Installation guide

Chapter 6. Importing and Synchronizing 39
6.2.3. Running the Import
The rhns-satellite-tools package provides the satellite-sync program for managing all
package, channel, and errata imports and synchronizations.
The following process assumes in the previous step the user has copied all data to
/var/rhn-sat-import.
Note
The trailing backslash (\) in all subsequent command examples is a continuation character; it may
safely be omitted. Long versions of all options are used in the examples for clarity. You may use short
versions where available.
The first step in importing channels into the database is listing the channels available for import. This
is accomplished with the command:
satellite-sync --list-channels --mount-point /var/rhn-sat-import
The next step is to initiate the import of a specific channel. Do this using a channel label presented in
the previous list. The command will look like:
satellite-sync -c rhel-i386-as-3 --mount-point /var/rhn-sat-import
Note
Importing package data can take up to two hours per channel. But you may begin registering sys-
tems to channels as soon as they appear in the RHN Satellite Server’s website. No packages are
necessary for registration, although updates cannot be retrieved from the Satellite until the channel
is completely populated.
You may repeat this step for each channel or include them all within a single command by passing
each channel label preceded by an additional -c flag, like so:
satellite-sync -c channel-label-1 -c channel-label-1 --mount-point /var/rhn-sat-import
This conducts the following tasks in this order:
1. Populating the tables describing common features for channels (channel families). This can
also be accomplished individually by passing the --step=channel-families option to
satellite-sync.
2. Creating a particular channel in the database and importing the metadata describing the channel.
Individually, use the --step=channels option.
3. Moving the RPM packages from the temporary repository into their final location. Individually,
use the --step=rpms option.
4. Parsing the header metadata for each package in the channel, uploading the package data, and
associating it with the channel. Individually, use the --step=packages option.
5. Identifing Errata associated with the packages and including them in the repository. Individually,
use the --step=errata option.