Red Hat NETWORK PROXY SERVER 4.1.0

RHN Proxy Server 4.1.0

Installation Guide

RHN Proxy Server 4.1.0: Installation Guide

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RHNproxy(EN)-4.1.0-RHI (2005-04-20T13:40)

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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 ....................................................................................................3

2. Requirements..................................................................................................................7

2.1. Software Requirements .....................................................................................7

2.2. Hardware Requirements....................................................................................8

2.3. Disk Space Requirements .................................................................................8

2.4. Additional Requirements ..................................................................................9

3. Example Topologies .....................................................................................................11

3.1. Single Proxy Topology ...................................................................................11

3.2. Multiple Proxy Horizontally Tiered Topology ...............................................12

3.3. Multiple Proxy Vertically Tiered Topology ....................................................12

3.4. Proxies with RHN Satellite Server .................................................................13

4. Installation ....................................................................................................................15

4.1. Base Install......................................................................................................15

4.2. RHN Proxy Server Installation Process ..........................................................16

5. RHN Package Manager ...............................................................................................27

5.1. Creating a Private Channel .............................................................................27

5.2. Uploading Packages ........................................................................................27

5.3. Command Line Options ..................................................................................29

6. Troubleshooting............................................................................................................31

6.1. Managing the Proxy Service ...........................................................................31

6.2. Log Files .........................................................................................................31

6.3. Questions and Answers...................................................................................32

6.4. General Problems............................................................................................32

6.5. Host Not Found/Could Not Determine FQDN ...............................................33

6.6. Connection Errors ...........................................................................................34

6.7. Caching Issues ................................................................................................34

6.8. Proxy Debugging by Red Hat .........................................................................35

A. Sample RHN Proxy Server Conﬁguration File ........................................................37

Index.................................................................................................................................. 39

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 information repositories needed to maximize the reliability, security, and per-

formance 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 main-

tain hundreds or thousands of Red Hat systems more easily, accurately, and quickly than

they 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 installs, 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 package-caching mechanism that reduces the bandwidth re-

quirements for RHN and enables custom package deployment. Proxy customers cache

RPMs, such as Errata Updates from Red Hat or custom RPMs generated by their organi-

zation, on an internal, centrally-located server. Client systems then receive these updates

from the Proxy rather than by accessing the Internet individually.

2 Chapter 1. Introduction

Although the packages are served by the Proxy, clients’ System Proﬁles and user infor-

mation are stored on the secure, central RHN Servers1, which also serve the RHN website

(rhn.redhat.com). The Proxy acts as a go-between for client systems and Red Hat Net-

work (or an RHN Satellite Server). Only the package 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 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 with its own GPG signature, and have the local RHN Proxy

Server update all of 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 RHN only once (per local Proxy

Server’s caching mechanism) instead of downloading each package to each client sys-

tem.

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

software packages, 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 — Because clients connect only to the RHN

Proxy Server and not the Internet, they require only a Local Area Network connection

to the Proxy. Only the RHN Proxy Server needs an Internet connection to contact the

RHN Servers, unless the RHN Proxy Server is using a RHN Satellite Server, in which

case only the RHN Satellite Server requires an Internet connection.

1. Throughout this document, "RHN" may refer to either RHN’s Hosted site (http://rhn.redhat.com)

or an RHN Satellite Server.

Chapter 1. Introduction 3

1.3. Terms to Understand

Before understanding RHN Proxy Server, it is important to become familiar with the fol-

lowing Red Hat Network terms:

Channel

A channel is a list of software packages. There are two types of channels: base chan-

nels 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 that contains extra packages.

Organization Administrator

An Organization Administrator is a user role with the highest level of control over an

organization’s Red Hat Network account. Members with this role can add other users,

other 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 management capa-

bilities. 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 emailed 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/ and http://rhn.redhat.com/help.

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 in turn to an RHN Proxy Server

that connects to the Red Hat Network Servers or to a RHN Satellite Server. Thus, the client

4 Chapter 1. Introduction

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 an RHN Proxy Server be running

the latest update of Red Hat Enterprise Linux to ensure proper connectivity.

Clients that access RHN directly are authenticated by the RHN servers. Clients that access

an RHN Proxy Server are still authenticated by RHN; however, in this case the Proxy pro-

vides both authentication and route information to RHN. 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 channel subscriptions, 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 type of RHN client. Clients are thus 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.

Chapter 1. Introduction 5

Optionally, the RHN Package Manager can be installed and conﬁgured to serve custom

packages. Any package that is not an ofﬁcial Red Hat package, including custom packages

written speciﬁcally for an organization, can only be served from a private software channel

(also referred to as a custom software channel). After creating a private RHN channel, the

custom RPM packages are associated with that channel by uploading the package head-

ers 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 de-

pendencies, 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 local 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 Conﬁgu-

ration Guide for details. On the proxy side, one has to specify the next proxy in the chain

(which eventually ends with a Red Hat Network Server). If the RHN Package Manager is

used, the client systems must be subscribed to the private RHN channel.

6 Chapter 1. Introduction

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