Preparing the configuration file for Red Hat Enterprise Linux

In the configuration file, you provide information that is used by the Patch Downloader utility. This information includes definition of a proxy server (if one is used), identification of a local, temporary directory on the server that is used by the Patch Downloader utility during download, and download of filter definitions.

This topic contains the following sections:

• • Before you begin
  • To prepare the configuration file on Red Hat Enterprise Linux
  • Where to go from here

Before you begin

• Use the following command to encrypt the password supplied to the proxy server by the Patch Downloader utility. You must specify the resulting encrypted password in the <password></password> tag in the configuration XML file.
  If running the downloader on Microsoft Windows:

  redhat_downloader.bat -encode <passwordToEncrypt>

  If running the downloader on UNIX:

  sh redhat_downloader.sh -encode <passwordToEncrypt>

• Note the following limitation that apply while creating filters for RHEL 7 patches:

  Click here to view the limitations for RHEL7

  • When patching on RHEL7, you cannot create update-level or channel-level filters. You must use errata-level filters instead.
  • if your repository server runs on RHEL 5 or earlier, you can only download packages to your repository and not the errata metadata. Note that although the errata metadata is not downloaded, you can still create errata ID and errata-type filters in the online or offline catalog

To prepare the configuration file on Red Hat Enterprise Linux

1. Edit the sample XML configuration file (sample-redhat-downloader-config.xml) for use as the configuration file.

2. (Optional) Add proxy information using the following XML tags:

3. Add download information using the following XML tags:
4. Modify filters, in the <subscription> tag. These define patches that are included for download:

   • To create a filter that downloads the latest RPMs by errata type, use the following syntax:

     <errata-type-filter>
       <os></os>
       <arch></arch>
       <channel-label></channel-label>
       <errata-severity>
         <critical></critical>
         <important></important>
         <moderate></moderate>
         <low></low>
       </errata-severity>
       <errata-type>
         <security></security>
         <bugfix></bugfix>
         <enhancement></enhancement>
       </errata-type>
     </errata-type-filter>

      

      

      

   • To create a filter that downloads a specific errata by errata id, use the following syntax:

     <errata-ids-filter>
       <os></os>
       <arch></arch>
       <channel-label></channel-label>
       <errata-ids>
         <errata-id></errata-id>
       </errata-ids>
     </errata-ids-filter>

      

     Parameter	Description
     <os> </os>	OS for the channel label
     <arch> </arch>	Architecture for the channel label
     <channel-label> </channel-label>	Channel label that you want to download
     <errata-id> </errata-id>	A valid Errata ID for the channel label specified in the filter

      

      

   • (Not applicable for RHEL 7) To create a filter that downloads a specific update level, use the following syntax:

     <update-level-filter>
      <os></os>
      <arch></arch>
      <channel-label></channel-label>
      <update-level></update-level>
     </update-level-filter>

     Parameter	Description
     <os></os>	OS for the channel label
     <arch></arch>	Architecture for the channel label
     <channel-label> </channel-label>	Channel label you want to download
     <update-level> </update-level>	A valid update level for the channel label specified in the filter Note: The update-level filter works only on Linux computers. It does not work on windows computers.

5. Save the file.
   The sample-redhat-downloader-config.xml file is shown below, including sample data and parameter descriptions:

   <redhat-downloader-config>
     <config>
       <!--<proxy-settings>
         <port>8080</port>
         <host>_IPAddress_</host>
         <username>patch</username>
         <password>NWKIPRTPCWEB</password>
         <domain-name />
         <proxy-type>ntlm</proxy-type>
       </proxy-settings> -->
       <temporary-location>c:\tmp</temporary-location>
   <payload-repository-location>/home/repo/</payload-repository-location>
       <download-request-retries>10</download-request-retries>
       <download-request-timeout>180000</download-request-timeout>
       <downloader-parallel-threads>10</downloader-parallel-threads>
     </config>
     <subscription>
       <errata-type-filter>
         <os>RHES5</os>
         <arch>x86</arch>
         <channel-label>rhel-i386-server-5</channel-label>
         <errata-severity>
           <critical>true</critical>
           <important>true</important>
           <moderate>true</moderate>
           <low>true</low>
         </errata-severity>
         <errata-type>
           <security>true</security>
           <bugfix>true</bugfix>
           <enhancement>true</enhancement>
         </errata-type>
       </errata-type-filter>
       <errata-ids-filter>
         <os>RHAS4</os>
         <arch>x86</arch>
         <channel-label>rhel-i386-as-4</channel-label>
         <errata-ids>
           <errata-id>RHSA-2009:0429</errata-id>
           <errata-id>RHBA-2009:0388</errata-id>
         </errata-ids>
       </errata-ids-filter>
   <!-- This filter should be used only if the downloader is executed on a Linux machine -->
   <!-- This filter should not be used if the downloader is executed on a Windows machine -->
       <update-level-filter>
           <!-- This filter should NOT BE used for RHEL 7 -->
         <os>RHAS4</os>
         <arch>x86</arch>
         <channel-label>rhel-i386-as-4</channel-label>
         <update-level>5</update-level>
     </update-level-filter>
    </subscription>
   </redhat-downloader-config>

Where to go from here

Use the command in Running-the-Patch-Downloader-utility-for-Red-Hat-Enterprise-Linux and pass the configuration file as a parameter to download the patches.