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Enhancing Oracle Linux 8 Management with Oracle Linux Manager 2.10

Avi Miller
Senior Solutions Architect

Oracle is pleased to introduce Oracle Linux Manager 2.10, a management tool based on the Spacewalk project providing IT managers with what they need to manage their Oracle Linux environment. This release includes all of the features you have come to appreciate in Spacewalk 2.10 with incremental enhancements for Oracle Linux 8 clients. Oracle Linux Manager 2.10 replaces the previous Spacewalk 2.10 release.

Oracle Linux Manager incorporates significant enhancements to support Oracle Linux 8 clients and module-enabled repositories.

Errata and package upgrade handling for channels with modules

Oracle Linux Manager works smarter, reporting errata and package upgrades only when a channel has modules and streams defined, and can install those errata. Previously, Spacewalk would incorrectly report that errata and package upgrades were applicable from any stream for each module installed on a client.

Oracle Linux Manager filters the listed errata and package upgrades to only those relevant to the module:stream combination installed on the client and correctly installs the packages needed for individual systems, groups of systems, and system sets. Note that errata handling and filtering is designed for Oracle Linux. 

This functionality is available to the Web UI, spacecmd system_listerrata, system_applyerrata,  system_listupgrades, system_upgradepackage, the XMLRPC channel.software.listErrata methods and spacewalk-report commands.

Module support when cloning software channels

Oracle Linux Manager clones the module metadata when cloning software channels, which ensures that the clone channel has the correct module metadata that matches the state of the channel when it was cloned. This functionality works with modular channels from any vendor's distribution, not just Oracle Linux.

This functionality is available via the Web UI, spacecmd softwarechannel_clone and the XMLRPC API channel.software.clone method.

Module support for channel life cycle management

The updated spacewalk-channel-manage-lifecycle tool in Oracle Linux Manager copies and updates module metadata when manipulating channel life cycles which ensures that the module metadata is always in sync with the channel package state.

Specifically:

  • Initializing a modular channel copies the source channel's module metadata
  • Promoting a modular channel copies missing module metadata from the source channel to target channel
  • Promoting a modular channel with the clear option set, overwrites the target channel's module metadata with the source channel's metadata
  • Creating an archive of a channel copies the module metadata from the specified channel into the new archive channel
  • Rolling back a channel to an archive copies the module metadata from the archive channel to the target channel

This functionality works with modular content from any vendor's distribution, including Oracle Linux.

New XMLRPC API namespace methods channel.software.clear and channel.software.rollbackChannel have been added to support this functionality. The API documentation has been updated as part of this release.

Module support for copying packages between channels

When adding packages from one modular channel to another, Oracle Linux Manager updates the target channel's module metadata with the modules:streams corresponding to the packages being added. Additionally, Oracle Linux Manager will automatically add any other packages listed in each module:stream that are not present in the target channel. 

Available via the Web UI, Oracle Linux Manager 2.10 provides a summary of the number of packages that were automatically added to complete module:stream requirements.

Switching or upgrading from Spacewalk to Oracle Linux Manager 2.10

The Oracle Linux Manager Installation Guide provides step-by-step instructions on converting from Spacewalk 2.7 or 2.10 to Oracle Linux Manager 2.10.

Resources

Oracle Linux Manager Documentation

For more information visit oracle.com/linux.

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