RH 401

(Investment of Time: 32 hours)

Red Hat Enterprise Deployment and Systems Management (RH401) is a four-day lab-based course that explores the concepts and methods necessary for successful large-scale deployment and management of Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems. Experienced system administrators learn how to implement and manage Red Hat Enterprise Linux deployments efficiently and effectively, in ways that make their systems manageable by a team of administrators. Central to the course is hands-on training in the use of the Red Hat Network Satellite Server for deployment and provisioning of Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems.

Course Outline:

Essential System Management

Goals of Enterprise system management | Standardization, centralization, and scalability | provisioning and automation

Installing a Red Hat Network Satellite Server

Introduction to RHN Satellite - features, prerequisites | Installing Satellite Server software | Understanding software channels and entitlements | Importing channel content into a Satellite Server

Red Hat Network Organization

Organization management and trust relationships | Managing user accounts | Assigning user roles (security) | Managing system groups

Managing Changes with Revision Control

Introducing revision control concepts | Basic Subversion repository administration | Using Subversion to manage revisions

Red Hat Network Client Configuration

Secure communication with SSL | Red Hat Network registration | Creating and using activation keys | Registration automation with bootstrap.sh | Troubleshooting RHN registration

Red Hat Network Software Management

Software channel relationships | Cloning existing software channels | Managing custom software channels | Notifying clients of changes: managing errata

Building RPMs

Building open source software | Using RPM macros | Writing custom spec files | Using rpmbuild to create RPMs | Signing packages for security

RHN Application Programmer Interface

Uses for Red Hat Network API | Basic RHN API program structure | Sample programs

Configuration File Management with Red Hat Network

Managing configuration channels | Configuration file macros | Configuration file management using command-line tools

Provisioning with Kickstart

Anaconda kickstart options | Building a provisioning environment | Using Cobbler for provisioning

Virtual Machine Management

Virtual host/virtual platform entitlements | Controlling Xen guests using RHN | Red Hat Network management of Xen virtual machines

RHN Satellite Server Administration

High-availability options | Embedded database management | Certificate management | Changing from disconnected to connected operation | Inter-satellite synchronization (ISS) | Exporting software channels | Troubleshooting

Red Hat Network Proxy Server

RHN proxy server installation | Configuring a client to use a RHN proxy server | Managing software with RHN package manager