How to update Red Hat Enterprise Linux with SMT 11

This document (7004324) is provided subject to the disclaimer at the end of this document.

Environment

Subscription Management Tool (SMT) for SUSE Linux Enterprise 11
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 Service Pack 1
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.0
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.2 (or newer)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.7 (or newer)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.9

Situation

Novell Subscription Management Tool 11 (SMT11) enables customers that possess the required entitlements to mirror updates for RedHat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). Refer to http://www.novell.com/products/server/expandedsupport/offering_summary.html for details on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server Subscription with Expanded Support.
This document discusses the actions required to configure the SMT server and clients (RHEL servers) for this solution.
NOTE : Configuring this with Subscription Management Tool 10 Service Pack 3 (SMT10 SP3) running SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 is slightly different and described in 7001751 - How to update Red Hat Enterprise Linux with SMT 10 SP3.

Resolution

On the SMT server perform the following steps to prepare it for mirroring and publishing updates for RHEL.

Install (SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 11 (or Service Pack 1) with) the SMT11 add-on product
as per the documentation on the respective products.
During SMT setup, use mirroring credentials that have access to Novell-provided RHEL update catalogs.
Verify that the mirror credentials have access to download updates for the RedHat products with
```
# smt-repos -m | grep RES
```
Enable mirroring of the RHEL update catalog(s) for the desired architecture(s)
```
# smt-repos -e <repo-name> <architecture>
```
Mirror the updates and log verbose output :
```
# smt-mirror -d -L /var/log/smt/smt-mirror.log
```
The updates for RHEL will also be mirrored automatically as part of the default nightly SMT mirroring cron job.
When the mirror process of the catalogs for your RHEL products has completed, the updates are available via http://<smt-server.your-domain.top/repo/$RCE/<catalog-name>/<architecture>/.
To enable gpg checking of the repositories, the key used to sign the repositories needs to be made available to the RHEL clients. This key is now available in the res-signingkeys package, which is included in the SMT11 installation source.
- Install the res-signingkeys package with the command
```
# zypper in -y res-signingkeys
```
- The installation of the package stores the key file as /srv/www/htdocs/repo/keys/res-signingkeys.key.
- Now the key is available to the clients and can be imported into their RPM database as described later.

Configuring the YUM client on RHEL 5.2 (or newer) and RHEL 6.0 to consume updates from SMT :

Import the repository signing key downloaded above into the local RPM database with a command like :
```
# rpm --import http://<smt-server.domain.top>/repo/keys/res-signingkeys.key
```
Create a file in /etc/yum.repos.d/ and name it RES5.repo or RES6.repo respectively
Edit the file and enter the repository data and point to the catalog on the SMT server as follows :
[smt]
name=SMT repository
baseurl=http://<smt-server.domain.top>/repo/$RCE/<catalog-name>/<architecture>/
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1

Examples of baseurl : http://smt.mycompany.com/repo/$RCE/RES5/i386/
http://smt.mycompany.com/repo/$RCE/RES6/x86_64/
Save the file
Disable standard RedHat repositories by setting
"enabled=0"
in the repository entries in other files in /etc/yum.repos.d/ (if any are enabled).

Both yum and the update notification applet should work correctly now and notify of available updates when applicable. It might be needed to restart the applet.

Configuring the UP2DATE client on RHEL 3.9 and 4.7 (or newer) to consume updates from SMT :

Import the repository signing key downloaded above into the local RPM database with a command like :
```
# rpm --import http://<smt-server.domain.top>/repo/keys/res-signingkeys.key
```
Edit the file /etc/sysconfig/rhn/sources and make the following changes:
Comment out any lines starting with "up2date".
Normally, there will be a line like this that says "up2date default".
Add an entry pointing to the SMT repository (all in one line):
yum <repo-name> http://<smt-server.domain.top>/repo/$RCE/<catalog-name>/<architecture>/
where <repo-name> should be set to RES3 for 3.9 and RES4 for 4.7 (or newer).
Save the file

Both up2date and the update notification applet should work correctly now, pointing to the SMT repository and signaling updates when applicable. It might be needed to restart the applet.

In order to ensure correct reporting of the RedHat Enterprise systems in Novell Customer Center, they need to be registered against your SMT server. For this a special suseRegisterRES package is provided through the RES* catalogs and it should be installed, configured and executed as described below.

Registering RHEL 5.2 (or newer) and RHEL 6.0 against SMT :

Install the suseRegisterRES package
```
# yum install suseRegisterRES
```
Note: you might need to install perl-Crypt-SSLeay andperl-XML-Parser packages from the original RHEL media.

Copy the SMT certificate to the system :

# wget http://<smt-server.domain.top>/smt.crt
# cat smt.crt >> /etc/pki/tls/cert.pem

Edit /etc/suseRegister.conf to point to SMT by changing the url value to :
url = https://<smt-server.domain.top>/center/regsvc/
Register the system :
```
# suse_register
```

Registering RHEL 4.7 (or newer) and RHEL 3.9 against SMT :

Install the suseRegisterRES package :

# up2date --get suseRegisterRES
# up2date --get perl-XML-Writer
# rpm -ivh /var/spool/up2date/suseRegisterRES*.rpm /var/spool/up2date/perl-XML-Writer-0*.rpm

Note: you might need to install perl-Crypt-SSLeay package from the original RHEL media.

Copy the SMT certificate to the system :

# wget http://<smt-server.domain.top>/smt.crt
# cat smt.crt >> /usr/share/ssl/cert.pem

Edit /etc/suseRegister.conf to point to SMT by changing the url value to :
url = https://<smt-server.domain.top>/center/regsvc/
Register the system :
```
# suse_register
```

Disclaimer

This Support Knowledgebase provides a valuable tool for SUSE customers and parties interested in our products and solutions to acquire information, ideas and learn from one another. Materials are provided for informational, personal or non-commercial use within your organization and are presented "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND.