Red Hat NETWORK SATELLITE SERVER 3.6, Installation Manual

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38 Chapter 6. Importing and Synchronizing
2. Creating a particular channel in the database and importing the metadata describing the channel.
Individually, use the
--step= channels
option.
3. Moving the RPM packages from the temporary repository into their final location. Individually,
use the
--step= rpms
option.
4. Parsing the header metadata for each package in the channel, uploading the package data, and
associating it with the channel. Individually, use the
--step= packages
option.
5. Identifing Errata associated with the packages and including them in the repository. Individually,
use the
--step= errata
option.
After running the preceding sample command, the population of the channel should be complete. All
of the packages should have been moved out of the repository; this can be verified with the com-
mand
cd /var/rhn-sat-import/; ls -alR | grep rpm
. If all RPMs have been installed and
moved to their permanent locations, then this count will be zero, and the administrator may safely
remove the temporary repository (in this case,
/var/rhn-sat-import/
).
6.3. Synchronizing
An update channel is only as useful as the freshness of the information in that channel. Since the RHN
Satellite Server is designed to be a standalone environment, any update advisories published by RHN
must be manually imported and synchronized by the administrator of the RHN Satellite Server.
During synchronization over the Internet, the
RHN Satellite Synchronization Tool
performs the
following steps:
1. Connects over SSL to central RHN Servers, authenticates itself as an RHN Satellite Server,
and triggers an export of RHN data — unless a local mount point for RHN-exported data is
specified, in which case no connection is necessary. Refer to Section 6.3.2 Synchronizing Errata
and Packages via Local Media for an explanation.
2. Examines the export and identifies differences between the RHN Satellite Server 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 Server; the central RHN Servers deliver only an
export of its channel information and remain ignorant of any details regarding the RHN Satellite
Server.
3. After the analysis of the export data, any differences are imported into the RHN Satellite Server
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.