Red Hat Satellite Interview Questions & Answers

Question 1. When Did Red Hat Satellite 6 Become Generally Available?

Answer :

Red Hat Satellite 6.2 GA: July 27, 2016

• Blog Post
• Red Hat Satellite 6 Data Sheet
• Release Notes

Red Hat Satellite 6.1 GA: August 12, 2015

• Press Release
• Blog Post

Red Hat Satellite 6.0 GA: September 10, 2014

• Press Release
• Blog Post

Question 2. What Are Some Of The New Features In Red Hat Satellite 6?

Answer :

Red Hat Satellite 6 includes a redesigned product architecture to manage new types of content on a wide variety of platforms, including bare-metal, private, and public clouds. Red Hat Satellite 6.2 builds on that release with the following features:

• Automated workflows. Capabilities include remote execution and scheduling for remote execution jobs, as well as expanded bootstrap and provisioning options.
• Air-gapped security and federation. Users can now sync to export RPM content from one Satellite to another.
• Software management improvements. Simplified smart variable management is now available.
• Capsule improvements. Users now have extended insight into capsule health and overall performance. Capsules are more lightweight and can be configured to only store content requested by clients. In addition, capsules have a new reference architecture that includes the ability to deploy a highly available Red Hat Satellite capsule.
• Atomic OSTree and containers -- Mirror, provision, and manage Red Hat Enterprise Linux® (RHEL) Atomic hosts and content with Satellite. Also, mirror container repositories, such as Red Hat Registry, DockerHub™ and other third-party sources. Satellite provides a secure, curated point of entry for container content.
• Enhanced documentation. New and updated documentation is available at site.
  
  New documentation:
  1. Virtual instance guide: How to configure virt-who
  2. Hammer command-line interface (CLI) guide: How to use Red Hat Satellite’s CLI
  3. Content management guide
  4. Quick start guide
  
  Updated documentation:
  1. User guide divided into topics for easier use: Server administration and host configuration
  2. Cheat sheets available for specific topics, such as Hammer
  3. Updated feature overviews
  
  
• Lazy Sync -- Satellite 6.2.3 introduces the "Lazy Sync" functionality, which provides users additional flexibility when downloading content. Lazy sync provides a series of new download policies, which govern how content is downloaded. See Satellite 6.2 Feature Overview: Lazy Sync
  
  Support Status:
  1. Lazy Sync was/is included in earlier Satellite 6.2 releases (6.2.0 through 6.2.2) as a Technology Preview
  2. With Satellite 6.2.3, Lazy Sync will transition to a Fully Supported.

Question 3. What Infrastructures Are Supported By Red Hat Satellite 6?

Answer :

Bare metal, Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization, Red Hat OpenStack® Platform, and VMWare.

Question 4. What Open Source Projects Serve As The Upstream For Red Hat Satellite 6?

Answer :

Key projects include: Foreman, Puppet, Katello, Pulp, and Candlepin.

Question 5. What Are The Supported Usage For These Components In Red Hat Satellite 6?

Answer :

All Red Hat Satellite components (such as Foreman, Puppet, Katello, Pulp, and Candlepin) and their usage are supported within the context of Red Hat Satellite only. Third party usage of any components falls beyond supported usage. 

Question 6. How Can I Upgrade From Red Hat Satellite 5 To Satellite 6, And Can I Upgrade In Place?

Answer :

The product architectures differ between Red Hat Satellite 5 and Red Hat Satellite 6. Red Hat Satellite 6.x releases requires a fresh install. As a result, upgrading in place from Red Hat Satellite 5.x to Red Hat Satellite 6.x is not possible. Current Red Hat Satellite 5 customers will have many options to manage their Red Hat Enterprise Linux environment with Red Hat Satellite 6.

Question 7. What Happened To Red Hat Satellite Proxy Server?

Answer :

Red Hat Satellite Proxy Server as a federation device for Red Hat Satellite has been replaced by Red Hat Satellite Capsule Server. The capsule server is similar to the proxy server, but uses a different architecture. If you are transitioning from Red Hat Satellite 5 to Red Hat Satellite 6, any deployed proxy servers must also be transitioned to capsule servers.

Question 8. Is Red Hat Satellite 5 Still Supported?

Answer :

Red Hat Satellite 5.5 and earlier versions are no longer supported. Red Hat Satellite and Proxy 5.6 and 5.7 support ends in January 2019. Extended Lifecycle Support (ELS) for Satellite/Proxy 5.8 can be purchased to extend support until the end of May 2020.

Question 9. Can Satellite 6 Manage Rhel 7 Client Systems?

Answer :

Yes. Red Hat Satellite versions 5.6 and above are capable of RHEL 7 content and systems management.

Question 10. Does Red Hat Satellite 6.2 Feature High Availability?

Answer :

Yes, high availability is documented and supported through a certified Red Hat reference architecture. This reference architecture provides step-by-step instructions for deploying a Red Hat Enterprise Linux cluster for Red Hat Satellite Server, as well as a combination of Red Hat Enterprise Linux cluster and load balancing to support an active/active and highly available capsule.

Question 11. How Does Red Hat Satellite Compare To Red Hat Cloudforms And Red Hat Cloud Infrastructure?

Answer :

Red Hat Satellite executes what would traditionally be called system management work—related to Red Hat infrastructure—on bare metal, virtualized servers, or in the cloud. Many organizations use both to provide end-to-end infrastructure management. Red Hat CloudForms provides a centralized view and control or orchestration of all workloads across private and public cloud infrastructures while Red Hat Satellite performs software, configuration, and subscription management, as well as provisioning for Red Hat infrastructure. Both products are offered in Red Hat Cloud Infrastructure, an integrated set of Red Hat technologies.

Question 12. When Is Red Hat Satellite 6.2 Public Beta 2 Available?

Answer :

June 15, 2016.

Question 13. When Was Red Hat Satellite 6.2 Public Beta 1 Available?

Answer :

April 27, 2016.

Question 14. I Am Running Beta 1, But Want To Run Beta 2. Will I Need To Re-install And Download Beta 2?

Answer :

Yes. There is no direct upgrade available from Beta 1 to Beta 2. Some improvements and enhancements have been made related directly to installation, so the customer experience related to Beta 2 install should be improved from Beta 1. For customers who want the best experience, we highly recommend Beta 2. The entire community of Satellite users can also benefit from the feedback.

Question 15. I Am Running Beta 1. Can I Continue Running Those Same Bits?

Answer :

Yes. You can continue the original Satellite 6.2 Beta (released April 28). Per standard guidelines with Red Hat Beta programs, those subscriptions will expire 90 days after being deployed. We do encourage you to instead download Beta 2, which can be deployed for the remainder of the 90 day Beta subscription.

Please note: Beta 2 bits will be published to the same Beta repository, but are not compatible with the initial Beta. If you wish to remain on the initial Beta, you will need to disable further updates from this repository. Once you decide to try Beta 2, you can re-install (see: Can I upgrade from Public Beta 1 to Public Beta 2?

Question 16. What Is The Difference Between Beta 1 And The Beta 2, Which Will Be Available June 15?

Answer :

Beta 2 includes numerous fixes and enhancements, including the following:

• UI and API performance improvements
• Interactive-shell performance improvements (Hammer)
• Improved disconnected workflow
• Installer branding, with scenarios for capsules and satellite server
• Backup and restore script bug fixes and improvements
• Improved database performance for certain content management scenarios -- i.e., EL7 installs come with newer, faster mongo
• Provisioning bug fixes

Question 17. How Is The Public Beta Supported By Red Hat?

Answer :

The Satellite 6.2 public Beta is supported in non-production settings at a Severity 4 level.

Question 18. Can I Use The Beta In Production?

Answer :

Beta releases are made available only for testing purposes. Red Hat provides Beta releases and revisions from Beta repositories. This Beta is not an officially supported repository, and these releases cannot be considered for a production environment. 

Question 19. Can I Upgrade From Public Beta 1 To Public Beta 2?

Answer :

No, Beta 2 must be a new installation.

Question 20. What’s New In Red Hat Satellite 6.2?

Answer :

Satellite 6.2 release focuses on several key areas:

• Remote Execution: Satellite 6.2 introduces remote execution, automating workflows and enabling users to take multiple actions against groups of systems. Now Satellite 6.2 can automatically reboot a system after a patch install or conduct rolling upgrades across hundreds of systems as easily as one.
  
  Users can easily build a script library, share scripts, and share repeatable workflows, so less experienced administrators can execute complex workflows. In addition, users can schedule tasks and use new dashboards for enhanced interaction with systems under management.
  
  
• Federation: Satellite 6.2 lets you synchronize and export content from one Satellite to another. This feature is especially useful for organizations that require their systems management solution to run disconnected from the internet for security purposes. Also known as Inter-Satellite-Sync.
• Software Management Improvements: Satellite 6.2 delivers an easier-to-customize Puppet implementation through improved smart variable management.
• Capsule Improvements: The Red Hat Satellite Capsule user interface provides much deeper insight into the health of the Capsule. View what services are running and their status, from the centralized Satellite console.
• Support Containers and the Container Host Infrastructure: The latest version of Red Hat Satellite includes support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) Atomic Hosts, Red Hat’s hardened platform for container workloads. Users can provision and manage RHEL Atomic Hosts and use it as a compute resource to deploy containers. In addition, Red Hat Satellite 6.2 supports Docker v2 API and registries.

Question 21. Who Is Eligible To Participate In The Public Beta?

Answer :

All Red Hat customers are eligible (though customers without active Satellite subscriptions will need to contact support rather than using the self-service enrollment form, and we encourage Beta users to open tickets through Red Hat support.

Question 22. How Do I Enroll In The Public Beta?

Answer :

For customers with active Satellite subscriptions, enrollment in the public Beta is self-service via Customer Portal : just log in as an Org Admin user, and click on the "Enroll" button on the Public Beta Landing Page and complete the form.

Once successfully enrolled, participants will be have the following subscriptions added to their account:

The public Beta release will add the following entitlements to the customer’s account:

• 2 Red Hat Satellite Server Subscription with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (2 subscriptions to be able to test the Inter-Satellite-Sync (ISS) feature)
• 5 Red Hat Satellite Capsules Subscriptions, no Red Hat Enterprise Linux public Beta subscriptions are issued with a 90-day expiration.

Question 23. What Is The Upgrade Path For Beta Participants?

Answer :

1) Supported upgrade paths for Satellite 6.2 GA:

• Satellite 6.1 -> Satellite 6.2 (GA to GA)
• customers will need to first update to Satellite 6.1.9 errata level before upgrading to 6.2.0

2) Unsupported upgrade paths:

• from 6.1.8 or earlier versions, from GA to Beta, from Beta to GA, or from Beta 1 to Beta 2
• from either Beta 1 or Beta 2 to Production GA versions.

3) Capsule needs to be the same version as Satellite i.e. cannot run Capsule 6.1 with Satellite 6.2 or vice versa.

Question 24. How Does Red Hat Satellite Compare To Cloudforms And Rhci?

Answer :

Satellite executes what would traditionally be called “systems management” work related to Red Hat infrastructure on bare metal, virtualized or on in the cloud. Many organizations leverage both Satellite and CloudForms to provide end-to-end management of their infrastructure. CloudForms provides a centralized view and centralized control/orchestration of all workloads across private and public cloud infrastructures. Satellite performs software management, configuration management, subscription management & provisioning for Red Hat infrastructure. Both are offered as components of Red Hat Cloud Infrastructure (RHCI), an integrated set of Red Hat technologies.