Red Hat Knowledgebase

Within Red Hat Network (RHN) and RHN Satellite kickstart/provisioning of a registered system, once you have chosen the kickstart profile to kickstart against, you get to another screen with multiple options. Then you will see 4 options under "Sync Package Profile:"

1. Current package profile
2. With Package Profile
3. With System Profile
4. Do not sync package profile

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1. Current package profile - When you reinstall/re-kick this system you want it to have the exact same RPMs installed as it currently has installed.
   
   
2. With Package Profile - This allows you to choose from various RPM package profiles that you have taken of systems which have a base Operating System (O/S) channel compatible to that which you are performing this kickstart against. If you have created package profiles then it will give you those profiles as options listed.
   Notes:
   
   • You would not be able to choose a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1 profile to sync with if this kickstart was being done for an Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 system.
     
   • To create a package profile you go to a system with what you consider to be a known good RPM package state and click onto :
     
     • "Packages"
       
     • "profile"
       
     From there you can create a new package profile
     Note: This is documented within more detail in the "RHN Provisioning Reference Guide" - section "4.4.8. Stored Profiles". This along with other documents are under the Help button on top right of the RHN / Satellite web interface.
     
3. With System Profile - You wish to reinstall this system (e.g. DB01) with the exact same RPMs as currently installed within another system (e.g. Web01). Say DB01 is a database server with postgresql installed and now you wish it to become a web server with Apache installed, which system Web01 has already. Instead of spending time to build a new kickstart profile, you can just choose to sync the RPM packages to match a currently setup web server Web01 and be done.
   
   
4. Do not sync package profile - The kickstart profile you have chosen has various packages and groups selected for installation, such as Base and GNOME and that is all you want installed (unless specified within the specific kickstart profile or activation key). Nothing else but what is setup within the kickstart profile you have selected above will be installed onto the system.