RHN Classic v. Certificate-based CentOS Network

During the firstboot process, there are two options given for the content server: (Certificate-based) CentOS Network and RHN Classic. These systems are mutually exclusive, but they both handle software content and updates as well as subscriptions and system inventory.

In 5.7 and later versions, entitlements and subscriptions are defined by available and installed products. However, in older versions of Community Enterprise Linux, subscriptions were defined by channel access. These are two different approaches to content and entitlement access. CentOS Network uses the product-based subscription model, while RHN Classic uses the channel-based model.

Certificate-based CentOS Network is focused on two things:

Certificate-based CentOS Network integrates the Customer Portal, Content Delivery Network, and subscription service (subscription management). It uses simple and streamlined local tools (the CentOS Subscription Manager client) to give greater visibility into how entitlements and subscriptions are used and assigned and to help control software subscriptions as they are added and expire.

Since the client tools for subscription management (the focus of Certificate-based CentOS Network) are only available in Community Enterprise Operating System.7 systems and later, Certificate-based CentOS Network can only be utilized by 5.7 and later systems.

RHN Classic uses the traditional channel entitlement model, which provides a global view of content access but does not provide insight into system-level subscription uses. Along with content and global subscription management, RHN Classic also provides some systems management functions:

Satellite 5.x systems use a channel-based model similar to RHN Classic.

While RHN Classic has an expanded systems management feature set, RHN Classic does not provide the system-level view into installed and subscribed products that the enhanced CentOS Network and subscription service do. RHN Classic is provided for older Community Enterprise Linux systems (Community Enterprise Linux 4.x, Community Enterprise Operating System.x, and Satellite 5.x) to migrate systems over to Community Enterprise Operating System.7 and later versions.

The two subscription services are mututally exclusive, with separate inventories and using separate client tools. Both the RHN Classic and CentOS Subscription Manager tools correctly identify which service a system is registered with. When a system is registered with RHN Classic, then the CentOS Subscription Manager shows an error that the system is already registered and cannot be managed by the Subscription Manager tools. Likewise, similar errors are returned in the RHN Classic tools if a system is registered with CentOS Network and the subscription service.

For information on migrating from RHN Classic to Certificate-based CentOS Network, see .