Campus RHNS (Satellite) FAQ
Who can use the use the Campus Satellite Service?
The service is intended to support University-owned systems running Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Systems must be on a campus network (directly or via VPN) to register to the Satellite server. There are no credentials required, you must only be on one of the campus networks.
Note that the Campus Satellite Service does not support CentOS or Oracle Linux. Registering these operating systems may cause problems on your hosts, as there are no repositories available.
Note: The Campus Satellite Service was upgraded to version 6.13 and RHEL 8 on April 25, 2023. Hosts still registered on the old Satellite 6.11 will stop receiving updates on September 12, 2023. If you have questions about this contact us at: campus-rhns@utlists.utexas.edu
Is the Campus Satellite Service always available?
The Satellite Service will have a maintenance window on the Tuesdays from 12:00 pm - 4:00 pm.
RHEL Media
Where Can I Obtain Installation Media?
ISOs for the latest supported distributions of 64-bit RHEL (server, and workstation) can be obtained here: Installation ISOs
Other versions may be available upon request. Contact us at: campus-rhns@utlists.utexas.edu
Registering and Unregistering Hosts
How do I Register a System to Campus Satellite (RHNS)?
The procedure to register a system is as follows:
1. Download the Satellite registration script: wget https://satellite.its.utexas.edu/pub/register.sh
2. Set the script as executable and run script:
chmod 700 register.sh
Execute the script by typing ./register.sh
3. The script will ask for Activation Keys and a location. Both are required. If unsure use the default values or submit your question to campus-rhns@utlists.utexas.edu.
Remember that the Satellite Service does not support CentOS or Oracle Linux.
Activation Keys:
Default: Enter case sensitive activation key: 3-Campus-Updates. Enter case sensitive location: Campus.
The fields are case sensitive. It will allow you to receive updates for your version of Red Hat. The Campus Satellite also maintains updates for Red Hat repos that you may register with using one or as many Activation keys and needed with the registration script.
Multiple Activation Keys:
Use of multiple activation keys is available in Satellite 6 but not recommended. Satellite 6 offers improved management of repositories via Activation key management or via Content Host management. Full support of multiple activation keys will be available in a future update.
How do I register a host to a specific Department Group?
If your department has been provided a group within Satellite (and Web console access), you will be given the Group Activation Key and Location for your department. Use that GAK and Location in the registration script in place of the default values.
Did the system register correctly?
To verify your subscription status follow the procedure below:
1. Run as root: subscription-manager status
2. The output should show status current if the registration was successful.
3. On failure run the registration script again. The error should be gone.
4. Run the command 'yum clean all' and then 'yum repolist'. There should be a list of channels/repos that the system will be able to receive updates from.
Unregistering Hosts
It is recommended to unregister a host that will no longer be used or needs to have the Operating System reinstalled. When a host is unregistered, Satellite will automatically delete the host, attributes and will release any consumed licenses from the Satellite inventory. This also avoids duplicate resource conflicts during a re-registration.
To unregister a host from Satellite run the following as root: subscription-manager unregister
Installing the Satellite SSL Certificate
Clients should automatically update the new SSL certificate after the SSL certificate in Satellite is updated. Under some circumstances clients may not update the new certificate. If your client shows gpg errors on yum update run the following command:
yum -y install --nogpgcheck https://satellite.its.utexas.edu/pub/katello-ca-consumer-latest.noarch.rpm
The command above will install the new SSL certificate for your client. Once installed run yum update to update your system.
Using the Satellite Web Console
How Can I Obtain Web Console Access?
For departments with 10 or more hosts, Web console access can be provided to better monitor a larger number of devices. Please submit a request to campus-rhns@utlists.utexas.edu with the following information:
- Department Name
- List of TSCs (name, EID and email address)
- Number of hosts
How Do I Log into the Web Console?
- Go to https://satellite.its.utexas.edu and login with your EID and EID password.
- Note: The Campus Satellite Service was upgraded to version 6.13 and RHEL 8 on April 25, 2023. To access the old Satellite 6.11 console, go to: https://sat-campus-p01.austin.utexas.edu. The old console will be available until September 12, 2023.
Red Hat Insights for Web Console Users (Optional)
- Web console users can configure the Red Hat Insights client on their hosts. Note: This is an optional installation.
- To install the Red Hat Insights client run as root: yum install insights-client
- Once installed, register your insights client by running as root: insights-client --register.
- For more information about the Insights client contact the Campus Satellite team.
Applying Updates
Once I Have Registered My System, Will it Receive Updates Automatically?
No. If you run a desktop, you should periodically see an icon indicating there are updates available. Updates will not be downloaded or applied without your intervention by default. You can turn on automatic updates to apply updates automatically.
How Do I Apply Updates from the Client?
Once systems are registered to the Campus Satellite Service (RHNS), you can run the following commands on each host to list and apply updates:
Display List of Updated Software (security fix)
Type the following command at shell prompt:
yum list updates
|
Patch Up the System by Applying All Updates
To download and install all updates type the following command:
yum update
|
List All Installed Packages
List all installed packages, enter:
rpm -qa
yum list installed
|
Note: Users Are Responsible to Check for Updates and Install on a Regular Basis
List all installed packages
List all installed packages, enter:
rpm -qa yum list installed
Enabling and Disabling Available Repos
To guarantee stability, the Red Hat provided OS and apps repos are enabled by default. Third party repositories like Shibboleth and EPEL for RHEL 7 & 8 are provided as is and are disabled by default. EPEL on RHEL 9 will be supported starting with Satellite 6.12, available on 4/25/2023. Any other third-party repositories are not supported.
To view the repos available on your system:
1. As root, run subscription-manager repos
Repos with a status of Enabled:0 mean that the repo is disabled, if Enabled:1 the repo is enabled.
To enable a specific repository
1. As root, run subscription-manager repos --enable=RepoID.
Repo ID being the repo id from the list of repositories generated by the running subscription-manager repos. Example: subscription-manager repos --enable=Campus_EPEL_EPEL_7_Server_x86_64
To disable a specific repository
1. As root, run subscription-manager repos --disable=RepoID
Additional Satellite Features
Some Satellite 6 features may not be available on the Campus Satellite Service. Technical limitations in Satellite provide a challenge to federate certain features like Puppet and Ansible support to Campus. ITS is constantly evaluating the product on each revision. The missing Satellite 6 specific features will be enabled as Satellite 6 improves over time.
Additional Commands
Additional commands can be found here: How to Use Yum Command