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1.3. The Provisioning Module

As the highest management service level, RHN Provisioning encompasses all of the features offered in the RHN Update and Management subscription levels. It is designed to allow the deployment and management of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems, users, and system groups.
Like Management, Provisioning is based upon an organization. It takes this concept a step further by enabling customers with Provisioning entitlements to kickstart, reconfigure, track, and revert systems on the fly.
In addition to all of the features mentioned in lower service levels, Provisioning provides:
  • Kickstarting — Systems with Provisioning entitlements may be reinstalled through RHN with options established in kickstart profiles. Kickstart profiles can set the bootloader type; the time zone; the packages to be included or excluded; the allowed IP address ranges; and even the acceptable GPG and SSL keys.
  • Client Configuration — RHN Satellite Customers can use RHN to manage the configuration files on Provisioning-entitled systems. Users can upload files to custom configurations channels on the Satellite, verify local configuration files against those stored on the Satellite, and deploy files from the Satellite.
  • Snapshot Rollbacks — Provisioning-level users have the ability to revert the package profile and RHN settings of systems. RHN Satellite customers can also roll back local configurations files. This is possible because snapshots are captured whenever an action takes place on a system. These snapshots identify groups, channels, packages, and configuration files.

    Note

    Snapshot rollbacks support the ability to revert certain changes to the system, but not in every scenario. For example, you can roll back a set of RPM packages, but rolling back across multiple update levels is not supported.
  • Custom System Information — Provisioning customers can identify any type of information they choose about their registered systems; develop specific keys of the administrator's choosing; and assign searchable values for that key to each Provisioning-entitled system. For example, this feature allows the adminstrator to identify the cubicle in which each system is located and search through all registered systems according to their cubicle.