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10.2. Setting Up a Self-Subscribed Red Hat Satellite

A self-subscribed Red Satellite 5 Server is registered to itself rather than the central Red Hat Network Classic Hosted servers. A Satellite server that is not registered to itself is registered to Red Hat Network Classic Hosted servers then activated as a Satellite Server. The Satellite can then use the satellite-sync command get new packages and content from the Red Hat Network Classic Hosted servers.
Once a self-subscribed Satellite server is set up, it gets content in the same way but through a base channel hosted on the Satellite server itself rather than through the Red Hat Network Classic Hosted servers. This process allows control of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux packages on the Satellite in the same manner as clients registered to the Satellite.

Important

Self-subscribed Satellites have several limitations. These are:
  • A self-subscribed Satellite cannot be used as means to monitor itself. Installing the client side rhnmd package will break the monitoring of the Satellite. Red Hat Network Classic Hosted provides custom monitoring probes that can be configured to monitor a self-subscribed Satellite.
  • A self-subscribed Satellite treats the self-registration as it does any other client system registration. To prevent accidental changes to your self-subscribed Satellite lock the self-subscribed Satellite's system profile using Lock system in the system profile.
  • A self-subscribed Satellite cannot use osad. Installing the client-side osad package will break the provisioning feature of Satellite.

10.2.1. Installing and Configuring a Self-Subscribed Satellite

Procedure 10.3. Installing and Configuring a Self-Subscribed Satellite

  1. Install Red Hat Enterprise Linux following the instructions provided in Scenario 1: Installing Satellite with Embedded Database in the Red Hat Satellite 5 Installation Guide.
  2. Install Red Hat Satellite 5 following the instructions provided in Scenario 1: Installing Satellite with Embedded Database in the Red Hat Satellite 5 Installation Guide. Allow the Satellite to register and activate the Satellite subscription to Red Hat Network Classic Hosted.
  3. Use the satellite-sync command to download and import the base channel that matches the version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux installed on the Satellite server in Step 1. The satellite-sync command can import the necessary files either from the Red Hat Network Classic Hosted servers or the base channel content ISOs available for download.
  4. Use the Satellite 5 web interface to create a cloned channel of the imported base channel. See Chapter 5, Cloning Software Channels and Errata for more information.
  5. Use the following command to rename the systemid file. This file allows communication between the Satellite and the Red Hat Network Classic Hosted servers. 
    # mv /etc/sysconfig/rhn/systemid /etc/sysconfig/rhn/systemid.sat
  6. Install the client side Satellite SSL certificate onto the Satellite using the following command. 
    # rpm -Uvh /var/www/html/pub/rhn-org-trusted-ssl-cert-1.0-1.noarch.rpm
  7. Reconfigure Red Hat Update Agent to use the Satellite hostname and SSL certificate by editing the /etc/sysconfig/rhn/up2date. Change the following options:
    The /etc/sysconfig/rhn/up2date options will be set 
    sslCACert=/usr/share/rhn/RHN-ORG-TRUSTED-SSL-CERT
noSSLServerURL=http://satellite-server-hostname/XMLRPC
serverURL=https://satellite-server-hostname/XMLRPC

    Note

    The HTTP proxy information that allows the Satellite access to the Red Hat Network Classic Hosted server must be removed from the configuration settings. This will permit the Update Agent to communicate with the Satellite.
    Depending on network settings it may be necessary to use the main IP address associated with the default network card to communicate with the Satellite rather than the hostname or localhost.
  8. Register the Satellite server using one of the following commands:
    • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, 6, and 7:
      rhnreg_ks --username satellite_username --password satellite_password command.
    • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 and 4:
      up2date --register
  9. Once registration is complete rename the systemid file to systemid.up2date and rename the systemid.sat file back to systemid using the following commands. 
    # mv /etc/sysconfig/rhn/systemid /etc/sysconfig/rhn/systemid.up2date
# mv /etc/sysconfig/rhn/systemid.sat /etc/sysconfig/rhn/systemid
  10. Change the systemIdPath option of up2date to the path of the systemid.up2date file. 
    systemIdPath=/etc/sysconfig/rhn/systemid.up2date
  11. Log into the Satellite web interface. Go to the System Details → Channels then select the cloned base channel from the drop-down menu. Click Modify Base Channel.