Red Hat NETWORK 3.6 Reference Manual

Also see for NETWORK 3.6 -: Manual Configuration guide

Contents

Red Hat NETWORK 3.6 Reference Manual Manual pdf 17 page image

Chapter 1. Red Hat Network Overview 51. Your System Profile available at http://rhn.redhat.com is accessible only with an RHN-verifiedusername and password.2. A Digital Certificate is written to the client system after registration and is used to authenticatethe system during each transaction between the client and Red Hat Network. The file is onlyreadable by the root user on the client system.3. All notifications and information messages are signed by Red Hat with an electronic signatureusing GPG. RPM can be used to verify the authenticity of the package before it is installed.4. All transactions are encrypted using a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) connection.5. All packages are tested and verified by the Red Hat Quality Assurance Team before they areadded to the Red Hat Errata list and Red Hat Network.1.8. Before You BeginBy default, all the software packages you need to use Red Hat Network are installed with Red Hatdistributions. However, if you chose not to install them during the installation process, you will needto obtain the Red Hat Update Agent (up2date) and possibly the Red Hat Network RegistrationClient (rhn_register). In Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3, registration functionality is built into theRed Hat Update Agent, while Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1 users will need the Red Hat NetworkRegistration Client.WarningThe SSL certificate packaged with older versions of the Red Hat Update Agent and the Red HatNetwork Registration Client reached its end of life August 28, 2003. Users attempting to connectusing this certificate will receive SSL connection or certificate verification errors. You may view andobtain the versions of these applications containing new certificates at the RHN Client Software page.In the RHN website, click Help at the top-right corner, Get RHN Software in the left navigation bar,and scroll down to examine the packages and versions.To determine the versions of the client applications installed, run the rpm -q command followed bythe package name. For instance, for the Red Hat Network Registration Client, type the followingcommand:rpm -q rhn_registerIf the Red Hat Network Registration Client is installed, it will return something similar to:rhn_register-2.9.3-1The version number might differ slightly.If you do not have the Red Hat Network Registration Client installed, the command will return:package rhn_register is not installedPerform this check for every package in Table 1-1 relevant to your system. Remember, only Red HatEnterprise Linux 2.1 users need the separate Red Hat Network Registration Client. If you prefer touse the command line versions, you do not have to install the two packages ending in gnome.