Introduction:
Spacewalk is an
open source configuration/Patch management tool sponsored by Red Hat. Spacewalk
is alternate of Redhat network satellite server on Centos / Fedora / Scientific
Linux.
Features
of Spacewalk:
Ø Manage Inventory of Servers (hardware and software information)
Ø Install and update software on Servers
Ø Manage and deploy configuration files to your systems
Ø Monitor your systems / Servers
Step:
1 Setup
Spacewalk Repo:
# rpm -Uvh http://yum.spacewalkproject.org/1.9/RHEL/6/x86_64/spacewalk-repo-1.9-1.el6.noarch.rpm
Step:
2 Setup Additional Repositories
Spacewalk on CentOS will require additional
dependencies that are needed from jpackage
# vim /etc/yum.repos.d/jpackage-generic.repo
then Paste the below command and save the
Editor
[jpackage-generic]
name=JPackage generic
#baseurl=http://mirrors.dotsrc.org/pub/jpackage/5.0/generic/free/
mirrorlist=http://www.jpackage.org/mirrorlist.php?dist=generic&type=free&release=5.0
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=http://www.jpackage.org/jpackage.asc
Enable EPEL Repository:
Spacewalk requires a Java Virtual Machine with version 1.6.0 or greater
# rpm -Uvh http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/6/i386/epel-release-6-8.noarch.rpm
Step: 3 Spacewalk Database Server Installation:
Spacewalk uses database to store its primary data, it supports PostgreSQL
# yum install spacewalk-setup-embedded-postgresql
# yum install spacewalk-postgresql
Create a file under /root called ‘answer’ with below contents:
# vi /root/answers
admin-email = root@localhost
ssl-set-org = Nextstep4it
ssl-set-org-unit = IT
ssl-set-city = Delhi
ssl-set-state = Delhi
ssl-set-country = IN
ssl-password = Ppts@123
ssl-set-email = root@localhost
ssl-config-sslvhost = Y
db-backend=postgresql
db-name=spacewalkdb
db-user=spacewalk
db-password=Ppts@123
db-host=localhost
db-port=5432
enable-tftp=Y
Now Install Spacewalk with an Answer File
# spacewalk-setup --disconnected –answer-file=/root/answers
(After spacewalk-setup is complete, application
is ready to use)
Step:5 Access the Spacewalk
using below URL and set administrative account:
Spacewalk URL: ‘https://10.10.1.01
After Setting the Administrative account, we can login to spacewalk admin GUI:
After completing the account setup, you
will be redirected to the main window. Here you can see the detailed overview
of each and everything that are related to Spacewalk.
Setting
Software Channels:
Step:
1
Set a
Base channel this channel will contain all base packages for a system. The
first Base Channel that we will set will be the one for CentOS 6.0 the version
of CentOS used for the Spacewalk Server. Follow this steps one logged in:
1.
Click on Channels
2.
Click on Manage
Software Channels
3.
Click on Manage
Repositories
4.
Click on Create
New Repository
Step: 2 GPG Key import
Spacewalk Server will not deploy packages from any repository for which it does not have the GPG Public key used to sign the packages. These keys are placed in the root of the version of the repository that one will use. First we need to download these keys import them so as to get the key ID and Fingerprint for when setting the channel and they should also be imported using rpm on the Spacewalk server. For the base CentOS repository we download the keys to import them with GPG to get the key information:
# mkdir repo_keys
# cd repo_keys
# curl -O http://mirror.facebook.net/centos/6/os/i386/RPM-GPG-KEY-CentOS-6
Create one channel per set of repositories so it is easier to manage the key:
gpg --list-keys --fingerprint C105B9DE
rpm --import http://mirror.facebook.net/centos/6/os/i386/RPM-GPG-KEY-CentOS-6
Creating
Repositories:
We will create 2 Repositories for CentOS 6.X the first one will be the base repository and second is the Updates.
- Repository Labe – PPTS-CentOS6-i386-Base
- Repository URL -
http://mirror.facebook.net/centos/6/os/i386/
- Then click on Create
Repository
For the updates repository enter:
Let’s create a repository for VMWare Tools for vSphere 5.1:
- Repository Label - VMware-Tools-ESX-5.1-RHL6
- Repository URL - http://packages.vmware.com/tools/esx/5.1/rhel6/x86_64/index.html
- Then click on Create Repository
Creating
Channels:
We will create a new channel that will use
both Repositories:
1.
Click on Channels
2.
Click on Manage Software
Channels
3.
Click on Create New Channel
Enter the Following Mandatory Parameters:
Channel Name –
Channel Label –
Parent Channel –
Parent Channel Architecture –
Yum Repository Checksum Type –
Channel Summary -
As like
below screen shot provided.
Under Channel Access Control Select:
·
All users within your organization may subscribe to this channel.
·
This channel is public and may be accessed by any of the trusted
organizations trusted by this organization.
Click Create channel
Goto
Channels
–> Manage Software Channels –> Select the created channel –>
Repository –> Select the previously created repository –> Update
repository
(Here you can link the repository to the
channel based on architecture).
Once updated, click on Sync and then click on
Sync Now to start package synchronization from the upstream server
Once the
package synchronization is completed, you can list the synchronized packages by
going to
Channels –> Manage Software Channels –>
Select your channel –> Packages –> List / Remove
Goto
Systems –> Activation Keys –>
Create New Key
(Here create a activation keys for client
subscription, in this page you need to select the base channel (Newly created
channel). Whenever any client uses this key, the client machine will be
automatically subscribed to the created channel. Create multiple keys; in case
to use multiple channels).
Note: Better to leave the key
blank for automatic generation.
You can get the activation key by going to Systems –> Activation Keys.
Client software Installation:
To connect the system the appropriate client software must be installed on the system
# yum install -y rhn-client-tools rhn-check rhn-setup rhnsd m2crypto yum-rhn-plugin rhncfg rhncfg-actions rhncfg-client
Now Register Linux Server with Spacewalk
# rhnreg_ks --force --serverUrl=http://10.10.20.101 /XMLRPC --activationkey=1-6f0183f8cb1815adeebe38f4ffd445d6
# rhn-actions-control --enable-all
Above commands will register your Linux server with Spacewalk, just replace activation key according to your setup.
Now Login to Spacewalk admin panel, Click on System, then click on Register Server Name, As we can see updates are available.
Schedule to install all the updates:
Select all the packages and Click on Upgrade Package.
When clicking on ‘Upgrade Package‘, then it will ask to schedule upgrade.
