Installation guide

includes usernames and passwords for the Organization Administrator account on rhn.redhat.com,
the primary administrator account on the Satellite itself, SSL certificate generation, and database
connection (which also requires a SID, or net service name). Red Hat strongly recommends this
information be copied onto two s eparate floppy disks, printed out on paper, and stored in a fireproof
safe.
In addition to these requirements, it is recommended that the RHN Satellite be configured in the following
manner:
The entire RHN Satellite solution should be protected by a firewall if the Satellite acces ses or is
accessed via the Internet. An Internet connection is not required for RHN Satellites running in
completely disconnected environments. T his feature instead uses Channel Content ISOs that can be
downloaded to a separate system to synchronize the Satellite with the central Red Hat Network
Servers. All other RHN Satellites should be synchronized directly over the Internet.
Note
If you are running a disconnected Satellite that is not registered to RHN Hosted the installation
program will note and return a list of any missing additional packages needed beyond @ base
to be installed, then the installation program will exit. This allows you to install those
packages. You may want to use the installation ISO image or DVD media to create a
repository for those additional packages, and then rerun the Satellite installer.
All unnecessary ports should be firewalled off. Client s ystems connect to RHN Satellite over ports 80,
44 3, and 4545 (if Monitoring is enabled). In addition, if you plan to enable the pushing of actions from
the Satellite to client s ystems, as described in Section 8.11, “Enabling Push to Clients”, you must
allow inbound connections on port 5222. Finally, if the Satellite will also push to an RHN Proxy Server,
you must also allow inbound connections on port 5269.
No system components should be directly, publicly available. No user other than the system
administrators should have shell access to these machines.
All unnecessary services should be disabled using ntsysv or chkconfig.
The httpd service s hould be enabled.
If the Satellite serves Monitoring-entitled systems and you wish to acknowledge via email the alert
notifications you receive, you must configure sendmail to properly handle incoming mail as
described in Section 4.5, “Sendmail Configuration”.
Finally, you should have the following technical documents in hand for use in roughly this order:
1. The RHN Satellite Installation Guide — T his guide, which you are now reading, provides the
ess ential steps necessary to get an RHN Satellite up and running.
2. The RHN Client Configuration Guide — T his guide explains how to configure the systems to be
served by an RHN Proxy Server or RHN Satellite. (T his will also likely require referencing The
RHN Reference Guide, which contains steps for registering and updating systems.)
3. The RHN Channel Management Guide — T his guide identifies in great detail the recommended
methods for building custom packages, creating cus tom channels, and managing private Errata.
4. The RHN Reference Guide — T his guide describes how to create RHN accounts, register and
update sys tems, and use the RHN website to its utmost potential. T his guide will probably come in
handy throughout the installation and configuration proces s.
Red Hat Network Satellite 5.4 Installation Guide
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