Red Hat Network 3.
Red Hat Network 3.7: Reference Guide Copyright © 2005 by Red Hat, Inc. Red Hat, Inc. 1801 Varsity Drive Raleigh NC 27606-2072 USA Phone: +1 919 754 3700 Phone: 888 733 4281 Fax: +1 919 754 3701 PO Box 13588 Research Triangle Park NC 27709 USA RHNref(EN)-3.7-RHI (2005-03-16T12:14) Copyright © 2005 by Red Hat, Inc. This material may be distributed only subject to the terms and conditions set forth in the Open Publication License, V1.0 or later (the latest version is presently available at http://www.
Table of Contents Introduction to the Guide.................................................................................................................... i 1. Document Conventions.......................................................................................................... i 2. More to Come ...................................................................................................................... iv 2.1. Send in Your Feedback .....................................................
6. Red Hat Network Website............................................................................................................ 57 6.1. Navigation........................................................................................................................ 57 6.1.1. Entitlement Views ............................................................................................. 57 6.1.2. Categories and Pages .....................................................................................
7. Monitoring ................................................................................................................................... 119 7.1. Prerequisites................................................................................................................... 119 7.2. Red Hat Network Monitoring Daemon (rhnmd) ........................................................... 119 7.2.1. Probes requiring the daemon ..........................................................................
C. Probes .......................................................................................................................................... 141 C.1. Probe guidelines ............................................................................................................ 141 C.2. Apache 1.3.x and 2.0.x.................................................................................................. 141 C.2.1. Apache::Processes......................................................................
C.9. Oracle 8i and 9i ............................................................................................................. 169 C.9.1. Oracle::Active Sessions.................................................................................. 169 C.9.2. Oracle::Availability ........................................................................................ 170 C.9.3. Oracle::Blocking Sessions.............................................................................. 170 C.9.4.
Introduction to the Guide Welcome to the Red Hat Network 3.7 Reference Guide. The RHN Reference Guide will guide you through registering your system with Red Hat Network and using its many features. Since Red Hat Network offers a variety of service levels, from the most basic Update module to the most advanced Monitoring package, some content of this guide may be inapplicable to you.
ii Introduction to the Guide The .bashrc file in your home directory contains bash shell definitions and aliases for your own use. The /etc/fstab file contains information about different system devices and file systems. Install the webalizer RPM if you want to use a Web server log file analysis program. application This style indicates that the program is an end-user application (as opposed to system software). For example: Use Mozilla to browse the Web.
Introduction to the Guide iii The output returned in response to the command (in this case, the contents of the directory) is shown in this style. prompt A prompt, which is a computer’s way of signifying that it is ready for you to input something, is shown in this style. Examples: $ # [stephen@maturin stephen]$ leopard login: user input Text that the user has to type, either on the command line, or into a text box on a GUI screen, is displayed in this style.
iv Introduction to the Guide Caution Do not perform routine tasks as root — use a regular user account unless you need to use the root account for system administration tasks. Warning Be careful to remove only the necessary partitions. Removing other partitions could result in data loss or a corrupted system environment. 2. More to Come The Red Hat Network Reference Guide is constantly expanding as new Red Hat Network features and service plans are launched.
Chapter 1.
2 Chapter 1. Red Hat Network Overview Many Red Hat Network terms are used throughout this manual. As you read the Red Hat Network Reference Guide, refer to the Glossary as necessary for an explanation of common terms. Tip For a comparison chart of RHN service levels, refer to http://www.redhat.com/software/rhn/table/. 1.1. Demo The RHN Demo service level is the complimentary service level. All users receive one free subscription to RHN Demo.
Chapter 1. Red Hat Network Overview 3 Organization Administrator has overall control over each Red Hat Network organization with the ability to add and remove systems and users. When users other than the Organization Administrator log 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 to https://rhn.redhat.com/ and click on the Create Account link under the Sign In fields.
4 Chapter 1. Red Hat Network Overview • Custom System Information — Provisioning customers may identify any type of information they choose about their systems. This differs from the more rigorous System Profile information and the completely arbitrary Notes in that it allows you to develop specific keys of your choosing and then assign searchable values for that key to each Provisioning-entitled system. For instance, this feature would allow you to identify the cubicle in which each system is located.
Chapter 1. Red Hat Network Overview 5 2. A Digital Certificate is written to the client system after registration and is used to authenticate the system during each transaction between the client and Red Hat Network. The file is only readable by the root user on the client system. 3. All notifications and information messages are signed by Red Hat with an electronic signature using GPG. RPM can be used to verify the authenticity of the package before it is installed. 4.
6 Package Name Chapter 1. Red Hat Network Overview Description rhn_register-gnome Provides the GNOME interface (graphical version) for the Red Hat Network Registration Client; runs if the X Window System is available up2date Provides the Red Hat Update Agent command line version and the Red Hat Network Daemon up2date-gnome Provides the GNOME interface (graphical version) for the Red Hat Update Agent; runs if the X Window System is available Table 1-1.
Chapter 2. Red Hat Update Agent The Red Hat Update Agent is your connection to Red Hat Network. It enables you to register your systems, create System Profiles, and alter the settings by which your organization and RHN interact. Once registered, your systems can use the Red Hat Update Agent to retrieve the latest software packages from Red Hat. This tool will allow you to always have the most up-to-date Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems with all security patches, bug fixes, and software package enhancements.
8 Chapter 2. Red Hat Update Agent If you choose the last option and start the application from a shell prompt, you can specify the options in Table 2-1 to the Red Hat Update Agent. To view these options, type the command up2date --help. For example, use the following command to specify the directory in which to download the updated packages (temporarily overriding your saved configuration): up2date --tmpdir=/tmp/up2date Argument Description --configure Configure Red Hat Update Agent options.
Chapter 2. Red Hat Update Agent 9 Figure 2-1. Configure Proxy Server The second dialog box to appear will prompt you to install the Red Hat GPG key, as shown in Figure 2-2. This key is used to verify the packages you download for security purposes. Click Yes to install the key, and you will not see this message again. Figure 2-2. Install GPG Key 2.2. Registration Before you begin using Red Hat Network, you need to create a username, password, and System Profile.
10 Chapter 2. Red Hat Update Agent Important If your username is part of a larger organizational account, you should take caution when registering your systems. By default, all systems registered with the Red Hat Update Agent end up in the Ungrouped section of systems visible only to Organization Administrators. To ensure you retain management of these systems, Red Hat recommends your organization create an activation key associated with a specific system group and grant you permissions to that group.
Chapter 2. Red Hat Update Agent 11 Figure 2-4. Red Hat Privacy Statement 2.2.1. Registering a User Account Before you can create a System Profile, you must create a user account. Red Hat recommends you create your account through the RHN website, but you may also do so through up2date. All that is required is a unique username-password combination and a valid email address. In the screen shown in Figure 2-5, choose a username and password.
12 • Chapter 2. Red Hat Update Agent Is not case-sensitive, thereby eliminating the possibility of duplicate usernames differing only by capitalization In addition, the following restrictions apply to both your username and password: • Must be at least four characters long • Cannot contain any tabs • Cannot contain any line feeds Passwords are case-sensitive for obvious reasons. Figure 2-5. Create a User Account You must choose a unique username.
Chapter 2. Red Hat Update Agent 13 Figure 2-6. Error: Username Already Exists Most users can leave the Org Info section blank. If you have an existing organization account, enter your organization’s ID and password in the provided text fields. If the values are valid, the system will be added to the organization’s Red Hat Network account. If you have already registered a machine and created a System Profile, you can add a new machine to your account.
14 Chapter 2. Red Hat Update Agent Figure 2-7. Register a User Account Once satsfied with the information supplied, click Forward to continue. 2.2.2. Registering a System Profile Now that you have a user account, you can create a System Profile that consists of hardware and software information about your Red Hat Enterprise Linux system. The System Profile information is used by Red Hat Network to determine what software update notifications you receive. 2.2.2.1.
Chapter 2. Red Hat Update Agent • Disk sizes • Mount points 15 The next step is choosing a profile name for your system as shown in Figure 2-8. The default value is the hostname for the system. You may modify this to be a more descriptive string, such as Email Server for Support Team, if you find it more helpful. Optionally, you can enter a computer serial or identification number for the system.
16 Chapter 2. Red Hat Update Agent you must include packages in your profile to have RHN send you Errata regarding them. You should also note if you use an older version of a package and deselect it from the list, it will not be replaced with a newer version. This RPM list can be modified through the Red Hat Network Web interface or by using the Red Hat Update Agent. Figure 2-9 shows the progress bar you will see while the Red Hat Update Agent gathers a list of the RPM packages installed on your system.
Chapter 2. Red Hat Update Agent 17 2.2.2.2.2. Choosing RPM Packages to Exclude from the System Profile By default, all RPM packages in your RPM database are included in your System Profile to be updated by Red Hat Network. To exclude a package, uncheck the package from the list by clicking the checkbox beside the package name. For example, Figure 2-11 shows that the Canna-devel and Canna-libs packages have been omitted from the package list.
18 Chapter 2. Red Hat Update Agent Figure 2-12. Finished Collecting Information for System Profile Figure 2-13 shows the progress bar you will see while your profile is being sent. This process may take some time depending on your connection speed. Figure 2-13. Send System Profile to Red Hat Network You will know your System Profile has been successfully sent when you see the Channels screen (Figure 2-14) appear. Refer to Section 2.3.1 Choosing a Software Channel for continued instructions. 2.3.
Chapter 2. Red Hat Update Agent 19 Before you proceed, however, you should consider ensuring you have the latest version of the Red Hat Update Agent, as development on it is continuous. This task is as simple as running the tool against its own package. Shut down the GUI version and run this command in a terminal (as root), like so: up2date up2date 2.3.1. Choosing a Software Channel The first step is to select the channel from which you want the updated packages to be retrieved.
20 Chapter 2. Red Hat Update Agent Figure 2-15. Retrieve Update Information While you see this dialog box, the Red Hat Update Agent uses your unique Digital Certificate (/etc/sysconfig/rhn/systemid) to determine if there are any updated packages available for your system. If there are no updated packages available for your system, the dialog box in Figure 2-16 appears. Click OK to exit the Red Hat Update Agent. Figure 2-16.
Chapter 2. Red Hat Update Agent 21 Figure 2-17. Packages Flagged to be Skipped If you want to view the advisory for the RPM Alert, click the View Advisory button. This will display what type of Errata Alert it is and what problem(s) it addresses as shown in Figure 2-18. Click OK to close the advisory. Click Finished when you are finished selecting packages to include.
22 Chapter 2. Red Hat Update Agent Figure 2-18. View Advisory The Available Package Updates screen is the next to appear. If your system is not up-to-date, your customized list of available updated packages is displayed as shown in Figure 2-19.
Chapter 2. Red Hat Update Agent 23 Figure 2-19. List of Available Updates By default, no packages are selected for download. To select a package for download (and installation, if you chose that option), click its checkbox. To select all the packages listed, click the checkbox next to Select all packages.
24 Chapter 2. Red Hat Update Agent Figure 2-21. Retrieval Finished 2.3.3. Installing Updated Packages After downloading the packages through the Red Hat Update Agent, they must be installed. If you chose not to have the packages installed via the Red Hat Update Agent, skip to Section 2.3.5.2 Manual Package Installation for further instructions. If you configured it to install the packages (the default setting), the selected packages are installed.
Chapter 2. Red Hat Update Agent 25 Figure 2-22. Installation Finished 2.3.4. Update Agent Finished When the Red Hat Update Agent has finished downloading the desired packages (and installing them if you chose the install option), you will see the screen in Figure 2-23. Click Finish to exit the Red Hat Update Agent.
26 Chapter 2. Red Hat Update Agent Figure 2-23. Update Agent Finished 2.3.5. Command Line Version If you are not running X, you can still run the Red Hat Update Agent from a virtual console or remote terminal.
Chapter 2. Red Hat Update Agent 27 Argument Description --arch=architecture Force up2date to install this architecture of the package. Not valid with --update, --list, or --dry-run. --channel=channel Specify which channels to update from using channel labels. --configure Configure Red Hat Update Agent options. Refer to Section 2.4 Configuration for detailed instructions. -d, --download Download packages only; do not install them.
28 Chapter 2. Red Hat Update Agent Argument Description --proxyUser=proxy user ID Specify a username to use with an authenticated HTTP proxy. --register Register (or re-register) this system with RHN. Refer to Section 2.2 Registration for detailed instructions. --serverUrl=server URL Specify an alternate server from which to retrieve packages. --showall List all packages available for download. --show-available List all packages available that are not currently installed.
Chapter 2. Red Hat Update Agent 29 Note GPG keys must be installed for each user. To install the key to use with Red Hat Network, import the key while logged in as root. The method for installing the key varies depending on your version of RPM. Starting with version 4.1, which shipped with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3, you may import GPG keys using rpm, like so (as root): rpm --import /usr/share/doc/rpm-4.1/RPM-GPG-KEY For older versions of RPM, such as the one that came with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.
30 Chapter 2. Red Hat Update Agent =yOVZ -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- Save the text file and import it into your keyring using the method applicable for your version of RPM. 2.3.5.2. Manual Package Installation If you chose to download the software updates with the Red Hat Update Agent or from the RHN website, you must install them manually using RPM. To install them, change to the directory that contains the downloaded packages. The default directory is /var/spool/up2date.
Chapter 2. Red Hat Update Agent 31 2.4.1. Using the Red Hat Update Agent Configuration Tool You must be root to run the Red Hat Update Agent Configuration Tool. If you start the Red Hat Update Agent Configuration Tool as a standard user, you will be prompted to enter the root password before proceeding. The Red Hat Update Agent Configuration Tool can be started by typing the command up2date-config at a shell prompt (for example, an xterm or a gnome-terminal). 2.4.1.1.
32 Chapter 2. Red Hat Update Agent Figure 2-25. Retrieval/Installation Settings The following package retrieval options can be selected (see Figure 2-25): • Do not install packages after retrieval — download selected RPM packages to desired directory and ignore the installation preferences • Do not upgrade packages when local configuration file has been modified — if the configuration file has been modified for a package such as apache or squid, do not attemp to upgrade it.
Chapter 2. Red Hat Update Agent 33 2.4.1.3. Package Exceptions Settings The Package Exceptions tab allows you to define which packages to exclude from the list of updated RPM packages according to the package name or file name (see Figure 2-26). To define a set of packages to be excluded according to the package name, enter a character string including wild cards (*) in the Add new text field under in the Package Names to Skip section.
34 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. Chapter 2.
Chapter 2. Red Hat Update Agent 35 Thus, channel and group subscriptions can be automated along with registration, thereby bypassing entitlement and registration through either the Red Hat Network Registration Client or the Red Hat Update Agent, both of which offer the activation keys utility rhnreg_ks as part of their packages. Note Systems running Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1 need version 2.9.3-1 or higher of the rhn_register package.
36 Chapter 2. Red Hat Update Agent • A key may specify either zero or one base channel. If specified, it must be a custom base channel. If not, the base channel corresponding to the system’s Red Hat distribution will be chosen. For instance, you may not take a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1 system and subscribe it to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 channel. • A key may specify any number of child channels. For each child channel, subscription is attempted.
Chapter 3. Red Hat Network Daemon The Red Hat Network Daemon (rhnsd) periodically connects to Red Hat Network to check for updates and notifications. The daemon, which runs in the background, is typically started from the initialization scripts in /etc/init.d/rhnsd or /etc/rc.d/init.d/rhnsd. Tip Provisioning-entitled systems served by an RHN Satellite Server may have actions immediately initiated or pushed to them. Refer to Section 6.4.2.6.
38 Chapter 3. Red Hat Network Daemon 3.4. Troubleshooting If you are seeing messages indicating checkins are not taking place, the RHN client on your system is not successfully reaching Red Hat Network. Make certain: • your client is configured correctly. • your system can communicate with RHN via SSL (port 443). You may test this by running the following command from a shell prompt: • the Red Hat Network Daemon is activated and running.
Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Alert Notification Tool The Red Hat Network Alert Notification Tool is a notifier that appears on the panel and alerts users when software package updates are available for their systems. The list of updates is retrieved from the RHN Servers.
40 Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Alert Notification Tool Figure 4-2. HTTP Proxy Configuration If your network connection requires you to use an HTTP Proxy Server to make HTTP connections, on the Proxy Configuration screen, type your proxy server in the text field with the format HOST:PORT. For example, to use the proxy server http://squid.mysite.org on port 3128, enter squid.mysite.org:3128 in the text field.
Chapter 4. Red Hat Network Alert Notification Tool 41 If you see the icon, it is highly recommended that you apply the updates. Refer to Section 4.4 Applying Updates for information on applying updates. If you have scheduled updates to be installed, you can watch the applet icon to determine when updates are applied. The icon changes to the icon after the Errata Updates are applied.
42 Chapter 4.
Chapter 5. Red Hat Network Registration Client Before you begin using Red Hat Network, you need to create a username, password, and System Profile. The Red Hat Network Registration Client walks you through this process. Warning Only systems running Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1 need to use this separate Red Hat Network Registration Client before starting the Red Hat Update Agent. Systems running Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 have this registration functionality built into the Red Hat Update Agent.
44 Chapter 5. Red Hat Network Registration Client It has more configuration options than the graphical version. You will be presented with a list of options and their current values: 0. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. enableProxyAuth noSSLServerURL oemInfoFile enableProxy networkSetup httpProxy proxyUser serverURL proxyPassword debug No http://xmlrpc.rhn.redhat.com/XMLRPC /etc/sysconfig/rhn/oeminfo No Yes https://xmlrpc.rhn.redhat.
Chapter 5. Red Hat Network Registration Client 45 3. Type the command rhn_register at a shell prompt (for example an XTerm or GNOME terminal) 4. If you are not running the X Window System, type the command rhn_register at a virtual console or remote terminal. Refer to Section 5.7 Text Mode RHN Registration Client for further details. Caution You must use Python 1.5.2-24 or later with Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) support. If not, the information you transfer will not be encrypted.
46 Chapter 5. Red Hat Network Registration Client Figure 5-4. Welcome Screen Red Hat is committed to protecting your privacy (see Figure 5-5). The information gathered during the Red Hat Network registration process is used to create a System Profile. The System Profile is essential if you wish to receive update notifications about your system.
Chapter 5. Red Hat Network Registration Client 47 Figure 5-5. Red Hat Privacy Statement 5.3. Registering a User Account Before you can create a System Profile, you must create a user account. The only required information in this section is a unique username, password, and a valid email address. In the screen shown in Figure 5-7, you must choose a username and password.
48 Chapter 5. Red Hat Network Registration Client Note If you are already a member of redhat.com, you can use the same user name and password. However, you will still need to continue with the registration process to create your System Profile.
Chapter 5. Red Hat Network Registration Client 49 Most users can leave the Org Info section blank. If you have an existing organization account, work with your Organization Administrator to ensure your system is added to that account. This will require entering your organization’s ID and password in the provided text fields. If the values are valid, the system will be added to the organization’s Red Hat Network account.
50 Chapter 5. Red Hat Network Registration Client Figure 5-8. System Profile - Hardware 5.4.2. Software System Profile The software System Profile consists of a list of RPM packages for which you wish to receive notifications. The Red Hat Network Registration Client shows you a list of all RPM packages listed in the RPM database on your system and then allows you to customize the list by deselecting packages. 5.4.2.1.
Chapter 5. Red Hat Network Registration Client 51 Figure 5-10. RPM Package Information 5.4.2.2. Choosing RPM Packages to Exclude from the System Profile By default, all RPM packages in your RPM database are included in your System Profile to be updated by Red Hat Network. To exclude a package, uncheck the package from the list by clicking the checkbox beside the package name. For example, Figure 5-11 shows that the procmail, procps, and psgml packages have been omitted from the package list.
52 Chapter 5. Red Hat Network Registration Client Figure 5-11. Choose which RPM Packages to Exclude from System Profile 5.5. Finishing Registration As seen in Figure 5-12, the last step of registration is to confirm that you want to send your System Profile to the Red Hat Network. If you choose Cancel at this point, no information will be sent. Clicking Next will submit your RHN System Profile.
Chapter 5. Red Hat Network Registration Client 53 Figure 5-12. Finished Collecting Information for System Profile Figure 5-13 shows the progress bar you will see while your profile is being sent. This process may take some time depending on your connection speed. Figure 5-13. Send System Profile to Red Hat Network You will know your System Profile has been successfully sent when you see the Registration Finished screen (Figure 5-14). Click Finish to exit the Red Hat Network Registration Client.
54 Chapter 5. Red Hat Network Registration Client Figure 5-14. Registration Finished 5.6. Entitling Your System Now that you have registered your system, it must be entitled before you can receive updated packages. In other words, you must subscribe it to a service level offering. Everyone automatically receives one free Demo entitlement after creating an account by registering a system for RHN or creating a redhat.com account. To entitle a system, go to http://rhn.redhat.
Chapter 5. Red Hat Network Registration Client 55 5.7. Text Mode RHN Registration Client If you are not running the X Window System, the Red Hat Network Registration Client starts in text mode. You can force the Red Hat Network Registration Client to run in text mode with the command: rhn_register --nox The screens for the text mode Red Hat Network Registration Client are almost identical to the screens for the graphical Red Hat Network Registration Client.
56 Chapter 5.
Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Website You can use the Red Hat Network website to manage multiple Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems simultaneously, including viewing Errata Alerts, applying Errata Updates, and installing packages. This chapter seeks to identify all of categories, pages, and tabs within the website and explain how to use them. 6.1. Navigation The top navigation bar is divided into tabs of primary categories containing pages linked from the left navigation bar. 6.1.1.
58 • • • • Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Website • Your Preferences — Indicate if you wish to receive email notifications about Errata Alerts for your systems, set how many items are displayed at one time for lists such as system lists and system group lists, set your time zone, and identify your contact options. • Purchase History — View a history of your entitlements, including the expiration date and the number available. • Help — Learn how to use Red Hat Network and receive support if needed.
Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Website • • Pending Actions — List scheduled actions that have not been completed. • Failed Actions — List scheduled actions that have failed. • Completed Actions — List scheduled actions that have been completed. Completed actions can be archived at any time. • Archived Actions — List completed actions that have been selected to archive. Users — • • 59 — View and manage users for your organization. User List — Monitoring — — List users for your organization.
60 Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Website 6.1.6. Lists The information within most categories is presented as lists. These lists have some common features for navigation. For instance, you can navigate through virtually all lists by clicking the back and next arrows above and below the right side of the table. Some lists also offer the ability to retrieve items alphabetically by clicking the letters above the table. 6.2. Logging into the RHN Website In a Web browser, go to http://rhn.redhat.com.
Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Website 61 Tip If you are new to the RHN website, it is recommended that you read Section 6.1 Navigation to become familiar with the layout and symbols used throughout the website. Figure 6-2. Your Red Hat Network The top of the page shows how many systems need attention, provides a link to quickly view those systems, and displays a summary of scheduled actions. Refer to Section 6.4.2 Systems for information on using the Systems pages.
62 Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Website The Action Summary section provides the following information about events scheduled in the past week: • Recently Failed Actions — Number of scheduled actions that did not succeed. • Pending Actions — Number of scheduled actions that have not yet been completed. • Recently Completed Actions — Number of scheduled actions that succeeded. The System Groups section gives you access to the groups of systems you establish.
Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Website 63 6.3.2. Your Preferences The Your Preferences page allows you to configure Red Hat Network options, including: • Email Notifications — Determine whether you want to receive email every time an Errata Alert is applicable to one or more systems in your RHN account. Important This setting also enables Management and Provisioning customers to receive a daily summary of system events.
64 Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Website 6.3.4.3. FAQ The FAQ page lists Frequently Asked Questions and answers to those questions. These are broken down into the following categories, each represented by a separate button and page: Top Ten, General, Account Management, Getting Started, Service Levels, Using RHN, Technical Questions, Management Service, Privacy/Legal, Policies, Definitions, and All. 6.3.4.4.
Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Website 65 6.4. Systems If you click the Systems tab on the top navigation bar, the Systems category and links appear. The pages in the Systems category allow you to select systems so that you can perform actions on them and create System Profiles. 6.4.1. Overview — As shown in Figure 6-3, the Overview page provides a summary of your systems, including their status, number of associated Errata and packages, and entitlement level.
66 Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Website You can also click the Use Group button in the System Groups section of the Overview page to go directly to the System Set Manager. Refer to Section 6.4.4 System Set Manager — information. for more 6.4.2. Systems The Systems page displays a list of all your registered systems. The Systems list contains several columns of information for each system: • Select — Update-entitled systems cannot be selected.
Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Website 67 • System — The name of the system as configured when registering it. The default name is the hostname of the system. Clicking on the name of a system takes you to the System Details page for the system. Refer to Section 6.4.2.6 System Details for more information. • Base Channel — The primary channel for the system, based upon its operating system distribution. Refer to Section 6.6.1 Software Channels for more information.
68 Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Website 6.4.2.6. System Details If you click on the name of a system on any page, it will display the System Details page for the system. From here, you may modify this information or remove the system altogether by clicking the delete system link on the top-right corner. The System Details page is further divided into tabs: 6.4.2.6.1. System Details Details Displays information about the system. This is the first tab you see when you click on a system.
Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Website 69 • Include system in daily summary report calculations — This setting includes the system in a daily summary of system events. (By default, all Management and Provisioning systems are included in the summary.) These are actions affecting packages, such as scheduled Errata Updates, and system reboots or failures to check in. In addition to including the system here, you must choose to receive email notifications in the Your Preferences page of the Your RHN category.
70 Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Website not regenerate, delete, or use this key (with rhnreg_ks) while a profile-based kickstart is in progress. If you do, the kickstart will fail. Details 6.4.2.6.1.7. System Details Remote Command — The method for running a remote command on the system. To allow remote commands to be run on the client through RHN, first install the latest rhncfg* packages available within the RHN Provisioning child channel for the system.
Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Website 71 — When selecting packages to install, upgrade, or remove, Provisioning customers have the option of running a remote command automatically before or after the package installation. Refer to Section 6.4.2.6.1.7 System Details Packages Packages Packages Packages Packages Packages 6.4.2.6.3.1. System Details Details Remote Command — for more information.
72 Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Website additional information you desire, and click the Create Profile button. These profiles are kept within the Stored Profiles page linked from the left navigation bar. — Once package profiles have been compared, Provisioning customers have the ability to synchronize the packages of the selected system with the package manifest of the compared profile. Note that this action may delete packages on the system not in the profile, as well as install packages from the profile.
Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Website 73 • Diff — Validate the configuration files installed on the system by comparing them to versions stored in RHN’s central configuration manager. Select the files to be diffed and click Analyze Differences. • Config Channels — Set the subscription and rank of configuration channels that may be associated with the system, lowest first. Enter numbers in the Rank fields to establish the order in which channels are used.
74 Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Website Snapshots — 6.4.2.6.6. System Details Provides snapshots enabling rollback of the system’s package profile, configuration files, and RHN settings. These snapshots are captured whenever an action takes place on the system. 6.4.2.6.6.1. System Details Snapshots Snapshots — The default display of the Snapshots tab lists the reason, dates, and times for snapshots taken, as well as any tags associated with the snapshots.
Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Website 75 but you insert an IP address kickstart CD-ROM built for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3. This would result in errors and cause the kickstart to fail. Kickstart Kickstart 6.4.2.6.7.2. System Details Session Status — Session History — If you’ve scheduled a kickstart, this subtab shows where the system’s kickstart stands. Details include the kickstart profile used, its state, and pending and latest actions.
76 • Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Website — System Event 6.4.2.6.9. System Details Probes — Displays all of the probes monitoring the system. You must be logged into an RHN Satellite Server with Monitoring enabled to see this tab. The State column shows icons representing the status of each probe. Refer to Section 6.9 Monitoring — for descriptions of these states. The Status String column displays the last message received from the probe.
Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Website 77 Figure 6-4. System Group List The System Groups list contains several columns for each group: • Select — These checkboxes enable you to add systems in groups to the System Set Manager. To select groups, mark the appropriate checkboxes and click the Update button below the column. All systems in the selected groups are added to the System Set Manager. You can then use the System Set Manager to perform actions on them simultaneously.
78 Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Website • Systems — Total number of systems contained by the group. Clicking on the number takes you to the Systems tab of the System Group Details page for the group. Refer to Section 6.4.3.3 System • Use in SSM — Clicking the Use Group button in this column loads the group from that row and Group Details — for more information. launches the System Set Manager immediately. Refer to Section 6.4.4 System Set Manager — for more information. 6.4.3.1.
Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Website Errata — Admins — 6.4.3.3.4. System Group Details 79 List of relevant Errata for systems in the system group. Clicking the Advisory takes you to the Details tab of the Errata Details page. (Refer to Section 6.5.2.2 Errata Details for more information.) Clicking the Affected Systems number lists all of the systems addressed by the Errata. To apply the Errata Updates in this list, select the systems and click the Apply Errata button. 6.4.3.3.5.
80 Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Website Systems — Errata — Packages — 6.4.4.2. System Set Manager List of systems now selected. To remove systems from this set, select them and click the Remove button. 6.4.4.3. System Set Manager List of Errata Updates applicable to the current system set. Click the number in the Systems column to see to which systems in the System Set Manager the given Errata applies to. To apply updates, select the Errata and click the Apply Errata button. 6.4.4.4.
Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Website 6.4.4.6. System Set Manager 81 Channels — Options to manage channel associations through the following subtabs: Channels Channels 6.4.4.6.1. System Set Manager Channel Subscriptions — Config Channels — To subscribe or unsubscribe the selected systems in any of the channels, toggle the appropriate radio buttons and click the Alter Subscriptions button.
82 Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Website 6.4.4.6.2.3. System Set Manager Channels Config Channels Diff — Use this subtab to validate configuration files on the selected systems against copies in your central repository on RHN. The table lists the configuration files associated with any of the selected systems. Clicking its system count displays the systems already subscribed to the file.
Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Website 83 group, and timeout period, as well as the script itself on this page. Select a date and time to begin attempting the command, and click Schedule Remote Command. 6.4.4.8. System Set Manager Misc — Misc — Tools to update System Profiles and preferences for the system set. Here are the tools broken down by section: Misc Misc Misc Misc Misc Misc 6.4.4.8.1.
84 Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Website 6.4.4.8.7. System Set Manager Misc System Preferences — Toggling the Yes and No radio buttons and then clicking the Change Preferences button alters your notification preferences for the selected systems. All of these preferences may also be applied to systems individually through the Properties subtab of the System Details page. Refer to Section 6.4.2.6.1.2 System Details Details Properties for instructions.
Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Website 85 Warning Changing a system’s entitlement is an irreversible action. You may be unable to change the entitlement levels of some systems. For more information, refer to the RHN entitlement policy linked from the System Entitlements page. In addition, you may entitle all newly registered systems to the Management service level at once by clicking the Auto-Entitle Newest Servers Now link at the bottom of the page.
86 Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Website 2. Click the create new key link at the top-left corner. Warning In addition to the fields listed below, RHN Satellite Server customers may also populate the Key field itself. This user-defined string of characters can then be supplied with rhnreg_ks to register client systems with the Satellite. Do not insert commas in the key. All other characters are accepted.
Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Website 87 • base software channels — registration fails • entitlements — registration fails • enable config flag — configuration management is set Also remember, using a system-specific re-activation key along with a normal activation key will fail. You’re now ready to use multiple activation keys at once. This is done with comma separation at the command line with rhnreg_ks or in a kickstart profile within the Post tab of the Kickstart Details page. Refer to Section 2.
88 Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Website 6.4.10.1. Kickstart Prerequisites Although Red Hat Network has taken great pains to ease the provisioning of systems, some preparation is still required for your infrastructure to handle kickstarts. For instance, before creating kickstart profiles, you may consider: • A DHCP server is not required for kickstarting, but it can make things easier. If you are using static IP addresses, you should select static IP while developing your kickstart profile.
Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Website 89 6.4.10.3. Creating Kickstarts To develop a new kickstart profile, and you are not using RHN Satellite Server, first create a distribu- Distributions — for tion through the Distributions page. Refer to Section 6.4.10.9 Kickstart instructions. Once that is done, return to the Kickstart page and click create new kickstart in the upper-right corner of the page.
90 Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Website Options — Advanced Options — Packages — 6.4.10.4.2. Kickstart Details Collects the precise values to be applied against the kickstart process, including bootloader type, time zone, root password, and partition details.
Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Website 6.4.10.4.6.1. Kickstart Details Post 91 Details — Allows editing of the %post script and inclusion of other options to be set after initial kickstart. You may alter individual commands within the script, identify the package profile to be used during synchronization, and include the activation key to be used for registration. If you plan to include multiple activation keys, first refer to Section 6.4.7.
92 Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Website Profiles — IP Ranges — Sessions GPG and SSL Keys — 6.4.10.5. Kickstart Lists the kickstart profiles created by your organization. Click a name to see the Kickstart Details page. To enable inactive profiles, select the appropriate checkboxes and click the Update Profiles. 6.4.10.6. Kickstart Lists the IP addresses that have been associated with kickstart profiles created by your organization.
Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Website 93 based upon the distribution to be kickstarted. It should look something like, "auto-kickstart-ks-rheli386-as-3". Then, strip everything preceding the "ks" to derive the boot image. For instance, in the above example, you would put "ks-rhel-i386-as-3" in the Autokickstart RPM field. Then select the matching distribution from the Base Channel and Installer Generation dropdown menus, such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS (v.
94 Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Website ksdevice=eth0 It is possible to change the distribution for a kickstart profile within a family, such as RHEL AS3 to RHEL ES3, by specifying the new distribution label. Note that you cannot move between versions (2.1 to 3) and between updates (U1 to U2). Next, you may customize isolinux.cfg further for your needs, such as by adding multiple kickstart options, different boot messages, shorter timeout periods, etc.
Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Website 95 Red Hat releases Errata Alerts in three categories, or types: Security Alerts, Bug Fix Alerts, and Enhancement Alerts. Each Errata Alert is comprised of a summary of the problem and the solution, including the RPM packages required to fix the problem.
96 Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Website 6.5.2. All Errata The All Errata page displays a list of all Errata Alerts released by Red Hat. It works much the same as the Relevant Errata page in that clicking either the Advisory or the number of systems affected takes you to related tabs of the Errata Details page. Refer to Section 6.5.2.2 Errata Details for more information. 6.5.2.1. Apply Errata Updates Errata Alerts include a list of updated packages that are required to apply the Errata Update.
Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Website 97 6.5.2.2. Errata Details If you click on the Advisory of an Errata Alert in the Relevant or All pages, its Errata Details page appears. This page is further divided into the following tabs: 6.5.2.2.1. Errata Details Details Provides the Errata Report issued by Red Hat. It describes the problem and solution and lists the channels it affects. Clicking on a channel name displays the Packages tab of the Channel Details page. Refer to Section 6.6.1.
98 Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Website different base channel. A child channel is a channel associated with a base channel but contains extra packages. For instance, an organization can create a child channel associated with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1 for the x86 architecture that contains extra packages needed only for the organization, such as a custom engineering application. A system must be subscribed to one base channel only.
Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Website 99 6.6.1.2. Retired Channels The Retired Channels page displays channels available to your organization that have reached their end-of-life dates. These channels do not receive updates. 6.6.1.3. All Channels The All Channels page can be retrieved by clicking All below Software Channels in the left navigation bar.
100 Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Website channel means that a user is a Channel Administrator but only for that channel. He cannot create new channels or clone them. " Errata " Packages 6.6.1.4.4. Software Channel Details List of Errata affecting the channel. The list displays advisory types, names, summaries, and the dates issued. Clicking on an advisory name takes you to its Errata Details page. Refer to Section 6.5.2.2 Errata Details for more information. 6.6.1.4.5.
Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Website 101 Systems tab. To complete the subscription, read the agreement, click the Accept button, and then click the Confirm button. To decline the subscription, click the Cancel button. 6.6.2. Channel Entitlements The Channel Entitlements page displays the list of channels for which you have paid. Click the number of systems subscribed to see a list of systems tied to the corresponding channel. 6.6.3.
102 Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Website 6.6.5. Software Packages A software package is the smallest essential ingredient of any Red Hat Enterprise Linux system. Packages, commonly known as RPMs because of their oversight by RPM Package Manager, are the pieces of software that, when installed, enable your system to operate. Packages are grouped by channels to help you more easily determine which are applicable to your systems.
Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Website 103 6.6.5.3. Package Details If you click on the name of any package in the website, the Package Details page will appear. This page contains the following tabs: # Details 6.6.5.3.1. Package Details Details about the package, including subtabs for overview, dependencies, change log, and file list: # Details # Details # Details # Details 6.6.5.3.1.1.
104 Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Website 6.6.6. Manage Config Channels — Provides the means to create and oversee channels containing configuration files. You must be an Configuration Administrator or Organization Administrator to view this section of the website. Like software channels, configuration channels store files to be installed on systems. Unlike software packages, various versions of configuration files may prove useful to a system at any given time.
Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Website 105 touch /etc/sysconfig/rhn/allowed-actions/configfiles/mode To grant full configuration management access, issue this command: touch /etc/sysconfig/rhn/allowed-actions/configfiles/all Your system should now be ready for config management through RHN. Command line options also exist for many of these functions. Refer to Appendix A Command Line Config Management Tools for instructions. $ Config Channels — 6.6.6.2.
106 6.6.6.6 Configuration File Details — Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Website for instructions. Click the config channel name to access the Configuration Channel Details page. Refer to Section 6.6.6.5 Configuration Channel Details — for instructions. 6.6.6.5. Configuration Channel Details — If you click on the name of a channel in a list, the Configuration Channel Details page will appear. This page contains the following tabs: % Details — % Files — 6.6.6.5.1.
Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Website 107 6.6.6.5.2.4. Configuration Channel Details & Files & Create Directory — Allows you to create a configuration directory within the interface. The fields resemble those on the Upload and Create File subtab: Path is the absolute location of the directory on the system. The user, group, and mode fields allow you to set the directory’s ownership and permissions. When finished, click the Create Config Directory button. & Systems — & Target Systems — 6.6.6.5.3.
108 6.6.6.6.4. Configuration File Details ' Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Website Copy — A list of configuration channels that may receive a copy of the file. To copy the file to a channel, select the channel’s checkbox, and click the Copy File button. • Copy to Config Channel — Displays the global config channels for your organization. To copy the latest revision of this file to channels, select the appropriate checkboxes, and click the Copy File button.
Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Website 109 the variables will be substituted with the actual hostname and IP address of the system, as recorded in RHN’s System Profile, such as: hostname=test.example.domain.com ip_address=177.18.54.7 To capture custom system information, insert the key label into the custom information macro (rhn.system.custom_info).
110 Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Website 6.7.1. Pending Actions As shown in Figure 6-7, the Pending Actions page is shown by default when you click Schedule in the top navigation bar. It displays actions that have not started or are in progress. Figure 6-7. Schedule - Pending Actions 6.7.2. Failed Actions Actions that could not be completed. If the action returns an error, it will be displayed. 6.7.3. Completed Actions Actions that have succeeded. 6.7.4.
Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Website 111 • Select — Use the checkboxes in this column to select actions. After selecting actions, you can either add them to your selection list or move them to the Archived Actions list. If you archive a pending action, it is not canceled; The action item just moves from the Pending Actions list to the Archived Actions list. • Action — Type of action to perform such as Errata Update or Package Install. Clicking an action name takes you to its Action Details page.
112 Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Website for those who will administer your system groups. Click in the User List to modify users within your organization. 6.8.1. User Roles To delegate responsibilities within your organization, Red Hat Network provides several roles with varying degrees of responsibility and access. This list describes the permissions of each and the differences between them: • User — Also known as a System Group User, this is the standard role associated with any newly created user.
Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Website 113 Figure 6-8. User List 6.8.2.1. Create User — Click the create new user link on the top-right corner of the page to add new users to the organization. When registering a system, a user account can be created and added to the organization, as well. This should be coordinated by the Organization Administrator. Refer to Section 5.3 Registering a User Account for instructions. On the Create User page, complete all required fields, including all login information.
114 Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Website ) Details — 6.8.2.2.1. User Details The username, first name, last name, email address, and user roles for the user. All of this information is modifiable. To do so, make your changes and click the Update button. Remember, when changing a user’s password, you will see only asterisks as you type the password.
Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Website * 115 Preferences — 6.8.2.2.5. User Details Modifiable Red Hat Network options. These include: • Email Notification — Determine whether this user should receive email every time an Errata Alert is applicable to one or more systems in his or her RHN account, as well as daily summaries of system events. • RHN List Page Size — Maximum number of items that will appear in a list on a single page.
116 Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Website 6.9.1. Probe Status — As shown in Figure 6-9, the Probe Status page is shown by default when you click Monitoring in the top navigation bar. Figure 6-9. Probe Status The Probe Status page displays the summary count of probes in the various states and provides a simple interface to find problematic probes quickly. Please note the probe totals in the tabs at the top of the page may not match the numbers of probes displayed in the tables below.
Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Website 117 The Probe Status page contains tabs for each of the possible states, as well as one that lists all probes. The tables are identical in that each contains columns indicating probe state, the system being monitored, the probes used, and the date and time the status was last updated. In these tables, clicking the name of the system takes you to the Probes tab of the System Details page. Clicking the name of the probe takes you to its Current State page.
118 Chapter 6. Red Hat Network Website the results should be shown in a graph, an error log, or both. Then click Generate report at the bottom of the page. If no data exist for the probe’s metrics, you are presented with a message indicating No time series data found for specified time period. 6.9.2. Notification — Identifies the contact methods that have been established for your organization. These methods contain email or pager addresses designated to receive alerts from probes.
Chapter 7. Monitoring The Red Hat Network Monitoring entitlement allows you to perform a whole host of actions designed to keep your systems running properly and efficiently. With it, you can keep close watch on system resources, network services, databases, and both standard and custom applications. (During the Monitoring technology preview, Provisioning-entitled systems are treated as if they have Monitoring entitlements.
120 Chapter 7. Monitoring Please note the Red Hat Network Monitoring Daemon requires monitored systems allow connections on port 4545. You may avoid opening this port and installing the daemon altogether by using sshd instead. Refer to Section 7.2.3 Configuring SSH for details. 7.2.1. Probes requiring the daemon An encrypted connection, either through the Red Hat Network Monitoring Daemon or sshd, is required on client systems for the following probes to run.
Chapter 7. Monitoring 2. Once subscribed, open the Channel Details der ’R’). - 121 Packages tab and find the rhnmd package (un- 3. Click the package name to open the Package Details page. Go to the Target Systems tab, select the desired systems, and click Install Packages. 4. Install the SSH public key on all client systems to be monitored, as described in Section 7.2.4 Installing the SSH key. 5. Start the Red Hat Network Monitoring Daemon on all client systems using the command: service rhnmd start 6.
122 Chapter 7. Monitoring If config management is enabled on the systems to be monitored, you may deploy this file across systems using a config channel. Refer to Section 6.6.6.1 Preparing Systems for Config Management for details. Note If valid entries already exist in authorized_keys, add the daemon key to the file rather than use it to replace it. Do this by saving the copied text to id_dsa.pub in the same .ssh/ directory and then running the command: cat ~/.ssh/id_dsa.pub >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys. 5.
Chapter 7. Monitoring 123 6. While adding probes, select the Probe Notifications checkbox and select the new notification method from the resulting pulldown menu. Understand that notification methods assigned to probes cannot be deleted until that association has been removed. 7.3.2. Receiving Notifications If you create notification methods and associate them with probes, you must be prepared to receive them.
124 Chapter 7. Monitoring ACK METOO system 1h boss@domain.com Capitalization is not required. Duration can be listed in minutes (m), hours (h), or days (d). Email addresses are needed only for redirects (REDIR) and supplemental (METOO) notifications. The description of the action contained in the resulting email will default to the precise command entered by the user. The reason listed will be a summary of the action, such as email ack redirect by user@domain.
Chapter 7. Monitoring 125 7.4. Probes Now that the Red Hat Network Monitoring Daemon has been installed and notification methods have been created, you may begin installing probes on your Monitoring-entitled systems. If a system is entitled to Monitoring, a Probes tab appears within its System Details page. It is here where you will conduct most probe-related work. 7.4.1.
126 Chapter 7. Monitoring of its CPU used, and the WARNING threshold is set to 70 percent, the probe will go into a WARNING state. Some probes offer a multitude of such thresholds. In order to get the most out of your Monitoring entitlement and avoid false notifications, Red Hat recommends running your probes without notifications for a time to establish baseline performance for each of your systems.
Chapter 7. Monitoring 127 The command above will result in output similar to: 5 ServiceProbe on example4.redhat.com (199.168.36.175 ): linux:cpu usage Run as: Unix::CPU.pm --critical=90 --sshhost=199.168.36.175 --warn=70 --timeout=15 --sshuser=nocpulse --shell=SSHRemoteCommandShell --sshport=4545 Now that you have the ID, you use it with rhn-rhnprobe to examine the probe’s output. Refer to Section 7.5.2 Viewing the output of rhn-runprobe for instructions. 7.5.2.
128 Chapter 7.
Appendix A. Command Line Config Management Tools In addition to the options provided in the RHN website, Red Hat Network offers two command line tools for managing configuration files: the Red Hat Network Configuration Client and the Red Hat Network Configuration Manager. If you don’t yet have these these tools installed, they can be found within the RHN Provisioning child channel for your operating system.
130 Appendix A. Command Line Config Management Tools A.1.3. Viewing Config Channels To view the labels and names of the config channels that apply to the system, issue the command: rhncfg-client channels You should see output resembling: Config channels: Label ----config-channel-17 config-channel-14 Name ---config chan 2 config chan 1 A.1.4.
Appendix A. Command Line Config Management Tools 131 A.2. Red Hat Network Configuration Manager Unlike the Red Hat Network Configuration Client, the Red Hat Network Configuration Manager (rhncfg-manager) is designed to maintain RHN’s central repository of config files and channels, not those located on client systems. This tool offers a command line alternative to the configuration management features within the RHN website, as well as the ability to script some or all of the related maintenance.
132 Appendix A. Command Line Config Management Tools In addition to the required channel label and path to the file, you may use the available options for modifying the file during its addition. For instance, you may alter the path and filename by including the --dest-file option in the command, like: rhncfg-manager add --channel=channel-label --dest-file=/new/path/to/file.
Appendix A. Command Line Config Management Tools 133 A.2.4. Differentiating between Various Versions To compare different versions of a file across channels and revisions, use the -r flag to indicate which revision of the file should be compared and the -n flag to identify the two channels to be checked. Refer to Section A.2.11 Determining the Number of File Revisions for related instructions.
134 Appendix A. Command Line Config Management Tools A.2.7. Listing All Files in a Channel To list all the files in a channel, issue the command: rhncfg-manager list channel-label You should see output resembling: Files in config channel ‘blah3’: /tmp/dest_path/foo.txt A.2.8.
Appendix A. Command Line Config Management Tools 135 A.2.11. Determining the Number of File Revisions To find out how many revisions (revisions go from 1 to N with N being an integer greater than 0) of a file/path are in a channel, issue the command: rhncfg-manager revisions channel-label /tmp/dest_path/foo.txt You should see output resembling: Analyzing files in config channel blah /tmp/dest_path/foo.txt: 1 A.2.12.
136 Appendix A.
Appendix B. RHN API Access In an effort to provide customers with added flexibility, RHN makes an application programming interface (API) available. This interface can be found by clicking Help at the top-right corner of the RHN website, then clicking API in the left navigation bar. Or you may go directly to: https://rhn.redhat.com/rpc/api/. You should use this URL for your XMLRPC server, as well as your browser.
138 Appendix B. RHN API Access B.4. Viewing the cid Like servers, channels have their own IDs. This value, the cid, is a required parameter for some methods, including set_base_channel and set_child_channels. Also like the sid, the cid can be obtained through the RHN website. Just click on the name of a channel and view the end of the URL, something like, "details.pxt?cid=54". B.5. Getting the sgid System groups join servers and channels in having their own IDs.
Appendix B. RHN API Access 139 ############################################################################ # System calls. # ############################################################################ # # # # # # # This next call returns a list of systems available to the user. syntax of this call is described at: The http://$HOST/rpc/api/system/list_user_systems/ In the code snippet below, we dump data about our systems, and we capture the ID of the first system we find for future operations.
140 Appendix B.
Appendix C. Probes As described in Section 6.9 Monitoring — , systems entitled with Monitoring can have probes applied against them to constantly confirm their health and full operability. This appendix lists the available probes broken down by command group, such as Apache. Many probes that monitor internal aspects of your systems, rather than externally facing components such as httpd, require the installation of the Red Hat Network Monitoring Daemon (rhnmd).
142 Appendix C. Probes C.2. Apache 1.3.x and 2.0.x The probes in this section may be applied to instances of the Apache HTTP Server. Although the default values presume you will apply these probes using standard HTTP, you may also use them over secure connections by changing the application protocol to https and the port to 443. C.2.1.
Appendix C. Probes 143 Field Value Application Protocol* http Port* 80 Pathname* /server-status UserAgent* NOCpulse-ApacheUptime/1.0 Username Password Timeout* 15 Critical Maximum Current Requests (number) Warning Maximum Current Requests (number) Critical Maximum Request Rate (events per second) Warning Maximum Request Rate (events per second) Critical Maximum Traffic (kilobytes per second) Warning Maximum Traffic (kilobytes per second) Table C-2. Apache::Traffic settings C.2.3.
144 Appendix C. Probes In order to obtain this higher level of granularity, the BEA Domain Admin Server parameter must be used to differentiate between the Administration Server receiving SNMP queries and the Managed Server undergoing the specified probe. If the host to be probed is the Administration Server, then the BEA Domain Admin Server parameter can be left blank, and both the SNMP queries and the probe will be sent to it only.
Appendix C. Probes 145 C.3.2. BEA WebLogic::Heap Free The BEA WebLogic::Heap Free probe collects the following metric: • Heap Free — The percentage of free heap space. This probe’s transport protocol is User Datagram Protocol (UDP). Field Value SNMP Community String* public SNMP Port* 161 SNMP Version* 1 BEA Domain Admin Server BEA Server Name* myserver Critical Maximum Heap Free Warning Maximum Heap Free Warning Minimum Heap Free Critical Minimum Heap Free Table C-5.
146 Field Appendix C. Probes Value Critical Maximum Connection Rate Warning Maximum Connection Rate Critical Maximum Waiters Warning Maximum Waiters Table C-6. BEA WebLogic::JDBC Connection Pool settings C.3.4. BEA WebLogic::Server State The BEA WebLogic::Server State probe monitors the current state of a BEA Weblogic Web server. If the probe is unable to make a connection to the server, a CRITICAL status results. This probe’s transport protocol is User Datagram Protocol (UDP).
Appendix C. Probes 147 Field Value SNMP Version* 1 BEA Domain Admin Server BEA Server Name* myserver Servlet Name* Critical Maximum High Execution Time Warning Maximum High Execution Time Critical Maximum Execution Time Moving Average Warning Maximum Execution Time Moving Average Table C-8. BEA WebLogic::Servlet settings C.4. General The probes in this section are designed to monitor basic aspects of your systems.
148 • 6 Appendix C. Probes item key =" " 756 /item 7 The remote program will need to output some iteration of the following code to STDOUT: 88 88 88 9 9 9 9 perldata hash item key="data" 10 /item item key="status_message" status message here /item /hash /perldata 9 8 99 8 9 The required value for data is the data point to be inserted in the database for time-series trending. The status_message is optional and can be whatever text string is desired with a maximum length of 1024 bytes.
Appendix C. Probes Field 149 Value Critical Maximum Value Warning Maximum Value Warning Minimum Value Critical Minimum Value Table C-11. General::SNMP Check settings C.4.4. General::TCP Check The General::TCP Check probe tests your TCP server by verifying it can connect to a system via the specified port number. It collects the following metric: • Remote Service Latency — The time it takes in seconds for the TCP server to answer a connection request.
150 Field Appendix C. Probes Value Send Expect Timeout* 10 Critical Maximum Latency Warning Maximum Latency Table C-13. General::UDP Check settings C.4.6. General::Uptime (SNMP) The General::Uptime (SNMP) probe records the time since the device was last started. It uses the SNMP object identifier (OID) to obtain this value. The only error status it will return is UNKNOWN. Requirements — SNMP must be running on the monitored system and access to the OID must be enabled to perform this probe.
Appendix C. Probes 151 Field Value Timeout* 15 Critical Maximum CPU Percent Used Warning Maximum CPU Percent Used Table C-15. Linux::CPU Usage settings C.5.2. Linux::Disk IO Throughput The Linux::Disk IO Throughput probe monitors a given disk and collects the following metric: • Read Rate — The amount of data that is read in kilobytes per second. • Write Rate — The amount of data that is written in kilobytes per second.
152 Appendix C. Probes Requirements — The Red Hat Network Monitoring Daemon (rhnmd) must be running on the monitored system to execute this probe. Field Value File system* /dev/hda1 Timeout* 15 Critical Maximum File System Percent Used Warning Maximum File System Percent Used Critical Maximum Space Used Warning Maximum Space Used Warning Minimum Space Available Critical Minimum Space Available Table C-17. Linux::Disk Usage settings C.5.4.
Appendix C. Probes Field 153 Value Interface* Timeout* 30 Critical Maximum Input Rate Warning Maximum Input Rate Warning Minimum Input Rate Critical Minimum Input Rate Critical Maximum Output Rate Warning Maximum Output Rate Warning Minimum Output Rate Critical Minimum Output Rate Table C-19. Linux::Interface Traffic settings C.5.6. Linux::Load The Linux::Load probe monitors the CPU of a system and collects the following metric: • Load — The average load on the system CPU over various periods.
154 Appendix C. Probes Requirements — The Red Hat Network Monitoring Daemon (rhnmd) must be running on the monitored system to execute this probe. Field Value Include reclaimable memory no Timeout* 15 Warning Maximum RAM Free Critical Maximum RAM Free Table C-21. Linux::Memory Usage settings C.5.8.
Appendix C. Probes 155 C.5.9. Linux::Process Count Total The Linux::Process Count Total probe monitors a system and collects the following metric: • Process Count — The total number of processes currently running on the system. Requirements — The Red Hat Network Monitoring Daemon (rhnmd) must be running on the monitored system to execute this probe. Field Value Timeout* 15 Critical Maximum Process Count Warning Maximum Process Count Table C-23. Linux::Process Count Total settings C.5.10.
156 Field Appendix C. Probes Value Critical Maximum Child Process Groups Warning Maximum Child Process Groups Critical Maximum Threads Warning Maximum Threads Critical Maximum Physical Memory Used Warning Maximum Physical Memory Used Critical Maximum Virtual Memory Used Warning Maximum Virtual Memory Used Table C-24. Linux::Process Health settings C.5.11. Linux::Process Running The Linux::Process Running probe verifies the specified process is functioning properly.
Appendix C. Probes • 157 Swap Free — The percent of swap memory currently free. Requirements — The Red Hat Network Monitoring Daemon (rhnmd) must be running on the monitored system to execute this probe. Field Value Timeout* 15 Warning Minimum Swap Free Critical Minimum Swap Free Table C-26. Linux::Swap Usage settings C.5.13.
158 Field Appendix C. Probes Value Critical Maximum CLOSE_WAIT Connections Warning Maximum CLOSE_WAIT Connections Critical Maximum FIN_WAIT Connections Warning Maximum FIN_WAIT Connections Critical Maximum ESTABLISHED Connections Warning Maximum ESTABLISHED Connections Critical Maximum SYN_RCVD Connections Warning Maximum SYN_RCVD Connections Table C-27. Linux::TCP Connections by State settings C.5.14.
Appendix C. Probes 159 C.6. LogAgent The probes in this section monitor the log files on your systems. You can use them to query logs for certain expressions and track the sizes of files. For LogAgent probes to run, the nocpulse user must be granted read access to your log files. Note that data from the first run of these probes will not be measured against the thresholds to prevent spurious notifications caused by incomplete metric data. Measurements will begin on the second run. C.6.1.
160 Field Appendix C. Probes Value Critical Maximum Match Rate Warning Maximum Match Rate Warning Minimum Match Rate Critical Maximum Match Rate Table C-30. LogAgent::Log Pattern Match settings C.6.2. LogAgent::Log Size The LogAgent::Log Size probe monitors log file growth and collects the following metrics: • Size — The size the log file has grown in bytes since the probe last ran. • Output Rate — The number of bytes per minute the log file has grown since the probe last ran.
Appendix C. Probes 161 Table C-31. LogAgent::Log Size settings C.7. MySQL 3.23 - 3.33 The probes in this section monitor aspects of the MySQL database using the mysqladmin binary. No specific user privileges are needed for these probes. Note that the mysql-server package must be installed on the system conducting the monitoring for these probes to complete. Refer to the MySQL Installation section of the RHN Satellite Server Installation Guide for instructions. C.7.1.
162 Appendix C. Probes C.7.3. MySQL::Open Tables The MySQL::Open Tables probe monitors the MySQL server and collects the following metric: • Open Tables — The number of tables open when the probe runs. Field Value Username Password MySQL Port* 3306 Timeout 15 Critical Maximum Open Objects Warning Maximum Open Objects Warning Minimum Open Objects Critical Minimum Open Objects Table C-34. MySQL::Open Tables settings C.7.4.
Appendix C. Probes Field 163 Value Username Password MySQL Port* 3306 Timeout 15 Critical Maximum Threads Running Warning Maximum Threads Running Warning Minimum Threads Running Critical Minimum Threads Running Table C-36. MySQL::Threads Running settings C.8. Network Services The probes in this section monitor various services integral to a functioning network. When applying them, ensure their timed thresholds do not exceed the amount of time allotted to the timeout period.
164 Appendix C. Probes This probe supports authentication. Provide a username and password in the appropriate fields to use this feature.The optional Expect value is the string to be matched against after a successful connection is made to the FTP server. If the expected string is not found, the probe will return a CRITICAL state. Field Value Expect FTP Username Password FTP Port* 21 Timeout* 10 Critical Maximum Remote Service Latency Warning Maximum Remote Service Latency Table C-38.
Appendix C. Probes 165 Field Value SMTP Port* 25 Timeout* 10 Critical Maximum Remote Service Latency Warning Maximum Remote Service Latency Table C-40. Network Services::Mail Transfer (SMTP) settings C.8.5. Network Services::Ping The Network Services::Ping probe determines if the RHN Server can ping the monitored system or a specified IP address. It will also check the packet loss and compare the round trip average against the Warning and Critical threshold levels.
166 Appendix C. Probes collects the following metric: • Remote Service Latency — The time it takes in seconds for the POP server to answer a connection request. The required Expect value is the string to be matched against after a successful connection is made to the POP server. The probe will look for the string in the first line of the response from the system. The default is +OK. If the expected string is not found, the probe will return a CRITICAL state.
Appendix C. Probes Field 167 Value Warning Maximum Packet Loss Table C-43. Network Services::Remote Ping settings C.8.8. Network Services::RPCService The Network Services::RPCService probe tests the availability of remote procedure call (RPC) programs on a given IP address. It collects the following metric: • Remote Service Latency — The time it takes in seconds for the RPC server to answer a connection request.
168 Appendix C. Probes Field Value URL Path / Expect Header HTTP/1 Expect Content UserAgent* NOCpulse-check_http/1.0 Username Password Timeout* 10 HTTPS Port* 443 Critical Maximum Remote Service Latency Warning Maximum Remote Service Latency Table C-45. Network Services::Secure Web Server (HTTPS) settings C.8.10.
Appendix C. Probes 169 the default port of 80. Unlike most other probes, this probe will return a CRITICAL status if it cannot contact the system within the timeout period. This probe supports authentication. Provide a username and password in the appropriate fields to use this feature. Also, the optional Virtual Host field can be used to monitor a separate documentation set located on the same physical machine presented as a standalone server.
170 Appendix C. Probes C.9.1. Oracle::Active Sessions The Oracle::Active Sessions probe monitors an Oracle instance and collects the following metrics: • Active • Available Sessions — The V$PARAMETER.PROCESSES. number of active sessions based on the value of Sessions — The percentage of active sessions based on the value of V$PARAMETER.PROCESSES.
Appendix C. Probes Field 171 Value Oracle SID* Oracle Username* Oracle Password* Oracle Port* 1521 Time Blocking (seconds)* 20 Timeout* 30 Critical Maximum Blocking Sessions Warning Maximum Blocking Sessions Table C-50. Oracle::Blocking Sessions settings C.9.4. Oracle::Buffer Cache The Oracle::Buffer Cache probe computes the Buffer Cache Hit Ratio so as to optimize the system global area (SGA) Database Buffer Cache size.
172 Appendix C. Probes insensitive. A CRITICAL status is returned if this value is not found. Requirements — The Red Hat Network Monitoring Daemon (rhnmd) must be running on the monitored system to execute this probe. For this probe to run, the nocpulse user must be granted read access to your log files. Field Value Oracle Hostname or IP address* Oracle SID* Oracle Username* Oracle Password* Oracle Port* 1521 ORACLE_HOME* /opt/oracle Expected DB Name* Timeout* 30 Table C-52.
Appendix C. Probes 173 C.9.7. Oracle::Disk Sort Ratio The Oracle::Disk Sort Ratio probe monitors an Oracle database instance and collects the following metric: • Disk Sort Ratio — The rate of Oracle sorts that were too large to be completed in memory and were instead sorted using a temporary segment. Field Value Oracle SID* Oracle Username* Oracle Password* Oracle Port* 1521 Timeout* 30 Critical Maximum Disk Sort Ratio Warning Maximum Disk Sort Ratio Table C-54. Oracle::Disk Sort Ratio settings C.
174 Appendix C. Probes • Allocated Extents — The number of allocated extents for any index. • Available Extents — The percentage of available extents for any index. The required Index Name field contains a default value of % that will match any index name.
Appendix C. Probes 175 C.9.11. Oracle::Locks The Oracle::Locks probe monitors an Oracle database instance and collects the following metric: • Active Locks — The current number of active locks as determined by the value in the v$locks table. Database administrators should be aware of high numbers of locks present in a database instance. Locks are used so that multiple users or processes updating the same data in the database do not conflict.
176 Field Appendix C. Probes Value Critical Maximum Redo Buffer Allocation Retry Rate Warning Maximum Redo Buffer Allocation Retry Rate Table C-59. Oracle::Redo Log settings C.9.13. Oracle::Table Extents The Oracle::Table Extents probe monitors an Oracle database instance and collects the following metrics: • Allocated Extents-Any Table — The total number of extents for any table. • Available Extents-Any Table — The percentage of available extents for any table.
Appendix C. Probes 177 metric: • Available Space Used — The percentage of available space in each tablespace that has been used. Tablespace is the shared pool of space in which a set of tables live. This probe alerts the user when the total amount of available space falls below the threshold. Tablespace is measured in bytes, so extents don’t factor into it directly (though each extension removes available space from the shared pool).
178 Appendix C. Probes C.10.1. RHN Satellite Server::Disk Space The RHN Satellite Server::Disk Space probe monitors the free disk space on a Satellite and collects the following metrics: • File System Used — The percent of the current filesystem now in use. • Space Used — The file size used by the current filesystem. • Space Available — The file size available to the current filesystem.
Appendix C. Probes 179 Field Value Timeout (seconds)* 30 Critical Maximum Input Rate Critical Maximum Output Rate Table C-65. RHN Satellite Server::Interface Traffic settings C.10.4. RHN Satellite Server::Latency The RHN Satellite Server::Latency probe monitors the latency of probes on a Satellite and collects the following metric: • Probe Latency Average — The lag in seconds between the time a probe becomes ready to run and the time it is actually run.
180 • Appendix C. Probes Probes — The number of individual probes running on a Satellite. Field Value Critical Maximum Probe Count Warning Maximum Probe Count Table C-68. RHN Satellite Server::Probe Count settings C.10.7. RHN Satellite Server::Process Counts The RHN Satellite Server::Process Counts probe monitors the number of processes on a Satellite and collects the following metrics: • Blocked — The number of processes that have been switched to the waiting queue and waiting state.
Appendix C. Probes • 181 Processes — The number of processes running simultaneously on the machine. Field Value Critical Maximum Processes Warning Maximum Processes Table C-70. RHN Satellite Server::Processes settings C.10.9. RHN Satellite Server::Process Health The RHN Satellite Server::Process Health probe monitors customer-specified processes and collects the following metrics: • CPU Usage — The CPU usage percent for a given process.
182 Appendix C. Probes Table C-71. RHN Satellite Server::Process Health settings C.10.10. RHN Satellite Server::Process Running The RHN Satellite Server::Process Running probe verifies that the specified process is running. Specify the process by either command name or process I.D. (PID). Entering a PID will override the entry of a command name. A Critical status results if the probe cannot verify the command or PID.
Glossary A Action A task that is scheduled by a system administrator using Red Hat Network to be performed on one or more client systems. For example, an action can be scheduled to update the kernel packages on all the systems within a selected group. Activation Key RHN Management and Provisioning customers can generate activation keys through the RHN website.
184 Glossary Child Channel A child channel is a Channel associated with a Base Channel but contains extra packages. Client System See Registered System . D Digital Certificate A client component in XML format that is stored in the /etc/sysconfig/rhn/systemid file on registered systems. Red Hat Network verifies this certificate to authenticate the registered system before each connection. This certificate is issued by Red Hat and passed to the system as part of the registration process.
Glossary 185 team tests new packages they are placed on the Red Hat Public File Server and on the Red Hat Network Server and an Errata is generated. Errata Alert RHN Errata Alert that updated packages based on Red Hat Errata are available for one or more systems within an organization. There are three types of Errata Alerts: Security Alerts, Bug Fix Alerts, and Enhancement Alerts. M Management One of the RHN service level offerings.
186 Glossary R Registered System A system that is registered with Red Hat Network. Also known as a client system. Red Hat Network Daemon The RHN client daemon (rhnsd) that periodically polls Red Hat Network for scheduled actions.
Glossary 187 Service Level A Red Hat Network subscription service. Different service levels offer different features of RHN. There are three paid service levels currently available: RHN Update, RHN Management, and RHN Provisioning. Software Manager The name of the first Service Level offering for Red Hat Network. Software Manager is now known as RHN Update . System Directory The System Directory section of Red Hat Network allows an organization to divide its client systems into system groups.
188 Glossary
Index A account deactivate, 62 action completed systems, 111 details, 111 failed systems, 111 in progress systems, 111 activation key, 85 deleting, 86 disabling, 86 editing, 86 activation keys creating, editing, and deleting, 85 multiple use, 86 registration, 34 using, 35 addresses change, 62 Apache probes, 142 Processes, 142 Traffic, 142 Uptime, 143 application programming interface API, 137 B base channel, 97 C changing email address, 114 changing password, 114 Channel Entitlements, 101 Channel List, 97
190 viewing list of applicable errata, 95 Errata notifications automatic updates, 4 G General probes, 147 Remote Program, 147 Remote Program with Data, 147 SNMP Check, 148 TCP Check, 149 UDP Check, 149 Uptime (SNMP), 150 getting started, 5 GNU Privacy Guard, 5 H hardware profile Updating on server, 69 Help Desk, 63 I ISO images all, 101 download, 101 relevant, 101 K kickstart explained, 88 prerequisites, 88 kickstart details page and tabs, 89 kickstart profiles creating, 89 L Linux CPU Usage, 150 Disk
191 N P navigation, 57 Network Services DNS Lookup, 163 FTP, 163 IMAP Mail, 164 Mail Transfer (SMTP), 164 Ping, 165 POP Mail, 165 probes, 163 Remote Ping, 166 RPCService, 167 Secure Web Server (HTTPS), 167 SSH, 168 Web Server (HTTP), 168 notes about systems, 69 Notification filter, 118 notifications creating methods, 122 deleting methods, 124 filtering, 124 Monitoring, 122 receiving, 123 redirecting, 123 package installation scheduled, 4 package list Updating on server, 30, 70 packages details, 103 down
192 DNS Lookup, 163 FTP, 163 IMAP Mail, 164 Mail Transfer (SMTP), 164 Ping, 165 POP Mail, 165 Remote Ping, 166 RPCService, 167 Secure Web Server (HTTPS), 167 SSH, 168 Web Server (HTTP), 168 Oracle Active Sessions, 170 Availability, 170 Blocking Sessions, 170 Buffer Cache, 171 Client Connectivity, 171 Data Dictionary Cache, 172 Disk Sort Ratio, 173 Idle Sessions, 173 Index Extents, 173 Library Cache, 174 Locks, 175 Redo Log, 175 Table Extents, 176 Tablespace Usage, 176 TNS Ping, 177 RHN Satellite Server Disk
193 Red Hat Update Agent, 41 Command Line Arguments, 26 configuration, 30 with a proxy server, 31 Red Hat Update Agent (up2date) activation keys, 34 choosing packages for update, 19 choosing software channels, 19 command line options, 26 command line version, 26, 33 configuration tool, 31 configuring general settings, 31 configuring package exceptions, 33 configuring retrieval and installation, 31 creating a user account, 11 excluding packages, 33 excluding packages from profile, 17 gathering RPM informatio
194 adding and removing, 78 creating, 78 deleting, 78 editing details, 78 list of, 76 viewing details, 78 system group list status, 77 System Groups assigning and removing, 73 joining and leaving, 73 System Group List, 76 system list, 66 System Profile, 49 Custom Information, 69 Notes, 69 Reactivation, 69 Updating hardware profile, 69 Updating package list, 30, 70 Updating Properties, 68 System Set Manager, 79 Systems Advanced Search, 85 deleting, 68 Entitlements, 84 entitling, 84 overview, 65 searching, 85
195 Your Account, 62 Your RHN, 60 Y Your RHN, 60 Account Deactivation, 62 Addresses, 62 Email, 62 Help, 63 Purchase History, 63 Your Account, 62 Your Preferences, 63
