Red Hat provides for the maintenance of your system through the Red Hat Network (RHN) and several software tools installed on your system. To use the RHN through the Iowa State proxy server, there are three tasks that must be performed:

1. Configuring the system to use the Iowa State proxy server
2. Installing encryption keys and digital certificates on the computer
3. Registering the system with the RHN and associate it with a management group

The need for each task is described in detail here. At the bottom of this page are instructions for using a simple script to perform all of these tasks.

Note:You will be given the opportunity to register your system with the RHN during the first boot-up of the system following an installation. DO NOT REGISTER your system with RHN during the first boot. When asked just click on the button to skip the registration step. If you do register during the first boot you will not be able to see your system on the RHN and it will be deleted from ithe RHN.

Configuring a System to Use the Red Hat Network

Transactions with the RHN are conducted by a system via the Red Hat Network Daemon (rhnsd). The configuration file for this system needs to be modified to use the Iowa State proxy server and the digital certificates and encryption keys used to ensure secure transactions.

Secure Transactions - Encryption Keys and Digital Certificates

To ensure secure updates for your systems, packages downloaded from the RHN
are signed by encryption keys generated by the Red Hat. Local packages developed and distributed by Iowa State via our proxy server are also signed with an ISU encryption key. In addition, transactions conducted via the RHN are carried out over a secure connection that requires a digital certificate that needs to be installed on your system.

Activation Keys and Management Groups

To receive updates from the RHN or to use the RHN to manage your system, you must register the system with RHN. Under the Iowa State site subscription, this must be done by means of an activation key. The activation key entitles the system to be managed by the RHN and associates the system with a management group. Personal systems are each associated with their own personal management group. University-owned systems can be aggregated together into multi-system groups for easier maintenance of a large number of similar systems.

To request activation keys and management groups, you must have an account with the RHN under the ISU site subscription.

bootstrap.sh - The All-in-One Configuration Tool

A simple script, bootstrap.sh, has been developed to perform all of these tasks at one time. To obtain a copy of bootstrap.sh, use the wget command as follows:

# wget http://cyclops.iastate.edu/pub/bootstrap.sh

Then, to configure your machine to use the Iowa State proxy server and register it with the RHN do

# sh bootstrap.sh --register XXXXXXXXXXXX

ensure secure updates for your systems, packages downloaded from the RHN where XXXXXXXXXXXX is replaced by the activation key you received.

bootstrap.sh has also been designed to allow you to update a system after it has been registered as you will more than likely be registering your system immediately after installing the operating system, To configure your machine to use the Iowa State University Proxy server, register it with the RHN, and update your system now do

# sh bootstrap.sh --register XXXXXXXXXXXX --up2date

where, as before, XXXXXXXXXXXX is replaced by the activation key you received.