Chapter 2. New Features and Enhancements

This chapter introduces new features in Red Hat Satellite 6.2, and links to further information.
Increase Efficiency with Automated Workflows

Satellite 6.2 introduces remote execution, automating workflows and enabling users to take multiple actions against groups of systems, such as rebooting a system after a patch install or conduct rolling upgrades across hundreds of systems as easily as one. Users can easily build a script library, share scripts and share repeatable workflows, enabling less experienced administrators to execute complex workflows. In addition, users can schedule tasks and use new dashboards for enhanced interaction with systems under management.

Increase Security in Disconnected Environments

Satellite 6.2 provides the ability to synchronize and export content from one Satellite to another, especially useful for organizations that require their systems management solution to run disconnected from the internet for security purposes.

More Flexible Provisioning

Discovery enhancements in Satellite simplify the process of building systems and allow end users to more efficiently provision systems in secured environments where DHCP and PXE may not be available.

Increased Reliability, Availability, and Serviceability

Satellite 6.2 includes a number performance enhancements, highlighted by the following:

Build systems during content synch
Streamlined content synchronization enables users to build systems almost immediately after install while content downloads in the background.
Faster backups
Satellite content synchronization speeds the backup and restore process because software packages are no longer required to be backed up. This drastically reduces the amount of time a Satellite needs to be offline for backup.
Capsule visibility
The Red Hat Satellite Capsule user interface provides much deeper insight into the health of the Capsule, such as what services are running and their status, from the centralized Satellite console.
Lighter-Weight Capsules
Red Hat Satellite repositories can be configured to store only the content that has been requested by clients. This reduces the storage needed. This feature is available as a Technology Preview in Satellite 6.2. For information on Red Hat Technology Preview features support scope, see Technology Preview Features Support Scope. Note that this feature is fully supported from release 6.2.3.
Ability to Import Existing Hosts

Satellite 6.2 features new scripts and automation to import existing Red Hat infrastructure hosts that may reside on any Red Hat systems management platform, including Red Hat Satellite 5.x. This bootstrap script automates the process of registering systems to Satellite, dramatically reducing the number of steps required to get existing systems ready to be managed by Red Hat Satellite.

Containers and the Container Host Infrastructure

The latest version of Red Hat Satellite includes RHEL Atomic Hosts support, enabling users to provision and manage RHEL Atomic Hosts, Red Hat’s hardened platform for container workloads. Red Hat Satellite also supports RHEL Atomic Hosts as a compute resource, allowing container deployments to RHEL Atomic Hosts.