>Do we really need to create new channels everytime a minor version is >released? Is there a "best practices" document or resource somewhere for >>Spacewalk? How does the RH Satellite product address this same issue?
I'm on Satellite (version 5.4.1). Here's how I address minor versions: -We have a base channel for RHEL 5, which automatically gets Red Hat's latest releases. I.E. when RHEL 5.7 was released, that channel got updated to 5.7 overnight when my satellite-sync cron job ran. I have only a test virtual machine in this channel. It serves as a standard. -I have cloned that channel to other base channels, with names such as development, sandbox, production, etc. They are parallel to the RHEL 5 base channel, not children of it. I initially cloned them as 'Original state' of the RHEL 5 channel. All our other systems are in these channels, according to their roles. -When errata are released, I run a Python script against the RHEL 5 channel, which shows me the errata that are in RHEL 5 but not in these cloned channels. I could use the GUI, but it's faster to run the scripts (less clicky), and I'm a command-line geek anyway. -From that point, I can use the GUI to sync errata (it's only one step thru the GUI, just more clicking), or I can use my own Python scripts to do it (which involves 2 steps: one to sync packages, then another to sync errata). In my understanding, what makes a channel (or system) change minor versions, essentially, is the 'redhat-release' package. Taking that further, you could install on a system pretty much every package that gets released with a minor version, except 'redhat-release'. So, if you did that to a RHEL 5.6 system, package-wise, it would be very nearly RHEL 5.7 (with the exception of one package). And it would still report itself as RHEL 5.6. Not a good idea, but possible. I hope I understood your problem correctly and that my approach makes sense. Brian Collins, RHCE Sr. Systems Engineer Southeastern Data Cooperative [email protected] _______________________________________________ Spacewalk-list mailing list [email protected] https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/spacewalk-list
