Red Hat Linux Networking , System Administration (P22) potx

■■ Using the RedHat up2date Agent■■ Registering Your System with the Red Hat Network ■■ Accessing the Red Hat Network with a Web browser The Red Hat Network up2date agent is a program th

PA R T

Four System Administration

Chapter 26: Keeping Your System Updated with up2date and the

Red Hat Network

Chapter 27: Upgrading and Customizing the Kernel

Chapter 28: Configuring the System at the Command Line

Chapter 29: Administering Users and Groups

Chapter 30: Installing and Upgrading Software Packages

Chapter 31: Backing Up and Restoring the File System

Chapter 32: Performance Monitoring

■■ Using the RedHat up2date Agent

■■ Registering Your System with the Red Hat Network

■■ Accessing the Red Hat Network with a Web browser

The Red Hat Network up2date agent is a program that is installed by defaultwhen you install Fedora Core or Red Hat Enterprise Linux The Red Hat Net-work up2date software will give you visual notification of the update right onyour desktop If you purchased Enterprise Linux, you are entitled to subscribe

to the Red Hat Network, which gives you access to many additional services,such as registering your system, receiving email notifications and schedulingautomatic system updates As a registered Red Hat Network user, you can use

a Web browser to access your account

This might not sound like much at first, but think about the many stepsinvolved in keeping your system up to date with the latest versions of the hun-dreds of packages that are installed on your system The Red Hat Networkpractically eliminates the need for you to search for these packages becauseyou can receive this information by email As a registered Red Hat Networkuser, or a Fedora Core user you can also search for updates by using theup2date agent With the Red Hat Network, you can now easily keep your sys-tem running reliably and securely A few steps are involved in setting up theRed Hat Network, but they are well worth the effort In this chapter, you canread how to configure the up2date agent, and then connect to look for updatedfiles If you are running Enterprise Linux you learn how to register your sys-tem with Red Hat

C H A P T E R

26

Using the Red Hat up2date Agent

The up2date agent is a valuable tool for you because it helps you keep yoursystem running the most current versions of the packages installed on yoursystem During the system installation, an Alert icon is placed on the right side

of the top desktop panel that provides visual notification when your systemneeds to be updated Figure 26-1 shows the location of the Alert icon on thepanel

The Alert icon is colored-coded, representing a different state of the update.The icons and their meaning are discussed in the following list:

■■ Blue check mark— The system is up to date

■■ Green double arrows— The system is checking for updates

■■ Red exclamation point— The system needs to be updated

■■ Gray question mark— An error has occurred

Figure 26-1 The Red Hat Network Alert icon.

Configuring the up2date Agent

Before you can use the Red Hat up2date agent, you need to configure it Thefirst time you start the up2date agent you will be prompted to install the GPGpublic key from Red Hat, which is used to verify the packages are signed andare from Red Hat Be sure to install the key

You can start the up2date Agent Configuration tool by doing any of the following:

■■ Open a terminal window, and from the command line, type

■■ General— The General tab is the tab shown by default when the log box opens A server is already selected for you to use, and youshould not need to change it If you need to use a proxy server to con-nect to the Web, you can enter this information here by first selectingthe Enable HTTP Proxy check box and then entering the name of yourserver in the field next to the check box If you need to use authentica-tion, you can enable it by selecting the Use Authentication check boxand filling in the Username and the Password fields

dia-Figure 26-2 The Red Hat Network Configuration dialog box.

■■ Retrieval/Installation— From this tab (see Figure 26-3), you canchoose options that affect how the packages are retrieved and subsequently installed.

The Package Retrieval Options are:

■■ Do Not Install Packages After Retrieval— By default, packages areautomatically installed after they are retrieved If you enable thisoption, packages are retrieved to the specified directory but notinstalled

■■ Do Not Upgrade Packages When Local Configuration File Has Been Modified— If you have manually modified configurationfiles for packages on your system, these packages are not displayed

by default If you disable this option, the packages are displayed

■■ Retrieve Source RPM Along with Binary Package— By default,the source Red Hat Package Manager (RPM) is not downloadedwith the binary version of the package By enabling this option,you also retrieve the source of the RPM

The Package Verification Options has but one choice:

■■ Use GPG to Verify Package Integrity— By default, for securitypurposes, the packages are verified to ensure they contain the RedHat GPG signature If you disable this option, the security check isnot performed

Figure 26-3 The Retrieval/Installation tab.

N OT E GPG stands for GNU Privacy Guard, which is the open-source replacement for PGP PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) was developed in the mid- 1990s by Phil Zimmerman to provide data encryption GPG was developed to replace PGP because PGP contained a patented algorithm and its use was restricted GPG can be freely used without concern for patented information.

The Package Installation Options are:

■■ After Installation, Keep Binary Packages on Disk — By default, the

packages are removed from the local disk after they are installed

Enabling this option leaves a copy of the package in the specifieddirectory

■■ Enable RPM rollbacks — Choosing this option lets you restore your

system to its condition before the RPM was installed

The last two items on this tab are:

■■ Override Version Stored in System Profile — By filling in this field, you

can override the version stored in your System Profile with the sion in the field

ver-■■ Package Storage Directory — Here you can specify the storage location

of the packages on your system

■■ Package Exceptions— From this tab (see Figure 26-4), you can choose toexclude packages by the name of the package or by the name of the file

■■ To exclude a package by package name — Type the name of the package

in the Add New field in the Package Names to Skip section, andthen click the top Add button

■■ To exclude a package by filename — Type the name of the file in the

Add New field in the File Names to Skip section, and then click thebottom Add button

After you make any changes to the three tabs, click OK Your configurationchanges are saved, and you can now use the up2date agent

Figure 26-4 The Package Exceptions tab.

Updating Your System

Whenever your system needs to be updated, the Alert icon will appear as a redcircle containing an exclamation point You can roll the mouse over the Alerticon to view a small pop-up window that gives additional information If yoursystem needs to be updated the pop-up window will show the number ofupdates available

There are multiple ways to start the up2date agent, here is one way To startthe up2date agent to update your system, do the following:

1 Right-click the Alert icon and select Launch Up2date from the contextualmenu You see the Red Hat Update Agent Welcome screen

N OT E If you are not logged in as root, you will be prompted for the root password.

2 Click Forward to continue to the Channels dialog box, as shown in Figure 26-5

3 The channels dialog box lists the channels that will be searched fromwhich the updated packages will be obtained You can think of thechannels as file repositories on various servers in many locations ClickForward to continue

The program connects to the selected channel to search for packageupdates Next you see the Skipped Packages dialog box, as shown inFigure 26-6 By default the kernel packages are not automaticallyupdated and will be listed as packages to be skipped

Figure 26-5 The Channels dialog box.

Figure 26-6 The Skipped Packages dialog box.

4 If you want to update the kernel packages check the appropriate boxand then Click Forward to continue You see the Package List dialogbox with the available packages, as shown in Figure 26-7 If your sys-tem is updated, you won’t see any packages listed.

5 You can select packages individually by selecting the check box in front

of the package name, or you can mark the Select All Packages check box

to select all packages After you finish selecting packages, click Forward

to begin package retrieval You see the Package Retrieval dialog asshown in Figure 26-8

6 The up2date program gets the packages and prompts you to continueafter the packages have been retrieved Click Forward to install thepackages

7 You see a progress dialog box during the package installation After allthe packages that you selected for installation are installed, you see adialog box indicating the package installation has finished Click Finish

to complete the update process

N OT E You can click the Alert icon to open a dialog box listing all available packages You can also launch up2date from here.

Figure 26-7 The Package List dialog box.

Figure 26-8 The Package Retrieval dialog box.

Registering Your System

N OT E If you installed Fedora Core on your system, you can skip this section because you do not need to register this version If you installed any version of Enterprise Linux, you should register your system.

Before you can begin using the Red Hat Network, you must first register yoursystem with Red Hat by using the Red Hat Network registration client

N OT E You can also register for the Red Hat Network at the Red Hat Web site

by using your Web browser to go to http://rhn.redhat.com/network, creating a login, and filling in the online registration form.

You must be logged in as root to perform the registration, and you must alsohave a connection to the Internet to be able to log on to the Red Hat Web site

If you aren’t connected to the Internet, you receive an error message, and theprogram closes when you click OK

You start and use the registration client by following these steps:

1 Open a terminal and enter the command up2date –register at the

2 Click Forward to continue to the Up2date Login Page dialog box, asshown in Figure 26-9

You use this dialog box to create a new account or use an existing one ifyou’ve already created an account

3 If you already have an account, check I have an existing Red Hat loginradio button and enter the username and password in the appropriatetext boxes Go to Step 4

If you don’t have a Red Hat Network login, you need to create one.Check the I don’t have radio button and click Forward A new pageopens where you can enter your information (See Figure 26-10.) Allfields with an asterisk are required fields

Figure 26-9 The Up2date Login dialog box.

Figure 26-10 The Create Login dialog box.

The username must be at least five characters and cannot contain anyspaces, tabs, line feeds, or reserved characters such as ‘, &, +, or % Youalso enter your email address here

4 After you enter the appropriate information, click Forward to continue

to the Up2date Activate dialog box, as shown in Figure 26-11

On this page, you can enter your subscription number, if you have one,and set your system name By default, your system hardware informa-tion and installed packages are sent to the Red Hat Network, but youcan choose not to send them by deselecting the appropriate check box

5 Click Forward to continue Your system profile is sent to the Red Hatnetwork

6 Next you see the Channels dialog box You don’t need to do anything onthis dialog box so click Forward After the registration process is finished,you receive a confirmation message stating that you have successfullyregistered your system profile on the Red Hat Network Now you areready to use the up2date agent

N OT E If you installed Fedora Core on your system, you can skip the next section If you installed any version of Enterprise Linux, you can access the Red Hat Network using a Web browser.

Figure 26-11 The Activate dialog box.

Accessing the Red Hat Network with a Web Browser

N OT E If you installed Fedora Core on your system, you can skip this section.

If you installed any version of Enterprise Linux, you can access the Red Hat Network using a Web browser.

You can access the Red Hat Network by using any Web browser In fact, if youhave multiple machines, you can manage them at the same time through thebrowser interface All you need to do is go to the Red Hat Web site at http://rhn.redhat.com and log in with the username and password that youassigned to the account that you created earlier in this chapter

After logging in, you see the Your RHN tabbed page for your system, asshown in Figure 26-12

The Your RHN page shown in Figure 26-12 might not look exactly like yourpage The information shown here is dependent on the preferences that youmight have chosen if you already have an active account Take a look at the sig-nificant areas of this page

Figure 26-12 The Red Hat Network main page.

At the top of the page are seven links that can be used to take you to otherpages where you can get more information about you systems and make con-figuration changes The seven links are:

■■ Your RHN— This page opens by default after you log in to the RedHat network In the center of the page is a summary of your system (orsystems, depending on how many you have configured) Along the leftside of the page are links to information about your account and set-tings that you can change

■■ Systems— The Systems link opens a page that provides a generaloverview of your systems, as shown in Figure 26-13

You can click the link for your system that is shown in the body of thepage to get information specific to that system Along the left side of thepage are links to pages that provide additional information about yoursystems

■■ Errata— Clicking the Errata link opens the page shown in Figure 26-14,listing any errata that applies to your system As with the other pages,there are more links along the left side of the page that give additionalinformation related to the Errata

Figure 26-13 The Systems page shows general system information.

Figure 26-14 The Errata page shows system errata information.

■■ Channels— The Channels page, shown in Figure 26-15, shows the ware channels to which you have subscribed You can download soft-ware for your systems from channels to which you have subscribed.

soft-Like the other linked pages, there are additional links on the left side

of the page for obtaining more information or services related to theChannels

In the list on this page, you will see the first link for Red Hat EnterpriseLinux AS shows a 1 in the system column This means that there is onesystem subscribed to this channel You can click this link, or any linkthat is shown underneath it, to go to the Channels detail page, asshown in Figure 26-16

From the Channels details page you can click the Download link todownload the files relevant to the link you chose to bring you to theChannels detail page

Figure 26-15 The Channels page shows your subscription entitlements.