Managing the satellite software repository cache

The largest amount of network traffic in an SA Core occurs between:

• The Software Repository and the Server Agent on a Managed Server during application software or OS patch installations.
• A server being OS Provisioned and the OS Provisioning Media Server that provides the OS media for the provisioning.

When a Satellite is connected by a low-bandwidth network link, performance will be poor during these processes. You can minimize network traffic by creating a copy of the core’s Software Repository contents in the Satellite’s Software Repository Cache or installing a local Satellite OS Provisioning Media Server/Boot Server.

Because the Software Repository Cache stores copies of the files in the SA Core’s Software Repository (or from another Satellite’s Software Repository Cache), SA can supply software requests locally without having the requests pass across the network between the Satellite and the SA Core. Similarly, the OS Provisioning Media Server can supply OS images locally. SA Satellites also support multiple Software Repository Caches per Realm.

The following sections discuss configuring and updating your local Software Repository Cache and, optionally, your OS Provisioning Media and Boot servers.

Availability of satellite software repository cache content

The Satellite Software Repository Cache is updated in one of two modes. By default the updates are on demand, and they occur when the agent of a server managed behind this satellite needs to download a package, or manual by the SA Administrator.

When SA is attempting to remediate requested software that is not available locally onto a managed server, the SA Client generates an error and displays a complete list of missing packages to help you identify the packages that need to be copied to the cache. After you have copied the software to the cache, it will continue to be available locally for future installations.

The SA Client does not provide a User Interface to push packages to Satellites. However, you can push packages to a Satellite by using the command-line tool stage_pkg_in_realm.

This tool is found on the First Core’s Model Repository host in:

/opt/opsware/mm_wordbot/util/stage_pkg_in_realm.

If you use the checkonly=1 argument in the URL request for the file, the utility requests a file, but the Software Repository will not send the file. If the file is not already cached, the Software Repository Cache will obtain it from the parent Software Repository Cache if the caching policy allows it.

Setting the software repository cache update policy

You can specify the Software Repository Cache update policy for each facility by performing the following tasks:

1. Select the Administration tab in the SA Client.
2. In the navigation pane select System Configuration > Configuration Parameters. This displays the SA components, facilities, and realms that have system configuration parameters.
3. Select the realm for which you want to set the software repository cache update policy. This displays all the system configurations for that realm.
4. Locate the configuration parameter word.caching_policy.
5. Set the value of this parameter to one of the following:
   • Select Default value: JIT. This specifies JIT or on-demand update.
   • Select the new value button and enter the text “SNEAKERNET in the edit field. This specifies manual update.
6. Select the Revert button to discard your changes or the Save button to save your changes.