Managing multiple OS release in satellite

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Hello,

I would like to know how to have multiple channel of different OS version and use them when I install a new server.

What I need is to be able to install a 6.3 OS, register it to a 6.3 channel and apply available patch without going to another version.

Thank you

SM
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Responses

ir. Jan Gerrit Kootstra's picture Guru 6222 points
23 January 2014 8:55 PM

Sylvian,

You need EUS to be able to install security patches for older minor releases.

If you just want to install the servers with 6.3 but do not patch them later on.

Just use the kickstart provided with the minor releases.

EUS gives you major.minor.z channels so in your case 6.3.z channels which will be maintained for sometime after a new minor release is introduced.

You will receive notifications in advance ones an EUS channel will be discontinued.

Be aware, EUS requires extra subscription fees. It is not included in the normal subscriptions.

Another option is included in the Spacewalk tooling of your Satellite: create your own channel using
spacewalk-clone-by-date.
For this you need to clone both a parent channel and all it's child channels, patches will be included until the date you give. So staying with RHEL 6.3 requires to remind yourself of the release date of RHEL 6.4.
Check https://access.redhat.com/site/articles/3078 for the lifetime of RHEL minor releases. Dates may very about one day depending on your timezone.

Kind regards,

Jan Gerrit Kootstra

SM Community Member 42 points
24 January 2014 12:58 PM

Thank you Jan!

ML Community Member 27 points
28 January 2014 3:24 PM

Hello - I have the same requirement.

It sounds like there are two options, but only the first may offer new, ongoing patches for an older release like RHEL 6.3. Is this correct?

Option 1 - EUS
Option 2 - spacewalk-clone-by-date which sounds like no new patches for a specific release will be synced after the date specified for the clone-by-date.

Is there a way to apply ongoing errata updates relevant to a release like RHEL 6.3 with option 2? We have 3rd party vendors that do not yet support the latest RHEL release.

Thank You

AH Red Hat Guru 2032 points
30 January 2014 7:00 AM

Hi Mark,

Using steps mentioned in article - How to add errata/packages to the clone channel on RHN Satellite ? you can add required Red Hat provided errata's to clone channel.

After adding errata(s) to clone channel you have to wait till cache get re-generated for clone channel. Once repodata is regenerated clients can install/update packages provided by newly added errata.

Regards,
Ashish

SM Community Member 42 points
29 January 2014 7:47 PM

Hello again,

Is there a step by step document that explain how to create the custom channel and make it available to the newly installed server?

I have created a clone channel for the version 6.4 with spacewalk-clone-date, I see it on the channel page of my sattelite server, I have added child channel to it but from there I'm not sure how the make it available to my servers and I can't list it from my client server.

AH Red Hat Guru 2032 points
30 January 2014 6:43 AM

Hello Sylvain,

After creating clone of base channel 6.4 using spacewalk-clone-by-date and its child channels , if you want to subscribe systems to clone channel you can follow steps bellow

Login to satellite webui -> Systems -> Systems -> Select System profile to which you want to subscribe clone channel -> "Alter Channel Subscriptions" -> At bottom of page under "Base Software Channel " you should see newly created clone channel. Select it and click on "Confirm".

If you face any problem let us know.

Regards,
Ashish

SM Community Member 42 points
4 February 2014 4:22 PM

Thank you Ashish,
from webui it's working fine but I would like to script it so at install it will be assigned to the correct base channel. I created a new channel (clone-6-4-full) and assigned it to a client from webui with success (switched from original base to new clone).
From the client prompt (rhn-channel) I get the list of child channel from the clone base channel. I tried to move back the client to it's original base channel from prompt but got no success at this task.

Still getting errors:

--tried remove the base clone one
rhn-channel -r --channel=clone-6-4-full --user=##### --password=#####
Error communicating with server. The message was:

Error Message:
You can not unsubscribe 1000012036 from base channel clone-6-4-full.
Error Class Code: 72
Error Class Info: You can not unsubscribe from base channel.
Explanation:
An error has occurred while processing your request. If this problem
persists please enter a bug report at bugzilla.redhat.com.
If you choose to submit the bug report, please be sure to include
details of what you were trying to do when this error occurred and
details on how to reproduce this problem.

--tried adding the original one
rhn-channel -a --channel=rhel-x86_64-server-6 --user=#### --password=####
Error communicating with server. The message was:

Error Message:
Server already subscribed to 141
Error Class Code: 38
Error Class Info: The system is already subscribed to the specified channel.
Explanation:
An error has occurred while processing your request. If this problem
persists please enter a bug report at bugzilla.redhat.com.
If you choose to submit the bug report, please be sure to include
details of what you were trying to do when this error occurred and
details on how to reproduce this problem.

If I do a rhn-channel -l I get the list of child from the clone base channel and the '-L' give nothing.

what are the steps to switch from a base channel to another from client prompt?

AH Red Hat Guru 2032 points
5 February 2014 7:06 AM

Hi Sylvain,

Using rhn-channel command we can remove/unsubscribe only child channels , base channel can not be removed from system using rhn-channel.

You can use API available with satellite to set new base channel to system from CLI

# spacewalk-api --server=satellite.example.com system.setBaseChannel "%session%" 1000034894  rhel-x86_64-server-6

Command " rhn-channel -L " will list child channels available under base channel to which system is subscribed. If newly created clone channel - clone-6-4-full is not having any child channels, then -L option will not list any thing.

Hope this helps you.

Regards,
Ashish

SM Community Member 42 points
5 February 2014 2:46 PM

Perfect, this will help me! Too bad we can't modify the base directly from client but I will centralise install from another server that will get systemID from client and remotely execute the spacewalk-api command on satellite.

Put this in case someone else would like to do something similar:
get system id
SERVERID=$(grep ID /etc/sysconfig/rhn/systemid|grep -o '[0-9]*')

modify base channel
spacewalk-api --server=[satellite name] system.setBaseChannel "%session%" $SERVERID custom-channel -u ##### -p #####

Thank you Ashish

AH Red Hat Guru 2032 points
6 February 2014 4:04 AM

Hi Sylvain,

Yes using an API script from satellite server will help you to manage channel subscription for system profile from central location.

Good to know that provided details helped you.

Regards,
Ashish

ir. Jan Gerrit Kootstra's picture Guru 6222 points
4 February 2014 5:13 PM

Warning: adding errata to a clone channel can break the requirement to stay with 6.3.
EUS is the safest way to go.

6.3z will become unsupported with at the beginning of 2014 Q3, has been announced by Red Hat.

ML Community Member 27 points
5 February 2014 10:59 AM

Where can we find the end of support dates for minor releases or EUS channels?

james.radtke@siriusxm.com's picture Guru 6863 points
5 February 2014 1:53 PM

Red Hat Support Lifecycle
https://access.redhat.com/site/support/policy/updates/errata/

R. Hinton's picture Guru 6827 points
21 February 2014 7:07 PM 
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
Release/Update General Availability Date redhat-release Errata Date* Kernel Version 
RHEL 6 Update 6 TBA TBA TBA 
RHEL 6 Update 5 2013-11-21 2013-11-20 RHSA-2013:1645-2 2.6.32-431 
RHEL 6 Update 4 2013-02-21 2013-02-21 RHSA-2013-0496 2.6.32-358 
RHEL 6 Update 3 2012-06-20 2012-06-19 RHSA-2012-0862 2.6.32-279 
RHEL 6 Update 2 2011-12-06 2011-12-06 RHEA-2011:1743 2.6.32-220 
RHEL 6 Update 1 2011-05-19 2011-05-19 RHEA-2011:0540 2.6.32-131.0.15 
RHEL 6 GA 2010-11-09 - 2.6.32-71 

Codename: Santiago (based on a mix of Fedora 12, Fedora 13, and several modifications)

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5
Release/Update General Availability Date redhat-release Errata Date* Kernel Version 
RHEL 5 Update 11 TBA TBA TBA 
RHEL 5 Update 10 2013-10-01 2013-09-30 RHEA-2013-1311 2.6.18-371 
RHEL 5 Update 9 2013-01-07 2013-01-07 RHEA-2013-0021 2.6.18-348 
RHEL 5 Update 8 2012-02-20 2012-02-20 RHEA-2012:0315 2.6.18-308 
RHEL 5 Update 7 2011-07-21 2011-07-20 RHEA-2011:0977 2.6.18-274 
RHEL 5 Update 6 2011-01-13 2011-01-12 RHEA-2011:0020 2.6.18-238 
RHEL 5 Update 5 2010-03-30 2010-03-30 RHEA-2010:0207 2.6.18-194 
RHEL 5 Update 4 2009-09-02 2009-09-02 RHEA-2009:1400 2.6.18-164 
RHEL 5 Update 3 2009-01-20 2009-01-20 RHEA-2009:0133 2.6.18-128 
RHEL 5 Update 2 2008-05-21 2008-05-20 RHEA-2008:0436 2.6.18-92 
RHEL 5 Update 1 2007-11-07 2007-11-07 RHEA-2007:0854 2.6.18-53 
RHEL 5 GA 2007-03-15 - 2.6.18-8 

Codename: Tikanga (based on Fedora Core 6)
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