How To Install SpaceWalk on CentOS 6 / RHEL 6

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Spacewalk is the package, and system management solution for Red Hat derived Linux operating system such as CentOS, Scientific Linux and Fedora, by the spacewalk community. It is released under GPLv2 license.

It offers a more flexible way to do

  1. Inventory of the systems
  2. Install and Update system packages.
  3. Configuring for Kick-start installation.
  4. Deploy and Manage the configuration files from a single location
  5. Start / Stop / Configure the guests.
  6. Distribute the content across the multiple Geographical location using spacewalk proxy.

Article Series:

1: How to Install SpaceWalk on CentOS 6 / RHEL 6

2: Managing Channels and Repositories in Spacewalk

3: Register clients with SpaceWalk Server

Spacewalk provides the web interface to manage and view the updates for the system that are registered, and we can initiate tasks such as install, update, inventory, and so on.

Here is the tutorial about installing SpaceWalk on CentOS 6 / RHEL 6.

Prerequisites

Before installing SpaceWalk on the CentOS, the system must be set up to have the required repositories to download the dependencies. Lets first setup the SpaceWalk repository.

rpm -Uvh https://copr-be.cloud.fedoraproject.org/results/@spacewalkproject/spacewalk-2.9/epel-6-x86_64/00830557-spacewalk-repo/spacewalk-repo-2.9-4.el6.noarch.rpm

Enable Red Hat Optional server channel (RHEL 6).

subscription-manager repos --enable=rhel-6-server-optional-rpms

Setup the EPEL repository on CentOS 6.

rpm -Uvh https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-6.noarch.rpm

Configure the firewall for Spacewalk.

iptables -I INPUT -p tcp -m state --state NEW -m tcp --dport 80 -j ACCEPT
iptables -I INPUT -p tcp -m state --state NEW -m tcp --dport 443 -j ACCEPT
iptables -I INPUT -p tcp -m state --state NEW -m tcp --dport 5222 -j ACCEPT
iptables -I INPUT -p tcp -m state --state NEW -m tcp --dport 5269 -j ACCEPT
iptables -I INPUT -p udp -m udp --dport 69 -j ACCEPT
service iptables save

Setup SpaceWalk Database

SpaceWalk supports either PostgreSQL (8.4 or higher) or Oracle ( 10g or higher) database, and you can skip the following embedded database setup to use the external database.

Embedded Database

SpaceWalk has the embedded setup for PostgreSQL database which will do the automatic SpaceWalk installation without having user intervention to enter the database information. Embedded database method is straightforward to set up and run the SpaceWalk in no time, and this is very useful for those who do not have any database knowledge.

Here, we will use PostgreSQL (embedded) database.

yum -y install spacewalk-setup-postgresq

External Database

You can use the external PostgreSQL or Oracle database to install SpaceWalk, and you can find the tons of documents online to set up the database.

Install SpaceWalk

If you are planning to use the PostgreSQL database.

yum -y install spacewalk-postgresql

Configure SpaceWalk

Run the Spacewalk set up to begin the configuration. It will ask you to enter the admin mail and organization details to generate the self-signed certificate for secured access.

spacewalk-setup

Output:

* Setting up SELinux..
** Database: Setting up database connection for PostgreSQL backend.
Database "rhnschema" does not exist
** Database: Installing the database:
** Database: This is a long process that is logged in:
** Database:   /var/log/rhn/install_db.log
*** Progress: ###
** Database: Installation complete.
** Database: Populating database.
*** Progress: ##########################
* Configuring tomcat.
* Setting up users and groups.
** GPG: Initializing GPG and importing key.
** GPG: Creating /root/.gnupg directory
You must enter an email address.
Admin Email Address? [email protected]
* Performing initial configuration.
* Configuring apache SSL virtual host.
Should setup configure apache's default ssl server for you (saves original ssl.conf) [Y]? Y << Press Y 
** /etc/httpd/conf.d/ssl.conf has been backed up to ssl.conf-swsave
* Configuring jabberd.
* Creating SSL certificates.
CA certificate password? << Enter Certificate Password 
Re-enter CA certificate password? << Re Enter Certificate Password 
Cname alias of the machine (comma seperated)? server.itzgeek.local,server << Certificate Subject Name (Your Domain Name) 
Organization? ITzGeek << Your Organization Name
Organization Unit [server.itzgeek.local]? IT << Your Organization Unit 
Email Address [[email protected]]? << Email Address 
City? Albany << Your City 
State? NY << Your State #
Country code (Examples: "US", "JP", "IN", or type "?" to see a list)? US << Your Country 
** SSL: Generating CA certificate.
** SSL: Deploying CA certificate.
** SSL: Generating server certificate.
** SSL: Storing SSL certificates.
* Deploying configuration files.
* Update configuration in database.
* Setting up Cobbler..
Cobbler requires tftp and xinetd services be turned on for PXE provisioning functionality. Enable these services [Y]? Y << Press Y 
* Restarting services.
Installation complete.
Visit https://server.itzgeek.local to create the Spacewalk administrator account.

Once the installation is complete, check the status of SpaceWalk service.

/usr/sbin/spacewalk-service status

Output:

postmaster (pid 4403) is running...
router (pid 4425) is running...
sm (pid 4433) is running...
c2s (pid 4441) is running...
s2s (pid 4449) is running...
tomcat6 (pid 4511) is running...               [ OK ]
httpd (pid 4659) is running...
osa-dispatcher (pid 4687) is running...
rhn-search is running (4709).
cobblerd (pid 4751) is running...
RHN Taskomatic is running (4778).

Start the services if not started automatically.

/usr/sbin/spacewalk-service start

Access Spacewalk

Now you can access the SpaceWalk via a web browser.

https://ip.ad.dr.ess

OR

https://your-domain-name

You need to add exceptions for the self-signed certificate.

Install SpaceWalk on CentOS 6 – Certificate Error
Install SpaceWalk on CentOS 6 – Certificate Error

You need to create an administrator account for the spacewalk. Fill up details and then click on Create Organization.

Install SpaceWalk on CentOS 6 – Create First User
Install SpaceWalk on CentOS 6 – Create the First User

Upon successful creation, it will take you to the home page of spacewalk where you can do all the administrative activities.

Install SpaceWalk on CentOS 6 – Spacewalk Home
Install SpaceWalk on CentOS 6 – Spacewalk Home

In our next tutorial, we will see about Configuring the SpaceWalk to distribute the updates for CentOS clients.

That’s All.

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