Red Hat NETWORK SATELLITE SERVER 3.6, Installation Manual

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Chapter 2. Requirements 11
The RHN Satellite Server solution can be firewalled from the Internet, but it must be able to issue
outbound connections to rhn.redhat.com and xmlrpc.rhn.redhat.com on ports 80 and 443.
•
Synchronized System Times
There is great time sensitivity when connecting to a Web server running SSL (Secure Sockets
Layer); it is imperative the time settings on the clients and server be reasonably close together so
the SSL certificate does not expire before or during use. For this reason, Red Hat requires the Satel-
lite and all client systems to use Network Time Protocol (NTP). This also applies to the separate
database machine in RHN Satellite Server with Stand-Alone Database, which must also be set to
the same time zone as the Satellite.
•
Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN)
The system upon which the RHN Satellite Server will be installed must resolve its own FQDN
properly. If this is not the case, cookies will not work properly on the website.
•
Functioning Domain Name Service (DNS)
For the RHN Satellite Server’s domain name to be resolved by its clients, it and they must all be
linked to a working DNS server in the customer environment.
•
An Entitlement Certificate
The customer will receive, via email from the sales representative, a signed Entitlement Certificate
explaining the services provided by Red Hat through RHN Satellite Server. This certificate will be
required during the installation process.
•
A Red Hat Network Account
Customers who will be connecting to the central Red Hat Network Servers to receive incremental
updates will need an external account with Red Hat Network. This account should be set up at the
time of purchase with the sales representative.
•
Backups of Login Information
It is imperative customers keep track of all primary login information. For RHN Satellite Server, this
includes usernames and passwords for the Organization Administrator account on rhn.redhat.com,
the primary administrator account on the Satellite itself, SSL certificate generation, and database
connection (which also requires a SID, or net service name). Red Hat strongly recommends this
information be copied onto two separate floppy disks, printed out on paper, and stored in a fireproof
safe.
In addition to these requirements, it is recommended the RHN Satellite Server be configured in the
following manner:
•
The entire RHN Satellite Server solution should be protected by a firewall if the Satellite will be
accessing, or be accessed via the Internet. An Internet connection is not required for RHN Satellite
Servers running in completely disconnected environments as this feature instead uses update CDs
to synchronize the Satellite with the central Red Hat Network. All other RHN Satellite Servers
should be synchronized directly over the Internet.
•
All unnecessary ports should be firewalled off. Client systems connect to RHN Satellite Server over
ports 80 and 443 only. In addition, if you plan to enable the pushing of actions from the Satellite
to client systems, as described in Section 8.10 Enabling Push to Clients , you must allow inbound
connections on port 5222. Finally, if the Satellite will also push to an RHN Proxy Server, you must
also allow inbound connections on port 5269.
•
No system components should be directly, publicly available. No user other than the system admin-
istrators should have shell access to these machines.
•
All unnecessary services should be disabled using ntsysv or
chkconfig
.
•
The
httpd
service should be enabled.