Red Hat Training

A Red Hat training course is available for Red Hat Satellite

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.