Chapter 4. Custom Channel and Package Management

Chapter 4. Custom Channel and Package Management

4.1. Channel Management Privileges
4.2. Manage Software Channels
4.3. Managed Software Channel Details
4.4. Manage Software Packages
4.5. Creating a Software Channel
4.6. Assigning Packages to Software Channels
4.7. Cloning Software Channels
4.8. Deleting Software Channels

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.

Tip

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”.