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6.3.4. Subscription Management

To use all of the features of RHN, your systems must be entitled — subscribed to an RHN service level. Use the System Entitlements page to configure which systems are entitled to which service offerings. There are six primary types of entitlements:
  • Update — manages a single Red Hat Enterprise Linux system. It includes Errata Alerts, Scheduled Errata Updates, Package Installation, and the Red Hat Update Agent.
  • Management — manages multiple systems with multiple system administrators. In addition to the features of the Update offering, it includes system group management, user management, and the System Set Manager interface to quickly perform actions on multiple systems.
  • Provisioning — offers the highest level of functionality. It should be used to provision multiple systems that will need to be re-installed and reconfigured regularly. The Provisioning offering provides tools for kickstarting machines, managing their configuration files, conducting snapshot rollbacks, and inputting searchable custom system information, as well as all of the functionality included in the Management service level.
  • Monitoring — monitors the health of multiple systems. The Monitoring offering provides probes that watch system metrics and notify Administrators when changes occur. Such notifications alert Administrators to system performance degradation before it becomes critical.
  • Virtualization — applies to virtual host systems. Virtual hosts with this entitlement may register as many as four guest systems without violating RHN's Service Level Agreement. Guest systems may be subscribed to any channel with the virtualization-free channel group label without consuming channel entitlements. Subscribing a guest to any channel that does not belong to virtualization-free, such as a Directory Server or RHN Satellite channel, consumes an additional channel entitlement.
  • Virtualization Platform — also applies to virtual host systems. Host systems to which this entitlement apply may register an unlimited number of virtual guests without invalidating your Service Level Agreement. Guests of a host with this entitlement may subscribe to any channel that has the virtualization-platform-free content group label without consuming any channel entitlements. Subscribing a guest to any channel that does not belong to virtualization-platform-free, such as a Directory Server or RHN Satellite channel, consumes an additional channel entitlement.

Note

The two virtualization entitlements specifically apply to host systems.
Guest systems that exist on unregistered hosts are treated the same as any physical system — each guest consumes a channel and a system entitlement.

6.3.4.1. System Entitlements

The System Entitlements page allows you to view, add, and remove the entitlements for your registered systems. Red Hat Network 4.0 allows you to apply and remove entitlements at will, allowing you to adjust your Red Hat Network infrastructure as your organization grows and changes.
To enable the base entitlement, select the checkbox to the left of the system, then click the Set to Management Entitled button. For add-on entitlements, select the system's checkbox, followed by the desired entitlement from the drop-down box, and finally press the Add Entitlement button.
If clicking on an entitlement fails to update the information in the table, you may need to purchase additional entitlements. Check the number of available subscriptions, listed in bold below the table. Non-RHN Satellite Server customers may purchase more entitlements; click the Buy Now link at the left of the page to do so.
When an entitlement expires, the last system entitled to the same service level (such as Management) will be unentitled. For instance, if you have 10 Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS systems entitled to Management and either one of the RHN entitlements or one of the operating system subscriptions expire, the last system subscribed or entitled will have their subscription or entitlement removed.

6.3.4.2. Virtualization Entitlements

This page only appears if you have applied Virtualization or Virtualization Platform entitlements. It allows you to quickly assess whether you have used these entitlements in the most effective manner.
The first table on this page displays any Virtualization-entitled hosts that have more guest systems than are allowed in the Red Hat Network service level agreement. If you would like to upgrade these systems to any available Virtualization Platform entitlements, click the profile name of that system. This displays the System Details page for the system. Click the Edit Properties link on the page to edit that system's add-on entitlements.
The second table displays any Virtualization Platform-entitled hosts that have fewer than four guests. It may be advisable to to downgrade these systems' entitlements to the Virtualization entitlement. To do so, click the profile name of the system you would like to downgrade, then edit the add-on entitlements from the resulting System Details page.

6.3.4.3. Software Channel Entitlements

The software channels listed on this page are the subscription-based channels to which your organization has paid access. The table lists each of the supported operating systems that can be managed via RHN, the number of such systems you have registered with RHN, and finally the remaining number of entitlements for that operating system. Clicking on the name of the channel opens a page that displays information about the channels associated with that channel entitlement. Clicking on the number of entitled systems displays a list of the systems so entitled.