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10.3. Inter-Satellite Synchronization Use Cases

Inter-Satellite Synchronization (ISS) can be used in several different ways, depending on the needs of the organization. This section provides examples of how ISS can be used and the methods for setting up and operating these cases.

Example 10.4. Staging Satellite

This example uses one Satellite as a staging Satellite to prepare content and perform quality assurance on the packages to ensure they are fit for production use. When content is approved to go to production, the production satellite can synchronize the content from the stage satellite.
Staging Satellite

Figure 10.1. Staging Satellite

Syncing from Red Hat Network Hosted and a Satellite Staging Server

Figure 10.2. Syncing from Red Hat Network Hosted and a Satellite Staging Server

  1. Run the satellite-sync command to synchronize data with rhn_parent (usually Red Hat Network Hosted): 
    satellite-sync -c your-channel
  2. Run the following command to synchronize data from the staging server: 
    satellite-sync --iss-parent=staging-satellite.example.com -c custom-channel

Example 10.5. Synchronized Slaves

In this example, the master satellite provides data directly to the slaves and changes are regularly synchronized.
Slave Satellites are maintained exactly as the master

Figure 10.3. Slave Satellites are maintained exactly as the master

Example 10.6. Slave Custom Content

This example uses the master satellite as a development channel, from which content is distributed to all production slave satellites. Some of the slave satellites have extra content that is not present in the master satellite channels. These packages are preserved, but all changes from the master satellite are synchronized to the slaves.
Slave Satellites that retain their own custom content

Figure 10.4. Slave Satellites that retain their own custom content

Example 10.7. Bi-directional synchronization

In this environment, two Red Hat Satellite servers act as both master and salve to each other and can synchronize content between them. The Satellite server where the command satellite-sync is run will pull the content from the other Satellite server and the synchronized data will depend on the options run with satellite-sync. Without any options, the synchronization will attempt to update everything that was previously synchronized.
Bi-directional synchronization

Figure 10.5. Bi-directional synchronization

See Section 10.1.1, “Manual Configuration” for configuring a Master Satellite. Configuring both Satellite servers as a Master will create a bi-directional sync.