Red Hat NETWORK PROXY 5.3.0 -, Installation Manual

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Chapter 3. Example Topologies
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• A Network File System (NFS) share can be established between the Proxies and the custom
channel repository.
Either of these solutions will allow any client of any RHN Proxy Servers to have all custom packages
delivered to them.
Figure 3.2. Multiple Proxy Horizontally Tiered Topology
3.3. Multiple Proxy Vertically Tiered Topology
An alternative method for multiple RHN Proxy Servers is to establish a primary Proxy that the others
connect to for RPMs from Red Hat Network and custom packages created locally. In essence, the
secondary Proxies act as clients of the primary. This alleviates the need to establish synchronization
between the RHN Proxy Servers as they use the
up2date
functionality inherent with the product.
Like the horizontally tiered configuration, this vertical method allows any client of any RHN Proxy
Servers to have all custom packages delivered to them. The Proxy merely looks in its repository to see
if it can find the package on its file system. If not, it then makes the attempt from the next level up.
This vertically tiered configuration ensures that the secondary Proxies depend upon the primary for
updates from RHN, as well as for custom packages. Also, custom channels and packages must be
placed on the primary Proxy only, to ensure distribution to the child Proxies. Finally, the configuration
files of the secondary Proxies must point to the primary, instead of directly at Red Hat Network.