FAQS: EFFECTIVE & AFFORDABLE LINUX SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT
Q: Does Satellite come with any number of entitlements, or do they still need to be purchased separately? How it is licensed? 
A: The Red Hat Satellite subscription includes an entitlement for a Red Hat Enterprise Linux base operating system (x86 or x86_64), an entitlement for a subscription to the Red Hat Satellite software channel and an entitlement for the embedded Oracle database that Satellite uses. Entitlements must be purchased separately for each system that is attached to Red Hat Satellite for each module (Management, Provisioning and Monitoring).
Q: What is the cost of the Satellite server? Is there a charge for each managed system?
A: Red Hat Satellite’s MSRP is $13,500. Each system your Red Hat Satellite Server will manage requires at least an entitlement to the Management module, which has an MSRP of $96. Additional module entitlements such as Provisioning and Monitoring are also MSRP of $96 per module.
Q: Is Provisioning a separate module you can buy for use with Red Hat Satellite Server?
A: Provisioning is a separate module requires a subscription for each system that you want to use it with. In addition to the Provisioning modules, there are also separate modules for Management and Monitoring.
Q: Is there an Oracle license involved in the local install of the Satellite machine or do we purchase that separately?
A: Red Hat manages the licensing of the embedded Oracle database and the Oracle license is included as part of the Satellite subscription. There are no steps that the end-user must take with respect to the embedded Oracle database.
Q: Can Project SpaceWalk or Red Hat Satellite work with a database other then Oracle? Has there been any thought about moving Spacewalk/Satellite from Oracle to another database?
A: At this time, Red Hat Satellite only supports using either the embedded Oracle database provided as part of the Satellite subscription or an external Oracle database. In the near future, Project Spacewalk will also support PostgreSQL, which will eventually be incorporated into Satellite.
Q: What are some of notable differences between Red Hat Satellite and Project Spacewalk?
- Project Spacewalk is the upstream open source project for Red Hat Satellite. Spacewalk is designed to be on the leading edge of technology (the same as Fedora), while Red Hat Satellite has been throughly tested, and hardened for commercial support and operation (the same as Red Hat Enterprise Linux)
- Spacewalk only manages Fedora and other Red Hat derivatives while Red Hat Satellite only manages Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems.
- Spacewalk must be fed packages manually, while Red Hat Satellite can have packages streamed to it from Red Hat Network
Q: How does Satellite/Spacewalk compare with Cobbler?
A: Cobbler is used for the sole purpose of providing a kickstart and provisioning environment. RHN Satellite and the Spacewalk project provide ongoing systems management in addition to provisioning functions. At this time, the Cobbler project is not incorporated into Red Hat Satellite. Cobbler is however a component of Spacewalk, and will eventually be incorporated into Red Hat Satellite.
Q: I’m assuming managed systems must have active entitlements? What about dev/test systems that are not entitled for updates?
A: Only Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems that have both an active Management entitlement (which allows them to register to the Red Hat Satellite server) and an active Update entitlement (which is included as part of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux subscription) can be managed and updated by Red Hat Satellite. Systems that lack an active Update entitlement are not entitled to updates managed by the Satellite server.
Q: Are education entitlements eligible?
A: RHN Management and Provisioning entitlements that are included as part of Red Hat Enterprise Linux Education subscription agreements, can be used to register those systems against the Red Hat Satellite server to be managed. A separate subscription is required for the Red Hat Satellite Server.
Q: When you sync your Red Hat Satellite Server with Red Hat Network, is the support and subscription information on Red Hat Network removed from Red Hat Network?
A: When using a Red Hat Satellite server in your enterprise, there is no longer any need to maintain information regarding your systems in the Red Hat Network Hosted interface. A certificate is provided by customer service to be installed in your Red Hat Satellite server which will provide the server with information on how many entitlements are available. Other than checking with Red Hat Network for an active Red Hat Satellite entitlement, no information about the managed systems is transmitted to Red Hat Network.
Q: What about group rollbacks if patches are applied and problems occur?
A: Uninstallation of packages from a group of systems is as easy as it is for one system. Use of package profiles can aid with these rollbacks. For more information, please contact your sales representative to schedule time with a solutions architect.
Q: Can you rollback changes from Red Hat Network Hosted, or is this capability only possible with Red Hat Satellite?
A: Red Hat Network hosted provides some limited capabilities around “rolling back.” If your organization has the bandwidth to be performing all of these activities over the WAN, then Red Hat Network hosted may be a viable option, depending on your needs. For more information, please contact your sales representative to schedule time with a solutions architect.
Q: Does Satellite use Apache v1 or Apache v2?
A: RHN Satellite currently uses Apache 2.
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