Implementing a fully functional RHN Satellite Server requires more than installing software and a database. Client systems must be configured to use the Satellite. Custom packages and channels should be created for optimal use. Since these tasks extend beyond the basic installation, they are covered in detail in other guides, as well as this RHN Satellite Server Installation Guide. For a full list of the necessary technical documents, refer to Chapter 2 Requirements.
For this reason, this section seeks to provide a definitive list of all required and recommended steps, from evaluation through custom package deployment. They should take place in roughly this order:
After an evaluation, you contact your Red Hat sales representative to purchase RHN Satellite Server.
Your Red Hat contact sends you an RHN Entitlement Certificate via email.
Your Red Hat contact creates a Satellite-entitled account on the RHN website and sends you the login information.
You log into the RHN website (rhn.redhat.com) and download the distribution ISOs for Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS and RHN Satellite Server 3.6. Remember, Monitoring requires Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS 3. These can be found within the Downloads tab of the respective Channel Details pages. Refer to the RHN Reference Guide for instructions.
While still logged into the RHN website, you download the Channel Content ISOs to be served by your Satellite, also available through the Downloads tab of your Satellite's Channel Details page. These Channel Content ISOs differ from the distribution ISOs previously mentioned in that they contain metadata necessary for parsing and serving packages by Satellite.
If installing a Stand-Alone Database, you prepare your database instance using the formula provided in Chapter 2 Requirements.
You install Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS and then RHN Satellite Server 3.6 on the Satellite machine.
You create the first user account on the Satellite by opening the Satellite's hostname in a Web browser and clicking Create Account. This will be the Satellite Administrator's account.
You use the RHN Satellite Synchronization Tool to import the channels and associated packages into the Satellite.
You register a representative machine for each distribution type, or channel (Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS 2.1, 3), to the Satellite.
You copy (using SCP) the rhn_register and up2date configuration files from the /etc/sysconfig/rhn/ directory of each machine individually to the /pub directory on the Satellite. The rhn-org-trusted-ssl-cert-*.noarch.rpm will already be there.
You download and install from the Satellite the configuration files and rhn-org-trusted-ssl-cert-*.noarch.rpm on the remaining client systems of the same distribution type. Repeat this and the previous step until all distribution types are complete.
Through the Satellite's website, you create an Activation Key for each distribution aligned to the appropriate base channel. At this point, system groups and child channels may also be predefined.
You then run the Activation Key from the command line (rhnreg_ks) of each client system. Note that this step can be scripted to batch register and reconfigure all remaining client systems in a distribution.
You should record all relevant usernames, passwords and other login information and store in multiple secure places.
Now that the Satellite is populated with standard Red Hat channels and packages and all clients are connected to it, you may begin creating and serving custom channels and packages. Once the custom RPMs are developed, you can import them into the Satellite using the RHN Push and add custom channels to store them through the Satellite's website. Refer to the RHN Channel Management Guide for details.