UNC Linux Users Group

[John Reuning <john AT metalab.unc.edu>]

Since there has been much discussion of hosting the RHEL proxy server at
ibiblio, I talked to both a sales engineer at RH and one of their policy
folks.  We would, in addition to the proxy server, host a kickstart
server to facilitate installation.

The kickstart server is merely a web & ftp server with the RHEL software
distribution trees and would be restricted by IP address.  A little
coordination with the various UNC campus network admins should help sort
this out.  After the OS installation, the individual server or
workstation registers with the proxy server via SSL certificate.  The
up2date client pulls updates from the proxy server  (over http or https,
I think).

It's not clear how the up2date registration is handled.  I assume that
there's a mechanism in the proxy server software that validates a client
server/workstation certificate for service.  But I don't know if RH
extends all admin authority to the proxy server manager or not.   It's
possible that we'd have an automated process for getting each
installation validated from RH.   I suspect that, just as we're not
supposed to abuse other software license agreements, we'd be on our
honor to distinguish between personal computers and UNC-owned computers.

Thanks,

-jrr

On Fri, 2004-02-20 at 18:39, Scott Adams wrote:
> Not sure of the answer exactly for the first one but someone else might.
> I would imagine that a user would have to register on the proxy system.
> Normally I would think there would be some sort of IP range limit but if
> this is going to run for all UNC systems then that may be more difficult.
> Hopefully we can get an answer from those who may know more.
> There was a thought from UNC General Administration that this should run
> at MCNC.  We will have to wait and see.
> 
> No there is not a proxy currently on campus that I know of.  I believe the
> proxy would hold the "rpms locally" and the proxy alone would connect to
> Redhat directly.