Red Hat NETWORK PROXY SERVER 3.6 -, Installation Manual

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Chapter 5.
RHN Package Manager
The RHN Package Manager is a command line tool that allows an organization to serve local packages
associated with a private RHN channel through the RHN Proxy Server. If you want the RHN Proxy
Server to update only official Red Hat packages, you do not need to install the RHN Package Manager.
To use the RHN Package Manager, install the
rhns-proxy-package-manager
package and its
dependencies.
Only the header information for packages is uploaded to the RHN Servers. The headers are required so
that RHN can resolve package dependencies for the client systems. The actual package files (
*.rpm
)
are stored on the RHN Proxy Server.
The RHN Package Manager uses the same settings as the Proxy, defined in the
/etc/rhn/rhn.conf
configuration file.
5.1. Creating a Private Channel
Before local packages can be provided through the RHN Proxy Server, a private channel is needed to
store them. Perform the following steps to create a private channel:
1. Log in to the RHN Web interface at https://rhn.redhat.com.
2. Click
Software
on the top navigation bar. If the
Manage Channels
option is not present in the
left navigation bar, ensure this user has channel editing permissions set. Do this through the
Users
category accessible through the top navigation bar.
3. In the left navigation bar, click Manage Channels and then the create new channel button at
the top-right corner of the page.
4. Select a parent channel and base channel architecture, then enter a name, label, summary, and
description for the new private channel. The channel label must: be at least six characters long,
begin with a letter, and contain only lowercase letters, digits, dashes (-), and periods(.). Also
enter the URL of the channel’s GPG key. Although this field isn’t required, it is recommended
to enhance security. For instructions on generating GPG keys, refer to the RHN Channel Man-
agement Guide.
5. Click Create Channel .
5.2. Uploading Packages
Note
You must be an Organization Administrator to upload packages to private RHN channels. The script
will prompt you for your RHN username and password.
After creating the private channel, upload the package headers for your binary and source RPMs to the
RHN Server and copy the packages to the RHN Proxy Broker Server. To upload the package headers
for the binary RPMs, at the command line:
rhn_package_manager -c "label_of_private_channel" pkg-list