Generate activation keys to be called by the script(s). Activation keys can be used to register Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems, entitle them to an RHN service level, and subscribe them to specific channels and system groups, all in one action. Note that you must have Management entitlements available to use an activation key, while inclusion of multiple activation keys at once requires Provisioning entitlements. Generate activation keys through the Activation Keys page within the Systems category of the RHN website (either the central RHN Servers for Proxy or the fully qualified domain name of the Satellite). Refer to the Red Hat Update Agent and RHN Website chapters of the RHN Reference Guide for instructions on creation and use.

Red Hat recommends your RPMs be signed by a custom GNU Privacy Guard (GPG) key. Make the key available so you may refer to it from the script. Generate the key as described in the RHN Channel Management Guide and place the key in the /var/www/html/pub/ directory of the RHN Server, per Chapter 4, Importing Custom GPG Keys.

If you wish to use the script to deploy your CA SSL public certificate, have the certificate or the package (RPM) containing that certificate available on that RHN Server and include it during script generation with the --ssl-cert option. Refer to Chapter 3, SSL Infrastructure for details.

Have the values ready to develop one or many bootstrap scripts, depending on the variety of systems to be reconfigured. Since RHN Bootstrap provides a full set of reconfiguration options, you may use it to generate different bootstrap scripts to accommodate each type of system. For instance, bootstrap-web-servers.sh might be used to reconfigure your Web servers, while bootstrap-app-servers.sh can handle the application servers. Consult Section 5.4, “RHN Bootstrap Options” for the complete list.