Deployment Framework Best Practices for Red Hat Enterprise Linux on HP ProLiant

BEST PRACTICES:

• You must develop and adopt a security policy which includes proactive patch management

strategies. Once these are in place, the use of the configuration management functionality

simply becomes an instrument of implementation.

• Due to the rich capabilities of the previously describe provisioning block, you can make the

bootstrap process an integral part of the profile, simply embed the steps into the post section of

a kickstart file.

In addition to offering only operating system content, this toolset also allows an easy way to import

content into other channels. Using either the web interface or direct command-line access, you can

create new channels and content included. The content can either be static, or a channel can actively

poll for new content and include it automatically.

BEST PRACTICES:

• As mentioned previously, new for HP ProLiant Gen8, the SPP collection product is being

introduced. In addition to the media-based images, the pre-packaged content for Linux

distributions is also made available int Software Delivery Repository (SDR). You can access the

desired content easily, either directly from the main web site or from a locally mirrored copy, to

include as a channel within the configuration management offering.

• Based upon local policy, you might want to only include locally-certified versions of content.

For both the errata and for content like the SPP, you can accomplish this by utilizing test

channels for evaluation, then later importing snapshots of these test channels into normal parent

channels that are automatically being included and accessed.

Some other key attributes of the configuration management solution are the ability to directly manage

target systems update schedules, provide system or organizational groupings as a means of access

control, and the ability to manage distinct configuration file changes as needed to target systems.

BEST PRACTICE: One of the lesser known aspects of this solution is the well document Application

Programming Interface (API) access. Utilization of this facility by experienced administrators can yield

impressive automation efficiencies across a wide range of needs.

To summarize, in addition to the benefits and coverage of your deployment framework with the

network infrastructure services and provisioning components, you now have the ability to manage the

post-installation lifecycle of the operating system, applications, and agentry needed. As a bonus, this

integrates the necessary content into a repository that can be accessed during installation processes

as well.

Monitoring - Fortunately, the solution-based offering being described also provides monitoring

functionality. In conjuction with the available Smart Management Add-On, you can setup many low-

impact probes for any specific system or groups of systems. You can also setup thresholds and

notificiation, via email or pager notices, upon reaching or exceeding such levels. Inclusion of these

Add-On products also yields more functionality in both the configuration and provisioning

functionality blocks.

BEST PRACTICE: You can integrate other HP products, such as Node Manager and Systems Insight

Manager with the monitoring functionality. You can configure them both to monitor specific HP

ProLiant functionality and you can integrate them using the RHN API.