[New Release] IBM BigFix Patches for Red Hat Enterprise Linux releases the RHSM Download plug-in and other feature enhancements released 12-21-2016

BigFix Patch is pleased to announce the release of the Red Hat Subscription Management (RHSM) Download Plug-in and other feature enhancements for users of Patches for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).

Enhanced download plug-in called RHSM download plug-in
The new download plug-in uses Red Hat Subscription Management (RHSM) to download patches from a vendor’s website to the BigFix server.
The RHSM download plug-in is available in the Manage Download Plug-ins dashboard as a new plug-in entry called RHSM Plug-in. All patch Fixlets are updated to use the RHSM Plug-in.

Note: The RHEL Plug-in will still be available to allow customers to use the Fixlets that are in custom sites. However, the RHEL Plug-in will no longer be supported for Red Hat 6 (x86 and x86-64).

Multiple-package baseline installation
This solution combines the installation of updates for multiple packages in a baseline into a single task, which can reduce the execution time of the baseline.

RHSM download cacher
Use the enhanced cacher to download and cache x86 or x86_64 Red Hat patches in air-gapped environments.

Extended repo list (optional)
You can configure the RHSM download plug-in to download and cache packages from repositories that are not shipped out of the box.

Highlights:

  • Download Plug-in Versions Analysis
  • Encryption Analysis for Clients Analysis
  • Enable the Multiple-Package Baseline Installation Feature - RHEL 6 task
  • Delete RHEL 6 Package List File for Multiple-Package Baseline Installation
  • TROUBLESHOOTING: RHEL 6 Patching Deployment Logs - Cleanup
  • Import RPM-GPG-KEY-redhat-release - RHEL 6
  • Enable the Multiple-Package Baseline Installation feature - RHEL 6
  • Multiple-Package Baseline Installation - RHEL 6 - x32 – Server
  • Multiple-Package Baseline Installation - RHEL 6 - x32 – Client
  • Multiple-Package Baseline Installation - RHEL 6 - x32 – Workstation
  • Multiple-Package Baseline Installation - RHEL 6 - x86_64 – Server
  • Multiple-Package Baseline Installation - RHEL 6 - x86_64 – Client
  • Multiple-Package Baseline Installation - RHEL 6 - x86_64 – Workstation

Published sites:

  • Patching Support site, version 683.
  • Patches for RHEL 6 - Native tools, version 260.

Actions to take:

  • Review your Red Hat subscription entitlements and ensure that they are active.
  • Register the RHSM download plug-in on the BigFix server.
  • Create and download certificate entitlements through RHSM. For more information, see: http://ibm.co/2gSEGJb
  • Add the certificates to the download plug-in
  • Use the Baseline Synchronization Dashboard to update existing baselines and custom sites with the latest content from the external Fixlet sites. For details on how to sync your baseline components with the external sites, see https://ibm.biz/Bdsc8d. RHEL 6 users need to create new baselines.

References:
For more information about using the RHSM download plug-in and the other enhancements, see the wiki page: http://ibm.co/2gSEGJb
For the pre-announcement of the release, see: http://bit.ly/2hRmUb2

Application Engineering team
IBM BigFix

Hi,

Is it true that all fixlets in “patches for RHEL6 - Native tools” site has been updated to use RHSM plug in. After configuring RHSM plug in, I have tried to deploy RHSA 2015-1482 and RHSA 2016-2972, but both of them failed. I can see that, it is still using RHEL download plug in. My site version is 261.

I have got below error in RHEL plug in log

Log in failed at set cookie ( https://sso.redhat.com)

And no log file created under RHSM plug in.

Hi,

Can someone please advise that whether this plug-in “RHSM” will help customer in patching of Oracle Enterprise Linux 6,7 as well? Or do need to setup something else for Oracle Enterprise Linux.

Thanks
Niraj

(moving to new post)

Hi Niraj, the RHSM plugin will not work for Oracle Linux patches.

How are we downloading Oracle Enterprise Linux patches because I can’t see any specific plug-in for Oracle Linux?

Thanks for your kind response.

You can only patch Oracle endpoints using the Custom Repository method.
http://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/en/SS6MER_9.5.0/com.ibm.bigfix.patch.doc/Patch/Patch_Oracle_Linux/c_manage_custom_repositories.html

Fixlets that provided by IBM …out of box in external site, do we need to manage custom repository to deploy these patches?

Hi ,

Please let me know the pre-requisites required to configure Oracle Linux patching in our environment.

Thanks,
Jatin khanna

And reposting to a 3rd thread:
You would need to install agents on your OEL machines and you would need an Entitled Oracle Linux Account to use for downloading patches.

Check out the OEL manual here:
ftp://public.dhe.ibm.com/software/tivoli/IEM/9.5/Patch/BigFix_Patch_Oracle_Linux_User_Guide.pdf

-Jgo