Subscription and Content Architecture

Content includes new downloads, ISOs, updates, and errata, anything that can be installed on a system.

Subscription management helps to clarify and to define the relationships between local server infrastructure and the content delivery systems. Subscription management and content delivery are tightly associated. Entitlements (assigned subscriptions) identify what a system is allowed to install and update. In other words, entitlements define access to content. The content delivery system actually provides the software packages.

There are three parties that are involved in subscriptions and content:

• The subscription service

• The Content Delivery Network
• The system which uses the content

Figure 14.3. Relationship Among Systems, the Subscription Service, and Content Delivery Network

The subscription service handles the system registration (verifying that the system is allowed to access the content). It also supplies the system with information on what products are available and handles a central list of entitlements and remaining quantities for the entire organization.

The content delivery network is responsible for delivering the content to the system when requested. The content server is configured in the CentOS Subscription Manager configuration and then tied into the system's yum service through the CentOS Subscription Manager yum plug-in.

Both the subscription service and the content server used by a system's CentOS Subscription Manager tools can be customized. The default settings use the public subscription service and Content Delivery Network, but either one can be changed to use organization-specific services.

Systems have the option of using the older CentOS Network and Satellite 5.x systems to deliver content. These content delivery mechanisms bypass the subscription service in Certificate-Based CentOS Network, so there is no entitlement management. This is allowed for legacy infrastructures, but CentOS strongly recommends registering new systems with the latest Certificate-based CentOS Network.