[Spacewalk-list] System installed packages auditing

[Bruncko Michal]

hello list

I use spacewalk server (2.4) as repository for package installation and 
deployment for couple of systems. sometimes I am using webgui based 
package deployment, sometimes I use yum form CLI. Recently new centos 
6.8 has been released and I used yum on specific system to get it 
upgraded to 6.8 (~170 packages getting upgraded). installation was 
completed successfully but then I realized that some 
application-related-service stopped working properly and based on error 
message (httpd - child pid XXX exit signal Illegal instruction) I 
decided to not fight with fixing (as this was looking like 
library/instruction/whatever issue rather than configuration) and wanted 
to downgrade some specific packages. So I decided to start downgrading 
httpd packages and now the point why I am writing here in this list: I 
was not able simply to find out the name of original httpd package 
name-version installed on affected system from before the upgrade that I 
wanted to use again. Yes, from /var/log/yum.log I can see the latest 
package name-version and time when update happen. But I was not able to 
find previous package version nowhere. Thanks to other not-yet-upgraded 
systems I retrieved package name-version from them and use it for 
downgrading on affected system.

questions:

1. provides spacewalk any functionality regards to list of packages 
installed per system with focus historical view? i.e. to see not only 
the latest installed packages, but also older packages. I.e. I am 
looking for installed packages auditing tool (what packages were changed 
and when).

2. what way did you use if you decide to downgrade some package on 
system? my steps are following:
  --> identify which package has to be downgraded (in case of some issue)
  --> download that package from public repository
  --> and manual installation using "rpm --ivhU --nodeps --force 
packagename"
yes, looks like dirty way, but if somebody can give me better option I 
would very likely to use instead of this one.

thanks and cheers

michal