Hi, we have a new customer to support. They have RHEL5 not CentOS5.
Is there a summary of the differences between RHEL and CentOS?
We have come across differences in how yum works. There is magic involving the rhnplugin that connects us to invisible repositories not mentioned in the yum config files, interacts with the web interface via rhn.redhat.com, ...
We wonder if there are other differences that we have not yet stumbled upon, that might create issues in the future.
drew einhorn wrote:
Hi, we have a new customer to support. They have RHEL5 not CentOS5.
Is there a summary of the differences between RHEL and CentOS?
We have come across differences in how yum works. There is magic involving the rhnplugin that connects us to invisible repositories not mentioned in the yum config files, interacts with the web interface via rhn.redhat.com, ...
We wonder if there are other differences that we have not yet stumbled upon, that might create issues in the future.
Your client can call red hat support and there is a working yum-security plugin.
They also have access to RHN to manage assets.
That is about it for differences.
You need to think more about things like compiling custom kernels or 3rd party repos, since you have upstream paid support now.
Exactly, RedHat service (not free) uses the redhat update network and tools like "up2date" to deliver updated RPM packages to their customer. They do not distribute yum by default and they do not have a yum repository configuration that works.
Under the covers both RHEL and CentOS use RPMs so "rpm -Uvh this.rpm that.rpm" works for both. Because of this "yum" can be installed and a local yum repository can be used for local packages. RPM will do the right thing as long as the local packages are 'well' made.
From the support point of view expect redhat updates to be delivered
to RH customers a min. to a week sooner than the CentOS community sees them. Start using language like "package update tool" where you would commonly use "yum".
Scan the online documentation for redhat network, up2date, rhn etc.... In with the exception of "rhn" .vs. "yum" and copyright images there is no difference beyond possible random differences (minor) in the hosts that RPMs are built on.
Also "/etc/redhat-release" will (OK should) differ.
On Wed, Jul 2, 2008 at 9:09 AM, Johnny Hughes johnny@centos.org wrote:
drew einhorn wrote:
Hi, we have a new customer to support. They have RHEL5 not CentOS5.
Is there a summary of the differences between RHEL and CentOS?
We have come across differences in how yum works. There is magic involving the rhnplugin that connects us to invisible repositories not mentioned in the yum config files, interacts with the web interface via rhn.redhat.com, ...
We wonder if there are other differences that we have not yet stumbled upon, that might create issues in the future.
Your client can call red hat support and there is a working yum-security plugin.
They also have access to RHN to manage assets.
That is about it for differences.
You need to think more about things like compiling custom kernels or 3rd party repos, since you have upstream paid support now.
CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
On Wed, Jul 2, 2008 at 4:38 PM, NiftyClusters Mitch niftycluster@niftyegg.com wrote:
Exactly, RedHat service (not free) uses the redhat update network and tools like "up2date" to deliver updated RPM packages to their customer. They do not distribute yum by default and they do not have a yum repository configuration that works.
FYI this is no longer true with respect to RHEL5. It does indeed use yum, but they have some specialized hooks into yum to deliver content via rhn still. This is what OP was referring to I believe.
On Wed, Jul 2, 2008 at 10:09 AM, Johnny Hughes johnny@centos.org wrote:
drew einhorn wrote:
Hi, we have a new customer to support. They have RHEL5 not CentOS5.
You need to think more about things like compiling custom kernels or 3rd party repos, since you have upstream paid support now.
I've been thinking about 3rd party repos
So far the only non RHEL packages I've installed are freenx and nx from the CentOS extras. I haven't been able to find them anywhere else.
I am puzzled by the status of yum-priorities.
Unless I'm looking at things cross eyed. It's in the CentOS5 base repository, Which I think means it should be in the RHEL5 repositories, but I can't find it there.
I'm pretty sure I have a sufficient understanding of yum-priorities on CentOS to adapt it to RHEL, once I install it.
And I really need to learn more about package management and repositories in a pure CentOS environment.
I really don't understand the voodoo for overriding the priorities, for a specific packages when necessary.
And I really wish there was a way to browse the available packages by repo after the priorities have been taken into consideration.
And in addition I wish there was to browse the packages that are blocked by packages in other repositories,
And better ways to understand how dependency issues effect which versions of a package are available.
Is there a good place to look for documentation relative to the above.
CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
In looking at the possibility of using yum-priorities on a RHEL5 system, I noticed on thing that is different from my recollection, I see that the default priority it 99, but I seem to recall that it used to be 1.
Is my memory faulty, or did it change?
Actually 99 seems to make the most sense when using it in its native environment on a CentOS box.
But when trying to use it in a foreign environment on a RHEL box, 1 seems to be a better choice, because of the repos that are magically created by the rhnplugin, that do not have configurations in /etc/yum.repos.d
It would be ideal if there turned out to be a undocumented feature in */etc/yum/pluginconf.d/priorities.conf *that allowed us to change the default priority. * *
drew einhorn wrote:
In looking at the possibility of using yum-priorities on a RHEL5 system, I noticed on thing that is different from my recollection, I see that the default priority it 99, but I seem to recall that it used to be 1.
Is my memory faulty, or did it change?
Actually 99 seems to make the most sense when using it in its native environment on a CentOS box.
But when trying to use it in a foreign environment on a RHEL box, 1 seems to be a better choice, because of the repos that are magically created by the rhnplugin, that do not have configurations in /etc/yum.repos.d
It would be ideal if there turned out to be a undocumented feature in */etc/yum/pluginconf.d/priorities.conf *that allowed us to change the default priority.
The default priority is 99 (If you do not have a priority set).
The recommended settings if you are running CentOS is:
Priority=1 for [base], [updates], and [extras] ... and Priority=2 for [centosplus]
In your case, it makes since (with a RHEL install) to not have centos [base] or [updates] in there at all (since you do not want to install centos packages on RHEL).
If you want to use CentOS Extras then I would set the priorities as 2 for that.
One thing to remember when using yum from RHEL is that RHN is accessed through a plugin ... so you will need to find a way to set priorities for that differently than CentOS does it.
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drew einhorn -
Jim Perrin -
Johnny Hughes -
NiftyClusters Mitch