2.4. Additional Requirements

Client systems need full network access to the RHN Proxy Server services and ports.

RHN strongly recommends firewalling the RHN Proxy Server solution from the Internet. However, various TCP ports must be opened on the Proxy, depending on your implementation of RHN Proxy Server:

There is great time sensitivity when connecting to a Web server running SSL (Secure Sockets Layer); it is imperative the time settings on the clients and server are reasonably close together so the that SSL certificate does not expire before or during use. It is recommended that Network Time Protocol (NTP) be used to synchronize the clocks.

The system upon which the RHN Proxy Server will be installed must resolve its own FQDN properly.

Customers who will be connecting to the central Red Hat Network Servers to receive incremental updates must have a Red Hat Network account. The sales representative assists with the setup of this account at the time of purchase.

It is imperative that customers keep track of all primary login information. For RHN Proxy Server, this includes usernames and passwords for the Organization Administrator account and SSL certificate generation. Red Hat strongly recommends this information be copied onto two separate floppy disks, printed out on paper, and stored in a fireproof safe.

Since the Proxy forwards virtually all local HTTP requests to the central RHN Servers, you must take care to put files destined for distribution (such as in a kickstart installation tree) in the non-forwarding location on the Proxy: /var/www/html/pub/. Files placed in this directory can be downloaded directly from the Proxy. This can be especially useful for distributing GPG keys or establishing installation trees for kickstarts.