Red Hat NETWORK PROXY SERVER 3.6 - Bedienungsanleitung

RHN Proxy Server 3.6

Installation Guide

RHN Proxy Server 3.6: Installation Guide

RHNproxy(EN)-3.6-RHI (2004-12-07T20:09)

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logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Red Hat, Inc. in the United States and other countries.

Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.

All other trademarks and copyrights referred to are the property of their respective owners.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................... 1

1.1. Red Hat Network ............................................................................................................... 1

1.2. RHN Proxy Server ............................................................................................................. 1

1.3. Terms to Understand .......................................................................................................... 2

1.4. How it Works ..................................................................................................................... 2

2. Requirements................................................................................................................................... 5

2.1. Software Requirements...................................................................................................... 5

2.2. Hardware Requirements..................................................................................................... 5

2.3. Disk Space Requirements .................................................................................................. 6

2.4. Additional Requirements ................................................................................................... 6

3. Example Topologies ........................................................................................................................ 9

3.1. Single Proxy Topology ...................................................................................................... 9

3.2. Multiple Proxy Horizontally Tiered Topology .................................................................. 9

3.3. Multiple Proxy Vertically Tiered Topology ..................................................................... 10

3.4. Proxies with RHN Satellite Server .................................................................................. 11

4. Installation ..................................................................................................................................... 13

4.1. Base Install....................................................................................................................... 13

4.2. RHN Proxy Server Installation Process........................................................................... 13

5. RHN Package Manager................................................................................................................ 21

5.1. Creating a Private Channel .............................................................................................. 21

5.2. Uploading Packages......................................................................................................... 21

5.3. Command Line Options................................................................................................... 22

6. Troubleshooting............................................................................................................................. 25

6.1. Managing the Proxy Service............................................................................................ 25

6.2. Log Files .......................................................................................................................... 25

6.3. Questions and Answers.................................................................................................... 25

6.4. General Problems............................................................................................................. 26

6.5. Host Not Found/Could Not Determine FQDN ................................................................ 26

6.6. Connection Errors ............................................................................................................ 27

6.7. Caching Issues ................................................................................................................. 27

6.8. Proxy Debugging by Red Hat .......................................................................................... 28

A. Sample RHN Proxy Server Conﬁguration File ......................................................................... 31

Index................................................................................................................................................... 33

Chapter 1.

Introduction

1.1. Red Hat Network

Red Hat Network (RHN) is the environment for system-level support and management of Red Hat

systems and networks of systems. Red Hat Network brings together the tools, services, and informa-

tion repositories needed to maximize the reliability, security, and performance of their systems. To use

RHN, system administrators register the software and hardware proﬁles, known as System Proﬁles,

of their client systems with Red Hat Network. When a client system requests package updates, only

the applicable packages for the client are returned (based upon the software proﬁle stored on the RHN

Servers).

Advantages of using Red Hat Network include:

•Scalability — with Red Hat Network, a single system administrator can set up and maintain hun-

dreds or thousands of Red Hat systems more easily, accurately, and quickly than that same admin-

istrator could maintain a single system without Red Hat Network.

•Standard Protocols — standard protocols are used to maintain security and increase capability. For

example, XML-RPC gives Red Hat Network the ability to do much more than merely download

ﬁles.

•Security — all communication between registered systems and Red Hat Network takes place over

secure Internet connections.

•View Errata Alerts — easily view Errata Alerts for all your client systems through one website.

•Scheduled Actions — use the website to schedule actions, including Errata Updates, package in-

stalls, and software proﬁle updates.

•Simpliﬁcation — maintaining Red Hat systems becomes a simple, automated process.

1.2. RHN Proxy Server

An RHN Proxy Server is a service deployed within a corporate network with advanced Red Hat

Network functionality, such as a package-caching mechanism for reduced bandwidth usage and cus-

tomizable channels enabling custom package deployment.

This service allows a business or corporation to cache RPM Updates on an internal, centrally located

RHN Proxy Server and have the client systems download the updates from that server instead of

from one of the RHN Servers 1over the Internet. The clients’ System Proﬁles and user information

are stored on the secure, central RHN Servers, which also serve the RHN website (rhn.redhat.com).

The Proxy does not serve the website itself; It acts as a go-between for client systems and Red Hat

Network. Only the RPM ﬁles are stored on the RHN Proxy Server. Every transaction is authenticated,

and the Red Hat Update Agent checks the GPG signature of each package retrieved from the local

RHN Proxy Server.

In addition to storing ofﬁcial Red Hat packages, the RHN Proxy Server can be conﬁgured to deliver

an organization’s own custom RPM packages from private RHN channels, using the RHN Package

Manager. For instance, an organization could develop its own software, package it in an RPM, sign it

1. Throughout this document, replace RHN Server with RHN Satellite Server if the RHN Proxy Server connects

to a RHN Satellite Server instead.

2 Chapter 1. Introduction

with its own GPG signature, and have the local RHN Proxy Server update all the individual systems

in the network with the latest versions of the custom software.

Advantages of using RHN Proxy Server include:

•Scalability — there can be multiple local RHN Proxy Servers within one organization.

•Security — an end-to-end secure connection is maintained: from the client systems, to the local

RHN Proxy Server, to the Red Hat Network Servers.

•Saves time — packages are delivered signiﬁcantly faster over a local area network than the Internet.

•Saves bandwidth — packages are downloaded from the RHN File Servers only once (per local

Proxy Server’s caching mechanism) instead of downloading each package to each client system.

•Saves disk space on individual systems — one large disk array is required instead of extra disk

space on all the client systems.

•Customized updates — create a truly automated package delivery system for custom software pack-

ages, as well as ofﬁcial Red Hat packages required for the client systems. Custom private RHN

channels allow an organization to automate delivery of in-house packages.

•Customized conﬁguration — restrict or grant updates to speciﬁc architectures and OS versions.

•Only one Internet connection required — the client systems connect through the HTTP-enabled

Proxy Server and do not need an Internet connection. Only the RHN Proxy Server needs an Internet

connection to contact the RHN Servers.

1.3. Terms to Understand

Before understanding RHN Proxy Server, it is important to become familiar with the following Red

Hat Network terms:

•Channel — A channel is a list of software packages. There are two types of channels: base channels

and child channels. A base channel consists of a list of packages based on a speciﬁc architecture

and Red Hat release. A child channel is a channel associated with a base channel but contains extra

packages.

•Organization Administrator — Organization Administrator is a user role with the highest level

of control over an organization’s Red Hat Network account. Members of this role can add other

users, systems, and system groups to the organization as well as remove them. A Red Hat Network

organization must have at least one Organization Administrator.

•Channel Administrator — A Channel Administrator is a user role with full access to channel man-

agement capabilities. Users with this role are capable of creating channels and assigning packages

to channels. This role can be assigned by an Organization Administrator through the Users tab of

the RHN website.

•Red Hat Update Agent — The Red Hat Update Agent is the Red Hat Network client application

(up2date) that allows users to retrieve and install new or updated packages for the client system

on which the application is run.

•Traceback — A traceback is a detailed description of "what went wrong" that is useful for trou-

bleshooting the RHN Proxy Server. Tracebacks are automatically generated when a critical error

occurs and are mailed to the individual(s) designated in the RHN Proxy Server’s conﬁguration ﬁle.

For more detailed explanations of these terms and others, refer to the Red Hat Network Reference

Guide available at http://www.redhat.com/docs/.

Chapter 1. Introduction 3

1.4. How it Works

The Red Hat Update Agent on the client systems does not directly contact a Red Hat Network Server.

Instead, the client (or clients) connects to an RHN Proxy Server that connects to the Red Hat Network

Servers. Thus, the client systems do not need direct access to the Internet. They need access only to

the RHN Proxy Server.

Important

Red Hat strongly recommends that clients connected to RHN Proxy Server be running the latest

update of Red Hat Enterprise Linux to ensure proper connectivity.

By default, a client is authenticated directly by Red Hat Network Servers. Using an RHN Proxy Server,

authentication works similarly except that the RHN Proxy Server provides route information as well.

After a successful authentication, the Red Hat Network Server informs the RHN Proxy Server that it

is permitted to execute a speciﬁc action for the client. The RHN Proxy Server downloads all of the

updated packages (if they are not already present in its cache) and delivers them to the client system.

Requests from the Red Hat Update Agent on the client systems are still authenticated on the server

side, but package delivery is signiﬁcantly faster since the packages are cached in the HTTP proxy

caching server or the RHN Proxy Server (for local packages); the RHN Proxy Server and client system

are connected via the LAN and are limited only by the speed of the local network.

Authentication is done in the following order:

1. The client performs a login action at the beginning of a client session. This login is passed

through one or more RHN Proxy Servers until it reaches a Red Hat Network Server.

2. The Red Hat Network Server attempts to authenticate the client. If authentication is successful,

the server then passes back a session token via the chain of RHN Proxy Servers. This token,

which has a signature and expiration, contains user information, including subscribe-to chan-

nels, username, etc.

3. Each RHN Proxy Server caches this token on its local ﬁle system in /var/cache/rhn/.

Caching reduces some of the overhead of authenticating with Red Hat Network Servers and

greatly improves the performance of Red Hat Network.

4. This session token is passed back to the client machine and is used in subsequent actions on Red

Hat Network.

From the client’s point of view, there is no difference between an RHN Proxy Server and a Red Hat

Network Server. From the Red Hat Network Server’s point of view, an RHN Proxy Server is a special

kind of client. Thus, clients are not affected by the route a request takes to reach a Red Hat Network

Server. All the logic is implemented in the RHN Proxy Servers and Red Hat Network Servers.

Optionally the RHN Package Manager can be installed and conﬁgured to serve custom packages writ-

ten speciﬁcally for the organization. These are not ofﬁcial Red Hat packages. After creating a private

RHN channel, the custom RPM packages are associated with the private channel by uploading the

package headers to the RHN Servers. Only the headers are uploaded, not the actual package ﬁles. The

headers are required because they contain crucial RPM information, such as software dependencies,

that allows RHN to automate package installation. The actual custom RPM packages are stored on the

RHN Proxy Server and sent to the client systems from inside the organization’s private area network.

Conﬁguring a computer network to use RHN Proxy Servers is straightforward. The Red Hat Network

applications on the client systems must be conﬁgured to connect to the RHN Proxy Server instead

of the Red Hat Network Servers. Refer to the RHN Client Conﬁguration Guide for details. On the

proxy side, one has to specify the next proxy in the chain (which will eventually end with a Red Hat

4 Chapter 1. Introduction

Network Server). If the RHN Package Manager is used, the client systems must be subscribed to the

private RHN channel.

Chapter 2.

Requirements

These requirements must be met before installation. To install RHN Proxy Server version 3.6 or later

from RHN Satellite Server, the Satellite itself must be version 3.6 or later.

2.1. Software Requirements

To perform an installation, the following software components must be available:

•Base operating system — RHN Proxy Server is supported with Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS 2.1

Update 5 or later and Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS 3 Update 3 or later only. The operating system

can be installed from disc, local ISO image, kickstart, or any of the methods supported by Red Hat.

Important

If you plan to obtain Monitoring-level service, you must install your RHN Proxy Server on Red Hat

Enterprise Linux AS 3 Update 3. This is the only supported base operating system for Proxies

serving Monitoring-entitled systems.

Each version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS requires a certain package set to support RHN Proxy

Server. Anything more can cause errors during installation. Therefore, Red Hat recommends ob-

taining the desired package set in the following ways:

For kickstarting either Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS 3 Update 3 or Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS

2.1 Update 5, specify the following package group: @ Base

For installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS 3 Update 3 via CD or ISO image, select the following

package group: Minimal

For installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS 2.1 Update 5 via CD or ISO image, select the following

package group: Advanced Server

•An available RHN Proxy Server entitlement within your Red Hat Network account.

•An available Provisioning entitlement within your Red Hat Network account (which should come

packaged with your RHN Proxy Server entitlement).

•Access to the Red Hat Network Tools channel for the installed version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux

AS.

•All rhncfg* packages installed on the Proxy (from the RHN Tools channel).

•Either the rhns-certs-tools package installed on the Proxy (from the RHN Tools channel) or

the secure sockets layer (SSL) CA certiﬁcate password used to generate the parent server certiﬁcate

(such as on an RHN Satellite Server).

•Conﬁguration of the system to accept remote commands and conﬁguration management through

Red Hat Network. Refer to Section 4.2 RHN Proxy Server Installation Process for instructions.

2.2. Hardware Requirements

The following hardware conﬁguration is required for the RHN Proxy Server:

•Dell PowerEdge 1750 or equivalent

6 Chapter 2. Requirements

•Two processors

•512 MB of memory

•3 GB storage for base install of Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS

•1.5 GB storage for source packages and updates

Keep in mind, the frequency in which client systems connect to the Proxy is directly related to load

on the Apache HTTP Server. If you do reduce the default interval of four hours (or 240 minutes), as

set in the /etc/sysconfig/rhn/rhnsd conﬁguration ﬁle of the client systems, you will increase

the load on this component signiﬁcantly.

2.3. Disk Space Requirements

The caching mechanism used by RHN Proxy Server is the Squid HTTP proxy, which saves signiﬁcant

bandwidth for the clients. It should have a reasonable amount of space available. The cached packages

are stored in /var/spool/squid. The required free space allotment is 1.5 GB (including updates

and source packages).

If the RHN Proxy Server is conﬁgured to distribute custom, or local packages, make sure that the

/var mount point on the system storing local packages has sufﬁcient disk space to hold all of the

custom packages, which are stored in /var/spool/rhn-proxy. The required disk space for local

packages depends on the number of custom packages deployed.

2.4. Additional Requirements

The following additional requirements must be met before the RHN Proxy Server installation can be

considered complete:

•Full Access

Client systems need full network access to the RHN Proxy Server solution’s services and ports.

•Firewall Rules

The RHN Proxy Server solution can be ﬁrewalled from the Internet, but it must be able to issue

outbound connections to the Internet on ports 80 and 443. In addition, if the Proxy will be connected

to an RHN Satellite Server that will be conﬁgured to push actions to client systems and the Proxy,

you must allow inbound connections on port 5222.

•Synchronized System Times

There is great time sensitivity when connecting to a Web server running SSL (Secure Sockets

Layer); it is imperative the time settings on the clients and server are reasonably close together so

the SSL certiﬁcate does not expire before or during use. It is recommended Network Time Protocol

(NTP) be used to synchronize the clocks.

•Fully Qualiﬁed Domain Name (FQDN)

The system upon which the RHN Proxy Server will be installed must resolve its own FQDN prop-

erly. If this is not the case, cookies will not work properly on the website.

•A Red Hat Network Account

Customers who will be connecting to the central Red Hat Network Servers to receive incremental

updates will need an account with Red Hat Network. This account should be set up at the time of

purchase with the sales representative.

•Backups of Login Information

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