RHN Satellite Server allows organizations to utilize the benefits of Red Hat Network without having to provide public Internet access to their servers or other client systems. System Profiles are stored locally. The Red Hat Network website is served from a local Web server and is not accessible from the Internet. All package management tasks, including Errata Updates, are performed through the local area network.
Advantages of using RHN Satellite Server include:
Security — an end-to-end secure connection is maintained from the client systems to the RHN Satellite Server without connecting to the public Internet.
Efficiency — packages are delivered significantly faster over a local area network.
Control — clients' System Profiles are stored on the local RHN Satellite Server, not on the central Red Hat Network Servers.
Customized updates — create a truly automated package delivery system for custom software packages required by client systems, as well as official Red Hat packages. Custom channels allow fine-grained control of the delivery of custom packages.
Access control — system administrators can be restricted to access only those systems within their maintenance responsibilities.
Bandwidth management — the bandwidth used for transactions between the clients and the RHN Satellite Server is controlled by the organization on the local area network; RHN Satellite Server clients do not have to compete with other clients accessing the central Red Hat Network file servers.
Scalability — RHN Satellite Server may oversee an entire organization's servers in combination with RHN Proxy Server.