Setup Spacewalk on CentOS 7
Monday, November 16, 2020
13:51
Pre-Requisites
Setup Repositories
yum install ­y yum­plugin­tmprepo
yum install ­y spacewalk­repo ­­tmprepo=https://copr­be.cloud.fedoraproject.org/results/%40spacewalkproject/spacewalk­2.9/epel­7­x86_
64/repodata/repomd.xml ­­nogpg
rpm ­Uvh https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel­release­latest­7.noarch.rpm
Additionally, in RHEL 7, subscribe the system to Optional Channels.
subscription­manager repos ­­enable rhel­7­server­optional­rpms
Hostname
vi /etc/hosts
Modify it according to your environment.
127.0.0.1 localhost localhost.localdomain localhost4 localhost4.localdomain4
::1
localhost localhost.localdomain localhost6 localhost6.localdomain6
# Your Spacewalk Server
192.168.1.10 server.itzgeek.local server
Firewall
firewall­cmd ­­permanent ­­add­service=http
firewall­cmd ­­permanent ­­add­service=https
Add port 5222 if you want to push actions to client machines and 5269 for push actions to a Spacewalk Proxy, 69 udp if you want to use tftp.
firewall­cmd ­­permanent ­­add­port=5222/tcp ­­add­port=5269/tcp ­­add­port=69/udp
firewall­cmd ­­reload
SpaceWalk Database
yum ­y install spacewalk­setup­postgresql
Install SpaceWalk
yum install ­y spacewalk­postgresql
Configure SpaceWalk
spacewalk­setup
Once the installation is complete, check the status of Spacewalk service.
/usr/sbin/spacewalk­service status
Access Spacewalk
https://ip­add­ress
OR
https://your­domain­name
Spacewalk Channels
Channel is nothing but a collection of software (RPM) packages. A channel may contain packages from a specific distribution or contains packages for an
application or family of applications. Users may also define channels.
Any client can subscribe to a particular channel to download, update, install packages. The channels are linked to upstream server (a normal YUM/DEB
repository). A channel may have linked to multiple repositories, can be cloned, sync or customized.
There are two types of channels:
Base channels
Child channels
A base channel consists of packages based on a specific architecture and Red Hat Enterprise Linux release. A child channel is a channel associated with a base
channel that contains extra packages. A system must be subscribed to only one base channel but it can be subscribed to multiple child channels of its base
channel.
A subscribed system can only install or update packages available through its Satellite channels.
Create a Base Channel
Access the Spacewalk web console using the username and password that you defined in the previous tutorial.
https://spacewalk­server­ip
Goto Channels >> Manage Software Channels >> Create Channel.
This is where you create a channel for your machine. My base channel looks like this.
Channel Name: itzgeek_centos7
Channel Label: itzgeek_centos7
Parent Channel: None (Because this is a Base Channel)
Architecture: x86_64
Channel Summary: ITzGeek CentOS 7 Base Channel
Leave the remaining as it is. Likewise, you can create a channel for different versions of CentOS / RHEL machines and architectures.
You need to be very careful while choosing an architecture for the channel as the machine with the same architecture can only able to subscribe to this
channel.
Create a repository for Base Channel
Goto Channels >> Manage Software Channels >> Manage Repositories >> Create repository.
Here you should mention the upstream server from where Spacewalk server will download packages for clients.
Repository Details:
Repository Name: CentOS 7 x86_64
Repository URL: http://mirror.rackspace.com/CentOS/7/os/x86_64/
Repository Type: yum
For a demo, I used http://mirror.rackspace.com/CentOS/7/os/x86_64/ as Repository URL. This repository URL is one of the CentOS mirrors. You can find more
mirrors here.
Attaching a repository to Base channel
Goto Channels >> Manage Software Channels >> Select the created channel (itzgeek_centos7) >> Repository >> Select the previously created repository
(CentOS 7 x86_64) >> Update Repositories.
Now its time to sync packages from the upstream server.
Go to Channels >> Manage Software Channels >> Select the created channel >> Repository >> Sync >> Sync Now.
OR
Run below command to sync with the upstream server.
# /usr/bin/spacewalk­repo­sync ­­channel itzgeek_centos7 ­­type yum
Note: The packages will be downloaded from the upstream server will be kept in /var/satellite/ folder of your Spacewalk server. Make sure you have enough
space in /var/satellite/ folder.
You can go through sync logs to troubleshoot any issues arise during the synchronization.
# cat /var/log/rhn/reposync/<reponame>.log
Once the package synchronization is complete, you can view packages by going to Channels >> Manage Software Channels >> Select your channel >>
Packages >> List / Remove.
Create a Child Channel
Goto Channels >> Manage Software Channels >> Create New Channel. Enter the Child channel name, label, Parent channel, Architecture, and Channel
description, etc.
Here you must select the Parent channel from the drop­down list. Finally, click Create Channel button.
Channel Details:
Channel Name: nginx_centos7
Channel Label: nginx_centos7
Parent Channel: itzgeek_centos7 (Because this is a child channel)
Architecture: x86_64
Channel Summary: Nginx CentOS 7 – Child Channel
Leave the remaining as it is.
Create a Repository for Child Channel
Goto Channels >> Manage Software Channels >> Manage Repositories >> Create repository. Let us create a Nginx repository, Enter the repository name and
actual URL.
Repository Details:
Repository Name: Nginx CentOS 7
Repository URL: http://nginx.org/packages/centos/7/x86_64
Repository Type: yum
Likewise, you can create your own repository.
Assigning a repository to Child channel
Goto Channels >> Manage Software Channels >> Select the child channel.
Goto Repository (TAB) >> Select the created repository (Nginx) >> Update repository.
In the same page, goto Sync (TAB) >> Sync Now or Select a schedule.
OR
Run the below command.
/usr/bin/spacewalk­repo­sync ­­channel nginx_centos7 ­­type yum
Create an Activation Key
Here you can create activation keys for client subscription. In this page, you need to select the base channel ( itzgeek_centos7).
Whenever any client uses this key, the client machine will be automatically subscribed to the created channel. You can create multiple keys in case you would
like to assign multiple channels to a client machine.
Goto Systems >> Activation Keys >> Create New Key.
Better to leave the key blank for automatic generation.
You can get a list of activation keys by going to Systems >> Activation Keys.
At this stage, your Spacewalk server is almost ready to serve packages to clients.
That’s all. In our next tutorial, we will configure a client to use Spacewalk server for getting packages and updates.
Install Spacewalk client
Though the base repository has packages that are required for registering clients with Spacewalk server, we will configure Spacewalk client repo on the client
machine to get the latest packages.
rpm ­Uvh http://yum.spacewalkproject.org/2.7­client/RHEL/7/x86_64/spacewalk­client­repo­2.7­2.el7.noarch.rpm
rpm ­Uvh http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel­release­latest­7.noarch.rpm
Install below packages.
yum ­y install rhn­client­tools rhn­check rhn­setup rhnsd m2crypto yum­rhn­plugin
Install SpaceWalk’s certificate on your client machine to enable secure communication. Replace the Spacewalk server name and RPM version if required.
rpm ­Uvh http://server.itzgeek.local/pub/rhn­org­trusted­ssl­cert­1.0­1.noarch.rpm
Make sure the client machine can connect to the Spacewalk server with hostname. Use /etc/hosts file or DNS server for resolving the hostname.
Register clients with SpaceWalk Server
It is recommended to use activation keys for registering and configuring client systems with Spacewalk server. Login to Spacewalk server and get an activation
that we created in the previous tutorial.
Goto System >> Activation Keys.
On client system’s Terminal, run the following command to register it to the Spacewalk server.
rhnreg_ks ­­activationkey 1­b908cd891e78c7b90cc6000ee63c0ec5 ­­serverUrl https://server.itzgeek.local/XMLRPC
Once the above command is executed, goto Spacewalk console, and click on Systems. You will see our client system that we just registered with Spacewalk.
Click on client name. You will be taken to client summary page where you can see detailed information about the registered client (client.itzgeek.local). You
can see that the client machine has been automatically subscribed to the base channel (itzgeek_centos7).
Modifying a client subscription (Optional)
If you want to make use of child channels (Ex. To install Nginx), enable the child channel (Nginx) of the base channel to get Nginx packages.
GUI Mode
Go to Systems >> <Your Client> >> Software >> Software Channels >> Software Channel Subscriptions.
OR
Click on Alter Subscription Channels on the client overview page.
Select the Child channels (Ex. nginx_centos7) and click Change Subscriptions.
Now, the client system is successfully subscribed to Nginx child channel.
Install Packages using Spacewalk Server
Now, you can start to install or update packages from the Spacewalk server. Disable non­Spacewalk repositories to avoid packages being downloaded from
internet.
To do that, run:
sed ­i 's/enabled=1/enabled=0/g' /etc/yum.repos.d/*
To test, install Nginx package on the client machine.
yum install nginx