Red Hat NETWORK 3.2 - PROVISIONING Reference Manual

Also see for NETWORK 3.2 - PROVISIONING: Reference guide

Contents

Chapter 1. What is Red Hat Network? 31.3. ManagementIn addition to the features offered in the RHN Demo and Update subscription levels, the RHN Man-agement subscription service allows you to manage your network of Red Hat Linux systems, users,and system groups through its System Set Manager interface.RHN Management is based upon the concept of an organization. Each Management-level Red Hatcustomer has the ability to establish users who have administration privileges to system groups. AnOrganization Administrator has overall control over each Red Hat Network organization with theability to add and remove systems and users. When users other than the Organization Administratorlog into the Red Hat Network website, they see only the systems they have permission to administer.To create an account that can be used to entitle systems to RHN Management, go tohttps://rhn.redhat.com/ and click on the Create Account link under the Sign In fields. On the SignUp for Red Hat Network page, click Create a new corporate account. After creating a corporateaccount, you may add users within your organization to it.The Red Hat Network features available to you depend on the subscription level for each Red HatLinux system. With each Management subscription, you receive the functionality provided to Demoand Update users, plus:• Package Profile Comparison — Compare the package set on a system with the package sets ofsimilar systems with one click.• Search Systems — Search through systems based on a number of criteria: packages, networkinginformation, even hardware asset tags.• System Grouping — Web servers, database servers, workstations and other workload-focused sys-tems may be grouped so that each set can be administered in common ways.• Multiple Administrators — Administrators may be given rights to particular system groups, easingthe burden of system management over very large organizations.• System Set Manager — You may now apply actions to sets of systems instead of single systems.Work with members of a predefined system group, or work with an ad-hoc collection of systems.Install a single package to each, subscribe them all to a new channel, or apply all errata to themwith a single action.• Massive Scalability — Figuring out a list of outdated packages for a thousand systems would takedays for a dedicated sysadmin. Red Hat Network Management service can do it for you in seconds.1.4. ProvisioningAs the highest service level, RHN Provisioning encompasses all of the features offered in the RHNDemo, Update, and Management subscription levels. It is designed to allow you to deploy and manageyour network of Red Hat Linux systems, users, and system groups.Like, Management, Provisioning is based upon an organization. But it takes this concept a step fur-ther by enabling customers with Provisioning entitlements to kickstart, reconfigure, track, and revertsystems on the fly.In addition to all of the features mentioned in lower service levels, Provisioning provides:• Kickstarting — Systems with Provisioning entitlements may be re-installed through RHN with awhole host of options established in kickstart profiles. Options include everything from the type ofbootloader and time zone to packages included/excluded and IP address ranges allowed. Even GPGand SSL keys can be pre-configured.• Client Configuration — Customers may use RHN to manage the configuration files onProvisioning-entitled systems. Users can upload files to RHN’s central configuration manager,