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Issue:

How do I setup a self subscribed RHN Satellite?

Resolution:

Release Found: Red Hat Network Satellite 4.0

Background:

A Self Subscribing Satellite is an RHN Satellite server which is registered to itself rather than a Red Hat Network (RHN) central server.

A typical RHN Satellite registers to RHN's central servers and is then activated as a Satellite. The Satellite may then issue the satellite-sync command to pull down new packages and other content from RHN onto the Satellite. Registration with RHN also allows the Satellite to use up2date to pull down updates from RHN that Red Hat releases for the Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS operating system. Finally, up2date can download new RHN Satellite packages pushed into the RHN Satellite channel on RHN.

The process to set up a Self Subscribing Satellite have these capabilities. The RHN Satellite still registers to RHN and satellite-sync can still pull down new packages and content from RHN. However, the up2date client no longer communicates to RHN and instead communicates to a custom cloned channel within the RHN Satellite.

Limitations:

You cannot use this as a means to monitor your Satellite. Installation of the client-side rhnmd package breaks the Monitoring feature of RHN Satellite. RHN provides custom Satellite Monitoring probes that can be configured to monitor a Self Subscribing Satellite.

Self Subscribing Satellite aids in deploying packages that apply to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS operating system of your Satellite. The Self Subscribing Satellite treats the self-registration as it would any normal client registration. To prevent accidental changes to your Self Subscribing Satellite, RHN recommends that Administrators lock the self-subscribed Satellite. For more information on accomplishing this task, refer to the documentation available at http://rhn.redhat.com/help.

For Self Subscribing Satellites, satellite-sync cannot download or import the RHN Satellite channels. Self Subscribing Satellites can download RHN Proxy, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and child channels. Furthermore, up2date cannot pull down new versions of RHN Satellite packages. Administrators must either manually download and install point releases for RHN Satellite version 4.0 (such as version 4.0.1) or temporarily reconfigure up2date to communicate with RHN.

Notes:

Although the configuration is untested, disconnected Satellite customers may choose to Self Subscribe their Satellites.
This process has been tested and documented for RHN Satellite version 4.0.
This process allows customers to control the Red Hat Enterprise Linux packages on their Satellite in the same manner as clients registered to the Satellite.

Steps needed to install and configure a Self Subscribed Satellite

Install Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 or 4 as per the documentation for RHN Satellite, available at http://rhn.redhat.com/help/satellite/.
Install RHN Satellite, following the instructions within the RHN Satellite Guide.
1. Allow the Satellite installer to register and activate the Satellite subscription to the RHN central site.
2. Complete the installation according to the instructions in the RHN Satellite Guide.
Via the satellite-sync command, download and import the Base Channel that matches the version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS installed on the Satellite in Step 1. Satellite-sync can import the necessary files from either RHN's central servers or Channel Dump ISOs. For example, a Red Hat Enterprise Linux version 3 AS i386 Satellite requires the Red Hat Enterprise Linux version 3 i386 AS base channel.
Create a channel cloned from the imported base channel via the Satellite web interface.

Rename the systemid file that allows communication with RHN:

mv /etc/sysconfig/rhn/systemid /etc/sysconfig/rhn/systemid.sat

Install the client side RHN Satellite SSL Certificate package onto the Satellite.
```
rpm -Uvh /var/www/html/pub/rhn-org-trusted-ssl-cert-1.0-1.noarch.rpm
```
Reconfigure up2date to use the Satellite hostname and SSL certificate. Edit the /etc/sysconfig/rhn/up2date file (or execute up2date --configure) and change the following options from:
```
sslCACert=/usr/share/rhn/RHNS-CA-CERT
noSSLServerURL=http://xmlrpc.rhn.redhat.com/XMLRPC
serverURL=https://xmlrpc.rhn.redhat.com/XMLRPC
```
to:
```
sslCACert=/usr/share/rhn/RHN-ORG-TRUSTED-SSL-CERT
noSSLServerURL=http://my-satellite-server-hostname.example.org/XMLRPC
serverURL=https://my-satellite-server-hostname.example.org/XMLRPC
```
Notes:
- It is probable that HTTP proxy information that allows your Satellite to access the RHN central servers must be removed from up2date's configuration settings. This permits the up2date client to communicate with the Satellite.
- Depending on your network settings, it may be necessary to use the main IP address associated with your default network card, rather than the hostname, or localhost (127.0.0.1) to communicate with your Satellite.
Register the Satellite server with the up2date --register command.

After registration, rename the current systemid file and rename the systemid.sat file back to systemid.

# mv /etc/sysconfig/rhn/systemid /etc/sysconfig/rhn/systemid.up2date
# mv /etc/sysconfig/rhn/systemid.sat /etc/sysconfig/rhn/systemid

Reconfigure the systemIdPath option of up2date to the path of the systemid.up2date file. Change the option from:
```
systemIdPath=/etc/sysconfig/rhn/systemid
```
to:
```
systemIdPath=/etc/sysconfig/rhn/systemid.up2date
```
Log into the Satellite's web interface and go to it's System Details page. Click on the Channels sub tab, select the cloned base channel from the drop-down menu, then click the Modify Base Channel button.
The Satellite Server is now self-subscribed.

Test to confirm Satellite is still working

Test the following items to be sure they still work:

test satellite-sync
test up2date

Running the satellite-sync command should return information indicating that the Satellite connects to satellite.rhn.redhat.com. The output should resemble the following:
```
# satellite-sync -l
16:50:22 Red Hat Network Satellite - live synchronization
16:50:22    url: https://satellite.rhn.redhat.com
16:50:22    debug/output level: 1
...
```

Running the up2date command should display information indicating that packages are downloaded from the Satellite rather than RHN. The output should resemble the following:

# up2date -l

Fetching Obsoletes list for channel: clone-rhel-i386-as-4...

Fetching Obsoletes list for channel: clone-rhn-tools-rhel-4-as-i386...

Fetching rpm headers...

Name                                    Version        Rel
----------------------------------------------------------

#

Client Side Applications

Warning: Do not force the installation of the rhnmd client-side monitoring package onto your Self Subscribing Satellite. This breaks Monitoring.

Notes:

If a client-side application is not listed here, assume that it has not been tested.
RHN highly recommends that Administrators lock the registered Self Subscribing Satellite within the Satellite's web interface. This prevents any scheduled event from executing. Before unlocking the Satellite, review the pending events and delete those you do not want to run.
RHN recommends Administrators entitle the Self Subscribing Satellite to the Management level rather than Provisioning or Monitoring. This helps to avoid possible harmful or accidental changes to your Satellite server.
If you choose to grant your Self Subscribing Satellite a Provisioning entitlement, do not attempt to use the Satellite to re-provision itself. The Satellite attempts to perform the re-installation of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system, but on reboot, the Red Hat installation program is unable to download the necessary packages from the Satellite to perform the installation. There is a high risk of data loss and service interruption for your Satellite, especially if external kickstart trees are used.

Red Hat and RHN provide various client-side tools for interaction with various aspects of a RHN Satellite system. The list below outlines whether or not a client-side application functions on a Self Subscribed Satellite:

up2date - up2date, rhn_check, rhnsd: All function normally.
RHN Push - osad: Will not install. The osad package, which is used to push packages to client systems, conflicts with the server-side osa-dispatcher package. Do not attempt to force the installation of osad on a Satellite.
RHN Applet - rhn-applet-tui, rhn-applet-gui: Both function normally. Installation and configuration of the rhn-applet-tui and rhn-applet-gui packages, which allow client systems to communicate with RHN Satellite, complete normally. The rhn-applet-tui command passed RHN testing. Note: rhn-applet-gui requires packages that are not installed by default.
RHN Configuration Client Tool - rhncfg-client: Functions normally after a change to the configuration file. Edit the /etc/sysconfig/rhn/rhncfg-client.conf file and change the systemIdPath option to match the path to systemid.up2date created in step 9 above.
RHN Configuration Management Tool - rhncfg-manager: Functions normally.
RHN Custom Info - rhn-custom-info: Functions normally.
Client Monitoring - rhnmd: Will not install. The rhnmd package conflicts with the server-side monitoring packages. Do not attempt to force the installation of rhnmd, as this breaks Monitoring on the Satellite.