Creating and Restoring a Selective Solaris System Image Using Red Hat Network Satellite

Transcription

1 Creating and Restoring a Selective Solaris System Image Using Red Hat Network Satellite By Melissa Goldin Abstract This document will help you create a selective image of a client system using Red Hat Network (RHN) Satellite. This image will include patches, patch clusters, and configuration files. January 2006 Copyright 2005 Red Hat, Inc. Red Hat, Red Hat Linux, the Red Hat Shadowman logo, and the products listed are trademarks or registered trademarks of Red Hat, Inc. in the US and other countries. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. WHP149906US 11/05

2 Table of Contents Requirements...3 Hardware...3 Software...3 Prepare the Client System...3 Review System Content...3 Create the Image on the Satellite...3 Create a Configuration Channel on the Satellite...3 Populate the Configuration Channel...4 Clone the Client's Channels...4 Create an Activation Key for the Client...5 Preserve any other files...5 Applying the Image to the Client System...6 Conclusion...6 Appendix Useful Documentation...7

3 Requirements Before beginning, review the necessary requirements listed below: Hardware This configuration requires an RHN Satellite Server and the client system to which the image will be applied. Hardware requirements for the Satellite can be found in the Satellite Installation Guide. Software As with hardware, software requirements for the RHN Satellite can be found in the Satellite Installation Guide. The client system must be a Solaris 8, 9, or 10 on the sparc architecture or Solaris 9 or 10 on the x86 architecture. The instructions that follow assume that the client has already been configured to work with the Satellite. These steps can be found in Chapter 8: UNIX Support Guide of the Red Hat Network Reference Guide. Prepare the Client System The instructions that follow assume that the Solaris client is already registered to the RHN Satellite, including the installation of the Satellite's SSL certificate. Review System Content Take a moment to note the configuration files and any custom software you wish to preserve as part of the system image. The solaris2mpm utility, provided by the rhnpush package, allows you to translate packages to a format that can be uploaded to the Satellite to be re deployed later. Please note that any file not specifically uploaded to the Satellite will be over written during the Kickstart process, and that source files and answer files are not yet supported with RHN Satellite. Create the Image on the Satellite The following process assumes that this client image will be applied to either a single or multiple machines for either disaster recovery or in order to match corporate policy. It is possible to create a system image that can only be applied to a specific system, but this is not discussed in this paper. Create a Configuration Channel on the Satellite 1. Login to the Satellite's web interface as a Channel Administrator or the Organization Administrator. 2. Navigate to the Channels tab, followed by the Manage Config Channels page from the left navigation bar.

4 3. Click the create new config channel link in the upper right of the page and follow the on screen instructions to complete creation of the channel. Be sure to name the channel something that clearly identifies it as part of your Solaris system image. 4. Click the Create Channel button on the bottom of the screen. Populate the Configuration Channel When uploading configuration files, it is important to include the absolute path along which the file will be deployed. 1. Log in to the web interface of the Satellite as either a Channel Administrator or the Organization Administrator. 2. Navigate to the Channels tab, followed by the Manage Config Channels page from the left navigation bar. 3. Click on the name of the configuration channel into which you wish to upload the configuration files; choose the channel you created in the previous step. 4. From the Config Channel Details page, select the Files & Dirs sub tab, followed by the Upload sub tab. 5. Populate all fields of this page. Browse to the configuration file on the system and click the Upload File button. Note that files over 128KB cannot be uploaded via the website. Note: You must have ownership or read/write permissions for the file you are uploading, or the operation fails. 6. Repeat this process for each configuration file you require for your image. Clone the Client's Channels To be certain that you are applying the exact packages and errata that are currently on your client system, you must freeze the contents of the software channel in its current state. The easiest way to accomplish this is to clone the channel to which your client is currently subscribed. When you do so, be certain to include all errata that have been applied to that system; the easiest way to do this is to run up2date on that system before cloning the channel. 1. Navigate to the Channels tab, then select Manage Software Channels from the left navigation bar. The Software Channel Management page opens. 2. Click clone channel in the top right of the page. Note that you must be a Channel Administrator or Organization Administrator to see this link. 3. Identify the target channel in the Clone From drop down box. 4. Select Current state of the channel (all errata) from the radio button.

5 5. Click Create Channel. 6. Fill out the Software Channel: New Channel page according to the instructions on the page. Give the software channel a name that will indicate to you later for which system and at what time this cloned channel was created. 7. Click Create Channel. Now that you've created the channel, it is possible to make any adjustments to the included packages, patches, and patch sets that are appropriate for this client system. 1. As above, navigate to the Channels tab followed by the Manage Software Channels page from the left navigation bar. 2. Click on the name of the channel you just created, which takes you to the Channel Details page. 3. Select the sub tabs listed on this page and make the appropriate adjustments to the cloned channel. Create an Activation Key for the Client Rather than manually subscribing the client to the channels you just created, create an activation key that automatically registers the client to the proper channels as soon as the operating system is installed. 1. Log in to the web interface of the Satellite as an Activation Key Administrator or Organization Administrator. 2. Navigate to the Systems tab. then select Activation Keys from the left navigation bar. 3. Click the create new key link at the top right corner. 4. Provide all information requested on the page. In the Base Channel field, select the channel you cloned in the previous step. 5. Click Create Key. 6. From the Activation Keys page, click on the name of the key you just created. From the details page for that key, click on the Configuration subtab. This sub tab only appears if you have successfully created a configuration channel. 7. Select the configuration channel you created above and give it a rank of 1. Select the Schedule a deploy configuration action... check box, and click Update Key. Preserve any other files If there are any other files on the client that must be added to the image on the

6 Satellite, you must create a software channel to contain those files, package the files using solaris2mpm, and push those files into the channel using rhnpush. Refer to the RHN Channel Management Guide and the RHN Reference Guide for details. Applying the Image to the Client System Because Solaris does not recognize the Kickstart utility, and because Provisioning capabilities are not available for Solaris clients, it is more difficult to apply a Solaris image than it is to apply a Red Hat Enterprise Linux image. In order to apply the image created above in the case of disaster recovery: 1. Re install the Solaris operating system according to the provider's instructions. 2. Download the following packages listed in Chapter 8: UNIX Support Guide of the RHN Reference Guide, which include: python, pyopenssl, and the RHN Client packages (which are available in a tarball from the public directory of your Satellite. The address will be similar to: Additional third party packages that contain supporting libraries may also be required. The bootstrap file contains a README file that provides additional information on these packages. 3. Download and install the Satellite's SSL Certificate into the following directory: /opt/redhat/rhn/solaris/usr/share/rhn 4. Complete the configuration steps for the client outlined in Section Configuring the Clients of the RHN Reference Guide. 5. Log in to the Satellite as an Activation Key Administrator or Organization Administrator. Navigate to the Systems tab, followed by the Activation Keys page from the left navigation bar. Next to the name of the activation key you created above is an alphanumeric string. Copy that string into the registration command in step 6: 6. Register the system to the Satellite: rhnreg_ks activationkey=<an alphanumeric string> 7. Once the system is registered, run up2date to bring the client up to the state it was in when you created the image. Conclusion The RHN Satellite can be a useful location to store and track changes to a

7 selective Solaris client image, including configuration file maintenance, package, patch, and patch cluster information. Appendix Useful Documentation RHN Satellite Server Installation Guide Red Hat Network Reference Guide Red Hat Knowledgebase