Appendix B. Glossary of Terms
Appendix B. Glossary of Terms This glossary documents various terms used in relation to Red Hat Satellite. Activation Key A token for host registration and subscription attachment. Activation keys define subscriptions, products, content views, and other parameters to be associated with a newly created host. Answer File A configuration file that defines settings for an installation scenario. Answer files are defined in the YAML format and stored in the /etc/foreman-installer/scenarios.d/ directory. ARF Report The result of an OpenSCAP audit. Summarizes the security compliance of hosts managed by Red Hat Satellite. Audits Provide a report on changes made by a specific user. Audits can be viewed in the Satellite web UI under Monitor > Audits . Baseboard Management Controller (BMC) Enables remote power management of bare-metal hosts. In Satellite, you can create a BMC interface to manage selected hosts. Boot Disk An ISO image used for PXE-less provisioning. This ISO enables the host to connect to Satellite Server, boot the installation media, and install the operating system. There are several kinds of boot disks: host image , full host image , generic image , and subnet image . Capsule (Capsule Server) An additional server that can be used in a Red Hat Satellite deployment to facilitate content federation and distribution (act as a Pulp mirror), and to run other localized services (Puppet server, DHCP , DNS , TFTP , and more). Capsules are useful for Satellite deployment across various geographical locations. In upstream Foreman terminology, Capsule is referred to as Smart Proxy. Catalog A document that describes the desired system state for one specific host managed by Puppet. It lists all of the resources that need to be managed, as well as any dependencies between those resources. Catalogs are compiled by a Puppet server from Puppet Manifests and data from Puppet Agents. Candlepin A service within Katello responsible for subscription management. Compliance Policy Refers to a scheduled task executed on Satellite Server that checks the specified hosts for compliance against SCAP content. Compute Profile Specifies default attributes for new virtual machines on a compute resource. Compute Resource A virtual or cloud infrastructure, which Red Hat Satellite uses for deployment of hosts and systems. Examples include Red Hat Virtualization, Red Hat OpenStack Platform, EC2, and VMWare. Container (Docker Container) An isolated application sandbox that contains all runtime dependencies required by an application. Satellite supports container provisioning on a dedicated compute resource. Container Image A static snapshot of the container's configuration. Satellite supports various methods of importing container images as well as distributing images to hosts through content views. Content A general term for everything Satellite distributes to hosts. Includes software packages (RPM files), or Docker images. Content is synchronized into the Library and then promoted into life cycle environments using content views so that they can be consumed by hosts. Content Delivery Network (CDN) The mechanism used to deliver Red Hat content to Satellite Server. Content Host The part of a host that manages tasks related to content and subscriptions. Content View A subset of Library content created by intelligent filtering. Once a content view is published, it can be promoted through the life cycle environment path, or modified using incremental upgrades. Discovered Host A bare-metal host detected on the provisioning network by the Discovery plug-in. Discovery Image Refers to the minimal operating system based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux that is PXE-booted on hosts to acquire initial hardware information and to communicate with Satellite Server before starting the provisioning process. Discovery Plug-in Enables automatic bare-metal discovery of unknown hosts on the provisioning network. The plug-in consists of three components: services running on Satellite Server and Capsule Server, and the Discovery image running on host. Discovery Rule A set of predefined provisioning rules which assigns a host group to discovered hosts and triggers provisioning automatically. Docker Tag A mark used to differentiate container images, typically by the version of the application stored in the image. In the Satellite web UI, you can filter images by tag under Content > Docker Tags . ERB Embedded Ruby (ERB) is a template syntax used in provisioning and job templates. Errata Updated RPM packages containing security fixes, bug fixes, and enhancements. In relationship to a host, erratum is applicable if it updates a package installed on the host and installable if it is present in the host's content view (which means it is accessible for installation on the host). External Node Classifier A construct that provides additional data for a server to use when configuring hosts. Red Hat Satellite acts as an External Node Classifier to Puppet servers in a Satellite deployment. Note that the External Node Classifier will be removed in the Satellite version. Facter A program that provides information (facts) about the system on which it is run; for example, Facter can report total memory, operating system version, architecture, and more. Puppet modules enable specific configurations based on host data gathered by Facter. Facts Host parameters such as total memory, operating system version, or architecture. Facts are reported by Facter and used by Puppet. Foreman The component mainly responsible for provisioning and content life cycle management. Foreman is the main upstream counterpart of Red Hat Satellite. Satellite services A set of services that Satellite Server and Capsule Servers use for operation. You can use the satellite-maintain tool to manage these services. To see the full list of services, enter the satellite-maintain service list command on the machine where Satellite or Capsule Server is installed. Foreman Hook An executable that is automatically triggered when an orchestration event occurs, such as when a host is created or when provisioning of a host has completed. Note that Foreman Hook functionality is deprecated and will be removed in the Satellite version. Full Host Image A boot disk used for PXE-less provisioning of a specific host. The full host image contains an embedded Linux kernel and init RAM disk of the associated operating system installer. Generic Image A boot disk for PXE-less provisioning that is not tied to a specific host. The generic image sends the host's MAC address to Satellite Server, which matches it against the host entry. Hammer A command line tool for managing Red Hat Satellite. You can execute Hammer commands from the command line or utilize them in scripts. Hammer also provides an interactive shell. Host Refers to any system, either physical or virtual, that Red Hat Satellite manages. Host Collection A user defined group of one or more Hosts used for bulk actions such as errata installation. Host Group A template for building a host. Host groups hold shared parameters, such as subnet or life cycle environment, that are inherited by host group members. Host groups can be nested to create a hierarchical structure. Host Image A boot disk used for PXE-less provisioning of a specific host. The host image only contains the boot files necessary to access the installation media on Satellite Server. Incremental Upgrade (of a Content View) The act of creating a new (minor) content view version in a life cycle environment. Incremental upgrades provide a way to make in-place modification of an already published content view. Useful for rapid updates, for example when applying security errata. Job A command executed remotely on a host from Satellite Server. Every job is defined in a job template. Job Template Defines properties of a job. Katello A Foreman plug-in responsible for subscription and repository management. Lazy Sync The ability to change a yum repository's default download policy of Immediate to On Demand . The On Demand setting saves storage space and synchronization time by only downloading the packages when requested by a client. Location A collection of default settings that represent a physical place. Library A container for content from all synchronized repositories on Satellite Server. Libraries exist by default for each organization as the root of every life cycle environment path and the source of content for every content view. Life Cycle Environment A container for content view versions consumed by the content hosts. A Life Cycle Environment represents a step in the life cycle environment path. Content moves through life cycle environments by publishing and promoting content views. Life Cycle Environment Path A sequence of life cycle environments through which the content views are promoted. You can promote a content view through a typical promotion path; for example, from development to test to production. Manifest (Red Hat Subscription Manifest) A mechanism for transferring subscriptions from the Red Hat Customer Portal to Red Hat Satellite. Do not confuse with Puppet Manifest . OpenSCAP A project implementing security compliance auditing according to the Security Content Automation Protocol (SCAP). OpenSCAP is integrated in Satellite to provide compliance auditing for managed hosts. Organization An isolated collection of systems, content, and other functionality within a Satellite deployment. Parameter Defines the behavior of Red Hat Satellite components during provisioning. Depending on the parameter scope, we distinguish between global, domain, host group, and host parameters. Depending on the parameter complexity, we distinguish between simple parameters (key-value pair) and smart parameters (conditional arguments, validation, overrides). Parametrized Class (Smart Class Parameter) A parameter created by importing a class from Puppet server. Permission Defines an action related to a selected part of Satellite infrastructure (resource type). Each resource type is associated with a set of permissions, for example the Architecture resource type has the following permissions: view_architectures , create_architectures , edit_architectures , and destroy_architectures . You can group permissions into roles and associate them with users or user groups. Product A collection of content repositories. Products are either provided by Red Hat CDN or created by the Satellite administrator to group custom repositories. Promote (a Content View) The act of moving a content view from one life cycle environment to another. Provisioning Template Defines host provisioning settings. Provisioning templates can be associated with host groups, life cycle environments, or operating systems. Publish (a Content View) The act of making a content view version available in a life cycle environment and usable by hosts. Pulp A service within Katello responsible for repository and content management. Pulp Mirror A Capsule Server component that mirrors content. Puppet The configuration management component of Satellite. Puppet Agent A service running on a host that applies configuration changes to that host. Puppet Environment An isolated set of Puppet Agent nodes that can be associated with a specific set of Puppet Modules. Puppet Manifest Refers to Puppet scripts, which are files with the .pp extension. The files contain code to define a set of necessary resources, such as packages, services, files, users and groups, and so on, using a set of key-value pairs for their attributes. Do not confuse with Manifest (Red Hat Subscription Manifest) . Puppet Server A Capsule Server component that provides Puppet Manifests to hosts for execution by the Puppet Agent. Puppet Module A self-contained bundle of code (Puppet Manifests) and data (facts) that you can use to manage resources such as users, files, and services. Recurring Logic A job executed automatically according to a schedule. In the Satellite web UI, you can view those jobs under Monitor > Recurring logics . Registry An archive of container images. Satellite supports importing images from local and external registries. Satellite itself can act as an image registry for hosts. However, hosts cannot push changes back to the registry. Repository Provides storage for a collection of content. Resource Type Refers to a part of Satellite infrastructure, for example host, capsule, or architecture. Used in permission filtering. Role Specifies a collection of permissions that are applied to a set of resources, such as hosts. Roles can be assigned to users and user groups. Satellite provides a number of predefined roles. SCAP content A file containing the configuration and security baseline against which hosts are checked. Used in compliance policies. Scenario A set of predefined settings for the Satellite CLI installer. Scenario defines the type of installation, for example to install Capsule Server execute satellite-installer --scenario capsule . Every scenario has its own answer file to store the scenario settings. Smart Proxy A Capsule Server component that can integrate with external services, such as DNS or DHCP . In upstream Foreman terminology, Smart Proxy is a synonym of Capsule. Smart Variable A configuration value used by classes in Puppet modules. Standard Operating Environment (SOE) A controlled version of the operating system on which applications are deployed. Subnet Image A type of generic image for PXE-less provisioning that communicates through Capsule Server. Subscription An entitlement for receiving content and service from Red Hat. Synchronization Refers to mirroring content from external resources into the Red Hat Satellite Library. Synchronization Plan Provides scheduled execution of content synchronization. Task A background process executed on the Satellite or Capsule Server, such as repository synchronization or content view publishing. You can monitor the task status in the Satellite web UI under Monitor > Tasks . Trend A means of tracking changes in specific parts of Satellite infrastructure. Configure trends in Satellite web UI under Monitor > Trends . User Group A collection of roles which can be assigned to a collection of users. User Anyone registered to use Red Hat Satellite. Authentication and authorization is possible through built-in logic, through external resources (LDAP, Identity Management, or Active Directory), or with Kerberos. virt-who An agent for retrieving IDs of virtual machines from the hypervisor. When used with Satellite, virt-who reports those IDs to Satellite Server so that it can provide subscriptions for hosts provisioned on virtual machines.