Enterprise software management with Red Hat Satellite Server

Package Delivery

Article from ADMIN 09/2012

By James Dade

Keep your whole network up to date with Satellite Server – an enterprise-ready patch management system closely tied to Red Hat's prolific update service.

Our organization currently follows a systematic manual approach to patch management. This approach includes identification of the need for, acquisition and testing of, resolving issues with, and implementation of the patch.

In our organization, systems administrators typically receive notification of a patch release through research or vendor notification via email. The Information Assurance (IA) team also releases security alerts about a week after the vendor makes a public statement.

After receiving notification of the need for a system patch, the admin downloads the patch from the vendor and saves it to a network repository. Once the patch is in the repository, the admin then tests the patch in a test or development environment. If any issues arise with the patch, the admin contacts whoever issued the patch and resolves the problems. When testing is complete, the patch is ready for implementation; the patch is then deployed in production during the next maintenance window. Once implemented, the patch is kept in a network repository for historical purposes.

A Satellite Server is Red Hat's way of automating the application of software updates. The role of the Satellite server is similar to the role played by Microsoft's Systems Management Server (SMS).

Implementing a Satellite server does not necessarily change the current patch management process; however, the Satellite server will automate the retrieval, storage, and deployment of patches.

The Satellite server also keeps an inventory of the various software packages that are on each server it manages.

Satellite server automatically acquires the appropriate patches, along with the documentation on why the patch was released.

Research Methodology

The primary tools used for this research were the various manuals for Red Hat Satellite Server 5.4. Red Hat's Solutions Architect was also a very helpful resource.

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