am looking at Satellite. From what I have read this may not be the solution we need.
Thanks for any insight.
Responses
Guru
6863 points
Based on what you have described Satellite sounds like the most capable option. Satellite contains multiple Red Hat repositories specific to a release. You can also build your own repos to manage via Satellite.
Satellite is capable of distributing files, managing configurations, scheduling tasks, reporting status. 5.5 is the current version (I believe) - and 6.x sounds like it will also be a tremendous product.
I guess to accurately answer your question, we would need to ask a few more questions about what your specific requirements are.
You can request a Satellite evaluation (or check out http://spacewalk.redhat.com/).
Personal word of advice: if you decide that Satellite is a solution that will meet your needs I highly recommend either engaging Red Hat consulting, or taking the course (or both). Satellite is not the most complicated environment to build or manage, but I feel that you could possibly miss out on a lot of the benefits and would have to invest more time to reach the same goal.
Guru
6863 points
As far as I know - Satellite (more specifically the Satellite subscription) is the only way to get the Red Hat repo data and packages (aka "connect with RHN") to build RHN repos locally for distribution.
There are other 3rd-party supported patch management solutions available, but I have never had a need to look outside of Satellite. Some are actually even multi-platform. And for the adventurous - there is Puppet and from what I gathered at Summit this year, Puppet will be integrated with RHN Satellite 6.x.
Again - it really depends on your environment. If I had less than 40 or 50 hosts, I might get creative and try to figure out an alternative. But for the size of my shop, it was a "no brainer" to use Satellite as it saved us quite a bit of time not having to reinvent the wheel and the additonal capability Satellite provides us for day-to-day management of our environment is a HUGE time-saver. There are a few independent white-papers that have been published on the cost-savings you can realize by using Satellite, but... it's not the right solution for all problems or environments.
Not strictly accurate. You can make SpaceWalk act as a RedHat repo and do the whole repo data and eratta stuff - it's just "not for the faint of heart". That said, going into detail on how to avoid paying for Satellite likely isn't going to be appreciated by the RH moderators on an RH-supported forum. Only reason I went down that path, in the first place was that it was marginally easier to consolidate RedHat, CentOS and SciLin channels onto a common repository with SpaceWalk than it was with Satellite.
Guru
6863 points
Great to hear it.
You might want to review some of the available online sessions regarding Satellite to see some of the functionality that is available.
Thomas Cameron has been with Red Hat for a long time and knows his stuff.
http://people.redhat.com/tcameron/
You can also search Youtube for "RHN Satellite" and it should return quite a few results.
Red Hat
25369 points
Glad we could help, Chuck. By the way, right now voting a post up is the best way to mark it as helpful. We'll be adding clearer ways of marking helpful answers in future.
Red Hat
25369 points
I've migrated this discussion to the new area here: https://access.redhat.com/site/discussions/451543
Locking it here - please make in any replies in the new thread.
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