10 Steps to Build an SOE: How Red Hat Satellite 6 Supports Setting up a Standard Operating Environment
THIS DOCUMENT IS OUTDATED
The content that was previously covered by the SOE guide has been merged into the official Satellite documentation
Please use the official Product Documentation as the PDF associated with this document will not be updated.
The Purpose of this Guide
This solution guide provides an example of an implementation based on a sample customer scenario. This scenario includes a distributed datacenter topology, sample applications, and an example of an IT organization and its roles. It is an end-to-end story that starts with a fresh installation of Satellite 6 and provides a step-by-step configuring of all necessary Satellite 6 entities, up to an up-and-running infrastructure with servers and applications and their ongoing maintenance. Most parts of the setup can be automated with the hammer command-line interface (CLI), which this reference architecture details. The document covers nearly all Satellite entities. For the most critical ones (content views, host groups, and lifecycle environments), multiple scenarios are illustrated. By using this comprehensive documentation, customers can configure Red Hat Satellite 6 in a way that best fits their needs.
You can download the pdf of the guide here:
10 Steps to Build an SOE: How Red Hat Satellite 6 Supports Setting up a Standard Operating Environment
How this Solution Guide Is Structured
The following sections provide a brief overview of each of the ten steps and include the core content items, the Satellite 6 entities covered, and the achievements for each step.
Step 1: Set Up Your System Management Infrastructure. Perform a basic configuration of Sat6 and its embedded Capsule. We also create an organization and import the subscription manifest.
Corresponding Satellite 6 Entities: Satellite 6 Installer, Organization, and Subscription Manifest
Outcome: You now have an up-and-running system management infrastructure and your Red Hat subscription manifest uploaded and activated.
Step 2: Map Your Location and Datacenter Topology. Configure two datacenters with different underlying virtualization platforms (RHEV and RHELOSP), one with a DMZ.
Corresponding Entities: Capsules and their corresponding Locations, Subnets, and Domains.
Outcome: You now have three different Capsules to manage the three different locations.
Step 3: Define your Definitive Media Library Content. Import software content into Satellite 6, focusing on different software entry points and formats. The content includes RPM packages and Puppet modules for Red Hat, third-party, and custom applications.
Corresponding Entities: Products, Repositories, Third-party and custom GPG Keys, and Sync Plans.
Outcome: You have defined multiple custom and third-party Products and Repositories, successfully imported their corresponding content, and enabled continual updates of content using synchronization plans.
Step 4: Define Your Content Lifecycle. Learn the differences between content views and composite content views. Learn how to use them and lifecycle environments to match your particular scenario.
Outcome: You have created lifecycle environments and their paths, which allow you to segregate the duties of the different stack layers (Example: the OS and the applications running on top of it) and to create independent release cycles for each of them.
Step 5: Define Your Core Build. Define your OS-deployment (core build) configuration and its corresponding content items. Create, publish, and promote content views using sample Puppet modules, Config Groups, and Content Views.
Outcome: You have created two different core-build (OS) definitions for applications running on top of the OS. The core build consists of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, third-party packages, and some sample Puppet modules used to make the core build definition more flexible.
Step 6: Define Your Application Content. Learn about application layer content views (profiles). Learn how to assemble them with the Core Build content views from Step 5. You can also learn about roles and profiles and the separation of responsibilities between the OS and applications.
Corresponding Entities: Sample Puppet modules for roles and profiles, Config Groups, and Composite Content Views.
Outcome: You now have 5 different applications, including some common infrastructure services and a two-tier web application.
Step 7: Automate Your Provisioning. Configure the automated provisioning to deploy the composite content views created earlier. Learn about different scenarios for host groups and enhanced provisioning that uses dynamic partition tables and Foreman hooks.
Corresponding Entities: PXE & Boot ISO, Provisioning Templates, Host Groups & Activation Keys, Global Parameters & Smart Class Parameters, and Foreman Hooks
Outcome: You have configured all entities required to provision new servers and to deploy the composite content views created earlier by using Satellite 6 provisioning templates and parameters.
Step 8: Map Your IT Organization and Roles to Your Satellite 6 Setup. Map typical IT organizations and roles to Satellite 6 roles and the RBAC model.
Corresponding Entities: Users & User Groups, Roles and RBAC (roles, permissions, filters).
Outcome: You have 5 sample roles that reflect the typical roles of a two-dimensional responsibility matrix. This matrix is used to separate responsibilities and to reduce the complexity of visible entities in the UI.
Step 9: Manage the Content Lifecycle Continuously. Manage the Satellite 6 content lifecycle, including errata management, content view update operations, and puppet module changes.
Corresponding Entities: Errata Management, including Errata notification emails, Content Dashboard and Incremental Updates.
Outcome: You know how to execute different content update scenarios and the new errata management features of Satellite 6.1.
Step 10: Automate and Extend Your Setup outlines possible enhancements (based on the setup chosen in earlier steps). Some examples include: Importing existing hosts, Using the host discovery features, Using Satellite 6 to support various IT processes.
Outcome: You have some ideas for enhancing the setup created in the earlier steps of this document.