10.2.3. Client-Side Application Functionality with a Self-Subscribed Satellite

Red Hat provides various client-side tools for interaction with various aspects of a Red Hat Satellite. The list below outlines whether or not a client-side application functions on a Self-Subscribed Satellite server.

Warning

Do not force the installation of the rhnmd client-side monitoring package onto a self-subscribed Satellite as this will break Monitoring.

Important

There are several important things to note about a self-subscribed Satellite:
  • If a client-side application is not listed here it has not been tested.
  • Red Hat recommends that Administrators lock the registered Self-Subscribed Satellite within the Satellite web interface. This prevents any scheduled event from executing. Before unlocking the Satellite review the pending events and delete those you do not want to run.
  • Red Hat recommends Administrators entitle the Self-Subscribed Satellite to the Management level but with no Provisioning or Monitoring entitlements. This helps to avoid possible harmful or accidental changes to the Satellite server.
  • If the self-subscribed Satellite has been granted a Provisioning entitlement do not attempt to use the Satellite to re-provision itself. The Satellite will attempt to perform the re-installation of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system but on reboot the Red Hat installation program will be unable to download the necessary packages from the Satellite to perform the installation. There is a high risk of data loss and service interruption for your Satellite, especially if external kickstart trees are used.
  • Red Hat Update Agent Tools
    The up2date, rhn_check, rhnsd and, yum packages will all function normally on a self-subscribed Satellite.
  • Push
    The osad package will not install. The osad package is used to push packages to client systems but it conflicts with the server-side osa-dispatcher package. Do not attempt to force the installation of osad on a self-subscribed Satellite.
  • Applet
    Both the rhn-applet-tui package and the rhn-applet-gui package will function normally. Installation and configuration of the rhn-applet-tui and rhn-applet-gui packages will complete normally. These packages allow client systems to communicate with the Satellite.

    Note

    The rhn-applet-gui requires packages that are not installed by default.
  • Configuration Client Tool
    The rhncfg-client package will function normally after a change to the configuration file. Edit the /etc/sysconfig/rhn/rhncfg-client.conf file and change the systemIdPath option to match the path to systemid.up2date created in Procedure 10.3, “Installing and Configuring a Self-Subscribed Satellite”.
  • Configuration Management Tool
    The rhncfg-manager package will function normally.
  • Custom Info
    The rhn-custom-info package will function normally.
  • Client Monitoring
    The rhnmd package will not install. The rhnmd package conflicts with the server-side monitoring packages. Do not attempt to force the installation of rhnmd as this will break Monitoring on the Satellite.