Release Found: RHN Satellite 5.0 or newer on Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS 4.5 or newer Xen based guest OS

Symptoms: When installing and running rhn-satellite-activate on a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 Paravirtualized Xen guest running on a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Paravirtualized Xen host, the following error is displayed:

File "/usr/lib/python2.3/site-packages/rhn/rpclib.py", line 593, in __call__
return self._send(self._name, args)
File "/usr/lib/python2.3/site-packages/rhn/rpclib.py", line 323, in _request
raise pe
xmlrpclib.ProtocolError: 

Resolution: Running RHN Satellite 5.0 or newer within a Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS 4.5 or newer Xen based guest OS is now supported where the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 AS OS is a guest on a Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server/Platform 5.0 or newer OS.

Satellite running within this setup errors out while activation due to a known bug in RHN hosted (which is the http://rhn.redhat.com website) environment.

Use the following steps to avoid the traceback error and get the satellite installed and activated:

1. Run the installer with –disconnected flag.
2. Once it is installed, edit the /etc/rhn/rhn.conf file and set the rhn_parent to satellite.rhn.redhat.com and disconnected=0 to switch to connected mode.
3. Login to http://rhn.redhat.com.
4. Find the Satellite server from the system list
5. Click on the system’s name to view its details
6. Go to the “Satellite” tab on this page
7. Copy and paste the Satellite Certificate (gotten from Red Hat Support) and activate the registered system as a satellite

Now RHN Hosted knows this satellite is activated. To complete the process of creating proper DB entires run the following from command line :

rhn-satellite-activate --disconnected

After successful completion of above command, test the satellite to see if its up:

satellite-sync --list-channels

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Original link: http://www.redhatmagazine.com/2008/02/06/tips-and-tricks-why-is-my-red-hat-network-rhn-satellite-not-getting-activated-on-a-xen-...