3. Subscription Workflows

There are different types of systems and different ways of organizing systems. Subscription Manager, and the underlying concepts of a subscription server and content provider, are flexible enough to accommodate special types of systems and different infrastructure setups.

3.1. Planning the Workflow to Use

Subscription and content services work in tandem. The local Red Hat Subscription Manager client on a system must identify a subscription service and a content delivery service. These can both be hosted services, both locally-managed services, or a mix.
All subscription and content data originates with Red Hat. By default, all Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems are configured to point to the Red Hat hosted services. If administrators use an on-premise server for subscription or content management, that on-premise server first obtains its information from the Red Hat hosted services, and then manages the local systems. Red Hat subscription inventories are aware of the on-premise subscription application, then, but not aware of any of the local systems that subscription application manages.
The Red Hat Subscription Manager configuration points to two servers, the subscription server and content server. These two settings can be changed (independently) to use any supported subscription server or content server. Table 2, “Subscription and Content Services, by Source” lists subscription and content servers.

Table 2. Subscription and Content Services, by Source

Server Type Supports Subscription Services Supports Content Delivery Services Recommended Environment Types
Customer Portal Subscription Management
  • Small businesses (fewer than 20 servers)
  • Limited IT resources
  • No need to script subscription or content updates
Subscription Asset Manager
  • Small and medium businesses
  • Business with security rules that preclude hosted services
  • Multiple virtual machines
  • Large enterprises which require auditing and reporting, without any additional management functions
Satellite 6
  • Medium businesses
  • Business with security rules that preclude hosted services
  • Custom content and deployment scripts
  • System management along with subscription/content management