Re: New Current Server Installation

OK, here goes...

On Mon, 28 Oct 2002, Lawrence MacIntyre wrote:

> hi:
> 
> I am a bit confused about how to configure a new current server.  I have
> a stock RH7.3 system, and we also have a machine with i386 mirrors of
> RH7.2, RH7.3, and RH8.0 as well as all of the updates from all of the
> versions and architectures that RH has ever had.  I can NFS mount the
> directories with the updates and Installation trees on the current
> server and that way I don't have to deal with keeping the directories
> current.
> 
> What I want to do is make a server that will allow anyone in my group
> with a RH7.3 or RH8.0 with any of the i386/i586/i686/athlon
> architectures update their machine.  I'm assuming that up2date will let
> you install RPMs that aren't yet installed, and that's why the
> installation trees are served.
> 
> The directory trees look like 
> 
> linux/7.2/en/os/i386/RedHat/RPMS 
> 
>    where 7.2 can be 7.3 or 8.0 and all of the installation RPMs are
> present
> 
> linux/updates/1.0/en/os/athlon
> 
>   where 1.0 can be anything up to 8.0 and athlon can be i38, i586, i686,
> or noarch.
> 
> 
> I installed 1.4.2, and configured it, and started httpd.  The first time
> I tried rhn_register on the server, it failed, but the second time, it
> worked.  I didn't change anything, I just reran rhn_register.
        That's really puzzling, but we'll go with it.

> Now, I want to make all of the channels, and I have no idea what to do
> next.
> 
> >From the current.conf file, we find:
> 
> valid_channels = redhat-7.3-i386
> 
> Is that a comma-separated or whitespace separated list or something
> else?
        Purely whitespace separated.

> Now what do I do for the athlon, etc. channels, or does the i386 channel
> contain them all?
        The channel name doesn 't have to contain an arch designation.
The only thing to keep in mind that each channel has a single and unique
OS revision -- arch pair.  (e.g. you can have 7.2-i386 and 7.3-i386, but
you can't have 7.2-i386 and 7.2-foo-i386).  The arch of a particular
channel is the /base/ arch for that channel, so in an i386 channel, you
would (probably) want to server out i386, i486 (where applicable), i586,
i686, athlon, and noarch (where applicable) RPMS.

> I made this, when I was going to copy all of the RPMS into one
> directory, and then, from reading the mailing list archives, I found
> that I could use a mirror from RedHat (Yay!!!).  So what do I have to do
> for the directory structure now?
> 
> rpm_dirs = /home/redhat-7.3/i386/RedHat/RPMS
>            /home/redhat-7.3/i386/other-pkgs/rh-updates 
        Basically, yes.  Simply list all the directories that contains
RPMS that should be in this channel, one per line.

> >From the mailing list, current uses pgsql, but I see no notice about
> having to start it.  Do I need to add service postgresql start to my
> startup and configure it?
        Well, no...  PostgreSQL support is in the works, and we've
actually got BK trees for it, but those trees are so development they
don't work.  You want to use the latest 1.4.x release - don't worry
about PostgreSQL.  It's not there yet.

> In the current.httpd.conf file, the line:
> 
> Alias /XMLRPC/$RHN /home/current/www
> 
> What does this refer to?  Is this the root directory for the .rpm
> files?  
        Yes and no.  The /home/current/www is the "current_dir" from
your current.conf file, which is where Current sets up it's directory
structure to handle requests.  This is where the "cadmin
create_apache_config" and "cadmin check_perms" come in - those two
commands (or whatever the actual options are, it's been a few days since
I've looked at that code) make sure the correct configuration file is
generated and that the permissions on the current_dir directory tree are
okay.

> As payment for the answers to my many questions, I will fix the
> documentation to be more explanatory in these areas.
        Many thanks - the docs sorely need help!  :)

-- 
Thank you,
John Berninger

Systems Administrator		[email protected]
Department of Mathematics	Box 8205, Harrelson Hall
NC State University		Raleigh, NC 27695
Phone:  (919)515-6315		Fax:	(919)515-3798

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