[rhn-users] Off-line update

[Bob Gorman]

At 04:02 PM 3/3/2004, Hill Webmaster wrote:
>I am in the process of purchasing several licenses for RHEL 3. My network
>security folks require that all security patches be applied before
>connecting the machine to the network. Are all the updated rpms available
>for download in the RHN? If so, does anyone know the proper method to
>upgrade all the updated rpms? Can that be done with a single wildcarded rpm
>freshen or upgrade command or something similar once all the new rpm
>packages are in a directory somewhere? Is it necessary or does rpm
>automatically restart appropriate services after upgrading a program,
>service or library?

You can not download all available RPMs for a channel - period.  Even paying subscribers. Amazing isn't it!?

It is just about impossible to make a fully patched system in an off-line environment. To do so you must have a different system that is already on-line, registered in the RHN, and subscribed to the proper channel.

If you don't have that, then you must do it with the new system that you are building. I know, it's horrible and potentially opens the new system to security breaches, but it is what RedHat is forcing you to do: use their inadequate up2date program.

If you do have another system to work from you can try this approach: Start with the Update1 ISOs. Then identify which RPMS need to be updated. Manually download the RPMs from the RHN web site, or try to get them via up2date from the existing system.  It's a cumbersome manual process.

Hope that helps!

-- 

I build custom Linux solutions - Hire me - I'll make it work.
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