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2.2. Hardware Requirements
RHN Satellite supports several hardware architectures. The following table illustrates the architecture support for RHN Satellite on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.
Table 2.1. RHN Satellite on Red Hat Enterprise Linux Architecture Support
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Version | x86 | x86_64 | s390x |
---|---|---|---|
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 | yes | yes | yes |
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 | no | yes | yes |
2.2.1. x86 and x86_64 Hardware Requirements
The following table shows the required and recommended hardware configurations on the x86 and x86_64 platform for the two types of RHN Satellite:
Table 2.2. Stand-Alone Database and Embedded Database Satellite Hardware Requirements
Stand-Alone Database | Embedded Database |
---|---|
Required - Intel Core processor, 2.4GHz, 512K cache or equivalent | Required - Intel Core processor, 2.4GHz, 512K cache or equivalent |
Recommended - Intel multi-core processor, 2.4GHz dual processor, 512K cache or equivalent | Recommended - Intel multi-core processor, 2.4GHz dual processor, 512K cache or equivalent |
Required - 2 GB of memory | Required - 2 GB of memory |
Recommended - 8 GB of memory | Strongly recommended - 8 GB of memory |
5 GB storage for base install of Red Hat Enterprise Linux | 5 GB storage for base install of Red Hat Enterprise Linux |
At least 30 GB storage per software channel (including Base and child channels), in /var/satellite/ , configurable at install | At least 30 GB storage per software channel (including Base and child channels), in /var/satellite/ , configurable at install |
Recommended - an external SAN for more reliable backups | Recommended - an external SAN for more reliable backups |
12 GB storage for the database repository, in the /rhnsat partition (local storage only) | |
Strongly recommended - a SCSI drive connected to a level 5 RAID | |
Separate partition (or better, a separate set of physical disks) for storing backups. This can be any directory specifiable at backup time. |
Note
Satellite requires a lot of disk space. Allocate space accordingly and ensure there is plenty of room for the installation to grow. The recommendation given might not be suitable for all environments.
Beyond the space needed for Red Hat Enterprise Linux installation and
/var/satellite/
, you also need space for cache files generated when using Satellite, which get regenerated, as needed, if deleted. These cache files are stored within /var/cache/rhn
, and the storage needs of this directory will vary greatly depending on the following factors:
- how many channels you sync or import from RHN or Channel dumps
- how many custom packages and channels you have
- Whether or not you are using Inter-Satellite Sync
As a guide, provide at least 10 GB of space for
/var/cache/rhn/
on a Satellite server. For very large Satellite deployments with numerous channels, packages, and using Inter Satellite Sync, your usage could grow to as much as 100 GB of space for cache files in /var/cache/rhn
.
The following hardware configuration is required for the Stand-Alone Database:
- Two processors
- 2 GB of memory
See Section 2.3, “Database Requirements” for instructions on estimating the tablespace of the database and setting its environment variables.
Keep in mind, the frequency with which client systems connect to the Satellite is directly related to load on the Apache Web server and the database. Reducing the default interval of four hours (or 240 minutes) as set in the
/etc/sysconfig/rhn/rhnsd
configuration file of the client systems significantly increases the load on those components.