Red Hat NETWORK PROXY SERVER 4.0

RHN Proxy Server 4.0

Installation Guide

RHN Proxy Server 4.0: Installation Guide

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RHNproxy(EN)-4.0-RHI (2005-04-20T13:40)

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Table of Contents

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..................................................................................................................7

2.1. Software Requirements .....................................................................................7

2.2. Hardware Requirements....................................................................................8

2.3. Disk Space Requirements .................................................................................8

2.4. Additional Requirements ..................................................................................9

3. Example Topologies .....................................................................................................11

3.1. Single Proxy Topology ...................................................................................11

3.2. Multiple Proxy Horizontally Tiered Topology ...............................................12

3.3. Multiple Proxy Vertically Tiered Topology ....................................................12

3.4. Proxies with RHN Satellite Server .................................................................13

4. Installation ....................................................................................................................15

4.1. Base Install......................................................................................................15

4.2. RHN Proxy Server Installation Process ..........................................................15

5. RHN Package Manager ...............................................................................................27

5.1. Creating a Private Channel .............................................................................27

5.2. Uploading Packages ........................................................................................27

5.3. Command Line Options ..................................................................................29

6. Troubleshooting............................................................................................................31

6.1. Managing the Proxy Service ...........................................................................31

6.2. Log Files .........................................................................................................31

6.3. Questions and Answers...................................................................................32

6.4. General Problems............................................................................................33

6.5. Host Not Found/Could Not Determine FQDN ...............................................33

6.6. Connection Errors ...........................................................................................34

6.7. Caching Issues ................................................................................................34

6.8. Proxy Debugging by Red Hat .........................................................................35

A. Sample RHN Proxy Server Conﬁguration File ........................................................37

Index.................................................................................................................................. 39

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 per-

formance 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 main-

tain 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 service deployed within a corporate network with advanced Red

Hat Network functionality, such as a package-caching mechanism for reduced bandwidth

usage and customizable channels enabling custom package deployment.

This service allows a business or corporation to cache RPM Updates on an internal, cen-

trally located RHN Proxy Server and have the client systems download the updates from

2 Chapter 1. Introduction

that server instead of from one of the RHN Servers 1over the Internet. The clients’ System

Proﬁles and user information are stored on the secure, central RHN Servers, which also

serve the RHN website (rhn.redhat.com). The Proxy acts as a go-between for client sys-

tems 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 own GPG signature, and have the local RHN Proxy

Server update all 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 the RHN File servers only once (per

local Proxy Server’s caching mechanism) instead of downloading each package to each

client system.

•Saves disk space on individual systems — one large disk array is required instead of

extra disk space on all the client systems.

•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 — the client systems connect only through the

HTTP-enabled Proxy Server and therefore do not need a connection to the external net-

work (Internet), but only require access to the Local Area Network to which the RHN

Proxy Server is connected. 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. Throughout this document, replace RHN Server with RHN Satellite Server if the RHN Proxy

Server connects to a RHN Satellite Server instead.

Chapter 1. Introduction 3

1.3. Terms to Understand

Before understanding RHN Proxy Server, it is important to become familiar with the fol-

lowing 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 but contains extra packages.

•

Organization Administrator — Organization Administrator is a user role with the high-

est 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 Ad-

ministrator 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) that allows users to retrieve and install new or updated packages

for the client system on which the application is run.

•

Traceback — A traceback is a detailed description of "what went wrong" that is use-

ful for troubleshooting the RHN Proxy Server. Tracebacks are automatically generated

when a critical error occurs and are mailed 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/.

1.4. How it Works

The Red Hat Update Agent on the client systems does not directly contact a Red Hat Net-

work Server. Instead, the client (or clients) connects 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.

4 Chapter 1. Introduction

Important

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

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

By default, a client is authenticated directly by Red Hat Network Servers. Using an RHN

Proxy Server, authentication works similarly except that the RHN Proxy Server provides

route information as well. 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 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 subscribe-to channels, 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 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 written speciﬁcally for the organization. These are not ofﬁcial Red Hat pack-

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

with the private 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

Chapter 1. Introduction 5

contain crucial RPM information, such as software dependencies, that allows RHN to auto-

mate 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 Conﬁgu-

ration Guide for details. On the proxy side, one has to specify the next proxy in the chain

(which will eventually end with a Red Hat Network Server). If the RHN Package Manager

is used, the client systems must be subscribed to the private RHN channel.

6 Chapter 1. Introduction

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