Chapter 4. Installation
This chapter describes the initial installation of the RHN Satellite Server. It presumes the prerequisites listed in Chapter 2 Requirements have been met. If you are instead upgrading to a newer version of RHN Satellite Server, contact your Red Hat representative for assistance.
4.1. Base Install
The RHN Satellite Server is designed to run on the Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS operating system. Therefore, the first phase is to install the base operating system, either from disc, ISO image, or kickstart. During and after operating system installation, make sure you:
Allocate plenty of space to the partitions storing data. The default location for channel packages is /var/satellite. For RHN Satellite Server with Embedded Database, remember the database RPMs go in the /opt partition, while the database itself is built in /rhnsat. Refer to Section 2.2 Hardware Requirements for precise specifications.
Install all packages required by RHN Satellite Server. Refer to Section 2.1 Software Requirements for packages and package groups needed for each version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS.
Important If you plan to obtain Monitoring-level service, you must install your RHN Satellite Server on Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS 3. This is the only supported base operating system for Satellites serving Monitoring-entitled systems. Do not install Satellite on Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS 2.1.
Enable Network Time Protocol (NTP) on the Satellite and separate database, if it exists, and select the appropriate time zone. All client systems should already be running the ntpd daemon and be set to the correct time zone.
Disable the ipchains and iptables services after installation.