Upgrading RHN Satellite 5.4.1 to 5.5

Red Hat has released RHN Satellite version 5.5. It is a release that is mainly a bug-fix release, but has some interesting new features as well. Here comes a brief guide how to update your RHN Satellite to the latest version. It is not a official guide, so if you trash your Satellite, it is not my fault…

Preparation
As always, before you upgrade the RHN Satellite, you need to order a new certificate. Open a Support case at Red Hat and tell them you need a new certificate for Version .5.5.

You also need to download the ISO file for the upgrade as the packages are only available in the software channel after the upgrade and activation. You can download the ISO at Red Hats download site. Of course you need to choose the architecture that matches your environment. Note that there is only one ISO available for each architecture, not two as it was before. The ISO comes with the embedded database. If you need to use an external database, use the --external-db parameter with install.pl

Ensure you have a working backup of your database before starting with the upgrade. Do this as follows:

su - oracle
db-control backup /your/back/up/directory
db-control verify /your/back/up/directory

A backup of your /etc/rhn directory is also a good idea, just for the case something is going wrong: cp -rp /etc/rhn /etc/rhn-$(date +"%F")

Ensure your database has enough free table space left. For the DATA_TBS and the UNDO_TBS it should be at least 1Gbyte, better are 2Gbyte. The following example shows an example:

[root@rhns ~]# su - oracle
-bash-4.1$ db-control report
Tablespace                  Size    Used   Avail   Use%
DATA_TBS                   16.1G   12.6G    3.5G    78%
SYSAUX                      500M  182.6M  317.3M    37%
SYSTEM                      400M  254.1M  145.8M    64%
TEMP_TBS                   1000M      0B   1000M     0%
UNDO_TBS                    3.9G  474.7M    3.4G    12%
USERS                       128M     64K  127.9M     0%
-bash-4.1$ 

You can grow the table spaces if needed by fire db-control extend UNDO_TBS.

It is also very important to have enoght free space in the /rhnsat filesystem, db-control gather-stats needs some extra space. At least 2 Gbyte to be on the safe side.

Having a look to the official upgrade guide is strongly recommended.

First you need to loop-back mount the ISO image and cd into the mountpoint:

[root@rhns ~]# mount satellite-5.5.0-20120911-rhel-6-x86_64.iso /mnt -o loop
[root@rhns ~]# cd /mnt
[root@rhns mnt]# 

Next step is to install the rhn-upgrade package.

[root@rhns mnt]# yum -y install rhn-upgrade
Loaded plugins: product-id, rhnplugin, subscription-manager
Updating certificate-based repositories.
Unable to read consumer identity
Setting up Install Process
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package rhn-upgrade.noarch 0:5.5.0.16-1.el6sat will be installed
--> Finished Dependency Resolution

Dependencies Resolved

=====================================================================================================
 Package         Arch       Version               Repository                                    Size
=====================================================================================================
Installing:
 rhn-upgrade     noarch     5.5.0.16-1.el6sat     redhat-rhn-satellite-5.4-server-x86_64-6      38 k

Transaction Summary
=====================================================================================================
Install       1 Package(s)

Total download size: 38 k
Installed size: 0  
Downloading Packages:
rhn-upgrade-5.5.0.16-1.el6sat.noarch.rpm                                      |  38 kB     00:00     
Running rpm_check_debug
Running Transaction Test
Transaction Test Succeeded
Running Transaction
  Installing : rhn-upgrade-5.5.0.16-1.el6sat.noarch                                              1/1 
Installed products updated.
  Verifying  : rhn-upgrade-5.5.0.16-1.el6sat.noarch                                              1/1 

Installed:
  rhn-upgrade.noarch 0:5.5.0.16-1.el6sat                                                             

Complete!
[root@rhns mnt]# 

The package contains documents and scripts to help you with the upgrade. They are located in the directory /etc/sysconfig/rhn/satellite-upgrade. Read those documents carefully before proceeding with the upgrade.

Upgrading
Lets do it… run the installer script with the --upgrade parameter, bold red letters are interactive input.

[root@rhns mnt]# ./install.pl --upgrade
* Starting the Red Hat Network Satellite installer.
* Performing pre-install checks.
* Pre-install checks complete.  Beginning installation.
* RHN Registration.
** Registration: System is already registered with RHN.  Not re-registering.
* Upgrade flag passed.  Stopping necessary services.
* Purging conflicting packages.
* Checking for uninstalled prerequisites.
** Checking if yum is available ...
There are some packages from Red Hat Enterprise Linux that are not part
of the @base group that Satellite will require to be installed on this
system. The installer will try resolve the dependencies automatically.
However, you may want to install these prerequisites manually.
Do you want the installer to resolve dependencies [y/N]? y
* Applying updates.
* Installing RHN packages.
Warning: yum did not install the following packages:
	geronimo-specs-compat
* Now running spacewalk-setup.
* Setting up Oracle environment.
* Setting up database.
** Database: Upgrading the database server to latest Oracle 10g:
** Database: This is a long process that is logged in:
** Database: /var/log/rhn/upgrade_db.log
*** Progress: ##############################################################
** Database: Setting up database connection for Oracle backend.
** Database: Testing database connection.
** Database: Populating database.
** Database: Skipping database population.
* Setting up users and groups.
** GPG: Initializing GPG and importing key.
* Performing initial configuration.
* Activating RHN Satellite.
** Certificate not activated.
** Upgrade process requires the certificate to be activated after the schema is upgraded.
* Enabling Monitoring.
* Configuring apache SSL virtual host.
Should setup configure apache's default ssl server for you (saves original ssl.conf) [Y]? y
* Configuring tomcat.
** /etc/tomcat6/tomcat6.conf has been backed up to tomcat6.conf-swsave
** /etc/tomcat6/server.xml has been backed up to server.xml-swsave
Reversed (or previously applied) patch detected!  Skipping patch.
1 out of 1 hunk ignored -- saving rejects to file web.xml.rej
* Configuring jabberd.
* Creating SSL certificates.
** Skipping SSL certificate generation.
* Deploying configuration files.
* Update configuration in database.
* Setting up Cobbler..
cobblerd does not appear to be running/accessible
Cobbler requires tftp and xinetd services be turned on for PXE provisioning functionality. Enable these services [Y]? y
cobblerd does not appear to be running/accessible
This portion of the RHN Satellite upgrade process has successfully completed.
Please refer to appropriate upgrade document in /etc/sysconfig/rhn/satellite-upgrade
for any remaining steps in the process.
[root@rhns mnt]# 

Now some database actions are needed. Make sure your Satellite is stopped and only the database is running:

rhn-satellite stop
service oracle start


You need to create schema statistics:

su - oracle
-bash-4.1$ db-control gather-stats
Gathering statistics...
WARNING: this may be a very slow process.
done.
-bash-4.1$ 

Now it is time to upgrade the database schema

[root@rhns mnt]# spacewalk-schema-upgrade
Schema upgrade: [satellite-schema-5.4.0.19-1.el6sat] -> [satellite-schema-5.5.0.13-1.el6sat]
Searching for upgrade path: [satellite-schema-5.4.0.19-1] -> [satellite-schema-5.5.0.13-1]
Searching for upgrade path: [satellite-schema-5.4.0.19] -> [satellite-schema-5.5.0.13]
Searching for upgrade path: [satellite-schema-5.4.0] -> [satellite-schema-5.5.0]
Searching for upgrade path: [satellite-schema-5.4] -> [satellite-schema-5.5]
The path: [satellite-schema-5.4] -> [satellite-schema-5.5]
Planning to run spacewalk-sql with [/var/log/spacewalk/schema-upgrade/20120922-132500-script.sql]
Hit Enter to continue or Ctrl+C to interrupt: Enter
Executing spacewalk-sql, the log is in [/var/log/spacewalk/schema-upgrade/20120922-132500-to-satellite-schema-5.5.log].
The database schema was upgraded to version [satellite-schema-5.5.0.13-1.el6sat].
[root@rhns mnt]# 

Now it is time to activate your RHN Satellite to be able to receive updates for the Satellite and running satellite-sync

[root@rhns ~]# rhn-satellite-activate --ignore-version-mismatch --rhn-cert=/root/rhns-cert55.cert 
RHN_PARENT: satellite.rhn.redhat.com
[root@rhns ~]# 

To rebuild the search index please run service rhn-search cleanindex

[root@rhns ~]# service rhn-search cleanindex
Stopping rhn-search...
rhn-search was not running.
Starting rhn-search...
[root@rhns ~]# 

Before restarting the RHN Satellite, check if any updates are available for it.
yum -y update

Afterward, please check if there is another database schema update available. If the output looks as following, you are safe.

[root@rhns ~]# spacewalk-schema-upgrade
Schema upgrade: [satellite-schema-5.5.0.13-1.el6sat] -> [satellite-schema-5.5.0.13-1.el6sat]
Your database schema already matches the schema package version [satellite-schema-5.5.0.13-1.el6sat].
[root@rhns ~]# 

As a verification that the upgrade is fine, run a satellite-sync to sync some new content and update a registered server. If you have more than one Satellite, run a ISS (Inter Satellite Sync) for proofing its functionality.

Troubleshooting
If something goes wrong with the database update, before reverting to a backup, first check the Oracle alert file /rhnsat/admin/rhnsat/bdump/alert_rhnsat.log to figure out what went wrong. Another good place to have a look at are the trace files located in /rhnsat/admin/rhnsat/udump