Red Hat NETWORK PROXY 5.3.0

Red Hat Network

Proxy 5.3.0

Installation Guide

Red Hat Network Proxy

Installation Guide

Red Hat Network Proxy 5.3.0 Installation Guide

Red Hat Network Proxy

Edition 5.3.0

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iii

1. Introduction 1

1.1. Red Hat Network ......................................................................................................... 1

1.2. RHN Proxy Server ....................................................................................................... 1

1.3. Terms to Understand .................................................................................................... 2

1.4. How it Works ............................................................................................................... 3

2. Requirements 5

2.1. Software Requirements ................................................................................................ 5

2.2. Hardware Requirements ............................................................................................... 6

2.3. Disk Space Requirements ............................................................................................ 6

2.4. Additional Requirements ............................................................................................... 7

3. Example Topologies 9

3.1. Single Proxy Topology .................................................................................................. 9

3.2. Multiple Proxy Horizontally Tiered Topology ................................................................... 9

3.3. Multiple Proxy Vertically Tiered Topology ..................................................................... 10

3.4. Proxies with RHN Satellite Server ............................................................................... 11

4. Installation 13

4.1. Base Install ................................................................................................................ 13

4.2. RHN Proxy Server Installation Process ........................................................................ 13

4.2.1. The Answer File .............................................................................................. 17

5. RHN Package Manager 19

5.1. Creating a Private Channel ......................................................................................... 19

5.2. Uploading Packages ................................................................................................... 19

5.3. Command Line Options .............................................................................................. 20

6. Troubleshooting 23

6.1. Managing the Proxy Service ....................................................................................... 23

6.2. Log Files .................................................................................................................... 23

6.3. Questions and Answers .............................................................................................. 23

6.4. General Problems ...................................................................................................... 24

6.5. Host Not Found/Could Not Determine FQDN ............................................................... 25

6.6. Connection Errors ...................................................................................................... 25

6.7. Caching Issues .......................................................................................................... 26

6.8. Proxy Debugging by Red Hat ..................................................................................... 27

A. RHN Proxy Server Installation via Satellite Website 29

B. Sample RHN Proxy Server Configuration File 39

C. Revision History 41

Index 43

Chapter 1.

Introduction

1.1. Red Hat Network

Red Hat Network (RHN) is the environment for system-level support and management of Red

Hat systems and networks of systems. Red Hat Network brings together the tools, services, and

information repositories needed to maximize the reliability, security, and performance of their systems.

To use RHN, system administrators register the software and hardware profiles, known as System

Profiles, of their client systems with Red Hat Network. When a client system requests package

updates, only the applicable packages for the client are returned (based upon the software profile

stored on the RHN Servers).

Advantages of using Red Hat Network include:

• Scalability — with Red Hat Network, a single system administrator can set up and maintain

hundreds or thousands of Red Hat systems more easily, accurately, and quickly than they could

maintain a single system without Red Hat Network.

• Standard Protocols — standard protocols are used to maintain security and increase capability. For

example, XML-RPC gives Red Hat Network the ability to do much more than merely download files.

• Security — all communication between registered systems and Red Hat Network takes place over

secure Internet connections.

• View Errata Alerts — easily view Errata Alerts for all your client systems through one website.

• Scheduled Actions — use the website to schedule actions, including Errata Updates, package

installs, and software profile updates.

• Simplification — maintaining Red Hat systems becomes a simple, automated process.

1.2. RHN Proxy Server

An RHN Proxy Server is a package-caching mechanism that reduces the bandwidth requirements

for RHN and enables custom package deployment. Proxy customers cache RPMs, such as Errata

Updates from Red Hat or custom RPMs generated by their organization, on an internal, centrally-

located server. Client systems then receive these updates from the Proxy rather than by accessing the

Internet individually.

Although the packages are served by the Proxy, clients' System Profiles and user information are

stored on the secure, central RHN Servers1, which also serve the RHN website (rhn.redhat.com). The

Proxy acts as a go-between for client systems and Red Hat Network (or an RHN Satellite Server).

Only the package files are stored on the RHN Proxy Server. Every transaction is authenticated, and

the Red Hat Update Agent checks the GPG signature of each package retrieved from the local RHN

Proxy Server.

In addition to storing official Red Hat packages, the RHN Proxy Server can be configured to deliver an

organization's own custom packages from private RHN channels, using the RHN Package Manager.

For instance, an organization could develop its own software, package it in an RPM, sign it with its

1 Throughout this document, "RHN" may refer to either RHN's Hosted site (http://rhn.redhat.com) or an RHN Satellite Server.

Chapter 1. Introduction

own GPG signature, and have the local RHN Proxy Server update all of the individual systems in the

network with the latest versions of the custom software.

Advantages of using RHN Proxy Server include:

• Scalability — there can be multiple local RHN Proxy Servers within one organization.

• Security — an end-to-end secure connection is maintained: from the client systems, to the local

RHN Proxy Server, to the Red Hat Network servers.

• Saves time — packages are delivered significantly faster over a local area network than the Internet.

• Saves bandwidth — packages are downloaded from RHN only once (per local Proxy Server's

caching mechanism) instead of downloading each package to each client system.

• Customized updates — create a truly automated package delivery system for custom software

packages, as well as official Red Hat packages required for the client systems. Custom private RHN

channels allow an organization to automate delivery of in-house packages.

• Customized configuration — restrict or grant updates to specific architectures and OS versions.

• Only one Internet connection required — Because clients connect only to the RHN Proxy Server

and not the Internet, they require only a Local Area Network connection to the Proxy. Only the RHN

Proxy Server needs an Internet connection to contact the RHN Servers, unless the RHN Proxy

Server is using a RHN Satellite Server, in which case only the RHN Satellite Server requires an

Internet connection.

1.3. Terms to Understand

Before understanding RHN Proxy Server, it is important to become familiar with the following Red Hat

Network terms:

Channel

A channel is a list of software packages. There are two types of channels: base channels and

child channels. A base channel consists of a list of packages based on a specific architecture and

Red Hat release. A child channel is a channel associated with a base channel that contains extra

packages.

Organization Administrator

An Organization Administrator is a user role with the highest level of control over an organization's

Red Hat Network account. Members with this role can add other users, other systems, and system

groups to the organization, as well as remove them. A Red Hat Network organization must have at

least one Organization Administrator.

Channel Administrator

A Channel Administrator is a user role with full access to channel management capabilities. Users

with this role are capable of creating channels and assigning packages to channels. This role can

be assigned by an Organization Administrator through the Users tab of the RHN website.

Red Hat Update Agent

The Red Hat Update Agent is the Red Hat Network client application (up2date or yum) that

allows users to retrieve and install new or updated packages for the client system on which the

application is run.

How it Works

Traceback

A traceback is a detailed description of "what went wrong" that is useful for troubleshooting the

RHN Proxy Server. Tracebacks are automatically generated when a critical error occurs and are

emailed to the individual(s) designated in the RHN Proxy Server's configuration file.

For more detailed explanations of these terms and others, refer to the Red Hat Network Reference

Guide available at http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/satellite/ and the Help page on the Satellite

Web user interface.

1.4. How it Works

The Red Hat Update Agent or Package Updater on the client systems does not directly contact a

Red Hat Network Server. Instead, the client (or clients) connects in turn to an RHN Proxy Server that

connects to the Red Hat Network Servers or to a RHN Satellite Server. Thus, the client systems do not

need direct access to the Internet. They need access only to the RHN Proxy Server.

Important

Red Hat strongly recommends that clients connected to an RHN Proxy Server be

running the latest update of Red Hat Enterprise Linux to ensure proper connectivity.

Clients that access RHN directly are authenticated by the RHN servers. Clients that access an

RHN Proxy Server are still authenticated by RHN; however, in this case the Proxy provides both

authentication and route information to RHN. After a successful authentication, the Red Hat Network

Server informs the RHN Proxy Server that it is permitted to execute a specific action for the client. The

RHN Proxy Server downloads all of the updated packages (if they are not already present in its cache)

and delivers them to the client system.

Requests from the Red Hat Update Agent or Package Updater on the client systems are still

authenticated on the server side, but package delivery is significantly faster since the packages are

cached in the HTTP Proxy Caching Server or the RHN Proxy Server (for local packages); the RHN

Proxy Server and client system are connected via the LAN and are limited only by the speed of the

local network.

Authentication is done in the following order:

1. The client performs a login action at the beginning of a client session. This login is passed through

one or more RHN Proxy Servers until it reaches a Red Hat Network Server.

2. The Red Hat Network Server attempts to authenticate the client. If authentication is successful,

the server then passes back a session token via the chain of RHN Proxy Servers. This token,

which has a signature and expiration, contains user information, including channel subscriptions,

username, etc.

3. Each RHN Proxy Server caches this token on its local file system in /var/cache/rhn/. Caching

reduces some of the overhead of authenticating with Red Hat Network Servers and greatly

improves the performance of Red Hat Network.

4. This session token is passed back to the client machine and is used in subsequent actions on Red

Hat Network.

From the client's point of view, there is no difference between an RHN Proxy Server and a Red Hat

Network Server. From the Red Hat Network Server's point of view, an RHN Proxy Server is a special

Chapter 1. Introduction

type of RHN client. Clients are thus not affected by the route a request takes to reach a Red Hat

Network Server. All the logic is implemented in the RHN Proxy Servers and Red Hat Network Servers.

Optionally, the RHN Package Manager can be installed and configured to serve custom packages.

Any package that is not an official Red Hat package, including custom packages written specifically

for an organization, can only be served from a private software channel (also referred to as a custom

software channel). After creating a private RHN channel, the custom RPM packages are associated

with that channel by uploading the package headers to the RHN Servers. Only the headers are

uploaded, not the actual package files. The headers are required because they contain crucial RPM

information, such as software dependencies, that allows RHN to automate package installation. The

actual custom RPM packages are stored on the RHN Proxy Server and sent to the client systems from

inside the organization's local area network.

Configuring a computer network to use RHN Proxy Servers is straightforward. The Red Hat Network

applications on the client systems must be configured to connect to the RHN Proxy Server instead of

the Red Hat Network Servers. Refer to the RHN Client Configuration Guide for details. On the proxy

side, one has to specify the next proxy in the chain (which eventually ends with a Red Hat Network

Server). If the RHN Package Manager is used, the client systems must be subscribed to the private

RHN channel.

Chapter 2.

Requirements

These requirements must be met before installation. To install RHN Proxy Server 5.3.0 from RHN

Satellite Server, the Satellite itself must be version 5.3.0.

2.1. Software Requirements

To perform an installation, the following software-related components must be available:

• Base operating system — RHN Proxy Server is supported with Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS 4

or Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5. The operating system can be installed from disc, local ISO image,

kickstart, or any of the methods supported by Red Hat.

Each version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux requires a certain package set to support RHN

Proxy Server. Adding more packages can cause errors during installation. Therefore, Red Hat

recommends obtaining the desired package set in the following ways:

Note

For kickstarting, specify the following package group: @Base

For installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux via CD or ISO image, select the following

package group: Minimal

Warning

If you are running Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS 4, Security-enhanced Linux

(SELinux) must be disabled prior to installation of RHN Proxy Server. If you use Red

Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Server, SELinux can be left enabled when installing RHN

Proxy Server.

You can disable SELinux in one of several ways:

• During CD or ISO image installation, select Disabled when presented with

options for SELinux support.

• To do this for kickstart installation, include the command selinux --disabled

• After the installation is complete, edit the /etc/selinux/config file to read

SELINUX=disabled and reboot the system.

• Finally, you can use the system-config-securitylevel-tui command and

reboot the system.

• An available RHN Proxy Server entitlement within your RHN Satellite Server account.

• An available Provisioning entitlement within your RHN Satellite Server account (which should come

packaged with your RHN Proxy Server entitlement).

Chapter 2. Requirements

• Access to the Red Hat Network Tools channel for the installed version of Red Hat Enterprise

Linux. This channel includes the spacewalk-proxy-installer package that contains the

configure-proxy.sh installation program required to install RHN Proxy Server.

• All rhncfg* packages installed on the Proxy (from the RHN Tools channel).

• Either the rhns-certs-tools package installed on the Proxy (from the RHN Tools channel) for

RHN Hosted users, or the secure sockets layer (SSL) CA certificate password used to generate the

parent server certificate for RHN Satellite Server users.

• Configuration of the system to accept remote commands and configuration management through

Red Hat Network if using the deprecated Web UI installation method. Refer to Section 4.2, “RHN

Proxy Server Installation Process” for instructions.

2.2. Hardware Requirements

The following hardware configuration is required for the RHN Proxy Server:

• A Pentium IV Processor or equivalent

• 512 MB of memory

• At least 5 GB storage for base install of Red Hat Enterprise Linux

• 25+ GB storage per distribution/channel

The load on the Apache Web server is directly related to the frequency with which client systems

connect to the Proxy. If you reduce the default interval of four hours (or 240 minutes) as set in the /

etc/sysconfig/rhn/rhnsd configuration file of the client systems, you will increase the load on

this component significantly.

Note

RHN Proxy Server does not support kickstart provisioning on multi-homed network

topologies. Kickstarts will not function properly on a Proxy server that has more than

one network interface.

2.3. Disk Space Requirements

The caching mechanism used by RHN Proxy Server is the Squid HTTP proxy, which saves significant

bandwidth for the clients. It should have a reasonable amount of space available. The cached

packages are stored in /var/spool/squid. The required free space allotment is 6 GB storage per

distribution/channel.

If the RHN Proxy Server is configured to distribute custom, or local packages, make sure that the

/var mount point on the system storing local packages has sufficient disk space to hold all of the

custom packages, which are stored in /var/spool/rhn-proxy. The required disk space for local

packages depends on the number of custom packages served.

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