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Chapter 4. Custom Channel and Package Management

Custom channels allow administrators to use the Red Hat Network infrastructure to deploy packages built and maintained by their organizations. All channel and package management activities take place in the Channels tab of the RHN website. The instructions here are used in conjunction with the RHN website chapter of the RHN Reference Guide.

Note

Because of the potential problems that may arise from deploying untested packages throughout your production environment, Red Hat strongly recommends creating beta channels covering select systems that can be used for staging.
For example, if you have a system group of Web servers that receives a set of custom packages, create temporary channels to install the packages on a non-critical subset of representative systems first. These might be development or staging servers, not live production systems. These temporary channels are then deleted using the steps described in Section 4.8, “Deleting Software Channels”.

4.1. Channel Management Privileges

In order to perform any channel management tasks, users must have obtained the proper permissions as a Channel Administrator. These permissions can be modified through the Red Hat Network website. Permissions are assigned to users by Organization Administrators, the highest level of administrator. Channel Administrator privileges are assigned as follows:
  1. Log in to the Red Hat Network website as an Organization Administrator.
  2. On the top navigation bar, click the Users tab and then click the name of the user who is performing channel management functions.
  3. On the User Details page, scroll down to the Roles section and select the checkbox labeled Channel Administrator. Then click Submit at the bottom of the page. Note that Organization Administrators are automatically granted channel administration privileges.
  4. Have the user log in to the Red Hat Network website, click the Channels tab on the top navigation bar, and ensure the Manage Software Channels button appears on the corresponding left navigation bar.
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