[lug] Red Hat Network Experience?

[Rob Nagler]

That was just a test message.  Good response, so here as more detailed
questions.  :-)  I asked these on rhn-users and didn't get a response
yet.  It seems the list isn't very active.

When I did an update I had to figure out where to find the rpmnew
files so that I could integrate the changes into our host
configuration system.  It seemed like many other packages could have
automatically updated the configuration, because we had not modified
it, e.g. php.ini, ldap.ini, and shells.  Does anybody automate
configuration upgrades?

We have about 30 hosts.  We manage their unique configuration with a
set of RPMs (system, host, internal software, etc.).  The source files
are checked into CVS.  We are considering moving all of our machines
to RHN including production boxes.  I'm testing RHN on some
development machines.  I don't see the value of Workgroup RHN
licenses.  We need to know what happens to a machine when up2date runs
so we can integrate any configuration changes back into the source and
generate new RPMs.  I test out the changes on one host before
upgrading the others.  Part of the integration is creating a "fix up
up2date" script which either deletes or copies rpmnew files.  This is
a fair bit of work, but we like to ensure consistent and reliable
upgrades.  How are other people handling multiple host management?
Are you using Workgroup licenses?

I scheduled an update via the web last night and it failed.  There
didn't seem to be any way to restart it.  There also wasn't any detail
as to why it failed.  It seems like the rhnd is fairly new.  I sent a
message to rhn-help and they replied today with "are you using the
latest up2date?".  They should know this.  They have all the
information on the site.  This indicates their operations group is
just getting started.  (There is a big difference between packaging
software and delivering services.)

I'm testing out RHN on 7.2.  I bought the professional edition for fun
at CompUSA.  I wondered if being a paying subscriber would make a
difference on support side.  It is not clear it does.  I send two help
messages and two feedback messages, but only got one response.

Someone mentioned a problem with the business model.  I am less
concerned about that than the execution plan.  If I can't depend on
the service and occasional support (I expect more support when getting
started), then the business model doesn't matter imiho.

I've spoken at length with a sales person at Red Hat.  He seemed
friendly and nice.  My experience with RH customer support has been
the opposite.  I once paid $220 for a single incident, was billed for
five incidents (it took several calls to get the charges reversed),
and they couldn't solve a problem (kickstart was broken in 7.0).  I'd
be interested in hearing others' experiences.

My guess is we'll go with RHN, because the basic "up2date -u" seems to
work fine.  I just would really like it if Red Hat would pay attention
to their small customers.

Rob