Spacewalk (software)

Spacewalk
Original author(s) Red Hat
Initial release June 2008
Stable release
2.8 / April 19, 2018 (2018-04-19)
Repository https://github.com/spacewalkproject/spacewalk
Written in Java, Perl and Python
Operating system Linux
Available in English, Francais, Bengali, Hindi, Japanese, Punjabi, Russian, Simplified Chinese, German, Spanish, Gujarati, Italian, Korean, Brazilian, Portuguese, Tamil, Traditional Chinese
Type Systems management
License GNU General Public License v2
Website www.spacewalkproject.org

Spacewalk is an open-source systems management solution for system provisioning, patching and configuration licensed under GNU General Public License v2. It is constructed from free and open source software (FOSS) components.

Overview

Features

Spacewalk encompasses the following functions:[1]

  • Systems Inventory (Hardware and Software)
  • System Software Installation and Updates[2]
  • Collation and Distribution of Custom Software Packages into Manageable Groups
  • System provisioning (via Kickstart)
  • Management and deployment of configuration files
  • Provision of virtual Guests
  • Start/Stop/Configuration of virtual guests
  • OpenSCAP Auditing of client systems[3]

Architecture

Spacewalk Server: Server represents managing System

  • It is possible to set up master and slave servers, and even a tree setup is possible [4]
  • There are options for geographically remote proxy servers [5]

Spacewalk Client: A system managed by a Spacewalk server

Spacewalk is controlled by the following Interfaces:

Subscription Management:

  • Particular upstream and downstream versions may include integration to supported vendor subscription support network such as Red Hat Network(RHN) and ULN[7] and SUSE Enterprise Linux Server Subscriptions

Backend Database:

Upstream and downstream versions

A number of DownStream versions use upstream Spacewalk version as the basis of their System Provision, patch and errata management:

Support for particular client OS, server OS, system architecture, Backend Databases and subscription services varies between versions and releases.

Oracle Spacewalk

Oracle Spacewalk was introduced particularly to provide a familiar alternative for those switching from a different vendor while Oracle Enterprise Manager remains Oracle Corporation's preferred way of managing systems[9]

Oracle's spacewalk server is designed to be hosted on Oracle Linux (OL).

Oracle Spacewalk Release Date Upstream Release Server Versions Client Versions Features
2.0 November 2013 2.0 OL 6 OL 5, OL 6 First Oracle Spacewalk Release
2.2 January 2015[10] 2.2 OL 6 OL 5, OL 6, OL 7[11] New features related to upstream Spacewalk 2.2
2.4 April 2016 2.4 OL 6, OL 7 OL 5, OL 6, OL 7 Oracle Linux 7 supported
2.6 May 2017[12] 2.6 OL 6, OL 7 OL 5, OL 6, OL 7 taskotop monitor utility and removal of system and software channel entitlements
2.7 April 2018[13] 2.7 OL 6, OL 7 OL 5, OL 6, OL 7 jabberd, depricated jPackage libraries, and further enhancements

The about section of the release notes in Oracle Spacewalk 2.x Documentation indicate only minor branding changes and changes for GPG keys [14]

Red Hat Satellite 5

Red Hat Satellite 5 is a licensed downstream adaption of Spacewalk with added functionality to manage Red Hat Enterprise Linux Subscriptions. In the active years of the Red Hat Satellite 5 lifecycle Spacewalk was simply known as the upstream project for Satellite. The relationship between Spacewalk and Red Hat Satellite 5 was analogous to the relationship between Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux. With the emergence of Red Hat Satellite 6 with based on a fundamentally different toolset, end of lifecycle phase of Red Hat Satellite 5 and the emergence of downstream spacewalk based offerings from Oracle and SUSE newer versions of Spacewalk may not have this close relationship.

SUSE Manager Server

In March 2011 Novell released SUSE Manager 1.2, based on Spacewalk 1.2 and supporting the management of both SUSE Linux Enterprise and Red Hat Enterprise Linux.[15]

As of February 2017 the current version of SUSE Manager is SUSE Manager 3.

SUSE Manager 3 is based upon Spacewalk 2.4.[16] SUSE Manager 3 extends Spacewalk and incorporates integrates other components.[17] Subscription Management Capabilities for Red Hat Enterprise Linux and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server are supported.

In May 2018, during the openSUSE conference in Prague, it was announced[18][19] that a fork of Spacewalk, called Uyuni, was being created. Named after the salt flat in Bolivia, Uyuni uses Salt for configuration management and React as the user interface framework. Future versions of SUSE Manager will use Uyuni as its upstream project[20].

History and development

Development

Red Hat developed the Red Hat Network to manage subscriptions software management and created the Red Hat Satellite application as a central management point with the user network.

For Red Hat Satellite version 5 the Satellite Function was implemented by a toolset named Project Spacewalk.

Red Hat announced in June 2008 Project Spacewalk was to be made open source under the GPLv2 License[21]

Satellite 5.3 was the first version to be based on upstream Spacewalk code.[22]

Stewardship and governance

In the Spacewalk FAQ [23] issued in 2015 after the release of Red Hat Satellite 6 Red Hat.

  • Red Hat formally released Spacewalk as open source(GPLv2) in June 2008
  • Red Hat continues to sponsor and support Spacewalk as the upstream Red Hat Satellite 5. However that participation is anticipated to diminish as Red Hat Satellite 5 enters the final phases of its lifecycle. Spacewalk is not and can never be upstream for Red Hat Satellite 6 released in September 2014[24][25] due to it being a ground up rebuild with a different toolset.
  • The Spacewalk project can continue to grow and flourish providing the community continue to find it a useful tool and a willing to support it.

Builds

Upstream build


Releases

Release Release Date Features
Spacewalk 2.8 April 19, 2018 See Release Notes
Spacewalk 2.7 September 26, 2017 See Release Notes
Spacewalk 2.6 November 29, 2016 See Release Notes
Spacewalk 2.5 June 8, 2016 See Release Notes
Spacewalk 2.4 October 7, 2015 See Release Notes
Spacewalk 2.3 April 14, 2015 See Release Notes
Spacewalk 2.2 July 16, 2014 See Release Notes
Spacewalk 2.1 March 4, 2014 See Release Notes
Spacewalk 2.0 July 19, 2013 See Release Notes
Spacewalk 1.9 March 5, 2013 See Release Notes
Spacewalk 1.8 November 1, 2012 See Release Notes
Spacewalk 1.7 March 7, 2012 See Release Notes
Spacewalk 1.6 December 22, 2011 See Release Notes
Spacewalk 1.5 July 21, 2011 See Release Notes
Spacewalk 1.4 April 26, 2011 See Release Notes
Spacewalk 1.3 February 4, 2011 See Release Notes
Spacewalk 1.2 November 19, 2010 See Release Notes
Spacewalk 1.1 August 13, 2010 See Release Notes
Spacewalk 1.0 April 29, 2010 See Release Notes
Spacewalk 0.8 February 16, 2010 See Release Notes
Spacewalk 0.7 December 4, 2009 See Release Notes
Spacewalk 0.6 August 7, 2009 See Release Notes
Spacewalk 0.5 March 31, 2009 See Release Notes
Spacewalk 0.4 January 15, 2009 Release Announcement
Spacewalk 0.3 November 7, 2008 Release Announcement
Spacewalk 0.2 September 16, 2008 Release Announcement
Spacewalk June 17, 2008 Initial Release Announcement


Miscellaneous

References

  1. ↑ "GitHub Spacewalkproject Home". 2017-01-13. Retrieved 2017-02-01.
  2. ↑ Vora, Zeal (29 December 2017). Enterprise Cloud Security and Governance. Packt. ISBN 9781788298513. Pentest & Patch Management.
  3. ↑ "OpenSCAP Auditing of client systems". docs.oracle.com. Retrieved 2017-02-01.
  4. ↑ "Configuring Inter-Server Synchronization". docs.oracle.com. Retrieved 2017-02-02.
  5. ↑ "Installing and Upgrading Spacewalk Proxies". docs.oracle.com. Retrieved 2017-02-02.
  6. ↑ "Spacewalk API FAQ". Retrieved 2017-01-31.
  7. ↑ "Introduction to Using Oracle Unbreakable Linux Network". Oracle Linux Blog. 2015-02-25. Retrieved 2017-02-01.
  8. ↑ "PostgreSQL – spacewalk". Fedorahosted.org. 2012-03-07. Retrieved 2012-10-14.
  9. ↑ "Spacewalk 2.0 provided to manage Oracle Linux systems". Senior Vice President of Linux and Virtualization Engineering. 2013-11-13. Retrieved 2017-01-31.
  10. ↑ "Friday Spotlight: Spacewalk 2.2 on public yum and Oracle Instant Client on ULN". Oracle's Linux Blog. 2015-01-30. Retrieved 2017-02-07.
  11. ↑ "Spacewalk client released for Oracle Linux 7". Oracle's Linux Blog. 2014-11-04. Retrieved 2017-02-01.
  12. ↑ Miller, Avi (8 May 2017). "Announcing the release of Spacewalk 2.6". Retrieved 24 February 2018.
  13. ↑ Miller, Avi (16 Apr 2017). "Announcing the release of Spacewalk 2.7".
  14. ↑ "Oracle Spacewalk Documentation Home". oracle.com. Retrieved 2017-01-30.
  15. ↑ "Novell Rolls Out Advanced Linux Systems Management Solution". Novell.com. 2011-03-03. Retrieved 2012-10-14.
  16. ↑ "Release notes for SUSE Manager 3 Server Version 3.0.3". 2016-12-19. Retrieved 2017-02-01.
  17. ↑ "FAQ Server SUSE Manager 3" (PDF). 2016-04-16. Retrieved 2017-02-01.
  18. ↑ "Uyuni: Forking Spacewalk with Salt and Containers". 2018-05-26. Retrieved 2018-08-23.
  19. ↑ "We're back to Earth, and the Earth is flat! Welcome Uyuni!". 2018-06-02. Retrieved 2018-08-23.
  20. ↑ "What's new in SUSE Manager 3.2". 2018-06-25. Retrieved 2018-08-23.
  21. ↑ "Project Spacewalk Announcement". Red Hat. 2008-06-02. Retrieved 2017-01-31.
  22. ↑ "Red Hat stretches Linux system management tentacle". The Register. 2009-09-02. Retrieved 2014-02-05.
  23. ↑ "(Spacewalk) Frequently Asked Questions". Red hat. 2015. Retrieved 2017-02-01.
  24. ↑ "Satellite version 6 with Puppet, git, Foreman, Katello, Pulp and Candlepin included - questions on using Puppet".
  25. ↑ "Spacewalk: Free & Open Source Linux Systems Management". redhat.com. Retrieved 2012-10-14.
  26. ↑ "Spacewalk Home". Red Hat. 2015. Retrieved 2017-02-02.

Resources


Resource Notes
Project GitHub Home Github Root
GitHub Wiki Forced move from Fedorahosted.org TRAC from late 2016 [1][2][3] and as of February 2017 may have some link discrepancies remaining
Official Project Home Domain Registered by Red Hat but not updated since 2015 (accessed January 2017)
User Documentation User Documentation
FAQ Upstream FAQ
Deprecated FedoraHosted Wiki Deprecated
  1. ↑ "Fedorahosted Sunset". 2016-10-16. Retrieved 2017-02-02.
  2. ↑ "Migration from Fedorahosted Trac". 2016-11-16. Retrieved 2017-02-02.
  3. ↑ "Spacewalk wiki has a new home!". spacewalk-devel. 2017-01-13. Retrieved 2017-02-02.
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