Redhat released version 5.6 of the Redhat Satellite. Time to have a closer look to it and how to upgrade from version 5.5.
New features
- Finally PostgreSQL support is mature enough for Enterprise usage. No need of a closed source data base anymore. This also brings a lot of new capabilities such as online backups which before was only available using an external Oracle Database which needs the availability of a DBA.
PostgreSQL also brings some performance benefits over the embedded Oracle database as delivered with 5.5 and earlier. Disclaimer: I did not made any benchmarks, but it “feels” much faster.
- If you are using the multi-org feature, you may be happy about enhancements for Inter-Satellite-Sync (ISS). Now you can define access rights for different software channels for different organizations.
- It is not a new feature, but now it is supported: cobbler buildiso. It is a handy solution if you can not use PXE boot in your environment. cobbler buildiso generates a small boot image which allows you to select the installation of a system from a boot menu.
- Intergrated System Asset Manager (SAM) which is based on Candlepin and allows you assess your system landscape for subscription compliance.
- As always: Have a look to the product documentation before doing anything on a production Satellite.
- Create a new RHN Satellite Certificate at access.redhat.com
- Download the ISO image for 5.6
- ensure having a recent database backup
- ensure having a recent backup of your /etc/rhn directory as well as /var/lib/cobbler
- Update your existing Satellite 5.5 with the latest available patches
- Delete unnecessary software channels from the Satellite for faster DB migration
- Delete old Snapshots to minimize database data to be migrated
- Make enough storage available to migrate from embedded Oracle to PostgreSQL. It takes roughly about the same amount of storage for the data. The PostgreSQL database stores its data in /var/lib/pgsql.
- Install the latest available package rhn-upgrade: yum install rhn-upgrade
Lets do it, Perparation work
First of all, create a database backup of your embedded Oracle Database:
[root@rhnsat ~]# rhn-satellite stop [root@rhnsat ~]# su - oracle -c "db-control backup /path/to/your/backup/directory" [root@rhnsat ~]# su - oracle -c "db-control verify /path/to/your/backup/directory" [root@rhnsat ~]# rhn-satellite start
Backup the rest of your Satellite:
[root@rhnsat ~]# cp -rp /etc/rhn/ /etc/rhn-$(date +"%F") [root@rhnsat ~]# cp -rp /var/lib/cobbler /var/lib/cobbler-$(date +"%F") [root@rhnsat ~]# cp -rp /etc/cobbler /etc/cobbler-$(date +"%F")
Update your RHN Satellite 5.5 with the latest available patches and reboot:
[root@rhnsat ~]# yum -y update && reboot
Ensure the latest schema updates have been applied. The output should read as follow:
[root@rhnsat ~]# spacewalk-schema-upgrade You are about to perform upgrade of your satellite-schema. For general instructions on Red Hat Satellite schema upgrade, please consult the following article: https://access.redhat.com/knowledge/articles/273633 Hit Enter to continue or Ctrl+C to interrupt: Schema upgrade: [satellite-schema-5.6.0.10-1.el6sat] -> [satellite-schema-5.6.0.10-1.el6sat] Your database schema already matches the schema package version [satellite-schema-5.6.0.10-1.el6sat]. [root@rhnsat ~]#It is always a good idea to restart a software and check if all is working as expected *before* doing an upgrade. So you can pinpoint problems better if there are some.
[root@rhnsat ~]# rhn-satellite restart
Review your list of software channels and delete unused ones. This example will delete the channel rhel-i386-rhev-agent-6-server:
[root@rhnsat ~]# spacewalk-remove-channel -c rhel-i386-rhev-agent-6-server Deleting package metadata (20): ________________________________________ Removing: ######################################## - complete [root@rhnsat ~]#Delete old system snapshots not used anymore. The following example deletes all snapshots which are older than one month:
[root@rhnsat ~]# sw-system-snapshot --delete --all --start-date 200001010000 --end-date $(date -d "-1 months" "+%Y%m%d0000")
Update the rhn-update package to the latest available:
yum install rhn-upgrade
After installing the the rhn-upgrade package, the SQL scripts needed for the DB migration are installed as well as some documentation you should read. They are located in /etc/sysconfig/rhn/satellite-upgrade/doc.
Upgrade Procedure
Mount the downloaded ISO image:
[root@rhnsat ~]# mount satellite-5.6.0-20130927-rhel-6-x86_64.iso /mnt -o loop && cd /mnt [root@rhnsat mnt]#
If you operate your Satellite behind a proxy, you need to upgrade it in disconnected mode, if not, ignore the –disconneded parameter.
[root@rhnsat mnt]# ./install.pl --disconnected --upgrade * Starting the Spacewalk installer. * Performing pre-install checks. * Pre-install checks complete. Beginning installation. * RHN Registration. ** Registration: Disconnected mode. Not registering with RHN. * 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 * Installing RHN packages. * Now running spacewalk-setup. * Setting up Selinux.. ** Database: Setting up database connection for PostgreSQL backend. ** Database: Installing the database: ** Database: This is a long process that is logged in: ** Database: /var/log/rhn/install_db.log *** Progress: # ** Database: Installation complete. ** Database: Populating database. *** Progress: ################################### * Database: Starting Oracle to PostgreSQL database migration. ** Database: Starting embedded Oracle database. ** Database: Trying to connect to Oracle database: succeded. ** Database: Migrating data. *** Database: Migration process logged at: /var/log/rhn/rhn_db_migration.log ** Database: Data migration successfully completed. ** Database: Stoping embedded Oracle database. * Setting up users and groups. ** GPG: Initializing GPG and importing key. * Performing initial configuration. * Activating Red Hat 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/sysconfig//tomcat6 has been backed up to tomcat6-swsave ** /etc/tomcat6//tomcat6.conf has been backed up to tomcat6.conf-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]? This portion of the Red Hat 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@rhnsat mnt]#
Depending on the size of your database and the speed of your disks, the upgrade procedure can take many hours.
The next step is having a look at diff /etc/rhn/rhn.conf /etc/rhn-$(date +”%F”)/rhn.conf
and edit /etc/rhn/rhn.conf accordingly. You will probably see missing things such as proxy, server.satellite.rhn_parent etc. Also change the setting disconnected to 0.After checking and correcting the config file you can activate the Satellite:
[root@rhnsat ~]# rhn-satellite-activate --rhn-cert=/root/rhns-cert56.cert --ignore-version-mismatch
After the activation the System is subscribed to the Softwarechannel “redhat-rhn-satellite-5.6-server-x86_64-6”, now bring the Satellite to latest available patchlevel:
[root@rhnsat ~]# yum -y update
Stop and disable Oracle
Bofore doing any Database related actions its better to stop the old Oracle Database to be sure all is now running on PostgreSQL.[root@rhnsat ~]# service oracle stop Shutting down Oracle Net Listener ... [ OK ] Shutting down Oracle DB instance "rhnsat" ... [ OK ] [root@rhnsat ~]# chkconfig oracle off [root@rhnsat ~]# rhn-satellite restart
Aftermath
Check if your database schema is up-to-date:
root@rhnsat ~]# spacewalk-schema-upgrade You are about to perform upgrade of your satellite-schema. For general instructions on Red Hat Satellite schema upgrade, please consult the following article: https://access.redhat.com/knowledge/articles/273633 Hit Enter to continue or Ctrl+C to interrupt: Schema upgrade: [satellite-schema-5.6.0.10-1.el6sat] -> [satellite-schema-5.6.0.10-1.el6sat] Your database schema already matches the schema package version [satellite-schema-5.6.0.10-1.el6sat]. [root@rhnsat ~]#Rebuild the search index:
[root@rhnsat ~]# service rhn-search cleanindex Stopping rhn-search... Stopped rhn-search. Starting rhn-search... [root@rhnsat ~]#
Recreate the software channel meta data:
[root@rhnsat doc]# /etc/sysconfig/rhn/satellite-upgrade/scripts/regenerate-repodata -a Scheduling repodata creation for 'rhel-x86_64-server-supplementary-6' Scheduling repodata creation for 'rhel-x86_64-server-6' Scheduling repodata creation for 'rhn-tools-rhel-x86_64-server-6' [root@rhnsat doc]#
Check functionality
Before removing the Oracle Database, run your tests to validate the Satellites functionality. Please proceed as stated in /etc/sysconfig/rhn/satellite-upgrade/doc/verification.txtThis is an important point, as we are getting rid of the Oracle database later on. To be sure all is working as expected, do a complete functionality test for the important things.
To be on the safe side, let the Satellite run for a few days with Oracle still installed.
Getting rid of Oracle
Please read /etc/sysconfig/rhn/satellite-upgrade/doc/satellite-upgrade-postgresql.txt first!
[root@rhnsat ~]# yum remove *oracle*
Getting rid of the last Oracle bits:
[root@rhnsat ~]# rm -rf /rhnsat /opt/apps/oracle /usr/lib/oracle/
Result:
Having fun with a faster Satellite with an open source database 🙂Disclaimer
I take no responsibility about damaged Satellites, lost data etc. in doubt, stick on the official product documentation at http://access.redhat.com
Upgrading from RHN Satellite 5.5
The first thing that you probably would ask: Is it possible and supported to migrate from the Embedded Oracle Database to PostgreSQL? Is it hassle free and bullet-proof? Yes it is.
Keep in mind