Red Hat Satellite 6.2 Content Management Guide En US

User Manual:

Open the PDF directly: View PDF .
Page Count: 93

Download
Open PDF In Browser	View PDF

Red Hat Satellite 6.2
Content Management Guide
An end-to-end guide on managing content from Red Hat and custom sources

Last Updated: 2018-02-19

Red Hat Satellite 6.2 Content Management Guide
An end-to-end guide on managing content from Red Hat and custom sources
Red Hat Satellite Documentation Team
satellite-doc-list@redhat.com

Legal Notice
Copyright © 2018 Red Hat, Inc.
The text of and illustrations in this document are licensed by Red Hat under a Creative Commons
Attribution–Share Alike 3.0 Unported license ("CC-BY-SA"). An explanation of CC-BY-SA is
available at
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
. In accordance with CC-BY-SA, if you distribute this document or an adaptation of it, you must
provide the URL for the original version.
Red Hat, as the licensor of this document, waives the right to enforce, and agrees not to assert,
Section 4d of CC-BY-SA to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law.
Red Hat, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the Shadowman logo, JBoss, OpenShift, Fedora, the Infinity
logo, and RHCE are trademarks of Red Hat, Inc., registered in the United States and other
countries.
Linux ® is the registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States and other countries.
Java ® is a registered trademark of Oracle and/or its affiliates.
XFS ® is a trademark of Silicon Graphics International Corp. or its subsidiaries in the United States
and/or other countries.
MySQL ® is a registered trademark of MySQL AB in the United States, the European Union and
other countries.
Node.js ® is an official trademark of Joyent. Red Hat Software Collections is not formally related to
or endorsed by the official Joyent Node.js open source or commercial project.
The OpenStack ® Word Mark and OpenStack logo are either registered trademarks/service marks
or trademarks/service marks of the OpenStack Foundation, in the United States and other countries
and are used with the OpenStack Foundation's permission. We are not affiliated with, endorsed or
sponsored by the OpenStack Foundation, or the OpenStack community.
All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Abstract
This guide provides an end-to-end scenario on managing content in Red Hat Satellite 6. Examples
of such content include RPM files, ISO images, Puppet modules, and container images. Red Hat
Satellite 6 manages this content using a set of Content Views promoted across the application
lifecycle. This guide demonstrates how to create an application lifecycle that suits your organization
and content views that fulfils host states within lifecycle environments. These content views
eventually form the basis for provisioning and updating hosts in your Red Hat Satellite 6
environment.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents
.CHAPTER
. . . . . . . . .1.. .INTRODUCTION
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5. . . . . . . . . .
1.1. OVERVIEW OF RED HAT SATELLITE 6 CONTENT MANAGEMENT
5
1.2. DEFINING THE APPLICATION LIFE CYCLE
5
1.3. DEFINING CONTENT MANAGEMENT TYPES
6
1.4. DEFINING OUR SCENARIO
7
1.5. DEFINING CONTENT MANAGEMENT STORAGE
8
1.6. CHAPTER SUMMARY

.CHAPTER
. . . . . . . . .2.. .CREATING
. . . . . . . . . .ORGANIZATIONS
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10
...........
2.1. CREATING AN ORGANIZATION
10
2.2. SETTING THE CONTEXT
11
2.3. CHAPTER SUMMARY
11
.CHAPTER
. . . . . . . . .3.. .MANAGING
. . . . . . . . . . SUBSCRIPTIONS
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13
...........
3.1. MANAGING MULTIPLE ORGANIZATIONS USING MULTIPLE MANIFESTS
13
3.2. ADDING A SATELLITE SERVER TO THE CUSTOMER PORTAL
13
3.3. CREATING A SUBSCRIPTION MANIFEST
13
3.4. IMPORTING A SUBSCRIPTION MANIFEST INTO THE SATELLITE SERVER

3.5. UPDATING AND REFRESHING A MANIFEST
3.6. CHAPTER SUMMARY

14
15

. . . . . . . . . .4.. .IMPORTING
CHAPTER
. . . . . . . . . . RED
. . . . .HAT
. . . .CONTENT
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16
...........
4.1. CREATING A DEFINITIVE MEDIA LIBRARY
4.2. USING PRODUCTS AND REPOSITORIES IN SATELLITE
4.3. SYNCHRONIZING CONTENT

16
16
16

4.4. USING DOWNLOAD POLICIES
4.5. SELECTING RED HAT REPOSITORIES TO SYNCHRONIZE

16
17

4.6. SYNCHRONIZING RED HAT REPOSITORIES
4.6.1. Limiting Synchronization Speed

18
20

4.7. CREATING A SYNCHRONIZATION PLAN
4.8. CHAPTER SUMMARY

20
21

. . . . . . . . . .5.. .IMPORTING
CHAPTER
. . . . . . . . . . CUSTOM
. . . . . . . . .CONTENT
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22
...........
5.1. USING CUSTOM PRODUCTS IN SATELLITE
5.2. CREATING A CUSTOM PRODUCT

22
22

5.3. IMPORTING A CUSTOM GPG KEY
5.4. CREATING A CUSTOM RPM REPOSITORY
5.5. CREATING A CUSTOM PUPPET REPOSITORY
5.6. MANAGING INDIVIDUAL PUPPET MODULES

23
23
25
26

5.7. SYNCHRONIZING PUPPET REPOSITORIES
5.8. SYNCHRONIZING PUPPET MODULES FROM A GIT REPOSITORY
5.9. CHAPTER SUMMARY

26
28
29

.CHAPTER
. . . . . . . . .6.. .CREATING
. . . . . . . . . .AN
. . .APPLICATION
. . . . . . . . . . . . .LIFE
. . . .CYCLE
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30
...........
6.1. REVISITING THE APPLICATION LIFE CYCLE
30
6.2. CREATING A NEW APPLICATION LIFE CYCLE
6.3. PROMOTING CONTENT ACROSS THE APPLICATION LIFE CYCLE
6.4. CHAPTER SUMMARY

30
31
33

.CHAPTER
. . . . . . . . .7.. .CREATING
. . . . . . . . . .CONTENT
. . . . . . . . .VIEWS
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34
...........
7.1. CREATING A SIMPLE CONTENT VIEW
34
7.2. CREATING A CONTENT VIEW WITH A PUPPET MODULE
7.3. PROMOTING A CONTENT VIEW

35
37

Red Hat Satellite 6.2 Content Management Guide
7.4. DEFINING CONTENT FILTERS
7.5. CREATING A CONTENT FILTER
7.6. DEFINING COMPOSITE CONTENT VIEWS

38
40
41

7.7. CREATING A COMPOSITE CONTENT VIEW
7.8. REGISTERING SYSTEMS TO ENVIRONMENTS AND THEIR CONTENT VIEWS
7.8.1. Registering a RHEL System with Subscription Manager
7.8.2. Registering an Atomic Host with Subscription Manager

43
44
44
45

7.9. CHAPTER SUMMARY

.CHAPTER
. . . . . . . . .8.. .MANAGING
. . . . . . . . . . ACTIVATION
. . . . . . . . . . . .KEYS
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46
...........
8.1. CREATING AN ACTIVATION KEY
46
8.2. USING ACTIVATION KEYS
48
8.3. CHAPTER SUMMARY
49
. . . . . . . . . .9.. .MANAGING
CHAPTER
. . . . . . . . . . ERRATA
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .50
...........
9.1. MANAGING ERRATA WITH CONTENT VIEWS
9.2. APPLYING ERRATA TO INDIVIDUAL SYSTEMS
9.3. APPLYING ERRATA TO MULTIPLE SYSTEMS
9.4. CHAPTER SUMMARY

50
51
52
53

.CHAPTER
. . . . . . . . .10.
. . .MANAGING
. . . . . . . . . . CONTAINER
. . . . . . . . . . . .IMAGES
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .54
...........
10.1. IMPORTING CONTAINER IMAGES FROM THE RED HAT CONTAINER CATALOG
54
10.2. IMPORTING CONTAINER IMAGES FROM OTHER IMAGE REGISTRIES
10.3. MANAGING CONTAINER IMAGES WITH CONTENT VIEWS

56
58

10.4. MANAGING CONTAINER IMAGES WITH DOCKER TAGS

10.5. CHAPTER SUMMARY

.CHAPTER
. . . . . . . . .11.
. . .MANAGING
. . . . . . . . . . OSTREE
. . . . . . . . CONTENT
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .60
...........
11.1. CONFIGURING OSTREE MANAGEMENT ON THE SATELLITE SERVER
60
11.2. SELECTING RED HAT OSTREE CONTENT TO SYNCHRONIZE

11.3. IMPORTING CUSTOM OSTREE CONTENT
11.4. MANAGING OSTREE CONTENT WITH CONTENT VIEWS

61
62

11.5. CHAPTER SUMMARY

.CHAPTER
. . . . . . . . .12.
. . .MANAGING
. . . . . . . . . . ISO
. . . .IMAGES
. . . . . . . AND
. . . . .FILES
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .64
...........
12.1. IMPORTING ISO IMAGES FROM RED HAT
64
12.2. IMPORTING INDIVIDUAL ISO IMAGES AND FILES

12.3. IMPORTING THE RED HAT OVAL REPOSITORY
12.4. CHAPTER SUMMARY

66
68

. . . . . . . . . .13.
CHAPTER
. . .FINALIZING
. . . . . . . . . . CONTENT
. . . . . . . . . .MANAGEMENT
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .69
...........
13.1. COMPLETING SCENARIO OBJECTIVES

13.2. PROVISIONING SYSTEMS
13.3. REFERRING TO OTHER DOCUMENTATION

69
71

. . . . . . . . . . A.
APPENDIX
. . .USING
. . . . . .AN
. . .NFS
. . . .SHARE
. . . . . . .FOR
. . . . CONTENT
. . . . . . . . . STORAGE
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .72
...........
. . . . . . . . . . B.
APPENDIX
. . .IMPORTING
. . . . . . . . . . CONTENT
. . . . . . . . . ISOS
. . . . . INTO
. . . . .A
. .DISCONNECTED
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .SATELLITE
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .74
...........
. . . . . . . . . . C.
APPENDIX
. . .IMPORTING
. . . . . . . . . . CONTENT
. . . . . . . . . ISOS
. . . . . INTO
. . . . .A
. .CONNECTED
. . . . . . . . . . . .SATELLITE
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .76
...........
. . . . . . . . . . D.
APPENDIX
. . .SYNCHRONIZING
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CONTENT
. . . . . . . . . BETWEEN
. . . . . . . . . .SATELLITE
. . . . . . . . . . SERVERS
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .79
...........

D.1. SATELLITE SERVERS, CAPSULE SERVERS, AND ISS
D.2. PREREQUISITES

80
80

D.3. SUPPORTED SYNCHRONIZATION OPTIONS

D.4. USING CHUNKED ISO FILES

Table of Contents
D.5. CONFIGURING ISS
D.5.1. Configuring an Export Destination

81
81

D.5.2. Configuring the Download Policy
D.6. EXPORTING CONTENT

83
83

D.6.1. Exporting Repositories

D.6.2. Exporting Content View Version to a Directory
D.6.3. Incremental Updates

84
87

D.7. IMPORTING CONTENT
D.7.1. Importing a Repository
D.7.2. Importing a Content View as a Red Hat Repository

88
88
88

Red Hat Satellite 6.2 Content Management Guide

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION
In the context of system management, we define content as the software installed on systems. This
includes, but is not limited to, the base operating system, middleware services, and end user
applications. Red Hat Satellite 6 provides tools to manage the various types of content for Red Hat
Enterprise Linux systems. This provides system administrators with an easy way to collect a range of
content, keep it up to date, and use it to provision new systems and update existing systems.
This guide aims to provide an end-to-end scenario to demonstrate how to manage your content. This
guide is targeted at system administrators with a newly installed Satellite Server.

1.1. OVERVIEW OF RED HAT SATELLITE 6 CONTENT MANAGEMENT
Content management in the context of Red Hat Satellite 6 means a work flow that provides a sustainable
repository for multiple content types. For Red Hat content, Red Hat Satellite 6 also uses subscription
information so that it knows what content is available to a user. This means Red Hat Satellite 6 uses
components to manage the following:
Subscription management, which includes tools to manage Red Hat software subscriptions,
and associated content, over a secure connection. This provides a means for organizations to
manage their Red Hat subscription information.
Content management, which includes applications to download and store content in custom
repositories. This provides organizations with a method to store Red Hat content and organize it
in various ways.

1.2. DEFINING THE APPLICATION LIFE CYCLE
The application life cycle is a concept central to Red Hat Satellite 6’s content management functions.
The application life cycle defines how a particular system and its software look at a particular stage. For
example, an application life cycle might be simple; you might only have a development stage and
production stage. In this case the application life cycle might look like this:
Development
Production
However, a more complex application life cycle might have further stages, such as a phase for testing or
a beta release. This adds extra stages to the application life cycle:
Development
Testing
Beta Release
Production
Ultimately, the stages in an application life cycle depend on your organization and its software
development methods. However, Red Hat Satellite 6 provides methods to customize each application life
cycle stage so that it suits your specifications.
Each stage in the application life cycle is called an environment in Red Hat Satellite 6. Each
environment uses a specific collection of content. Red Hat Satellite 6 defines these content collections as
a content view. Each content view acts as a filter where we can define what repositories, packages,

Red Hat Satellite 6.2 Content Management Guide

and Puppet modules to include in a particular environment. This provides a method for you to define
specific sets of content to designate to each environment.
The concept of the application life cycle depends on a certain level of progression. For example,
environments in the early stages of an application life cycle might use newer and pre-release packages
for development and testing of new features. Likewise, environments in the later stages might use only
stable packages to suit production-level software. If the packages in development pass testing, you can
promote the development content view across the application life cycle so that it becomes the content
view for the production environment. This ensures that your application life cycle progresses with the
development of your application.
Figure 1.1. The Red Hat Satellite 6 Application Life Cycle

1.3. DEFINING CONTENT MANAGEMENT TYPES
Red Hat Satellite 6 manages different content types. This includes:
RPM Packages
Red Hat Satellite 6 provides a method to import RPM files from repositories related to your Red Hat
subscriptions. This means the Satellite Server downloads the RPM files from Red Hat’s Content
Delivery Network and stores them locally. You can use these repositories and their RPM files in
content views.
Kickstart Trees
Red Hat Satellite 6 obtains the kickstart trees for creating a new system. New systems access these
kickstart trees over a network to use as base content for their installation. Red Hat Satellite 6 also
contains some predefined kickstart templates (and the ability to create your own), which are used to
provision new systems and customize the installation.
ISO and KVM Images
Red Hat Satellite 6 downloads and manages media for installation and provisioning. For example,
Satellite downloads, stores and manages ISO images and KVM guest images for specific Red Hat
Enterprise Linux versions.

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION

Puppet Modules
Red Hat Satellite 6 offers the ability to upload Puppet modules alongside RPM content so that it can
configure the system’s state after provisioning. Users can also manage Puppet classes and
parameters as part of the provisioning process.
Container Images
Red Hat Satellite 6 can act as a registry for container images. This provides a method to create
containers using Red Hat Enterprise Linux Atomic Host.
OSTree
Red Hat Satellite 6 can import OSTree branches and publish this content to a HTTP location.

1.4. DEFINING OUR SCENARIO
This guide uses an example scenario to demonstrate Red Hat Satellite 6’s features. In this scenario, a
software development company called ACME recently installed Red Hat Satellite 6 and its system
administrators want to start importing and managing Red Hat content. The end goal for ACME is to:
Have a set of content sources imported for their organization. This includes content from their
Red Hat subscription and their own custom content.
Have an application life cycle defined based on their software development process.
Have their Satellite Server ready so they can provision new Red Hat Enterprise Linux hosts and
register existing Red Hat Enterprise Linux hosts.
This guide only focuses on content management. Further features, such as host provisioning,
environment architecture, and Satellite Server management, are covered in other guides in the Red Hat
Satellite 6 series.
This guide provides both steps for using either the Red Hat Satellite 6 Web UI or its CLI tool (hammer).
Use either depending on your preferred method of interacting with Red Hat Satellite 6. If using the CLI
and do not want to include authentication details each time you run the hammer command, create a CLI
configuration file for the local user:
# mkdir ~/.hammer
# cat > .hammer/cli_config.yml < Organizations. This displays the list of organizations that your Satellite Server
currently manages.
Click New Organization.
A creation wizard appears with three sections:
Create Organization
Provide the base details for the organization. This includes:
Name - A plain text name for the organization. For our scenario, use ACME.
Label - A unique identifier for the organization. This is used for creating and mapping certain
assets, such as directories for content storage. Use letters, numbers, underscores, and
dashes, but no spaces. For our scenario, use ACME too.

CHAPTER 2. CREATING ORGANIZATIONS

Description - An optional plain text description for our organization. For our scenario, use
Our example organization.
Select Hosts
All hosts should have an organization. However, in some circumstances, hosts might become
orphaned. For example, deleting an old organization might orphan its hosts. In these situations, you
can assign orphaned hosts to your newly created organization if necessary. Choose Assign All to
assign all orphaned hosts or Manually Assign to select which orphaned hosts to assign. In our
scenario for ACME, no orphaned hosts should exist yet, so click Proceed to Edit to move to the Edit
Properties section.
Edit Properties
This section allows us to assign certain infrastructure resources to our organization. This includes
networking resources, installation media, kickstart templates, and other parameters. You can return
to this screen at any time by navigating to Administer > Organization and then selecting an
organization to edit. In terms of our scenario, no further configuration is required. However, we will
return to this section later in this guide after we synchronize a kickstart tree.
After completing your organization creation, click Submit.

For CLI Users
# hammer organization create \
--name "ACME" \
--label "ACME" \
--description "Our example organization for managing content."
This creates your first organization.

2.2. SETTING THE CONTEXT
Before managing content in Red Hat Satellite 6, we must set the context. A context defines which
organization to use for our content.

For Web UI Users
The Context menu is in the top-left corner of the screen. If you have not selected a context, the menu
will say "Any Context". Hover over this menu, then select ACME for the Organization selector. This
changes the context to our ACME organization.

For CLI Users
If using the CLI, ensure to include either --organization "ACME" or --organization-label
"ACME" as an option at the end of your command. For example:
# hammer subscription list --organization "ACME"
This sets the context for each interaction through the CLI.

2.3. CHAPTER SUMMARY
This chapter showed how to create new organizations and set one as our context for content
management.

Red Hat Satellite 6.2 Content Management Guide

The next chapter explores how Red Hat Satellite 6 imports your subscriptions into your organization.
After the subscriptions are imported, so you can start managing Red Hat content.

CHAPTER 3. MANAGING SUBSCRIPTIONS

CHAPTER 3. MANAGING SUBSCRIPTIONS
Red Hat Satellite 6 imports content from Red Hat’s Content Delivery Network (CDN). To do this, the
Satellite Server needs to know what product subscriptions are available so that it can find, access, and
download from corresponding repositories. All subscription information is available in your Red Hat
Customer Portal account. To import this information into Satellite, you create a Subscription Manifest.
A Subscription Manifest is a set of encrypted files that contains your subscription information. You import
this manifest into your Satellite Server. The Satellite Server then uses this information to access the CDN
and find what repositories are available.
For this chapter, we examine how to create a Subscription Manifest containing a subset of your
subscriptions.

3.1. MANAGING MULTIPLE ORGANIZATIONS USING MULTIPLE
MANIFESTS
You can have more than one manifest in a Satellite Server if you want to manage more than one
organization. Satellite 6 requires a single manifest for each organization configured on the Satellite. The
advantage of this is that since each organization maintains completely separate subscriptions, you can
support multiple organizations each with their own Red Hat Network accounts.

3.2. ADDING A SATELLITE SERVER TO THE CUSTOMER PORTAL
The Red Hat Customer Portal provides access to your subscription information. The Customer Portal
can also add Satellite Servers as subscription management applications. This is necessary so that the
Customer Portal can assign subscriptions to the Satellite.
For this scenario, we aim to add our Satellite Server as a content distributor in the Customer Portal.
Follow these steps:
1. Open https://access.redhat.com/ in your browser and log into your Customer Portal account.
2. Navigate to Subscriptions, which is in the top-left corner of the Customer Portal.
3. This page displays your subscription information. Scroll to the Manage section, which shows all
systems registered to the Customer Portal. This section also displays Subscription
Management Applications. Click Satellite.
4. This page lists our Satellite Servers. This includes any previously added Red Hat Satellite 5 or 6
Servers. For our scenario, this list should be empty. Click Register a Satellite.
5. The Customer Portal provides a form to enter basic details about your Satellite, including a
Name and the Version of your Satellite Server. After entering these details, click Register.
The Customer Portal now has an entry for our Satellite Server. Now we can assign subscriptions on this
page and create our Subscription Manifest.

3.3. CREATING A SUBSCRIPTION MANIFEST
The Customer Portal page for the Satellite Server provides the ability to collect a group of subscriptions
and attach them to the server for distribution to managed systems. As mentioned, we create a
Subscription Manifest for our Satellite Server. To attach subscriptions and create the manifest for ACME,
follow these steps:

Red Hat Satellite 6.2 Content Management Guide

1. On the Customer Portal page for our Satellite, click Attach a subscription.
2. A list of your Red Hat product subscriptions appears. Select the products to assign to the
Satellite’s Subscription Manifest and also enter the Quantity for each selected product. For our
scenario, select a subscription for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 and enter 10 for the quantity. Click
Attach Selected to complete the assignment.
3. The Customer Portal encodes the chosen subscription certificates and creates a .zip archive,
which is our ACME Subscription Manifest. Click Download manifest to obtain the manifest.
Now we have a Subscription Manifest, which we upload into our Satellite Server.

3.4. IMPORTING A SUBSCRIPTION MANIFEST INTO THE SATELLITE
SERVER
Both the Red Hat Satellite 6 Web UI and CLI provide methods for importing the manifest.

For Web UI Users
Make sure the context is set to the ACME organization and navigate to Content > Red Hat
Subscriptions. In our scenario, this displays an empty page. Click Manage Manifest to display the
manifest page for our organization. Click Choose file, select our Subscription Manifest, then click
Upload. The Satellite Server uploads the manifest and, after a few minutes, reports a successful import
in the Manifest History section.

For CLI Users
The Red Hat Satellite 6 CLI requires the manifest to be on the Satellite Server. On your local client
system, copy the manifest to the Satellite Server:
[user@client ~]$ scp ~/.zip root@satellite.example.com:~/.
Then import it using the following command:
[root@satellite ~]# hammer subscription upload \
--file ~/.zip \
--organization "ACME"
After a few minutes, the CLI reports a successful manifest import.

3.5. UPDATING AND REFRESHING A MANIFEST
NOTE
Manifests should not be deleted. If you delete the manifest from the Red Hat Customer
Portal or in the Satellite Web UI it will unregister all of your content hosts.
You can add and remove subscription to a manifest in the customer portal and then add the updated
manifest to your Satellite in one of three ways:
By using the refresh button in the Satellite web UI as follows: In the web UI, navigate to Content
> Red Hat Subscriptions > Manage Manifests and select the Refresh Manifest button.

CHAPTER 3. MANAGING SUBSCRIPTIONS

By downloading it from the customer portal and uploading it in the Satellite web UI as follows: In
the web UI, navigate to Content > Red Hat Subscriptions > Manage Manifests and click
Choose file. Select the Subscription Manifest, and then click Upload.
By downloading it from the customer portal and uploading it to Satellite Server using the CLI as
follows:
# hammer subscription upload --file ~/.zip

3.6. CHAPTER SUMMARY
This chapter showed how to use a Subscription Manifest to take subscription information from the Red
Hat Customer Portal and import it into our Satellite Server.
The next chapter looks at how to start importing content, specifically Red Hat’s RPM repositories.

Red Hat Satellite 6.2 Content Management Guide

CHAPTER 4. IMPORTING RED HAT CONTENT
Our Satellite Server now has the necessary subscription information imported. We are ready to add
content to our system. For this chapter, we explore the concept of a Definitive Media Library (DML) and
how to synchronize content to create our DML.

4.1. CREATING A DEFINITIVE MEDIA LIBRARY
A DML is a repository that stores and protects the definitive, authorized versions of software and
configurations. In other words, the DML acts as a master version of any content imported into the
Satellite. This includes Red Hat content, such as RPM files, kickstart trees, and ISO images. As
mentioned in Section 1.1, “Overview of Red Hat Satellite 6 Content Management”, Red Hat Satellite 6
stores and manages content in a DML.

4.2. USING PRODUCTS AND REPOSITORIES IN SATELLITE
In Satellite, we use the concept of a Product as an organizational unit to group multiple repositories
together. Such repository collections are analogous to the concept of real life products. For example, if
we view Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server as a Product in Satellite, the repositories for that product might
consist of different versions (6.0, 6.1, 7.0), different architectures (i386, x86_64, s390x, arm), and
different add-ons (Optional repositories, Supplementary repositories, Virt V2V tools). This unifies all
related repositories within the DML. Using Products ensures repositories that depend on each other are
synchronized together. For Red Hat repositories, products are created automatically after enabling the
repository.
In this chapter, our aim is to start creating our DML using Red Hat content. To do this, we synchronize
our DML with Red Hat’s Products and their repositories.

4.3. SYNCHRONIZING CONTENT
Once we choose which repositories form our DML, the Satellite Server synchronizes its own repositories
with the repositories on the Red Hat CDN. This ensures that the Satellite Server retains an exact copy of
Red Hat’s repositories as a part of its DML. The Satellite Server fetches this repository information and
stores it on the Satellite Server’s file system. After an initial synchronization, you can create a
synchronization plan that checks to make sure the repositories in the DML is up to date with the CDN’s
repositories.
It is possible to perform an initial synchronization using ISO images. See Appendix C, Importing Content
ISOs into a Connected Satellite for more information on using Content ISOs. For locations with
bandwidth limitations, using an On Demand or Background download policy as described below might
be quicker than downloading and importing Content ISOs.

4.4. USING DOWNLOAD POLICIES
The Satellite Server provides multiple download policies for synchronizing RPM content. For example,
you might aim to save time and only download the content metadata while deferring the actual content
download for later. The Satellite Server offers the following policies:
Immediate - Satellite Server downloads all metadata and packages during synchronization.
On Demand - Satellite Server only downloads the metadata during synchronization. The server
only fetches and stores packages on the file system when clients request them.

CHAPTER 4. IMPORTING RED HAT CONTENT

Background - Satellite Server creates a background task to download all packages after the
initial synchronization.
The latter two policies act as a Lazy Synchronization feature because they save time synchronizing
content. The lazy sync feature must only be used for yum repositories.
All repositories stored in the Satellite Server use a download policy and you can change the download
policy to suit your needs.

4.5. SELECTING RED HAT REPOSITORIES TO SYNCHRONIZE
The first step in selecting the repositories to synchronize is to identify the product that contains the
repository, then enable that repository based on release version and base architecture.

IMPORTANT
If using a Disconnected Satellite, you need to import the Content ISOs for Red Hat
Satellite and change the CDN URL on the Satellite Server before synchronizing content.
For more information, see Appendix B, Importing Content ISOs into a Disconnected
Satellite.

For Web UI Users
Navigate to Content > Red Hat Repositories. This displays a set of tabs for different content types.
Each tab contains a list of products. The RPMs should be the default tab upon loading this page. This tab
contains list of all subscribed products that provide RPM content.
The relationship between products and specific repositories is connected through a cascading hierarchy.
Select a product and this opens a list of repository sets for that product. Select a repository set and this
opens a list of repositories that you can enable. For our scenario, select Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Server, then Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Server (RPMs), then enable Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
Server RPMs x86_64 7Server. This enables the latest RPM files for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.

NOTE
The difference between associating Red Hat Enterprise Linux Operating System with
either 7 Server repositories or 7.X repositories is that 7 Server repositories contain all the
latest updates while Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.X repositories stop getting updates after
the next minor version release. Note that Kickstart repositories only have minor versions.

For CLI Users
The relationship between products and repositories is the same. Search for your product with the
following command:
# hammer product list --organization "ACME"
List the repository set for the product:
# hammer repository-set list \
--product "Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server" \
--organization "ACME"

Red Hat Satellite 6.2 Content Management Guide

This displays the repositories in the product’s repository set, including their name and ID number. Enable
the repository using either the name or ID number. Also include the release version (7Server) and base
architecture (x86_64). For example:
# hammer repository-set enable \
--name "Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Server (RPMs)" \
--releasever "7Server" \
--basearch "x86_64" \
--product "Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server" \
--organization "ACME"
For this scenario, use either the Web UI or the CLI to enable the following repositories for ACME:
Repository

Type

Description

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Server
RPMs x86_64 7Server

RPM

Repositories for the latest version
of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.
Use the 7 Server repository
instead of the 7.2 repository so
that you receive continuous
package updates.

Red Hat Satellite Tools 6.2 for
RHEL 7 Server RPMs x86_64

RPM

The Satellite Tools repository,
which contains system
management agents and tools for
client systems. After provisioning
a new system, Satellite installs
tools such as katello-agent
and Puppet to the client. Use the
7 Server repository instead of
the 7.2 repository so that you
receive continuous package
updates.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.2
Kickstart x86_64 7Server

Kickstart

The kickstart tree for Red Hat
Enterprise Linux 7.2. Use this as
installation media for provisioning
new systems over PXE.

These repositories will provide some initial content for our scenario’s DML. You can select more
repositories based upon your needs.

NOTE
For this scenario, all repositories use x86_64 as the base architecture.

4.6. SYNCHRONIZING RED HAT REPOSITORIES
We have enabled specific repositories to form our initial DML. Now we synchronize the repositories with
the Red Hat CDN’s repositories.

For Web UI Users

CHAPTER 4. IMPORTING RED HAT CONTENT

Navigate to Content > Products and select Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server. This displays all
enabled repositories in our product. Select all repositories and click Sync Now. You can also view the
progress of the synchronization in the Web UI. Navigate to Content > Sync Status and expanding the
Product/Repository tree (or click Expand All).

For CLI Users
Synchronize the enabled repositories in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server product:
# hammer product synchronize \
--name "Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server" \
--organization "ACME"
You can also synchronize each repository individually. List all repositories in the product, then
synchronize using the ID number for the corresponding repositories. For example:
# hammer repository list \
--product "Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server" \
--organization "ACME"
# hammer repository synchronize \
--name "Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Server RPMs x86_64 7Server" \
--product "Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server" \
--organization "ACME"
The synchronization duration depends on the size of each repository and the speed of your network
connection. The following table provides estimates of how long it would take to synchronize content,
depending on the available Internet bandwidth:
Single Package (10Mb)

Minor Release (750Mb)

Major Release (6Gb)

256 Kbps

5 Mins 27 Secs

6 Hrs 49 Mins 36 Secs

2 Days 7 Hrs 55 Mins

512 Kbps

2 Mins 43.84 Secs

3 Hrs 24 Mins 48 Secs

1 Day 3 Hrs 57 Mins

T1 (1.5 Mbps)

54.33 Secs

1 Hr 7 Mins 54.78 Secs

9 Hrs 16 Mins 20.57
Secs

10 Mbps

8.39 Secs

10 Mins 29.15 Secs

1 Hr 25 Mins 53.96 Secs

100 Mbps

0.84 Secs

1 Min 2.91 Secs

8 Mins 35.4 Secs

1000 Mbps

0.08 Secs

6.29 Secs

51.54 Secs

A manual synchronization is often required for the initial content import into the DML. However, it is
recommended create a synchronization plan to ensure that our DML is kept up to date on a regular
basis.

NOTE
Once the synchronization completes, the kickstart repository appears in Red Hat Satellite
6’s list of installation media and is assigned to your organization. To view this, navigate to
Hosts > Installation Media.

Red Hat Satellite 6.2 Content Management Guide

NOTE
You can change the download policy for a Red Hat repository. Select a repository in the
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server product and scroll to the Download Policy
field. If using the CLI, use the hammer repository update command with the -download-policy option.

4.6.1. Limiting Synchronization Speed
You can control the speed of synchronization to avoid exhaustion of available bandwidth and prevent
other performance issues. This is done by configuring PULP_CONCURRENCY and max_speed
parameters. Note that these settings are overwritten on an upgrade. It is recommended to backup
changed files prior to an upgrade to be able to restore the configuration.
1. To control the number of synchronization jobs that run in parallel, configure the
PULP_CONCURRENCY parameter in the /etc/default/pulp_workers file. For example,
to set the number of jobs that run in parallel to 1, change PULP_CONCURRENCY to 1:
PULP_CONCURRENCY=1
Default value for the PULP_CONCURRENCY parameter is 2.
2. To set the maximum network speed for synchronizing in bytes per second, configure the
max_speed parameter. This parameter must be configured separately for each importer in the
/etc/pulp/server/plugins.conf.d/ directory.
a. For example, to set the maximum speed for synchronizing RPM content to 10 bytes per
second, set the "max_speed" parameter in the
/etc/pulp/server/plugins.conf.d/yum_importer.json file to 10:
# cat /etc/pulp/server/plugins.conf.d/yum_importer.json
{
"proxy_host": null,
"proxy_port": null,
"proxy_username": null,
"proxy_password": null,
"max_speed": 10
}
b. Verify the syntax of the file after editing:
# json_verify < /etc/pulp/server/plugins.conf.d/yum_importer.json
JSON is valid
3. Restart Satellite services to apply the changes:
# katello-service restart

4.7. CREATING A SYNCHRONIZATION PLAN
A synchronization plan checks and updates the content in your DML at a regularly scheduled date and
time. Red Hat Satellite 6 provides users with the ability to create a synchronization plan and assign
products to it.

CHAPTER 4. IMPORTING RED HAT CONTENT

For Web UI Users
Navigate to Content > Sync Plans and click New Sync Plan. The UI provides a set of fields where you
can input details about your synchronization plan:
Name - A plain text name for the plan. Enter Example Plan.
Description - A plain text description of the plan. Enter Example Plan for ACME's
repositories.
Interval - Defines when to run the synchronization. Select daily.
Start Date and Start Time - Defines when to run the synchronization. We already completed a
synchronization today, so set the synchronization for tomorrow at 1:00 (1AM).
Click Save to create a plan. The plan details page displays along with two tabs for Details and
Products.
Now add your products. Click the Products tab, then click Add. Select the Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Server product and click Add Selected.

For CLI Users
Create the synchronization plan with the following command:
# hammer sync-plan create \
--name "Red Hat Products 2" \
--description "Example Plan for ACME's Red Hat Products" \
--interval daily \
--sync-date "2016-02-01 01:00:00" \
--enabled true \
--organization "ACME"
Then assign the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server product to it:
# hammer product set-sync-plan \
--name "Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server" \
--sync-plan "Red Hat Products" \
--organization "ACME"
Now the Satellite Server checks its DML content against the Red Hat CDN on a daily basis and keeps its
Red Hat repositories up to date.

4.8. CHAPTER SUMMARY
This chapter showed how to import Red Hat content into ACME’s Satellite Server and keep it up to date
through synchronization plans.
The next chapter explores a importing custom content into the Satellite Server’s DML. This process is a
little similar to importing Red Hat content except we create and manage custom products.

Red Hat Satellite 6.2 Content Management Guide

CHAPTER 5. IMPORTING CUSTOM CONTENT
The previous chapter examined how to import Red Hat content into the Definitive Media Library (DML).
This chapter focuses on custom content, which differs slightly from Red Hat content. We create our own
product beforehand, customize it, and add our own repositories. In addition, you can add Puppet
modules to a custom repository.

5.1. USING CUSTOM PRODUCTS IN SATELLITE
In Section 4.2, “Using Products and Repositories in Satellite”, we explored the concept of a Product in
Red Hat Satellite 6 and how it is used to group repositories together. Red Hat Satellite 6 also provides
the ability to create custom Products so you can add multiple related repositories. Both Red Hat content
and custom content in Red Hat Satellite 6 share some similarities:
The relationship between a product and its repositories is the same and the repositories still
require synchronization.
Custom Products require a subscription for clients to access, similar to subscriptions to Red Hat
Products. Red Hat Satellite 6 creates a new subscription for each custom Product you create.
In this chapter, we aim to create a product that contains two related repositories: an RPM repository
containing RPM content and a Puppet repository for modules to configure the RPM content.

5.2. CREATING A CUSTOM PRODUCT
In our scenario, ACME is aiming to develop a product called Exampleware, which is a web-based
application that requires a PostgreSQL database. ACME might aim to use production-level
Exampleware in the field using PostgreSQL from the Red Hat Enterprise Linux repositories but test
Exampleware with newer versions of PostgreSQL. For this situation, let’s create a custom product for
PostgreSQL so that we can synchronize the newer versions.

For CLI Users
Create the product with one command:

CHAPTER 5. IMPORTING CUSTOM CONTENT

# hammer product create \
--name "PostgreSQL" \
--sync-plan "Example Plan" \
--description "Content from PostgreSQL repositories" \
--organization "ACME"
This creates a new product where we can create our own custom repositories and synchronize their
content.

5.3. IMPORTING A CUSTOM GPG KEY
Before we create a custom product, we might need to create a custom GPG key. This is used to provide
a certain level of security for RPM transactions with the PostgreSQL repository.
First download a copy of the version specific repository package to your client system. In our case, we
download pgdg-redhat95:
[user@client ~]$ wget http://yum.postgresql.org/9.5/redhat/rhel-7x86_64/pgdg-redhat95-9.5-2.noarch.rpm
Extract the RPM file without installing it:
[user@client ~]$ rpm2cpio pgdg-redhat95-9.5-2.noarch.rpm | cpio -idmv
The GPG key is located relative to the extraction at etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-PGDG-95.

For Web UI Users
Navigate to Content > GPG keys. Click New Gpg Key. Provide the GPG key with a name
(PostgreSQL 9.5) and select Upload GPG Key. Click Browse and select the GPG key you extracted.
Click Save.

For CLI Users
Copy the GPG key to your Satellite Server:
[user@client ~]$ scp ~/etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-PGDG-95
root@satellite.example.com:~/.
Upload the GPG key to Satellite:
[root@satellite ~]# hammer gpg create \
--key ~/RPM-GPG-KEY-PGDG-95 \
--name "PostgreSQL 9.5" \
--organization "ACME"
Now we have a GPG key we can associate with our repository.

5.4. CREATING A CUSTOM RPM REPOSITORY
Normally, a production-level server would use the version of PostgreSQL included with Red Hat
Enterprise Linux for stability purposes. However, ACME’s developers might aim to test Exampleware
with a more recent version of PostgreSQL. In this instance, they can create a custom repository for a
newer version of PostgreSQL.

Red Hat Satellite 6.2 Content Management Guide

For Web UI Users
We follow on from creating our custom PostgreSQL product. After creating our custom product, the
repositories screen appears. Click Create Repository, which displays a form for a new repository. Enter
the following details:
Name - A plain text name for the repository. Enter PostgreSQL 9.5.
Label - An internal ID for the repository. Red Hat Satellite 6 automatically completes this field
based on what you have entered for Name.
Type - The type of repository. You can choose either a repository for RPM files (yum), Puppet
modules (puppet), or Docker images (docker). For our scenario, select yum. A new set of
fields appear.
URL - The URL of the external repository to use as a source. Enter
http://yum.postgresql.org/9.5/redhat/rhel-7-x86_64/.
Download Policy - Determines the type of synchronization the Satellite Server performs. Select
Immediate. See Section 4.4, “Using Download Policies” for more information.
Mirror on Sync - Ensures the content that is no longer part of the upstream repository is
removed during synchronization. Leave this checked, which is the default.
Checksum - The checksum for the repository. For this example, leave this as the Default,
which defaults to SHA256. This is the checksum required for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7. For
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 or previous versions, select SHA1 for the checksum.
Publish via HTTP - Enables this repository for publication through HTTP. This option is
automatically selected.
GPG Key - The GPG Key for this repository. Select the PostgreSQL 9.5 GPG key we created
previously.
Click Save to save this repository entry.
The repository uses the synchronization plan to periodically keep it up to date. However, let’s perform an
initial synchronization. Select the PostgreSQL 9.5 repository and click Sync Now. This starts a task to
synchronize our repository with the external PostgreSQL repository.

NOTE
Monitor the progress of this synchronization on the Content > Sync Status page.

For CLI Users
Run the following command to create the repository:
# hammer repository create \
--name "PostgreSQL 9.5" \
--content-type "yum" \
--publish-via-http true \
--url http://yum.postgresql.org/9.5/redhat/rhel-7-x86_64/ \
--gpg-key "PostgreSQL 9.5" \
--product "PostgreSQL" \
--organization "ACME"

CHAPTER 5. IMPORTING CUSTOM CONTENT

Then synchronize the repository:
# hammer repository synchronize \
--name "PostgreSQL 9.5" \
--product "PostgreSQL" \
--organization "ACME"
Now we have a synchronized copy of PostgreSQL 9.5. Let’s take this a step further and include a Puppet
module to configure a PostgreSQL server.

NOTE
The Products page in the Web UI also provides a Repo Discovery function that finds all
repositories from a URL and allows you to select which ones to add to your custom
Product. For example, you can use the Repo Discovery to search
http://yum.postgresql.org/9.5/redhat/ and list all PostgreSQL 9.5 repositories
for different Red Hat Enterprise Linux versions and architectures. This helps users save
time importing multiple repositories from a single source.

IMPORTANT
Red Hat does not support the upstream RPMs directly from the PostgreSQL site. These
RPMs are used to demonstrate the synchronization process. For any issues with these
RPMs, contact the developers for PostgreSQL.

5.5. CREATING A CUSTOM PUPPET REPOSITORY
Custom products can also include repositories for Puppet modules. This provides a method to
incorporate state configuration of hosts.
First, let’s create a repository for our PostgreSQL product.

For Web UI Users
Make sure you are on the Product page (Content > Products). Click on the PostgreSQL product, which
displays our repository listing. Click Create Repository, which displays a form for a new repository.
Enter the following details:
Name - A plain text name for the repository. Enter PostgreSQL Puppet Modules.
Label - An internal ID for the repository. Red Hat Satellite 6 automatically completes this field
based on what you have entered for Name.
Type - The type of repository. Select puppet and a URL field appears.
URL - The URL of the external repository to use as a source. We will manually import our
Puppet module, but you can use a repository source to synchronize your own Puppet modules.
Click Save to save this repository entry.

For CLI Users
Use the following command to create our Puppet module repository:
# hammer repository create \

Red Hat Satellite 6.2 Content Management Guide

--name "PostgreSQL Puppet Modules" \
--content-type "puppet" \
--product "PostgreSQL" \
--organization "ACME"
Now we have a custom repository for our Puppet modules. Let’s add one now.

5.6. MANAGING INDIVIDUAL PUPPET MODULES
For this scenario, we manually import a Puppet module for configuring PostgreSQL.
Download this module from the Puppet Forge site (https://forge.puppetlabs.com/puppetlabs/postgresql).
Open the page in your browser and click download latest tar.gz to save to your local file system.

For Web UI Users
Make sure you are on the repository listing page for the PostgreSQL product. Click on the PostgreSQL
Puppet Modules repository, which displays the details page for that repository.
Scroll to the Upload Puppet Module section, click Browse, select the PostgreSQL Puppet Module we
downloaded previously, and click Upload. After a few seconds, the Satellite Server reports Content
successfully uploaded.

NOTE
Click on the Manage Puppet Modules page to manage and remove Puppet modules
from a product.

For CLI Users
Copy the Puppet module to your Satellite Server’s file system:
[user@client ~]$ scp ~/.tar.gz
root@satellite.example.com:~/.
Import the Puppet module to the PostgreSQL Puppet Modules repository:
[root@satellite ~]# hammer repository upload-content \
--path ~/.tar.gz \
--name "PostgreSQL Puppet Modules" \
--product "PostgreSQL" \
--organization "ACME"
Now we have a custom repository that contains both RPM content and a Puppet module to install and
configure a server using the RPM content.

IMPORTANT
Red Hat does not support the modules from Puppet Forge. The PostgreSQL module is
used to demonstrate the module management process. For any issues with these
modules, contact the module developer.

5.7. SYNCHRONIZING PUPPET REPOSITORIES
26

CHAPTER 5. IMPORTING CUSTOM CONTENT

In addition to creating a repository of uploaded Puppet modules, the Satellite Server can synchronize a
complete Puppet module repository. In this example, the Satellite Server synchronizes the entire Puppet
Forge repository.

For Web UI Users
Navigate to Content > Products and click New Product. A form for a new Product appears. Enter the
following details:
Name - The plain text name for the product. Enter Puppet Forge.
Label - An internal ID for the product. Red Hat Satellite 6 automatically completes this field
based on what you have entered for Name.
GPG Key - The GPG Key for the entire product. Leave this blank.
Sync Plan - A synchronization plan for the product. We can attach this to the Example Plan
we created in the previous chapter.
Description - A plain text description of the product. Enter All modules from Puppet
Forge.
When you have entered this information, click Save.
After creating our custom product, the repositories screen appears. Click Create Repository, which
displays a form for a new repository. Enter the following details:
Name - A plain text name for the repository. Enter Puppet Forge Modules.
Label - An internal ID for the repository. Red Hat Satellite 6 automatically completes this field
based on what you have entered for Name.
Type - The type of repository. Select puppet and a URL field appears.
URL - The URL of the external repository to use as a source. Enter
http://forge.puppetlabs.com/.
Click Save to save this repository entry.
Select the Puppet Forge Modules repository and click Sync Now. This imports all modules from
Puppet Forge into the Satellite Server.

For CLI Users
Create the product:
# hammer product create \
--name "Puppet Forge" \
--sync-plan "Example Plan" \
--description "All modules from Puppet Forge" \
--organization "ACME"
Create the Puppet Forge repository:
# hammer repository create \
--name "Puppet Forge Modules" \
--content-type "puppet" \

Red Hat Satellite 6.2 Content Management Guide

--product "Puppet Forge" \
--organization "ACME" \
--url http://forge.puppetlabs.com/
Synchronize the repository:
# hammer repository synchronize \
--name "Puppet Forge Modules" \
--product "Puppet Forge" \
--organization "ACME"

NOTE
The Puppet Forge repository contains several thousand modules and can take a long
time to synchronize.

IMPORTANT
Red Hat does not support the modules from Puppet Forge. The modules are used to
demonstrate the synchronization process. For any issues with these modules, contact the
module developer.

5.8. SYNCHRONIZING PUPPET MODULES FROM A GIT REPOSITORY
Red Hat Satellite 6 includes a utility called pulp-puppet-module-builder, which you can install on
other systems from the pulp-puppet-tools RPM. This tool checks out a Git repository, builds all the
modules, and publishes them in a structure that Satellite 6 can synchronize. One common method is to
run the utility on the Satellite Server itself, publish to a local directory, and synchronize against that
directory. For example:
# mkdir /modules
# chmod 755 /modules
# pulp-puppet-module-builder \
--output-dir=/modules \
--url=git@mygitserver.com:mymodules.git \
--branch=develop
This checks out the develop branch of the Git repository from
git@mygitserver.com:mymodules.git and publishes it to /modules. Add this directory as the
URL (file:///modules) for a new repository on the Satellite Server. For example:

For Web UI Users
Open a custom product (in this case, we will use MyProduct as an example) and click Create
Repository. Enter the following details:
Name - A plain text name for the repository. Enter Modules from Git.
Label - An internal ID for the repository. Red Hat Satellite 6 automatically completes this field
based on what you have entered for Name.
Type - The type of repository. Select puppet and a URL field appears.
URL - The URL of the external repository to use as a source. Enter file:///modules.

CHAPTER 5. IMPORTING CUSTOM CONTENT

For CLI Users
Create the Puppet Forge repository:
# hammer repository create \
--name "Modules from Git" \
--content-type "puppet" \
--product "MyProduct" \
--organization "ACME" \
--url file:///modules

NOTE
The same process also applies to publishing modules on a remote HTTP server. For
example, if you use webserver.example.com as a standard web host to publish the
Puppet modules, log into the host and run the following commands:
# mkdir /var/www/html/modules/
# chmod 755 /var/www/html/modules/
# pulp-puppet-module-builder \
--output-dir=/var/www/html/modules/ \
--url=git@mygitserver.com:mymodules.git \
--branch=develop
On the Satellite Server, set the repository’s URL to
http://webserver.example.com/modules/.

5.9. CHAPTER SUMMARY
This chapter demonstrated how to create custom repositories for non-Red Hat content. This includes
RPM files and Puppet modules.
At this point we have all our base content imported into our Satellite Server’s DML. This means we can
start using it in our application life cycle.
The next chapter looks at developing an application life cycle to match the development and production
process of ACME.

Red Hat Satellite 6.2 Content Management Guide

CHAPTER 6. CREATING AN APPLICATION LIFE CYCLE
In Section 1.2, “Defining the Application Life Cycle”, we defined what an application life cycle is and why
it is important to Red Hat Satellite 6. In this chapter, we take a closer look at planning the application life
cycle and implementing it in Red Hat Satellite 6.

6.1. REVISITING THE APPLICATION LIFE CYCLE
As we discussed, the application life cycle defines how systems appear at a certain stage. However, the
actual application life cycle depends on your organization and how it structures a particular production
chain.
For example, an email server might only require a simple application life cycle where you have a
production-level server for real world use and a test server for trying out the latest mail server packages.
Once the test server passes the initial phase, we can set the production-level server to use the new
packages.
Another example might be an development life cycle for a software product. You might aim to develop a
new piece of software in a development environment, have it tested in a quality assurance environment,
pre-release it as a beta, then release it as a production-level application.
Each application life cycle uses a set of stages called environments. Each environment act as a
particular state for our systems. Each environment also follows on from a previous environment, creating
a chain of environments that becomes our application life cycle. Each application life cycle starts with an
initial Library, which acts as a central source in our Definitive Media Library (DML). The Library
environment contains all of the content we previously synchronized in our previous chapters. From this
point, we create additional environments that link starting from the Library environment.

6.2. CREATING A NEW APPLICATION LIFE CYCLE
For our scenario, we aim to create simple application life cycle for developing and releasing ACME’s
Exampleware. We use the Library environment as our initial environment, then chain an additional three
environments in this order: Development, Testing, and Production.

For Web UI Users
Navigate to Content > Lifecycle Environments. This screen displays the current environments in your
application life cycle. At the moment, only the Library environment exists.
Click New Environment Path to start a new application life cycle. A form appears for adding a new
environment to Library. Enter Development for the Name and the Label automatically completes. Enter
Environment for ACME's Development Team for the Description. Click Save.
We return to the environments listing. A new table appears with our Development environment. This new
table represents our new application life cycle. Now we add the rest of the environments to the
application life cycle.
Click Add New Environment just above the new table. This time, enter Testing for Name and
Environment for ACME's Quality Engineering Team for the Description. Click Save.
Finally, click Add New Environment again. Enter Production for Name and Environment for
ACME's Product Releases for the Description. Click Save.
The final application life cycle appears as a table with our three environments: Development, Testing,
and Production.

CHAPTER 6. CREATING AN APPLICATION LIFE CYCLE

For CLI Users
Run the hammer lifecycle-environment create for each environment. Use the --prior option
to specify the previous environment. For example:
# hammer lifecycle-environment
--name "Development" \
--description "Environment for
--prior "Library" \
--organization "ACME"
# hammer lifecycle-environment
--name "Testing" \
--description "Environment for
--prior "Development" \
--organization "ACME"
# hammer lifecycle-environment
--name "Production" \
--description "Environment for
--prior "Testing" \
--organization "ACME"

create \
ACME's Development Team" \

create \
ACME's Quality Engineering Team" \

create \
ACME's Product Releases" \

View your chain with the hammer lifecycle-environment paths command:
# hammer lifecycle-environment paths --organization "ACME"
----------------------------------------------LIFECYCLE PATH
----------------------------------------------Library >> Development >> Testing >> Production
-----------------------------------------------

6.3. PROMOTING CONTENT ACROSS THE APPLICATION LIFE CYCLE
Content moves from one environment to the next in an application life cycle chain. This is a process
called promotion. Promotion is an important concept to understand because it is the basis for managing
content across an application life cycle.
For our scenario, let’s say that ACME’s Exampleware is in full development and production. ACME
packages their Exampleware content into a RPM file, which becomes part of a separate product. In this
situation, ACME might have version 1.0 of Exampleware released, which means exampleware-1.00.noarch.rpm is in the Production environment.
ACME wants to release a patch for Exampleware, so they start development on version 1.1 of
Exampleware. In this instance, the environments in the application life cycle would contain the following
version of Exampleware:
Development

Testing

Production

exampleware-1.1-0.noarch.rpm

exampleware-1.0-0.noarch.rpm

After completing development on the patch, ACME promotes the RPM to the Testing environment so
ACME’s Quality Engineering team can review the patch. The application life cycle then contains the
following package versions in each environment:

Red Hat Satellite 6.2 Content Management Guide

Development

Testing

Production

exampleware-1.1-0.noarch.rpm

exampleware-1.0-0.noarch.rpm

While the Quality Engineering team reviews the patch, the Development team starts work on
Exampleware 2.0. This results in the following application life cycle:
Development

Testing

Production

exampleware-2.0-0.noarch.rpm

exampleware-1.1-0.noarch.rpm

exampleware-1.0-0.noarch.rpm

The Quality Engineering team completes their review of the patch. Now Exampleware 1.1 is ready for
release. ACME promotes 1.1 to the Production environment:
Development

Testing

Production

exampleware-2.0-0.noarch.rpm

exampleware-1.1-0.noarch.rpm

The Development team completes their work on Exampleware 2.0 and promotes it to the Testing
environment:
Development

Testing

Production

exampleware-2.0-0.noarch.rpm

exampleware-1.1-0.noarch.rpm

Finally, the Quality Engineering team reviews the package. After a successful review, we promote the
package to the Production environment:
Development

Testing

Production

exampleware-2.0-0.noarch.rpm

This example demonstrates the mapping of ACME’s development process into a Red Hat Satellite 6
application life cycle. Each environment contains a set of systems registered to Red Hat Satellite 6.
These systems only have access to repositories relevant to their environment. When we promote
packages from one environment to the next, the target environment’s repositories receive new package
versions. As a result, each system in the target environment can update to the new package versions.
Another concept we will explore in the next chapter is content views. A content view is essentially a
collection of content gathered and filtered from the Library and published in its own repository. The Red
Hat and custom repositories we synchronized previously act as source content, while the content views
customize exactly how the end repositories appear. Content views contain packages and the Satellite
Server promotes content views across environments in the application life cycle. An environment might
use one content view (Version 1.0) but then might receive a new version of the content view (Version
1.1). The repositories from Version 1.0 are replaced with the repositories for Version 1.1, which might
include a new version of the Exampleware RPMs.

CHAPTER 6. CREATING AN APPLICATION LIFE CYCLE

6.4. CHAPTER SUMMARY
This chapter returned to the concept of the application life cycle and how it applied to Red Hat Satellite
6’s content management. This chapter also explored how Red Hat Satellite 6 promoted content across
the environments in the application life cycle.
The next chapter discusses content views and how they are used to create custom filtered repositories
from our existing DML.

Red Hat Satellite 6.2 Content Management Guide

CHAPTER 7. CREATING CONTENT VIEWS
Red Hat Satellite 6 uses content views to create customized repositories from the core repositories in
your Definitive Media Library (DML). It achieves this through defining which repositories to use and then
applying certain filters to the content. These filters include both package filters, package group filters, and
errata filters. We use content views as a method to define which software versions a particular
environment uses. As mentioned in the previous chapter, a Production environment might use a content
view containing older package versions, while a Development environment might use a content view
containing newer package versions.
Each content view creates a set of repositories across each environment, which the Satellite Server
stores and manages. When we promote a content view from one environment to the next environment in
the application life cycle, the respective repository on the Satellite Server updates and publishes the
packages. For example, let’s say the we use a content view that contains our Exampleware package:

Content View Version
and Contents

Development

Testing

Production

Version 2 exampleware-1.10.noarch.rpm

Version 1 exampleware-1.00.noarch.rpm

The repositories for Testing and Production contain the exampleware-1.0-0.noarch.rpm package.
If we promote Version 2 of the content view from Development to Testing, the repository for Testing will
regenerate and then contain the exampleware-1.1-0.noarch.rpm package:

Content View Version
and Contents

Development

Testing

Production

Version 2 exampleware-1.10.noarch.rpm

Version 1 exampleware-1.00.noarch.rpm

This ensures systems are designated to a specific environment but receive updates when that
environment uses a new version of the content view.
This chapter shows how to create different types of content views and apply various filters to them.

7.1. CREATING A SIMPLE CONTENT VIEW
For this example, we’ll create a simple content view using just two repositories and no filters. The
repositories to include are the Red Hat Enterprise Linux repository and the Satellite Tools repository.
Note that this content view contains all RPMs for Red Hat Enterprise Linux and takes several minutes to
publish.

CHAPTER 7. CREATING CONTENT VIEWS

Description - A plain text description of the view. Enter Base operating system.
Composite View? - Defines whether to use a Composite Content View. Leave this option
deselected.
Click Save to complete.
This creates a new content view entry and now you can add repositories to it. Select the repositories for
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Server RPMs (not the Kickstart RPMs) and Red Hat Satellite Tools. Click
Add Repository. This adds all packages from these repositories to the content view.
Our content view is ready to publish. Navigate to Versions and click Publish New Version. The Satellite
Server provides some details about the new version (Version 1) and allows you to enter a Description
for the version, which is useful to logging changes for new content versions. Enter Initial content
view for our operating system and click Save.
The Satellite Server creates the new version of the view and publishes it to the Library environment.

For CLI Users
Obtain a list of repository IDs:
# hammer repository list --organization "ACME"
For our example, the two repositories we require are using 1 and 2 for their IDs:
ID

Name

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Server RPMs x86_64
7Server

Red Hat Satellite Tools 6.2 for RHEL 7 Server RPMs
x86_64

Create the content view and add repositories:
# hammer content-view create \
--name "Base" \
--description "Base operating system" \
--repository-ids 1,2 \
--organization "ACME"
Now publish the view:
# hammer content-view publish \
--name "Base" \
--description "Initial content view for our operating system" \
--organization "ACME"
The Satellite Server creates the new version of the view and publishes it to the Library environment.

7.2. CREATING A CONTENT VIEW WITH A PUPPET MODULE
35

Red Hat Satellite 6.2 Content Management Guide

For this example, we’ll create another content view using one repository and no filters. The repository to
include is the PostgreSQL repository.

For Web UI Users
Navigate to Content > Content Views and click Create New View. This displays a form for View
Details. Enter the following information:
Name - The plain text name for the view. Enter Database.
Label - An internal ID for the view. Red Hat Satellite 6 automatically completes this field based
on what you have entered for Name.
Description - A plain text description of the view. Enter PostgreSQL Database.
Composite View? - Defines whether to use a Composite Content View. Leave this option
deselected.
Click Save to complete.
This creates a new content view entry. Select the repositories for PostgreSQL and click Add
Repository. This adds all packages from the PostgreSQL repository to the content view.
Navigate to Puppet Modules. Click Add New Module. This shows all our imported Puppet modules.
Scroll to the postgresql module and click Select a Version.
Scroll to the entry for Use Latest and click Select Version in the Actions column.
The Puppet module is now added to the content view. Let’s publish a new version.
Navigate to Versions and click Publish New Version. Enter Initial RPMs and Puppet module
for database in the Description and click Save.
The Satellite Server creates the new version of the view and publishes it to the Library environment.

For CLI Users
Obtain a list of repository IDs:
# hammer repository list --organization "ACME"
We only require the PostgreSQL RPM repository, not the Puppet module repository. In our example, we
use the 4 for the ID of the PostgreSQL RPMs:
ID

Name

PostgreSQL 9.5

Create the content view and add repositories:
# hammer content-view create \
--name "Database" --description "PostgreSQL Database" \
--repository-ids 4 \
--organization "ACME"

CHAPTER 7. CREATING CONTENT VIEWS

Now publish the view:
# hammer content-view publish \
--name "Database" \
--description "Initial RPMs and Puppet module for database" \
--organization "ACME"
The Satellite Server creates the new version of the view and publishes it to the Library environment.

7.3. PROMOTING A CONTENT VIEW
The Satellite Server has published two content views and the repositories are now available to the
Library environment. Let’s promote one of these content views so the repository appears available to the
other environments.

NOTE
Non-administrator users require two permissions to promote a content view to an
environment:
1. promote_or_remove_content_views
2. promote_or_remove_content_views_to_environment.
The promote_or_remove_content_views permission restricts which content views a
user is allowed to promote.
The promote_or_remove_content_views_to_environment permission restricts
the environments to which a user is allowed to promote content views.
These permissions make it possible to designate that certain users are permitted to
promote certain content views to certain environments, but not to other environments. For
example, these permissions can be used to limit a user so that they are permitted to
promote to test environments, but not to production environments. This provides a kind of
multi-level authentication.
Both permissions must be assigned to a user to allow them to promote content views.

For Web UI Users
Make sure you’re still on the Versions screen for the Database content view. In the versions table, scroll
to Version 1.0 of our view and click Promote in the Actions column. A new screen appears where you
can select the target environment. Select the Development environment and click Promote Version.
After a few minutes, the promotion completes.
Click on the Promote button again. This time select the Testing environment and click Promote
Version.
Finally click on the Promote button once more. Select the Production environment and click Promote
Version.
Now the repository for the content view appears in all environments.

For CLI Users
Promote the content view using the hammer content-view version promote each time:

Red Hat Satellite 6.2 Content Management Guide

# hammer content-view version promote \
--content-view "Database" \
--version 1 \
--to-lifecycle-environment "Development" \
--organization "ACME"
# hammer content-view version promote \
--content-view "Database" \
--version 1 \
--to-lifecycle-environment "Testing" \
--organization "ACME"
# hammer content-view version promote \
--content-view "Database" \
--version 1 \
--to-lifecycle-environment "Production" \
--organization "ACME"
Now the database content is available in all environments.

7.4. DEFINING CONTENT FILTERS
Content views also use filters to include or restrict certain RPM content. Without these filters, a content
view includes everything from selected repositories.
Content filters are either one of the following types:
Include - Defines the content to include in the view. This filter’s behavior follows a pattern where
you start with no content, then choose which content to add from the selected repositories. Use
this filter to combine multiple content items.
Exclude - Defines the content to exclude in the view. This filter’s behavior follows a pattern
where you start with all content from selected repositories, then choose which content to
remove. Use this filter when you want to use most of a particular content repository but exclude
certain packages, such as blacklisted packages. The filter uses all content in the repository
except for the content you select.

NOTE
If using a combination of Include and Exclude filters, publishing a content view triggers the
Include filters first, then the exclude filters. In this situation, select which content to include,
then which content to exclude from the inclusive subset.
There are also four types of content to filter:
Package - Filter packages based on their name and version number.
Package Group - Select which package groups to add to the filter. The list of package groups is
based on the repositories added to the content view.
Erratum (by ID) - Select which specific errata to add to the filter. The list of Errata is based on
the repositories added to the content view.
Erratum (by Date and Type) - Select a issued or updated date range and errata type (Bugfix,
Enhancement, or Security) to add to the filter.

CHAPTER 7. CREATING CONTENT VIEWS

IMPORTANT
Filters do not resolve any dependencies of the packages listed in the filters. Ensure to add
package dependencies to the filter. This might require some level of testing to determine
what dependencies are required.
Let’s look at some examples of using content filters.

Example 1
Create a repository with the base Red Hat Enterprise Linux packages. This filter requires a Red Hat
Enterprise Linux repository added to the content view.
Filter:
Inclusion Type: Include
Content Type: Package Group
Filter: Select only the Base package group

Example 2
Create a repository that excludes all errata, except for security updates, after a certain date. This is
useful if your aim to perform system updates on a regularly scheduled basis with the exception of critical
security updates, which should be applied immediately. This filter requires a Red Hat Enterprise Linux
repository added to the content view.
Filter:
Inclusion Type: Exclude
Content Type: Erratum (by Date and Type)
Filter: Select only the Bugfix and Enhancement errata types, and deselect the Security errata
type. Set the Date Type to Updated On. Set the Start Date to the date you want to restrict
errata. Leave the End Date blank to make sure any new non-security errata is filtered.

Example 3
A combination of Example 1 and Example 2 where we only require the Base OS packages but want to
filter out recent bug fix and enhancement errata. This requires two filters attached to the same content
view. The content view processes the Include filter first, then the Exclude filter.
Filter 1:
Inclusion Type: Include
Content Type: Package Group
Filter: Select only the Base package group
Filter 2:
Inclusion Type: Exclude
Content Type: Erratum (by Date and Type)

Red Hat Satellite 6.2 Content Management Guide

Filter: Select only the Bugfix and Enhancement errata types, and deselect the Security errata
type. Set the Date Type to Updated On. Set the Start Date to the date you want to restrict
errata. Leave the End Date blank to make sure any new non-security errata is filtered.
For another example of how content filters work, see the following article: "How do content filters work in
Satellite 6"

7.5. CREATING A CONTENT FILTER
For our scenario, we aim to create a content filter that restricts errata items after a certain date for
ACME’s base operating system.

For Web UI Users
Navigate to Content > Content Views and select the Base content view. Navigate to Yum Content >
Filters and click New Filter. Enter the following details for your filter:
Name - Errata Filter
Content Type - Erratum - Date and Type
Inclusion Type - Exclude
Description - Exclude errata items from the last year, with the exception
of security updates
Click Save.
The Erratum Date Range screen appears, which allows you to select the errata type to filter and the
date range. Select only Enhancement and Bugfix:
[ ] Security
[X] Enhancement
[X] Bugfix
For the Date Type, select either Issued On (the issued date of the erratum) or Updated On (the date of
the erratum’s last update). If the erratum has not been updated after the creation date, then the Issued
On and Updated On date will be the same for that erratum. Note that Issued On just means that the
errata items are filtered based on the issued date. The filter does not exclude any updates that have
been made to that erratum.
For the Start Date, select today’s date from one year ago.
For the End Date, leave this field blank.
Click Save.

NOTE
You can also choose which specific repositories use this filter. Select the Affected
repositories tab to select these repositories. For this example, there is only one
repository to use in our filter.
Our filter is complete. Click Publish New Version to publish the resulting repository. For the Version
Details enter Adding errata filter in the Description. Click Save.

CHAPTER 7. CREATING CONTENT VIEWS

When the content view completes publication, notice the Content column reports a reduced number of
packages and errata (except Security errata) from the initial repository. This means the filter successfully
excluded the all non-security errata from the last year.
Promote this content view across all environments: Development, Testing, Production.

For CLI Users
Add a filter to the content view. Use the --inclusion false option to set the filter to an Exclude filter:
# hammer content-view filter create \
--name "Errata Filter" \
--type erratum --content-view "Base" \
--description "Exclude errata items from the last year, with the exception
of security updates" \
--inclusion false \
--organization "ACME"
Add a rule to the filter:
# hammer content-view filter rule create \
--content-view "Base" \
--content-view-filter "Errata Filter" \
--start-date "2015-01-01" \
--types enhancement,bugfix \
--date-type updated \
--organization "ACME"
Publish the content view:
# hammer content-view publish \
--name "Base" \
--description "Adding errata filter" \
--organization "ACME"
Promote the view across all environments:
# hammer content-view version promote \
--content-view "Base" \
--version 1 \
--to-lifecycle-environment "Development" \
--organization "ACME"
# hammer content-view version promote \
--content-view "Base" \
--version 1 \
--to-lifecycle-environment "Testing" \
--organization "ACME"
# hammer content-view version promote \
--content-view "Base" \
--version 1 \
--to-lifecycle-environment "Production" \
--organization "ACME"

7.6. DEFINING COMPOSITE CONTENT VIEWS
41

Red Hat Satellite 6.2 Content Management Guide

A Composite Content View combines the content from several content views. For example, you might
have separate content views to manage a base OS and an application individually. A Composite
Content View allows you to merge the contents of both content views into a new repository. The
repositories for the original content views still exist but a new repository now exists for the combined
content.
As a use case scenario, a company might aim to develop an application that supports different database
servers. The general application stack appears as:
Exampleware Stack
Application
Database
Operating System

The company might develop four individual content views:
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (Operating System)
PostgreSQL (Database)
MariaDB (Database)
Exampleware (Application)
The company can then create two Composite Content Views. One with a PostgreSQL database:
Composite Content View 1 - Exampleware on PostgreSQL
Exampleware (Application)
PostgreSQL (Database)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (Operating System)

And one with MariaDB:
Composite Content View 2 - Exampleware on MariaDB
Exampleware (Application)
MariaDB (Database)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (Operating System)

Each individual content view is then managed and published separately. When we create a new version
of the application stack, we publish a new version of the Composite Content Views.

CHAPTER 7. CREATING CONTENT VIEWS

IMPORTANT
Composite Content Views do not allow more than one of each repository. For example, if
you attempt to include two content views using the same repository in a Composite
Content View, the Satellite Server reports an error.

7.7. CREATING A COMPOSITE CONTENT VIEW
Let’s create a content view for ACME that combines our two existing content views.

For Web UI Users
Navigate to Content > Content Views and click Create New View. Provide the following details for the
view:
Name - Stack
Description - A stack that includes a base operating system and a database
Composite View? - Selected
The content view listing for the Composite Content View appears. Select both the Base and Database
content views. Also, the Base content view contains two versions, which means we need to select a
version. Select Version 2, which contains the errata filter. After selecting the content views and their
versions, click Add Content Views.
Click Publish New Version to publish the Composite Content View. Enter Initial version of
Stack for Description and click Save.
When the publication completes, notice that the Content column reports the total package, errata, and
Puppet module count for all included content views.
Now Promote the Composite Content View across all environments: Development, Testing,
Production.
As you can see, Composite Content Views are published and promoted across application life cycle
environments similar to regular content views.

For CLI Users
Before we create the Composite Content Views, we need the version IDs for our existing content views:
# hammer content-view version list \
--full-results true \
--organization "ACME"
For our scenario, the Database v1.0 version ID is 5 and the Base v2.0 version ID is 6. Create a new
Composite Content View called Stack and include the version IDs with the --component-ids option:
# hammer content-view create \
--composite \
--name "Stack" \
--description "A stack that includes a base operating system and a
database" \
--component-ids 4,14 \
--organization "ACME"

Red Hat Satellite 6.2 Content Management Guide

Publish the Composite Content View:
# hammer content-view publish \
--name "Stack" \
--description "Initial version of Stack" \
--organization "ACME"
Promote the Composite Content View across all environments:
# hammer content-view version promote \
--content-view "Stack" \
--version 1 \
--to-lifecycle-environment "Development" \
--organization "ACME"
# hammer content-view version promote \
--content-view "Stack" \
--version 1 \
--to-lifecycle-environment "Testing" \
--organization "ACME"
# hammer content-view version promote \
--content-view "Stack" \
--version 1 \
--to-lifecycle-environment "Production" \
--organization "ACME"

7.8. REGISTERING SYSTEMS TO ENVIRONMENTS AND THEIR
CONTENT VIEWS
With content views in place, we can register systems to these environments and views.

7.8.1. Registering a RHEL System with Subscription Manager
First, log into a test Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 client system as the root user and download the
consumer RPM for your Satellite Server. This is located in the pub directory on the host. For example,
for a Satellite Server with the host name satellite6.example.com, run the following command on
the client to register:
[root@client ~]# rpm -Uvh http://satellite6.example.com/pub/katello-caconsumer-latest.noarch.rpm
Run the following command to view a list of environments and their content views on the Satellite Server:
[root@client ~]# subscription-manager environments --org "acme"
Register the client system to an environment and content view on the Satellite Server:
[root@client ~]# subscription-manager register --org "acme" --environment
"Development/Stack"

CHAPTER 7. CREATING CONTENT VIEWS

NOTE
The client system asks for the user name and password for a Satellite Server user that
belongs to the ACME organization. As an alternative, you can use an activation key to
register a system, which is discussed in Chapter 8, Managing Activation Keys.
The client system now uses the published repositories from the Stack content view in the Development
environment.

7.8.2. Registering an Atomic Host with Subscription Manager
The following procedure explains how to register an Atomic Host with Subscription Manager.
Retrieve katello-rhsm-consumer from the Satellite server:
[root@atomic_client ~]# wget http://satellite.example.com/pub/katellorhsm-consumer
Change the mode of katello-rhsm-consumer in order to make it executable:
[root@atomic_client ~]# chmod +x katello-rhsm-consumer
Run katello-rhsm-consumer:
[root@atomic_client ~]# ./katello-rhsm-consumer
Register with Red Hat Subscription Manager:
[root@atomic_client ~]# subscription-manager register

NOTE
Because Atomic is functionally an appliance, we do not recommend that you try to install
katello-agent on it.

7.9. CHAPTER SUMMARY
This chapter explain how to use content views to customize your own repositories from existing content
in the DML. This includes:
Creating basic content views with RPMs
Creating content views with RPMs and Puppet modules
Using content filters to include and exclude RPM content
Combining several content views into a Composite Content View
Registering systems to the Satellite Server and consuming content from a specific content views
The next chapter discusses activation keys and how systems use them to register and access content
from application life cycle environments.

Red Hat Satellite 6.2 Content Management Guide

CHAPTER 8. MANAGING ACTIVATION KEYS
At this point, we have published some content views, which resulted in the Satellite Server publishing
repositories. Systems now can register to the Satellite Server and consume content from these
repositories. Systems register in a similar way to how they register to the Red Hat Customer Portal. For
example, users can use Red Hat Subscription Manager (subscription-manager) with the -baseurl pointing to the Satellite Server instead of the Red Hat Content Delivery Network.
There are two methods to register a system. The first is to authenticate with a Satellite Server user name
and password, which we explored in the previous chapter. An alternative and preferred method is to use
an activation key, which acts as an authentication token. Activation keys provide a method for easy
system registration and subscription attachment. Users can create multiple keys and associate them with
different environments and content views. For example, you might create a basic activation key with a
subscription for Red Hat Enterprise Linux workstations and associate it with content views from a
particular environment.
For more information about activation keys and more use case examples outside of this guide, see
"Activation Key Enhancements with Red Hat Satellite 6.1" on the Red Hat Customer Portal.

8.1. CREATING AN ACTIVATION KEY
For Web UI Users
Navigate to Content > Activation keys and click Create Activation Key. Provide the activation key with
the following information:
Name - The name of the activation key. We use this name during the system registration
process. Enter development-stack.
Content Host Limit - Defines how many systems the Satellite Server allows to register for this
activation key. Select Unlimited Content Hosts.
Description - A plain text description for the activation key. Enter Exampleware Stack in
the Development Environment
Environment - The environment to use. Select Development.
Content View - The Content View (and, by extension, the repository) in the environment to use.
Select Stack.
Click Save. The activation key details screen displays.
Now we must define which products to attach and repositories to enable upon registration. Navigate to
the Subscriptions tab. An empty product/subscription listing appears. Click Add, select both the Red
Hat Enterprise Linux subscription and the PostgreSQL product, and click Add Selected.

NOTE
The Auto-Attach option is enabled. This automatically attaches these products to the
system upon registration and enables the required repositories. If Auto-Attach is disabled
for the activation key, the system only registers to the Satellite Server without attaching
any subscriptions or content.
Navigate to the Product Content page. This displays all the repositories associated with the activation
key’s products. As default, the Satellite Server only enables:

CHAPTER 8. MANAGING ACTIVATION KEYS

The repository that best matches the system requirements. In this case, it is only the Red Hat
Enterprise Linux 7 Server RPMs.
Any custom content.
Our scenario should have the following defaults set:
PostgreSQL:
PostgreSQL 9.5 - Enabled: Yes (Default)
PostgreSQL Puppet Modules - Enabled: Yes (Default)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server:
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Server (Kickstart) - Enabled: No (Default)
Red Hat Satellite Tools 6.2 (for RHEL 7 Server) (RPMs) - Enabled: No (Default)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Server (RPMs) - Enabled: Yes (Default)
However, we want to enable the Red Hat Satellite Tools repository because that contains our
configuration tools (such as katello-agent and puppet). Change it to the following:
Red Hat Satellite Tools 6.2 (for RHEL 7 Server) (RPMs) - Enabled: Override to Yes
Click Save
Now we have an activation key ready for system registration.

For CLI Users
Create the activation key:
# hammer activation-key create \
--name "development-stack" \
--unlimited-content-hosts true \
--description "Exampleware Stack in the Development Environment" \
--lifecycle-environment "Development" \
--content-view "Stack" \
--organization "ACME"
Obtain a list of your subscription IDs:
# hammer subscription list --organization "ACME"
Attach the Red Hat Enterprise Linux subscription UUID to the activation key:
# hammer activation-key add-subscription \
--name "development-stack" \
--subscription-id ff808181533518d50152354246e901aa \
--organization "ACME"
Attach the PostgreSQL product to the activation key:
#hammer activation-key add-subscription \

Red Hat Satellite 6.2 Content Management Guide

--name "development-stack" \
--subscription-id ff8081815239acdc015238fefaa10002 \
--organization "ACME"
List the product content associated with the activation key:
# hammer activation-key product-content \
--name "development-stack" \
--organization "ACME"
Override the default auto-enable status for the Red Hat Satellite Tools 6.2 repository. The default status
is set to disabled. This command enables it:
# hammer activation-key content-override \
--name "stack-development" \
--content-label rhel-7-server-satellite-tools-6.1-rpms \
--value 1 \
--organization "ACME"

8.2. USING ACTIVATION KEYS
The activation keys are used for registration. This includes:
Registering new systems during provisioning through Red Hat Satellite 6. The kickstart
provisioning templates in Red Hat Satellite 6 contain commands to register the system using an
activation key defined when creating a new host.
Registering existing Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems. Configure Red Hat Subscription
Manager to use the Satellite Server for registration and specify the activation key when running
the subscription-manager register command.
You can test the activation key we created. Register an existing Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 system to
the Satellite.
First, download the consumer RPM for your Satellite Server. This is usually located in the pub directory
on the host’s web server. For example, for a Satellite Server with the host name
satellite6.example.com, run the following command on the client to register:
# rpm -Uvh http://satellite6.example.com/pub/katello-ca-consumerlatest.noarch.rpm
This RPM installs the necessary certificates for accessing repositories on the Satellite Server and
configures Red Hat Subscription Manager to use the server’s URL.
Next, run Red Hat Subscription Manager on the client:
# subscription-manager register --activationkey="stack-development" -org="acme"
The system has been registered with id: 744fb31c-c983-00f5-ca14bddd0f711353
Check the Satellite Server to confirm the registration.

For Web UI Users

CHAPTER 8. MANAGING ACTIVATION KEYS

Navigate to Hosts > Content Hosts and the system appears in the list.

For CLI Users
Run the following command:
# hammer content-host list --organization "ACME"

IMPORTANT
After registering a client system to the Satellite Server, install the katello-agent
package on the system so that it can report back to the Satellite Server:
# yum install katello-agent
The Red Hat Satellite 6 Tools repository provides this package.

8.3. CHAPTER SUMMARY
This chapter discussed activation keys, demonstrated how to create them, and how systems register to a
Satellite Server with them.
The next chapter explores errata management, including how to apply errata to a system.

Red Hat Satellite 6.2 Content Management Guide

CHAPTER 9. MANAGING ERRATA
As a part of Red Hat’s quality control and release process, we provide customers with updates for each
release of official Red Hat RPMs. Red Hat compiles groups of related package into an erratum along
with an advisory that provides a description of the update. There are three types of advisories (in order of
importance):
Security Advisory
Describes fixed security issues found in the package. The security impact of the issue can be Low,
Moderate, Important, or Critical.
Bug Fix Advisory
Describes bug fixes for the package.
Product Enhancement Advisory
Describes enhancements and new features added to the package.
Red Hat Satellite 6 imports this errata information when synchronizing repositories with Red Hat’s
Content Delivery Network (CDN). Red Hat Satellite 6 also provides tools to inspect and filter errata,
allowing for precise update management. This way, you can select relevant updates and propagate
them through content views to selected content hosts.
In Red Hat Satellite, there are two keywords that describe an erratum’s relationship to the available
content hosts:
Applicable
Erratum applies to one or more content hosts, which means it updates packages present on the
content host. Applicable errata are not yet accessible by the content host.
Installable
Erratum applies to one or more content hosts and it has been made available to the content host.
Installable errata are present in the content host’s life cycle environment and content view, but are not
yet installed. This way, errata can be installed by users who have permissions to manage content
hosts, but are not entitled for errata management at higher levels.
This chapter shows how to manage errata and apply them to either a single system or multiple systems.

IMPORTANT
Install the katello-agent package on hosts registered to the Satellite. This package
provides the necessary services for errata management.

9.1. MANAGING ERRATA WITH CONTENT VIEWS
Red Hat Satellite 6 provides various methods to manage and apply errata. As discussed in Section 7.4,
“Defining Content Filters”, we can use content views and content filters to limit errata. Such filters
include:
ID - We can create a filter to choose specific erratum to allow into our resulting repositories.
Date Range - We can define a date range and include a set of errata released during that date
range.
Type - We can select the type of errata to include such as bug fixes, enhancements, and
security updates.

CHAPTER 9. MANAGING ERRATA

As an example, we can create a content filter to exclude errata after a certain date. This ensures our
production systems in the application life cycle are kept up to date to a certain point. Then we can modify
the filter’s start date to introduce new errata into our testing environment. This is so we can test the
compatibility of new packages into our application life cycle.
For instructions on creating a content filter, see Section 7.5, “Creating a Content Filter”.
Once a content view contains errata, we can apply it to our systems. Each system registered to your Red
Hat Satellite 6 includes an errata management screen where you can apply multiple errata to the system.
In addition, Red Hat Satellite 6 contains an errata management feature where you can search, review,
and apply errata to multiple systems.

9.2. APPLYING ERRATA TO INDIVIDUAL SYSTEMS
For this procedure, we aim to apply some errata to a system. This procedure follows on from
Section 8.2, “Using Activation Keys” and assumes you registered a test Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
system to your Satellite Server. In this example, we aim to apply the following erratum:
Errata ID:
RHSA-2016:0008
Title:
Moderate: openssl security update
Type:
security
Severity:
Moderate
Issued:
2016-01-07
Updated:
2016-01-07
Description: OpenSSL is a toolkit that implements the Secure Sockets Layer
(SSL v2/v3) and Transport Layer Security (TLS v1) protocols, as well as a
full-strength, general purpose cryptography library.

For Web UI Users
Navigate to Hosts > Content Hosts and click on your test system. Navigate to the Errata tab. Due to the
filter set up in Section 7.5, “Creating a Content Filter”, a list of security errata appears.
Let’s apply errata for OpenSSL. Navigate to the search bar and enter title ~ openssl. This
searches for any errata with openssl in the title. Select the RHSA-2016:0008 errata and click Apply
Selected. A confirmation message appears. Click Apply.
The Satellite Server starts a task to update all packages associated with the selected errata. When the
task completes, the Satellite Server lists the packages updated and their new versions in the Details
section. For example:
1:openssl-1.0.1e-51.el7_2.2.x86_64
1:openssl-libs-1.0.1e-51.el7_2.2.x86_64
Log in to the client system and confirm the errata updates:
[root@client ~]# yum list openssl openssl-libs

For CLI Users
List the OpenSSL errata for the client system:
# hammer host errata list \
--host client.example.com \
--search "title ~ openssl" \

Red Hat Satellite 6.2 Content Management Guide

--organization "ACME"
Apply the most recent erratum to the client system. Identify the erratum to apply using the Errata ID:
# hammer host errata apply \
--host client.danssat.net \
--errata-ids RHSA-2016:0008 \
--organization "ACME"
Log in to the client system and confirm the errata updates:
[root@client ~]# yum list openssl openssl-libs

9.3. APPLYING ERRATA TO MULTIPLE SYSTEMS
The Red Hat Satellite 6 Web UI provides an errata management tool to help review and apply errata to
multiple systems. For this example, we use the same erratum (RHSA-2016:0008) from Section 9.2,
“Applying Errata to Individual Systems”.

For Web UI Users
Navigate to Content > Errata. This displays all errata from synchronized repositories. In addition, the
Content Host Counts shows the number of registered hosts that can apply and install each erratum.
Let’s apply a single OpenSSL errata to our systems through this tool. Navigate to the search field and
enter title ~ openssl. This shows all errata relating to OpenSSL. Although this includes bug fixes
and enhancements, note that the Satellite Server cannot install these errata to our test system due to the
filter we created in Section 7.5, “Creating a Content Filter”.
Click on the most recent OpenSSL errata. In our example, this is RHSA-2016:0008.
The Details screen for this erratum appears and provides a description of what the erratum resolves.
Navigate to the Content Hosts subtab. This displays a list of all applicable systems for this errata. We
select Only show content hosts where the errata is currently installable in the host’s Lifecycle
Environment to limit this list to systems that can actually install the errata.
Select our test system and click Apply to Hosts. A confirmation screen appears regarding the errata
installation. Click Confirm.
The Satellite Server starts a task to update the erratum’s packages for each selected system. When the
task completes, log in to the client system and confirm the errata updates:
[root@client ~]# yum list openssl openssl-libs

For CLI Users
Although the CLI does not have the same tools as the Web UI, you can replicate a similar procedure
with CLI commands.
List all OpenSSL errata:
# hammer erratum list --search "title ~ openssl" --organization "ACME"
Search again, restricting the list to installable errata:

CHAPTER 9. MANAGING ERRATA

# hammer erratum list \
--errata-restrict-installable true \
--search "title ~ openssl" --organization "ACME"
Find out details about this errata:
# hammer erratum info --id RHSA-2016:0008
List the systems that this erratum is applicable:
# hammer host list \
--search "applicable_errata = RHSA-2016:0008" \
--organization "ACME"
Apply the errata to a single system:
# hammer host errata apply \
--host client.example.com \
--errata-ids RHSA-2016:0008
You need to run this command for each client system and replace --host with the name of the system
for each execution. You can accomplish this using the following command:
# for HOST in `hammer \
--csv --csv-separator "|" host list \
--search "applicable_errata = RHSA-2016:0008" \
--organization "ACME" | tail -n+2 | awk \
-F "|" '{ print $2 }'` ; do echo \
"== Applying to $HOST ==" ; hammer host errata apply \
--host $HOST --errata-ids RHSA-2016:0008 ; done
This command identifies all hosts with RHSA-2016:0008 as an applicable erratum and then applies the
erratum to each host.
Log in to the client system and confirm the errata updates:
[root@client ~]# yum list openssl openssl-libs

9.4. CHAPTER SUMMARY
This chapter provided some guidelines on how Red Hat Satellite 6 manage errata and applies them to
systems.
The next chapter explores container management in Red Hat Satellite 6.

Red Hat Satellite 6.2 Content Management Guide

CHAPTER 10. MANAGING CONTAINER IMAGES
Containerization is an operating system-level virtualization method. While standard virtual machines
consume resources that a hypervisor allocates to each system, containers act as individual systems that
directly use a host’s kernel. This means that processes in containers share resources alongside the host
and other containers. This provides an efficient method to run multiple systems from a single host. Linux
containers also provide rapid application deployment, simpler testing, maintenance, and troubleshooting
while improving security.
For more information about containers, see the Getting Started with Containers guide for Red Hat
Enterprise Linux Atomic Host 7.
Docker is an open source project that automates the deployment Linux containers and their applications.
It provides the capability to package an application with its runtime dependencies into a container.
A container in the Docker format is composed of the following parts:
Container
An application sandbox. Each container is based on an image that holds necessary configuration
data. When you launch a container from an image, a writable layer is added on top of this image.
Every time you commit a container a new image layer is added to store your changes.
Image
A static snapshot of the container’s configuration that is never modified. Any changes made to the
container can be saved only by creating a new image layer. Each image depends on one or more
parent images.
Platform image
An image that has no parent. Platform images define the runtime environment, packages and utilities
necessary for containerized applications to run. The platform image is not writable, so any changes
are reflected in the copied images stacked on top of it.
Registry
A public or private archive that contains images available for download. Some registries allow users
to upload images to make them available to others. Red Hat Satellite allows you to import images
from local and external registries. Satellite itself can act as an image registry for hosts. However,
hosts cannot push changes back to the registry.
Tag
A mark used to differentiate images in a repository, typically by the version of the application stored in
the image. Repositories are used to group similar images in a container registry. Images only have
unique alphanumeric identifiers, so naming them in the form repository:tag provides a humanreadable way of identifying images.
With Red Hat Satellite 6, you can create an on-premise registry, import images from various sources and
distribute them to containers using content views. The Satellite Server supports creating one or more
Docker compute resources that act as servers for running containers. This way, you can import an
image, start a container based on this image, monitor the container’s activity, and commit its state to a
new image layer that can be further propagated.
Importing content and managing the life cycle of container images is similar to managing other content
types, such as RPMs and Puppet modules. You configure repositories bundled with Products and
include those repositories in content views.

10.1. IMPORTING CONTAINER IMAGES FROM THE RED HAT
CONTAINER CATALOG
54

CHAPTER 10. MANAGING CONTAINER IMAGES

The Red Hat Container Catalog provides a set of container images that you can import into your Satellite
Server. The process for importing this content differs to how we enable repositories for Red Hat content.
The process is:
1. Create a custom product for Red Hat Container Catalog.
2. Add a repository that links to the Red Hat Container Catalog registry
(http://registry.access.redhat.com/).
3. Synchronize with the registry’s repository.

For Web UI Users
Navigate to Content > Products and click New Product. A form for a new Product appears. Enter the
following details:
Name - The plain text name for the product. Enter Red Hat Container Catalog.
Label - An internal ID for the repository. Enter rhcc.
GPG Key - The GPG Key for the entire product. Leave this blank.
Sync Plan - A synchronization plan for the product. We can attach this to our Example Plan.
Description - A plain text description of the product. Enter Red Hat Container Catalog
content.
Click Save.
After creating the custom product, the product’s repositories screen appears. Click Create Repository,
which displays a form for a new repository. Enter the following details:
Name - A plain text name for the repository. Enter RHEL7.
Label - An internal ID for the repository. Enter RHEL7.
Type - The type of repository. Select docker. A new set of fields appear.
URL - The URL of the registry to use as a source. Enter
http://registry.access.redhat.com/.
Upstream Repository Name - The name of the repository on the registry. For our example,
enter rhel7.

NOTE
You can search and view other repositories at https://access.redhat.com/containers/ .
Click Save. We return to the product’s repository screen with our new repository listed. Select it and click
Sync Now to start the synchronization process. After a few minutes, the Satellite Server completes the
synchronization. Click Manage Docker Manifests to list the available manifests. From the list, you can
optionally remove any manifests that are not required.

Red Hat Satellite 6.2 Content Management Guide

NOTE
You can also view the progress of the synchronization in the Web UI. Navigate to
Content > Sync Status and expanding the Product/Repository tree (or click Expand All).

For CLI Users
Create the custom Red Hat Container Catalog product:
# hammer product create \
--name "Red Hat Container Catalog" \
--sync-plan "Example Plan" \
--description "Red Hat Container Catalog content" \
--organization "ACME"
Create the repository for the container images:
# hammer repository create \
--name "RHEL7" \
--content-type "docker" \
--url "http://registry.access.redhat.com/" \
--docker-upstream-name "rhel7" \
--product "Red Hat Container Catalog" \
--organization "ACME"
Then synchronize the repository:
# hammer repository synchronize \
--name "RHEL7" \
--product "Red Hat Container Catalog" \
--organization "ACME"
Now we have a synchronized set of container images.

10.2. IMPORTING CONTAINER IMAGES FROM OTHER IMAGE
REGISTRIES
In addition to importing container images from Red Hat Container Catalog, Red Hat Satellite 6 can also
import content from other image registries, such as community-based or internal registries. The process
for importing from third-party registries is the similar to importing images from the Red Hat Container
Catalog:
1. Create a custom product.
2. Add a repository for container images to the product and link it to a repository on an external
registry.
3. Synchronize with the registry’s repository.
The following procedure demonstrates how to accomplish this using the official Fedora images from the
DockerHub registry (https://registry.hub.docker.com).

For Web UI Users

CHAPTER 10. MANAGING CONTAINER IMAGES

Navigate to Content > Products and click New Product. A form for a new Product appears. Enter the
following details:
Name - The plain text name for the product. Enter Fedora.
Label - An internal ID for the product. Red Hat Satellite 6 automatically completes this field
based on what you have entered for Name.
GPG Key - The GPG Key for the entire product. Leave this blank.
Sync Plan - A synchronization plan for the product. We can attach this to our Example Plan.
Description - A plain text description of the product. Enter Fedora content.
Click Save.
After creating the custom product for Fedora, the product’s repositories screen appears. Click Create
Repository, which displays a form for a new repository. Enter the following details:
Name - A plain text name for the repository. Enter Fedora Docker Images.
Label - An internal ID for the repository. Red Hat Satellite 6 automatically completes this field
based on what you have entered for Name.
Type - The type of repository. Select docker. A new set of fields appear.
URL - The URL of the registry to use as a source. Enter
https://registry.hub.docker.com.
Upstream Repository Name - The name of the repository on the registry. For our example,
enter fedora/ssh

NOTE
You can search and view other repositories at https://hub.docker.com/explore/ .
Click Save. We return to the product’s repository screen with our new repository listed. Select it and click
Sync Now to start the synchronization process. After a few minutes, the Satellite Server completes the
synchronization. Click Manage Docker Manifests to list the available manifests. From the list, you can
optionally remove any manifests that are not required.

NOTE
You can also view the progress of the synchronization in the Web UI. Navigate to
Content > Sync Status and expanding the Product/Repository tree (or click Expand All).

For CLI Users
Create the custom fedora product:
# hammer product create \
--name "Fedora" \
--sync-plan "Example Plan" \
--description "Fedora content" \
--organization "ACME"

Red Hat Satellite 6.2 Content Management Guide

Create the repository for the container images:
# hammer repository create \
--name "Fedora/SSH" \
--content-type "docker" \
--url "https://registry.hub.docker.com" \
--docker-upstream-name "fedora/ssh" \
--product "Fedora" \
--organization "ACME"
Then synchronize the repository:
# hammer repository synchronize \
--name "Fedora/SSH" \
--product "Fedora" \
--organization "ACME"
Now we have a synchronized set of container images.

10.3. MANAGING CONTAINER IMAGES WITH CONTENT VIEWS
Use content views to manage container images across the application life cycle. This process uses the
same publication and promotion method that RPMs and Puppet modules use.

For Web UI Users
Navigate to Content > Content Views and click Create New View. This displays a form for View
Details. Enter the following information:
Name - The plain text name for the view. Enter Containers.
Label - An internal ID for the view. Red Hat Satellite 6 automatically completes this field based
on what you have entered for Name.
Description - A plain text description of the view. Enter Container image for Red Hat
Enterprise Linux 7.
Composite View? - Defines whether to use a Composite Content View. Leave this option
deselected.
Click Save to complete.
This creates a new content view entry. Navigate to the Docker Content subtab, then click Add. Select
the container repository for our Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Server image. Click Add Repository. This
adds the container images from this repository to the content view.
Our content view is ready to publish. Navigate to Versions and click Publish New Version. The Satellite
Server provides some details about the new version (Version 1) and allows you to enter a Description
for the version, which is useful to logging changes for new content versions. Enter Initial content
view for our container image and click Save.
The Satellite Server creates the new version of the view and publishes it to the Library environment.
You can also click Promote to promote this content view across environments in the application life
cycle.

CHAPTER 10. MANAGING CONTAINER IMAGES

For CLI Users
Obtain a list of repository IDs:
# hammer repository list --organization "ACME"
For our example, the container rhel7 repository uses 8 for its IDs. Create the content view and add the
repository:
# hammer content-view create \
--name "Containers" \
--description "Container image for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7" \
--repository-ids 8 \
--organization "ACME"
Now publish the view:
# hammer content-view publish \
--name "Containers" \
--description "Initial content view for our container image" \
--organization "ACME"
The Satellite Server creates the new version of the view and publishes it to the Library environment.

10.4. MANAGING CONTAINER IMAGES WITH DOCKER TAGS
Some of the container images use Docker tags to identify version numbers and basic information about
each version.

For Web UI Users
Navigate to Content > Docker Tags to view a list of tags for container-based products. Click on a tag to
view information about a specific image.

For CLI Users
View a list of Docker tags and their IDs:
# hammer docker tag info --id 218 --organization "ACME"
View a Docker tag using the tag ID:
# hammer docker tag info --id 218

10.5. CHAPTER SUMMARY
This chapter provided a basic overview of managing container image content in Red Hat Satellite 6,
including how to create your own registry and how to manage container images across the application life
cycle.
The next chapter examines how to manage OSTree content.

Red Hat Satellite 6.2 Content Management Guide

CHAPTER 11. MANAGING OSTREE CONTENT
OSTree is a tool to manage bootable, immutable, versioned file system trees. You can use any build
system you like to place content into it on a build server then export an OSTree repository to a static
HTTP. Red Hat Enterprise Linux Atomic Server uses OSTree content composed from RPM files as a
method to keep the operating system up to date.
The Red Hat Satellite 6 offers tools to synchronize and manage OSTree branches from an OSTree
repository.

11.1. CONFIGURING OSTREE MANAGEMENT ON THE SATELLITE
SERVER
The Satellite Server does not contain OSTree management tools by default. This means you need to run
satellite-installer to install the required packages and to configure the tools.
Login to the Satellite Server as the root user and issue the following command:
# satellite-installer --katello-enable-ostree=true
The installer downloads the required packages (ostree, pulp-ostree-plugins, and tfmrubygem-katello_ostree) and configures your Satellite server to use OSTree management tools.

11.2. SELECTING RED HAT OSTREE CONTENT TO SYNCHRONIZE
Red Hat’s CDN provides OSTree Content for you to select and synchronize.

For Web UI Users
Navigate to Content > Red Hat Repositories. This displays a set of tabs for different content types.
Select the OSTree tab. Scroll down to the OSTree set you aim to use. For our example, we will import
the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Atomic Host Trees set from the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Atomic
Host product group. Ensure you have a repository enabled.
Navigate to Content > Products and click on the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Atomic Host. This product
now includes a repository for our Red Hat Enterprise Linux Atomic Host Trees branch set. Select this
repository and click Sync Now.

NOTE
You can also view the progress of the synchronization in the Web UI. Navigate to
Content > Sync Status and expanding the Product/Repository tree (or click Expand All).
After a few minutes, the Satellite Server completes the import of all images relating to the rhel7
repository.

For CLI Users
Search the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server product for ostree repositories:
# hammer repository-set list \
--product "Red Hat Enterprise Linux Atomic Host" \
--organization "ACME" | grep "ostree"

CHAPTER 11. MANAGING OSTREE CONTENT

Enable the ostree repository for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Atomic Host. In our example, the ID for this
repository is 3822:
# hammer repository-set enable \
--product "Red Hat Enterprise Linux Atomic Host" \
--name "Red Hat Enterprise Linux Atomic Host (Trees)" \
--organization "ACME"
Find and synchronize the repository in our product. In our example, the ID for our version of the
repository is 5:
# hammer repository list \
--product "Red Hat Enterprise Linux Atomic Host" \
--organization "ACME"
# hammer repository synchronize \
--name "Red Hat Enterprise Linux Atomic Host Trees" \
--product "Red Hat Enterprise Linux Atomic Host" \
--organization "ACME"

11.3. IMPORTING CUSTOM OSTREE CONTENT
In addition to importing OSTree content from Red Hat’s CDN, Red Hat Satellite 6 also imports content
from other sources. This requires a published HTTP location for the OSTree to import.

For Web UI Users
Navigate to Content > Products and click New Product. A form for a new Product appears. Enter the
following details:
Name - The plain text name for the product. Enter OSTree Content.
Label - An internal ID for the product. Red Hat Satellite 6 automatically completes this field
based on what you have entered for Name.
GPG Key - The GPG Key for the entire product. Leave this blank.
Sync Plan - A synchronization plan for the product. We can attach this to our Example Plan.
Description - A plain text description of the product. Enter OSTree Content.
Click Save.
After creating the custom product for Fedora, the product’s repositories screen appears. Click Create
Repository, which displays a form for a new repository. Enter the following details:
Name - A plain text name for the repository. Enter Custom OSTree.
Label - An internal ID for the repository. Red Hat Satellite 6 automatically completes this field
based on what you have entered for Name.
Type - The type of repository. Select ostree. A new field appears for the URL.
URL - The URL of the registry to use as a source. For example
http://www.example.com/rpm-ostree/.

Red Hat Satellite 6.2 Content Management Guide

Click Save. We return to the product’s repository screen with our new repository listed. Select it and click
Sync Now to start the synchronization process. After the a few minutes, the Satellite Server completes
the synchronization.

NOTE
You can also view the progress of the synchronization in the Web UI. Navigate to
Content > Sync Status and expanding the Product/Repository tree (or click Expand All).

For CLI Users
Create the custom OSTree Content product:
# hammer product create \
--name "OSTree Content" \
--sync-plan "Example Plan" \
--description "OSTree Content" \
--organization "ACME"
Create the repository for the OSTree:
# hammer repository create \
--name "Custom OSTree" \
--content-type "ostree" \
--url "http://www.example.com/rpm-ostree/" \
--product "OSTree Content" \
--organization "ACME"
Then synchronize the repository:
# hammer repository synchronize \
--name "Custom OStree" \
--product "OSTree Content" \
--organization "ACME"
Now we have a synchronized set of OSTree branches.

11.4. MANAGING OSTREE CONTENT WITH CONTENT VIEWS
Use content views to manage OSTree branches across the application life cycle. This process uses the
same publication and promotion method that RPMs and Puppet modules use.

CHAPTER 11. MANAGING OSTREE CONTENT

Composite View? - Defines whether to use a Composite Content View. Leave this option
deselected.
Click Save to complete.
This creates a new content view entry. Navigate to the OSTree Content subtab, then click Add. Select
the OSTree repository for our Red Hat Enterprise Linux Atomic Host Trees. Click Add Repository.
This adds the OSTree content from this repository to the content view.
Our content view is ready to publish. Navigate to Versions and click Publish New Version. The Satellite
Server provides some details about the new version (Version 1) and allows you to enter a Description
for the version, which is useful to logging changes for new content versions. Enter Initial content
view for our OSTree and click Save.
The Satellite Server creates the new version of the view and publishes it to the Library environment.
You can also click Promote to promote this content view across environments in the application life
cycle.

For CLI Users
Obtain a list of repository IDs:
# hammer repository list --organization "ACME"
For our example, the OSTree repository uses 5 for its IDs. Create the content view and add the
repository:
# hammer content-view create \
--name "OSTree" \
--description "OSTree for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Atomic Host" \
--repository-ids 5 \
--organization "ACME"
Now publish the view:
# hammer content-view publish \
--name "OSTree" \
--description "Initial content view for our OSTree" \
--organization "ACME"
The Satellite Server creates the new version of the view and publishes it to the Library environment.

11.5. CHAPTER SUMMARY
This chapter provided a basic overview of managing OSTree content in Red Hat Satellite 6, including
how to import and synchronize your OSTree content from Red Hat and custom sources. This chapter
also showed how to manage this content across the application life cycle.
The next chapter examines how to manage ISO files.

Red Hat Satellite 6.2 Content Management Guide

CHAPTER 12. MANAGING ISO IMAGES AND FILES
Red Hat Satellite 6 has the ability to store ISO images, either from Red Hat’s Content Delivery Network
or other sources. In addition, the Satellite Server provides a means to upload other files, such as virtual
machine images, and publish them in repositories. This chapter provides some basic procedures to
import ISOs images and other files.

12.1. IMPORTING ISO IMAGES FROM RED HAT
The Red Hat Content Delivery Network provides ISO images for certain products. The process for
importing this content is similar to how we enable repositories for RPM content.

For Web UI Users
Navigate to Content > Red Hat Repositories. This displays a set of tabs for different content types.
Select the ISOs tab. Scroll down to the image set you aim to use. For our example, select Red Hat
Enterprise Linux Server > Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Server (ISOs) and select the image for Red
Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Server ISOs x86_64 7.2.
Navigate to Content > Products and click on Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server. The repository screen
for this product appears. This product now includes a repository for our ISO image set. Select this
repository and click Sync Now.

For CLI Users
Search the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server product for file repositories:
# hammer repository-set list \
--product "Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server" \
--organization "ACME" | grep "file"
Enable the file repository for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.2 Server ISO:
# hammer repository-set enable \
--product "Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server" \
--name "Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Server (ISOs)" \
--releasever 7.2 \
--basearch x86_64 \
--organization "ACME"
Find and synchronize the repository in our product. In our example, the ID for our version of the
repository is 40:
# hammer repository list \
--product "Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server" \
--organization "ACME"
# hammer repository synchronize \

CHAPTER 12. MANAGING ISO IMAGES AND FILES

--name "Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Server ISOs x86_64 7.2" \
--product "Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server" \
--organization "ACME"

12.2. IMPORTING INDIVIDUAL ISO IMAGES AND FILES
This section provides a method to manually import ISO content and other files to the Satellite Server. For
this example, we upload a file called bootdisk.iso to the Satellite Server. The process is similar to
uploading custom Puppet modules:
1. Create a custom product.
2. Add a repository for files to the product.
3. Select a file to upload to the repository.

For Web UI Users
Navigate to Content > Products and click New Product. A form for a new Product appears. Enter the
following details:
Name - The plain text name for the product. Enter Custom ISOs.
Label - An internal ID for the product. Red Hat Satellite 6 automatically completes this field
based on what you have entered for Name.
GPG Key - The GPG Key for the entire product. Leave this blank.
Sync Plan - A synchronization plan for the product. We can attach this to our Example Plan.
Description - A plain text description of the product. Enter Custom ISO collection.
Click Save.
After creating the custom product for our ISOs, the product’s repositories screen appears. Click Create
Repository, which displays a form for a new repository. Enter the following details:
Name - A plain text name for the repository. Enter Bootdisk.
Label - An internal ID for the repository. Red Hat Satellite 6 automatically completes this field
based on what you have entered for Name.
Type - The type of repository. Select file. A new set of fields appear.
URL - The URL of the registry to use as a source. This is to synchronize other Satellitegenerated repositories, which contain a PULP_MANIFEST file. For our example, leave this field
blank.
Click Save. We return to the product’s repository screen with our new Bootdisk repository listed. Click
on the Bootdisk repository.
Scroll to the Upload File section and click Browse. Select the ISO file (bootdisk.iso in our example)
and click Upload. After a few seconds, the Satellite Server reports Content successfully
uploaded.

Red Hat Satellite 6.2 Content Management Guide

NOTE
Click on the Manage Puppet Modules page to manage and remove Puppet modules
from a product.

For CLI Users
Create the custom product:
# hammer product create \
--name "Custom ISOs" \
--sync-plan "Example Plan" \
--description "Custom ISO collection" \
--organization "ACME"
Create the repository:
# hammer repository create \
--name "Bootdisk" \
--content-type "file" \
--product "Custom ISOs" \
--organization "ACME"
Upload the ISO file to the repository:
# hammer repository upload-content \
--path ~/bootdisk.iso \
--name "Bootdisk" \
--product "Custom ISOs" \
--organization "ACME"
Now we have a custom repository that contains an ISO image.

12.3. IMPORTING THE RED HAT OVAL REPOSITORY
Open Vulnerability and Assessment Language (OVAL) files contain information about public security
content. Red Hat Satellite 6 uses OVAL files as part of its SCAP auditing process. Red Hat also provides
a repository (https://www.redhat.com/security/data/oval/) that contains multiple OVAL files. The Satellite
Server can synchronize this repository so that you have local access to files for SCAP auditing.

For Web UI Users
Navigate to Content > Products, and click New Product. A form for a new product appears. Enter the
following details:
Name - The plain text name for the product. Enter OVAL Files.
Label - An internal ID for the product. Red Hat Satellite 6 automatically completes this field
based on the value you entered for Name.
GPG Key - The GPG Key for the entire product. Leave this blank.
Sync Plan - A synchronization plan for the product. We can attach this to our Example Plan.
Description - A plain text description of the product. Enter OVAL file collections.

CHAPTER 12. MANAGING ISO IMAGES AND FILES

Click Save.
After creating the custom product for our OVAL files, the product’s repositories screen appears. Click
Create Repository, which displays a form for a new repository. Enter the following details:
Name - A plain text name for the repository. Enter Red Hat OVAL Files.
Label - An internal ID for the repository. Red Hat Satellite 6 automatically completes this field
based on the value you entered for Name.
Type - The type of repository. Select file. A new set of fields appear.
URL - The URL of the registry to use as a source. Enter
https://www.redhat.com/security/data/oval/. This repository contains a
PULP_MANIFEST file that the Satellite Server uses for synchronization.
Click Save. We return to the product’s repository screen with our new repository listed. Select this
repository and click Sync Now.

For CLI Users
Create the custom OVAL product:
# hammer product create \
--name "OVAL Files" \
--sync-plan "Example Plan" \
--description "OVAL file collections" \
--organization "ACME"
Create the OVAL repository:
# hammer repository create \
--name "Red Hat OVAL Files" \
--content-type "file" \
--product "OVAL Files" \
--publish-via-http true \
--url https://www.redhat.com/security/data/oval/ \
--organization "ACME"
Then synchronize the OVAL repository:
# hammer repository synchronize \
--name "Red Hat OVAL Files" \
--product "OVAL Files" \
--organization "ACME"

Testing the Local Red Hat OVAL Repository
Once the OVAL content completes synchronization, you can perform a test evaluation with an OVAL file
from the repository.
On a test Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 system, install the openscap-scanner package, which contains
the oscap tool:
# yum install openscap-scanner

Red Hat Satellite 6.2 Content Management Guide

Download a copy of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 OVAL file from the Satellite Server.
# cd /tmp
# wget http://satellite.example.com/pulp/isos/ACME-OVAL_FilesRed_Hat_OVAL_Files/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux_7.xml
Scan the test Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 machine for vulnerabilities with the oscap tool:
# oscap oval eval \
--results results.xml \
--report report.html ./Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux_7.xml
This performs the evaluation and generates an OVAL report with information on whether each definition
is compliant or not.

12.4. CHAPTER SUMMARY
This chapter provided a basic overview of managing ISOs and file content in Red Hat Satellite 6.
The next chapter examines completing the content management process.

CHAPTER 13. FINALIZING CONTENT MANAGEMENT

CHAPTER 13. FINALIZING CONTENT MANAGEMENT
Content management is only part of Red Hat Satellite 6’s functionality. Red Hat Satellite 6 also provides
features for system provisioning, system management, capsule control, monitoring, and reporting.
However, content management acts as the initial stage of the Red Hat Satellite 6 ecosystem. In this
chapter, we recap on what we have learned about content management through the course of this guide
and how it impacts other Red Hat Satellite 6 features.

13.1. COMPLETING SCENARIO OBJECTIVES
This guide presented an end-to-end scenario involving a fictional company called ACME. Through this
scenario, this guide has demonstrated how to achieve the following:
Managing Red Hat Subscriptions
Access your Red Hat content in Red Hat Satellite 6 with a Subscription Manifest. Generate the
Subscription Manifest, download it from the Customer Portal, and import it into your organization on
your Satellite Server. This provides your Satellite environment with access to RPMs, kickstart content,
ISOs, and container images from Red Hat’s Content Delivery Network.
Creating a Definitive Media Library (DML)
The foundation for content management involves the creation of a DML. A DML acts as a central
library for all master copies of content. Synchronize content from external sources into Red Hat
Satellite 6 to form a DML. Such external sources include both Red Hat and custom sources. In
addition, use synchronization plans to keep the DML up to date.
Managing Different Content Types
This guide provided examples to manage different content types, such as RPM files, Puppet
modules, and container images.
Creating an Application Life Cycle
The application life cycle is a central concept in content management. Create environments in the
application life cycle based on the production cycle of your organization. Then, define content views
to filter content, publish resulting repositories, and promote them across the environments in the
application life cycle. Use activation keys to register systems to a particular environment.
Managing Errata
Use Red Hat Satellite 6’s tools to review and apply errata to registered systems. Each errata contains
a set of associated packages, which you can remotely install on applicable systems.
Managing Container Images
Enable your Satellite Server to act as a registry for container images. Synchronize container images
from Red Hat and other sources, then use content views to manage and publish them.

13.2. PROVISIONING SYSTEMS
The Satellite Server in our scenario now contains content managed across an application life cycle. Now
we can provision systems in specific environments. Let’s look at how this happens when provisioning
bare metal systems.
Using Installation Media
The first thing to note is during the Red Hat content import, we synchronized a kickstart tree
containing Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7. Red Hat Satellite 6 automatically adds this kickstart tree as an
installation medium for your organization. Web UI users can navigate to Hosts > Installation Media
and CLI users can view this kickstart tree using the following command:
# hammer medium list --organization "ACME"

Red Hat Satellite 6.2 Content Management Guide

The Satellite Server also contains a set of kickstart templates that include the installation medium you
select during the provisioning process.
Registering to an Environment
As a part of the kickstart process, the Satellite Server creates a kickstart file using a set of
provisioning templates and snippets. One snippet in particular
(subscription_manager_registration) controls the registration process. Web UI users can
navigate to Hosts > Provisioning Templates and click on the
subscription_manager_registration snippet to view it. CLI users can achieve a similar
function with the following command:
# hammer template dump --name subscription_manager_registration
The snippet appears as follows:
<% if @host.params['kt_activation_keys'] %>
# add subscription manager
yum -t -y -e 0 install subscription-manager
rpm -ivh <%= subscription_manager_configuration_url(@host) %>
echo "Registering the System"
subscription-manager register --org="<%= @host.rhsm_organization_label
%>" --name="<%= @host.name %>" --activationkey="<%=
@host.params['kt_activation_keys'] %>"
<% if @host.operatingsystem.name == "RedHat" %>
# add the rhel rpms to install katello agent
subscription-manager repos --enable=rhel-*-satellite-tools-*-rpms
<% end %>
echo "Installing Katello Agent"
yum -t -y -e 0 install katello-agent
chkconfig goferd on
<% end %>
This snippet does two main function. First, it registers your provisioned system to the Satellite Server
using an activation key that you select during provisioning. Second, it installs katello-agent,
which the Satellite Server uses to communicate with the system. Most of the default kickstart
provisioning templates include this snippet to register systems. If creating your own kickstart template,
make sure to reference this snippet using the following line in your template:
<%= snippet "subscription_manager_registration" %>
Provisioning a New System
When creating a new system, users choose certain aspects from their content management
configuration:
The application life cycle environment
The content view in that environment
Puppet classes from the selected environment

CHAPTER 13. FINALIZING CONTENT MANAGEMENT

The desired installation medium
These aspects of the new host have an affect on packages installed during provisioning, the
activation key used for registration, the repositories used for updates, the Puppet modules
and their classes to apply to the system during configuration. In addition, you must also
specify additional aspects of the host, such as networking information, partitioning tables,
capsules, and system-specific parameters used as variables in provisioning templates.
Web UI users navigate to Hosts > New Host to create a new system. Navigate to each
subtab in order (Host, Puppet Classes, Network, Operating System, Parameters,
Additional Information) and fill in the required information for your system. When complete,
click Submit and the provisioning process begins.
CLI users use hammer host create to provision a new host.

13.3. REFERRING TO OTHER DOCUMENTATION
The following guides provide information on related aspects of Red Hat Satellite 6 and provide example
of next steps:
Red Hat Satellite 6 Host Configuration Guide
A guide to using the main Red Hat Satellite 6 features, including infrastructure management and
provisioning.
https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en/red-hat-satellite/6.2/paged/host-configuration-guide/
Red Hat Satellite 6 Provisioning Guide
A guide to provisioning physical and virtual hosts from Red Hat Satellite Servers.
https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en/red-hat-satellite/6.2/paged/provisioning-guide/
Red Hat Satellite 6 Puppet Guide
A guide to building your own Puppet module and importing it into Red Hat Satellite 6.
https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en/red-hat-satellite/6.2/paged/puppet-guide/

Red Hat Satellite 6.2 Content Management Guide

APPENDIX A. USING AN NFS SHARE FOR CONTENT
STORAGE
Your environment requires adequate hard disk space to fulfill content storage. In some situations, it is
useful to use an NFS share to store this content. This appendix shows how to mount the NFS share on
your Satellite Server’s content management component.

IMPORTANT
Do not mount the full /var/lib/pulp on an NFS share. Parts of the Satellite Server use
transient SQLite databases, which have issues over NFS. Red Hat recommends the use
of high-bandwidth, low-latency storage for the /var/lib/pulp file system. Red Hat
Satellite has many operations that are IO-intensive so usage of high-latency, lowbandwidth storage could potentially have issues with performance degradation. Only use
the NFS share for the /var/lib/pulp/content directory.
1. Create the NFS share. This example uses a share at
nfs.example.com:/satellite/content. Make sure this share provides the appropriate
permissions to the Satellite Server and its apache user.
2. Shutdown the Satellite services on the Satellite host:
# katello-service stop
3. Make sure the Satellite Server has the nfs-utils package installed:
# yum install nfs-utils
4. You need to copy the existing contents of /var/lib/pulp/content to the NFS share. First,
mount the NFS share to a temporary location:
# mkdir /mnt/temp
# mount -o rw nfs.example.com:/satellite/content /mnt/temp
Copy the existing contents of /var/lib/pulp/content to the temporary location:
# cp -r /var/lib/pulp/content/* /mnt/temp/.
5. Set the permissions for all files on the share to use the apache user. This ID of this user is
usually 48.
6. Unmount the temporary storage location:
# umount /mnt/temp
7. Remove the existing contents of /var/lib/pulp/content:
# rm -rf /var/lib/pulp/content/*
8. Edit the /etc/fstab file and add the following line:

APPENDIX A. USING AN NFS SHARE FOR CONTENT STORAGE

nfs.example.com:/satellite/content
/var/lib/pulp/content
nfs
rw,hard,intr,context="system_u:object_r:httpd_sys_rw_content_t:s0"
This makes the mount persistent across system reboots. Make sure to include the SELinux
context.
9. Enable the mount:
# mount -a
10. Confirm the NFS share mounts to var/lib/pulp/content:
# df
Filesystem
1K-blocks
Used Available
Use% Mounted on
...
nfs.example.com:/satellite/content 309506048 58632800 235128224
/var/lib/pulp/content
...

20%

Also confirm that the existing content exists at the mount on var/lib/pulp/content:
# ls /var/lib/pulp/content
11. Start the Satellite services on the Satellite host:
# katello-service start
The Satellite Server now uses the NFS share to store content. Run a content synchronization (see
Section 4.3, “Synchronizing Content”) to make sure the NFS share works as expected.

Red Hat Satellite 6.2 Content Management Guide

APPENDIX B. IMPORTING CONTENT ISOS INTO A
DISCONNECTED SATELLITE
In high security environments where hosts are required to function in a closed network disconnected
from the Internet, the Satellite Server can provision systems with the latest security updates, errata, and
packages. To accomplish this, download the Content ISOs for Red Hat Satellite from the Red Hat
Customer Portal and import them into the Satellite Server.

IMPORTANT
This section is not required if your Satellite Server is connected to the Internet.
Download the product ISO from the Red Hat Customer Portal, as follows:
1. Go to Downloads (at the very top of the window) and select Red Hat Satellite.
2. Open the Content ISOs tab. All products in your subscription are listed here.
3. Click the link for the product name, such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Server (x86_64) to
download the ISO.
4. Copy all of the Satellite Content ISOs to a directory the Satellite can access. This example uses
/root/isos.
5. Create a local directory that will be shared through httpd on the Satellite. This example uses
/var/www/html/pub/sat-import/.
# mkdir -p /var/www/html/pub/sat-import/
6. Mount and recursively copy the contents of the first ISO to the local directory:
#
#
#
#
#

mkdir /mnt/iso
mount -o loop /root/isos/first_iso /mnt/iso
cp -ruv /mnt/iso/* /var/www/html/pub/sat-import/
umount /mnt/iso
rmdir /mnt/iso

7. Repeat the above step for each ISO until you have copied all the data from the Content ISOs
into /var/www/html/pub/sat-import/.
8. Ensure the SELinux contexts for the directory are correct:
# restorecon -rv /var/www/html/pub/sat-import/
9. The Satellite Server now contains the content from the Content ISOs. However, the Satellite
Server needs to point to this location as the CDN URL. In the Satellite Web UI, navigate to
Content > Red Hat Subscriptions. .
10. Click Manage Manifest.
11. On the Subscription Manifest information screen, select the Actions tab.
12. Scroll to Red Hat Provider Details. Click the edit icon on the Red Hat CDN URL and change the
URL to the Satellite host name with the newly created directory, for example:

APPENDIX B. IMPORTING CONTENT ISOS INTO A DISCONNECTED SATELLITE

http://server.example.com/pub/sat-import/
13. Click Save and then upload your manifest using Section 3.4, “Importing a Subscription Manifest
into the Satellite Server”.
The Satellite is now acting as its own CDN with the files located in
http://server.example.com/pub/sat-import/. This is not a requirement. The CDN can be
hosted on a different machine inside the same disconnected network as long as it is accessible to the
Satellite Server using HTTP.
If your environment changes from disconnected to connected, you can reconfigure a disconnected
Satellite to pull content directly from Red Hat Customer Portal:
1. In the Satellite Web UI, navigate to Content > Red Hat Subscriptions.
2. Click Manage Manifest.
3. On the Subscription Manifest information screen, select the Actions tab.
4. Scroll to Red Hat Provider Details. Click the edit icon on the Red Hat CDN URL and change the
URL to the Red Hat CDN URL:
https://cdn.redhat.com
5. Click Save
The Satellite Server pulls content directly from Red Hat Customer Portal on the next synchronization.

Red Hat Satellite 6.2 Content Management Guide

APPENDIX C. IMPORTING CONTENT ISOS INTO A
CONNECTED SATELLITE
Even if the Satellite Server can connect directly to the Red Hat Customer Portal, you can perform the
initial synchronization from locally mounted content ISOs. Once the initial synchronization is completed
from the content ISOs, you can switch back to downloading content through the network connection. To
accomplish this, download the Content ISOs for Red Hat Satellite from the Red Hat Customer Portal and
import them into the Satellite Server. For locations with bandwidth limitations, using an On Demand or
Background download policy might be more efficient than downloading and importing Content ISOs.

IMPORTANT
This section is not required if your Satellite Server is connected to the Internet.
This example shows how to perform the first synchronization of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 repository
from content ISOs. At the time of writing there are 21 DVD size ISO files.
Downloading the content ISOs from the Red Hat Customer Portal
1. In your browser, go to Red Hat Customer Portal and log in.
2. Click DOWNLOADS.
3. Select Red Hat Satellite.
4. Select the Content ISOs tab. All products in your subscription are listed there.
5. Search for the section required, in this example Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.
6. Click the link for the product name, such as RHEL 6 Server (x86_64)(2017-0414T01:27:00) to reveal the ISO files.
7. Using your browser, download the required ISOs to a location accessible by your browser. For
example, to your workstation’s Downloads directory.
Importing the Content ISOs
1. In a terminal connected to the Satellite Server, create a directory to act as a temporary store for
all of the required Satellite Content ISOs. This example uses /tmp/isos/rhel6:
# mkdir -p /tmp/isos/rhel6
2. On your workstation, copy the ISO files to the Satellite Server:
$ scp ~/Downloads/
root@satellite.example.com:/tmp/isos/rhel6
3. On the Satellite Server, create a directory to serve as a mount point for the ISOs:
# mkdir /mnt/iso
4. Create a working directory to hold the contents of all the ISOs:

APPENDIX C. IMPORTING CONTENT ISOS INTO A CONNECTED SATELLITE

# mkdir /mnt/rhel6
5. Mount and recursively copy the contents of the first ISO to the working directory:
# mount -o loop /tmp/isos/ /mnt/iso
# cp -ruv /mnt/iso/* /mnt/rhel6/
# umount /mnt/iso
6. Repeat the above step for each ISO until you have copied all the data from the Content ISOs
into /mnt/rhel6.
7. If required, remove the empty directory used as the mount point:
# rmdir /mnt/iso
8. If required, remove the temporary working directory and its contents to regain the space:
# rm -rf /tmp/isos/
Performing the Initial Synchronization
1. Set the owner and the SELinux context for the directory and its contents to be the same as
/var/lib/pulp:
# chcon -R --reference /var/lib/pulp
# chown -R apache:apache /mnt/rhel6/

/mnt/rhel6/

2. Create or edit the /etc/pulp/content/sources/conf.d/local.conf file. Insert the
following text into the file:
[rhel-6-server]
enabled: 1
priority: 0
expires: 3d
name: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Server
type: yum
base_url:
file:///mnt/rhel6/content/dist/rhel/server/6/6Server/x86_64/os/
The base_url path might differ in your content ISO. The directory specified in base_url must
contain the repodata directory, otherwise the synchronization will fail. To synchronize multiple
repositories, create a separate entry for each of them in the configuration file
/etc/pulp/content/sources/conf.d/local.conf.
3. In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Content > Red Hat Repositories and select the repository to
be enabled, in this example Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Server RPMs x86_64 6Server.
4. Under Content > Sync Status select the repository to be synchronized and click Synchronize
Now.
Note that there is no indication in the Satellite web UI of which source is being used. In case of problems
with a local source, Satellite pulls content through the network. To monitor the process, enter the
following command in a terminal (limited to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 base systems):

Red Hat Satellite 6.2 Content Management Guide

# journalctl -f -l SYSLOG_IDENTIFIER=pulp | grep -v worker[\-,\.]heartbeat
The above command displays interactive logs. First, Satellite Server connects to the Red Hat Customer
Portal to download and process repository metadata. Then, the local repository is loaded. In case of any
errors, cancel the synchronization in the Satellite web UI and verify your configuration.
After successful synchronization you can detach the local source by removing its entry from
/etc/pulp/content/sources/conf.d/local.conf.

APPENDIX D. SYNCHRONIZING CONTENT BETWEEN SATELLITE SERVERS

APPENDIX D. SYNCHRONIZING CONTENT BETWEEN
SATELLITE SERVERS
Red Hat Satellite 6.2 uses Inter-Satellite Synchronization (ISS) to synchronize content between
upstream and downstream servers. In the context of ISS, upstream refers to the server from which
content is exported; downstream refers to the server into which content is imported.
ISS is designed to address two scenarios:
If you have both connected and disconnected Satellite Servers, and want to propagate content
from the connected servers to the disconnected servers.
If you have a primary Satellite Server and want to propagate some, but not all, content to other
Satellite Servers. For example, you might have Content Views (CVs) that are validated by the IT
department, and you want to propagate the yum content from those CVs to a downstream
Satellite.

NOTE
Be aware that you cannot use ISS to synchronize content from a Satellite Server to a
Capsule Server. Capsule Server supports synchronization natively. See the Red Hat
Architecture Guide for more details.
Satellite 6.2 supports exports as a set of directories (default) or as ISO files. You can then import the
resulting export to another Satellite Server. This replaces the katello-disconnected script in earlier
Satellite versions, which exported repositories into a directory structure that could be later imported into
another Satellite Server. In Satellite 6.2, all export and import functions are performed on the command
line.

NOTE
Only RPM, kickstart, and ISO files are exported. Content View metadata, such as
package filters, is not transferred. Satellite 6.2 does not support the export of Puppet,
Docker, or OSTree content. Imports occur as a normal repository synchronization, and
consequently always arrive in the Library environment.
The disconnected use case is used extensively by customers who have air-gapped networks where a
Satellite and its clients are on a network that is never connected to the Internet. The only way that these
disconnected Satellites are populated with content is by exports from a connected Satellite.

IMPORTANT
Bidirectional synchronization is NOT used in a disconnected environment. Content never
passes from the disconnected server to the connected server.

Red Hat Satellite 6.2 Content Management Guide

Figure D.1. Information Flow in ISS in an Air-gapped Network

D.1. SATELLITE SERVERS, CAPSULE SERVERS, AND ISS
ISS serves a distinct purpose in a Red Hat Satellite deployment. If you intend to include ISS as part of
your deployment, it equates to keeping a separate Satellite Server that you need to maintain, back up,
and so on. ISS does not provide a failover mechanism for clients, and neither is it designed as a backup
and recovery system. It is a means of providing information sharing between Satellite Servers. The
primary use case for implementing ISS is when you have a Satellite Server that is not connected to the
Internet or to external content, and you need to synchronize content with a Satellite that is connected to
the Internet. This can apply when you need complete isolation of management infrastructure for security
or other purposes.
If you do not want to maintain another management web UI and platform, and you want to perform
management and provisioning to local clients, you should consider setting up a Capsule Server.

D.2. PREREQUISITES
In Red Hat Satellite 6, ISS is only available in Satellite 6.2 and later, which requires Red Hat
Enterprise Linux 6.7, 7.2, or later.
The export directory needs to be large enough to accommodate at least one Red Hat
Enterprise Linux export. By default, the export directory is /var/lib/pulp/katello-export/.
The /var/lib/pulp/ directory must have free storage space equivalent to the size of the repository
being exported for temporary files created during the export process. This is in addition to the
space required by the default export directory.
The downstream Satellite Server must have the required manifests and entitlements for any
content that you intend to enable. You cannot enable repositories on a downstream Satellite for
which no entitlements exist.
The repository download policy needs to be set to immediate. This policy specifies whether or
not Satellite first downloads metadata and other repository information, and only downloads
actual repositories when requested. ISS will not function correctly if this policy is not set to
immediate.
Section D.5, “Configuring ISS” describes how to configure required options.

APPENDIX D. SYNCHRONIZING CONTENT BETWEEN SATELLITE SERVERS

D.3. SUPPORTED SYNCHRONIZATION OPTIONS
Satellite 6.2 supports the following synchronization options:
Exporting repositories to a directory or ISO file.
Exporting all repositories in an Environment or CV version to a directory or ISO file. You can also
recreate any custom products during the import process, but Red Hat products are not recreated
because they must be created using a manifest.
Date-based incremental exports of RPM files and errata.
These synchronization options include a range of history details about the export and import, depending
on the type of content. For example:
The repository synchronization history includes upstream source information, as well as the time
the export occurred.
The CV synchronization history includes the export time and version, as well as the import time,
version, and upstream source.

D.4. USING CHUNKED ISO FILES
Satellite 6.2 supports exports to chunked ISO files. A chunked ISO is similar to a split ISO but with one
significant difference. Satellite tracks the size of the ISO file, and if the total size of the files being added
to the ISO exceeds that value, Satellite stops writing to the ISO and creates a new one in the series. The
advantage of this is that you can specify the ISO file size (for example, 4.7 GB), and still export larger
repositories. The result is multiple 4.7 GB ISO files that you can burn to DVDs.
The difference between this and splitting large files is that the split utility is not aware of the ISO file
format, which means that it will not create a new burnable ISO file for the next file in the series. This
method requires that you copy all of the files to one place, concatenate those files, and then mount that
single large ISO via loopback.
You can use the --iso-mb-size parameter to specify the size of ISO export files. The default value is
4380 MB, the size of a single-sided, single-layer DVD.

D.5. CONFIGURING ISS
This section describes how to configure the required settings for ISS. It is important that these settings
be configured correctly or your synchronization may fail.

D.5.1. Configuring an Export Destination
Inter-Satellite Synchronization by default uses the /var/lib/pulp/katello-export/ directory, as indicated by
the pulp_export_destination setting. To change this directory you must create the new directory and
configure the Pulp export destination setting. Only Satellite Administrators can specify this directory, and
SELinux and other permissions are also in place to prevent Satellite from writing to arbitrary file systems.
It can be helpful to create symbolic links to commonly used directories after they are exported. Exported
repositories and CVs will have the organization name and environment name prepended to the
repository directory structure, which might create paths of overlong length.

Red Hat Satellite 6.2 Content Management Guide

IMPORTANT
The directory used in this example is for demonstration purposes only. Confirm that the
export directory has adequate space for the required export RPM and ISO files.
Section 1.5, “Defining Content Management Storage” provides information on estimating
storage requirements. A temporary file will be created during the export process in the
/var/lib/pulp/ directory. This means that storage space equal to twice the size of the
repository being exported is required during the export process. The temporary file will be
deleted when the export is completed.
Create the Export Directory
1. Create the export directory:
# mkdir /var/www/html/pub/export
2. Ensure the foreman user has read and write permissions on the export directory:
# chown foreman:foreman /var/www/html/pub/export
3. Configure the SELinux context:
# semanage fcontext -a -t httpd_sys_rw_content_t \
"/var/www/html/pub/export(/.*)?"
# restorecon -RvF /var/www/html/pub/export
# ls -Zd /var/www/html/pub/export \
drwxr-xr-x. foreman foreman \
system_u:object_r:httpd_sys_rw_content_t:s0 /var/www/html/pub/export

Configure the Export Destination
For CLI Users
To change the export destination using the command line, use a hammer command in the following
format:
# hammer settings set \
--name pulp_export_destination \
--value your-export-directory
For example, to specify /var/www/html/pub/export/ as the export destination, enter:
# hammer settings set \
--name pulp_export_destination \
--value /var/www/html/pub/export
For Web UI Users
1. In the web UI, navigate to Administer > Settings, and click the Katello tab.
2. Locate the pulp_export_destination variable in the Name column, and click the Value field.
3. Enter the export destination, for example /var/www/html/pub/export, in the Value field and
click Save.

APPENDIX D. SYNCHRONIZING CONTENT BETWEEN SATELLITE SERVERS

D.5.2. Configuring the Download Policy
ISS requires that the Download Policy be set to immediate. You can set this globally so that it applies
to new repositories created in all Organizations, or you can set it individually for every repository.
Changing the default value will not change existing settings.

For CLI Users
To change the global default Download Policy using the command line, use a command as follows:
# hammer settings set \
--name default_download_policy \
--value immediate
If required to change the policy for a specific repository, you can list the repositories for an organization
as follows:
# hammer repository list \
--organization-label
To change the download policy for an existing repository, use a command as follows:
# hammer repository update \
--organization-label \
--product "Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server" \
--name "Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Server Kickstart x86_64 7.2"
--download-policy immediate

For Web UI Users
To change the global default Download Policy using the web UI:
1. Go to Administer > Settings.
2. On the Katello tab, locate default_download_policy.
3. In the Value field, click the edit icon.
4. Set the value to immediate, and then click Save.
To change the Download Policy for an existing repository using the web UI:
1. In the web UI, navigate to Content > Products, and click the required product name.
2. On the Repositories tab, click the required repository, locate the Download Policy field, and
click the edit icon.
3. From the drop-down list, select Immediate, and then click Save.

D.6. EXPORTING CONTENT
This section describes how to export different types of content from your upstream server and import it to
one or more downstream servers. Synchronization between upstream and downstream servers is
currently supported in disconnected deployments, for example in an air-gapped environment, where

Red Hat Satellite 6.2 Content Management Guide

complete isolation is required.

D.6.1. Exporting Repositories
Use the hammer repository export command to export content from your upstream server. This
command exports content to the directory specified in pulp_export_destination. ISS exports to a
directory by default; you can use the --export-to-iso 1 parameter to export to an ISO file instead. For
example:
# hammer repository export --id 1 [--export-to-iso 1]

NOTE
If you use the --export-to-iso parameter, you need to specify either 1 (ISO) or 0
(directory). This parameter does not have a default value.

D.6.2. Exporting Content View Version to a Directory
You can export a specific version of a Content View to a directory. That means that you can label a
particular version of a CV to suit your requirements. This way you will be able to curate and track your
exports and facilitate updates.
To Create a Content View for Exporting
Ensure all repositories within the CV have their download policy set to Immediate. You cannot
export repositories with policies other than Immediate.
Ensure Products are synchronized to the required date.
For Web UI Users
1. Ensure Products are synchronized to the required date.
2. Go to Content → Content Views. Click Create New View. Enter following details to create a
CV:
a. Name — A plain text name for the CV. Enter Export_CV.
b. Label — An internal ID for the CV. Red Hat Satellite 6 automatically completes this field
based on what you have entered for Name.
c. Description — An optional plain text description of the CV.
d. Composite View — Defines whether or not to use a Composite Content View. Leave this
option unselected.
3. Click Save to submit your changes.
4. On the Repository Selection screen, select the repositories to be added to the new CV from the
Repository Selection table. Click Add Repositories to add selected packages to the CV.
5. Go to Yum Content → Filters and click New Filter. Enter following details to create a filter for
including non-errata packages:
a. Name — A plain text name for the filter. Enter Non-errata Products.

APPENDIX D. SYNCHRONIZING CONTENT BETWEEN SATELLITE SERVERS

b. Content type — A drop-down menu listing types of content to be included into the filter.
Choose Package.
c. Inclusion type — A drop-down menu defining whether the content will be included or
excluded from the CV. Choose Include.
d. Description — An optional plain text description of the filter. Enter Include all non-errata
Products.
e. Click Save.
f. On the Include RPM screen, select the Include all RPMs with no errata check box.
6. Go to Yum Content → Filters and click New Filter. Enter following details to create a filter for
including errata packages in accordance with the required date range:
a. Name — A plain text name for the filter. Enter Erratas untill YYYY-MM-DD.
b. Content type — A drop-down menu listing types of content to be included into the filter.
Choose Erratum - Date and Type.
c. Inclusion type — A drop-down menu defining whether the content will be included or
excluded from the CV. Choose Include.
d. Description — An optional plain text description of the filter. Enter Include errata products
untill YYYY-MM-DD.
e. Click Save.
f. On the Erratum Date Range screen, select all Security, Enhancement and Bugfix errata
types.
g. Select the Updated On check box in Data type.
h. Fill in the Start Date and End Date menus to configure the date range of Products for the
filter.
i. Click Save.
7. Click Publish New Version, fill in a short description of a version into the Description field.
Ensure the Force Yum Metadata Regeneration check box is not selected.
8. Click Save to publish the CV version ready for exporting.
For CLI Users
1. Use the hammer content-view create command to create a new CV:
# hammer content-view create \
--name "Export_CV" \
--organization "Default Organization"
2. Use the hammer content-view add-repository command to add repositories to the CV:
# hammer content-view add-repository \
--name "Export_CV" \
--product "Red Hat Satellite" \

Red Hat Satellite 6.2 Content Management Guide

--repository "Red Hat Satellite Tools 6.3 for RHEL 7 Server RPMs
x86_64" \
--organization "Default Organization"
# hammer content-view add-repository \
--name "Export_CV" \
--product "Red Hat Satellite Capsule" \
--repository "Red Hat Satellite Capsule Tools 6.2 for RHEL 7 Server
RPMs x86_64" \
--organization "Default Organization"
3. Create filters for the new CV:
a. Use the hammer content-view filter create command to create a filter for
including non-errata packages:
# hammer content-view filter create \
--content-view "Export_CV" \
--inclusion true \
--name "Non-errata_Products" \
--type rpm \
--original-packages true \
--organization "Default Organization"
b. Use the hammer content-view filter create command to create a filter for
including errata packages:
# hammer content-view filter create \
--content-view "Export_CV" \
--inclusion true \
--name "Erratas until YYYY-MM-DD" \
--type erratum \
--organization "Default Organization"
c. Use the hammer content-view filter rule create command to create a rule
defining the date range:
# hammer content-view filter rule create \
--content-view "Export_CV" \
--content-view-filter "Erratas until YYYY-MM-DD" \
--end-date YYYY-MM-DD \
--types security,enhancement,bugfix \
--organization "Default Organization"
4. Use the hammer content-view publish command to publish the CV version ready for
exporting. It is recommended to fill in the date ranges of repositories under the --description
option.
# hammer content-view publish \
--name "Export_CV" \
--description "Repositories until YYYY-MM-DD" \
--force-yum-metadata-regeneration true \
--async \
--organization "Default Organization"

APPENDIX D. SYNCHRONIZING CONTENT BETWEEN SATELLITE SERVERS

To Determine Which Content View Version to Export:
1. Use the hammer content-view version list command to determine which version of a
Content View to export. For example:
$ hammer content-view version list \
--organization "Default Organization"
---|-------------------------------|---------|---------------------ID | NAME
| VERSION | LIFECYCLE
ENVIRONMENTS
---|-------------------------------|---------|---------------------3 | Export_CV 2.0
| 2.0
| Library
2 | Export_CV 1.0
| 1.0
| Library
1 | Default Organization View 1.0 | 1.0
| Library
---|-------------------------------|---------|---------------------To Export a Content View Version:
1. Use the hammer content-view version export command to export a version of a
Content View:
# hammer content-view version export --id 3
2. On a downstream server, use the hammer organization update command to add new
repositories to an organization. Set the address to the directory corresponding to the version you
want within the exported Content View as shown:
$ hammer organization update \
--name "Default Organization" \
--redhat-repository-url \
http://satellite.example.com/var/www/html/pub/export/Default_Organiz
ation-Export_CVv2.0/Default_Organization/content_views/Export_CV/2.0
Organization updated

D.6.3. Incremental Updates
To avoid exporting large repositories from a Satellite Server in order to get recent updates you can make
make use of incremental updates. Incremental updates are made by exporting changes made to a local
repository, by one or more synchronization events, since a particular date and time.
To make an incremental-update repository, use the hammer repository export command with the
--since option. For example:
# hammer repository export \
--id 1 [--export-to-iso 1] \
--since [ ]
Where ISO_Date is in ISO 8601 format. For example, 2010-01-01T12:00:00Z.

Red Hat Satellite 6.2 Content Management Guide

The time stamp used for the calculations is the time that the RPMs were synchronized on the Satellite
Server. For example, if Red Hat adds RPMs to a repository on a Monday and then again on a
Wednesday, you cannot synchronize your local repository on Thursday and then use a date of Tuesday
to get only the Wednesday update.
In addition to exporting changes to a repository, this feature is useful with the Default Organization View
content view, but is not as useful for published CVs.
Ensure you use the --incremental option to the hammer repository synchronize command
when synchronizing from an incremental export. If you do not use this option and also have "Mirror on
Sync" enabled for the repository, Satellite Server will treat the import as if it is a full import and will erase
all data that was not in the incremental export. Recovering from such a scenario requires the time
consuming process of doing a full export and then synchronizing from that.

D.7. IMPORTING CONTENT
Red Hat Satellite 6.2 currently supports importing content that has been exported from an upstream
Satellite Server in a disconnected environment. This method is used for disconnected Satellite Servers
that have no Internet access, and requires the physical transfer of content between the servers, for
example using a DVD.

D.7.1. Importing a Repository
Prerequisites
Export the repository from the upstream Satellite Server. For more details, see Section D.6.1,
“Exporting Repositories”.
To Import a Repository:
1. Make the data available for a repository over HTTP, not HTTPS. For example, copy the exported
directory to the /var/www/html/pub/export/ directory on the downstream server, which is
available over HTTP by default.
2. In the web UI, navigate to Content → Red Hat Subscriptions.
3. Select Manage Manifests.
4. On the Import/Remove Manifest tab, set the Red Hat CDN URL address field to match the
location of a content directory and a listing file within the exported repository.
For example, if the exported repository is located in
/var/www/html/pub/export/7f6a4f46-c77b-4781-bbd9-871764f8c8b8, set the URL
to be http://satellite.example.com/pub/export/7f6a4f46-c77b-4781-bbd9871764f8c8b8/Default_Organization/Library/.
5. Click Save.
6. Navigate to Content → Red Hat Repositories and select the check box of the repository you
have exported.

D.7.2. Importing a Content View as a Red Hat Repository
Prerequisites

APPENDIX D. SYNCHRONIZING CONTENT BETWEEN SATELLITE SERVERS

You have a Content View with Red Hat repositories on the upstream Satellite Server.
Export the Content View from the upstream Satellite Server. For more details, see
Section D.6.2, “Exporting Content View Version to a Directory”.

NOTE
A custom repository can also be imported to a custom product, for example a
disconnected Satellite. For more information about Red Hat Content Delivery Network
(CDN) see Content Delivery Network (CDN) Structure in the Architecture Guide.
To Import a Content View:
1. Make the data available for a repository over HTTP, not HTTPS. For example, copy it to the
/var/www/html/pub/export/ directory on the downstream server.
2. In the web UI, navigate to Content → Red Hat Subscriptions.
3. Select Manage Manifests.
4. On the Import/Remove Manifest tab, set the Red Hat CDN URL address field to match the
location of a content directory and a listing file within the exported Content View.
For example, if the exported CV is located in
/var/www/html/pub/export/Default_Organization-Export_CV-v1.0, set the URL
to be http://satellite.example.com/pub/export/Default_OrganizationExport_CV-v1.0/Default_Organization/content_views/Export_CV/1.0/
5. Click Save.
6. Navigate to Content → Red Hat Repositories and check the repository you have exported.
7. On a downstream server, use the hammer organization update command to add new
repositories to an organization. Set the address to the directory corresponding to the version you
want within the exported Content View as shown:
$ hammer organization update \
--name "Default Organization" \
--redhat-repository-url \
http://satellite.example.com/pub/export/Default_Organization-Export_
CV-v1.0/Default_Organization/content_views/Export_CV/1.0/
Organization updated

Source Exif Data:

File Type                       : PDF
File Type Extension             : pdf
MIME Type                       : application/pdf
PDF Version                     : 1.4
Linearized                      : No
Title                           : Red Hat Satellite 6.2 Content Management Guide
Creator                         : wkhtmltopdf 0.12.2.1
Producer                        : Qt 4.8.6
Create Date                     : 2018:02:19 18:05:13-05:00
Page Count                      : 93
Page Mode                       : UseOutlines

EXIF Metadata provided by EXIF.tools

Red Hat Satellite 6.2 Content Management Guide En US

Navigation menu

Versions of this User Manual:

Views

Navigation