Red Hat NETWORK SATELLITE 5.3.0 - CHANNEL MANAGEMENT, Installation Manual, Page: 53 / 84

Synchronizing Errata and Packages Directly via RHN
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2. Examines the export and identifies differences between the RHN Satellite data set and the
exported RHN data set. For a particular channel, the following information is analyzed:
• Channel metadata
• Metadata of all packages in that channel
• Metadata for all Errata that affect that channel
Note
All analysis is performed on the RHN Satellite; the central RHN Servers deliver only
an export of its channel information and remain ignorant of any details regarding the
RHN Satellite.
3. After the analysis of the export data, any differences are imported into the RHN Satellite database.
Please note that importing new packages may take variable lengths of time. For a large update, an
import can take many hours.
The
satellite-sync
command can be used in two modes: via RHN and via local media.
6.3.1. Synchronizing Errata and Packages Directly via RHN
For customers who want to sync data as frequently as possible and who can initiate connections
outside of their own environments, the satellite sync can be run over the Internet through SSL. This is
the default setting for the satellite sync script. For example:
satellite-sync -c rhel-i386-as-3
This connects to central Red Hat Network Servers and performs the process described above.
Multiple channels can be included by repeating the option. If no channels are specified, all channels
on the Satellite will be refreshed.
6.3.2. Synchronizing Errata and Packages via Local Media
For customers who cannot connect their Satellite directly to RHN, Red Hat recommends downloading
Channel Content ISOs to a separate, Internet-connected system and then transferring them to the
Satellite. Refer to
Section 6.2.2.1, “Preparing Channel Content ISOs”
for instructions on downloading
the ISOs. For ease of import, we recommend that the data be copied from media directly into a
common repository through a command such as the following:
cp -rv /mnt/cdrom/* /var/rhn-sat-sync/
Then, the following command:
satellite-sync -c rhel-i386-as-3 --mount-point /var/rhn-sat-sync