Spacewalk (software)

Last updated
Spacewalk
Original author(s) Red Hat
Initial releaseJune 2008
Final release
2.10 / March 18, 2020;3 years ago (2020-03-18)
Repository https://github.com/spacewalkproject/spacewalk
Written in Java, Perl and Python
Operating system Linux
Available in English, French, Bengali, Hindi, Japanese, Punjabi, Russian, Simplified Chinese, German, Spanish, Gujarati, Italian, Korean, Brazilian Portuguese, European Portuguese, Tamil, Traditional Chinese
Type Systems management
License GNU General Public License v2
Website spacewalkproject.github.io

Spacewalk is open-source systems management software for system provisioning, patching and configuration licensed under the GNU GPLv2.

Contents

The project was discontinued on 31 May 2020 with 2.10 being the last official release. [1] SUSE forked the spacewalk code base in 2018 with uyuni-project [2]

Overview

Features

Spacewalk encompasses the following functions: [3]

Architecture

Spacewalk Server: Server represents managing System

Spacewalk Client: A system managed by a Spacewalk server

Spacewalk is controlled by the following Interfaces:

Subscription Management:

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 OSes, server OSes, system architectures, backend databases, and subscription services varies between versions and releases.

Oracle Spacewalk

Oracle introduced their own version of Spacewalk 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. [11]

Spacewalk for Oracle® Linux is designed to be hosted on Oracle Linux (OL).

Oracle Spacewalk Release [12] DateUpstream ReleaseServer VersionsClient VersionsFeatures
2.0November 20132.0OL 6OL 5, OL 6First Oracle Spacewalk Release
2.2January 2015 [13] 2.2OL 6OL 5, OL 6, OL 7 [14] New features related to upstream Spacewalk 2.2
2.4April 20162.4OL 6, OL 7OL 5, OL 6, OL 7Oracle Linux 7 supported
2.6May 2017 [15] 2.6OL 6, OL 7OL 5, OL 6, OL 7taskotop monitor utility and removal of system and software channel entitlements
2.7April 2018 [16] 2.7OL 6, OL 7OL 5, OL 6, OL 7jabberd, deprecated jPackage libraries, and further enhancements
2.10August 2020 [17] 2.10OL 7OL 5, OL 6, OL 7, OL 8Oracle Linux 8 supported

The about section of the release notes in Oracle Spacewalk 2.x Documentation indicate only minor branding changes and changes for GPG keys [18]

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. [19]

In May 2018, during the openSUSE conference in Prague, it was announced [20] [21] 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.

From version 4.0, SUSE Manager is based on Uyuni as its upstream project. [22]

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 [23]

Satellite 5.3 was the first version to be based on upstream Spacewalk code. [24]

Stewardship and governance

In the Spacewalk FAQ [25] issued in 2015 after the release of Red Hat Satellite 6 Red Hat.

Satellite 5 went end-of-life on 31 May 2020, [28] the Spacewalk project was discontinued at the same time.

Builds

Upstream build

Releases

ReleaseRelease DateServer Version [lower-alpha 1] Selected features and notes
Old version, no longer maintained: 2.10March 18, 202030, 31 [29] Installable on Fedora 30 and 31, bugfix release - Last official release
Old version, no longer maintained: 2.9January 14, 201927, 28, 29 [30] Installable on Fedora 29 and can distribute RHEL 8 Beta
Old version, no longer maintained: 2.8April 19, 201826, 27, 28 [31] Support PostgresSQL 10
Old version, no longer maintained: 2.7September 26, 201724, 25, 26 [32] Taskomatic daemon monitor
Old version, no longer maintained: 2.6November 29, 201623, 24 [33] Can sync to Debian/Ubuntu apt repositories
Old version, no longer maintained: 2.5June 8, 201622, 23 [34] System entitlements and Software Channels entitlements removed
Old version, no longer maintained: 2.4October 7, 201521, 22 [35] More Standardization on PatternFly User Interface
Old version, no longer maintained: 2.3April 14, 201520, 21 [36] Solaris support removed
Old version, no longer maintained: 2.2July 16, 201419, 20 [37] RHEL7 and CentOS 7 clients supported
Old version, no longer maintained: 2.1March 4, 201419, 20 [38] Final Release installable to RHEL 5. Improved OpenSCAP integration.
Old version, no longer maintained: 2.0July 19, 201318, 19 [39] Support for external PostgreSQL database
Old version, no longer maintained: 1.9March 5, 201317, 18 [40] New reports
Old version, no longer maintained: 1.8November 1, 201216, 17 [41] Integration with SUSE Studio
Old version, no longer maintained: 1.7March 7, 201215, 16 [42] OpenSCAP integration
Old version, no longer maintained: 1.6December 22, 201115, 16 [43] Support for Kickstart Proxy via a CNAME
Old version, no longer maintained: 1.5July 21, 201114, 15 [44] AutoYaST Support
Old version, no longer maintained: 1.4April 26, 201113, 14 [45] apt-get plug-in support
Old version, no longer maintained: 1.3February 4, 201113, 14 [46]
Old version, no longer maintained: 1.2November 19, 201012, 13, 14 [47]
Old version, no longer maintained: 1.1August 13, 201012, 13 [48]
Old version, no longer maintained: 1.0April 29, 201011, 12 [49] Script for re-configuring server
Old version, no longer maintained: 0.8February 16, 201011, 12 [50] Support for packages using checksums other than MD5
Old version, no longer maintained: 0.7December 4, 200911, 12 [51]
Old version, no longer maintained: 0.6August 7, 200910, 11 [52] Yum repo can be imported into a channel
Old version, no longer maintained: 0.5March 31, 200910 [53]
Old version, no longer maintained: 0.4January 15, 2009 [54] Integration with Cobbler and Koan
Old version, no longer maintained: 0.3November 7, 2008 [55]
Old version, no longer maintained: 0.2September 16, 2008 [56] Release Announcement
Old version, no longer maintained: firstJune 17, 2008 [57] Initial Release Announcement
Legend:
Old version
Older version, still maintained
Latest version
Latest preview version
Future release

Criticisms

In a 2019 paper considering Linux open-source patching tools, Spacewalk was commended for having a software inventory and community support but limited support for distributions; notably, Ubuntu was an issue. [58]

Miscellaneous

Note

  1. ↑ Fedora server version, see release note for other Linux distributions

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References

  1. ↑ "GitHub Spacewalkproject Home". GitHub . 2020-06-02. Retrieved 2020-06-28.
  2. ↑ "Uyuni: Forking Spacewalk with Salt and Containers". 2020-11-12. Retrieved 2020-11-12.
  3. ↑ "GitHub Spacewalkproject Home". GitHub . 2017-01-13. Archived from the original on 2019-07-16. Retrieved 2017-02-01.
  4. ↑ Vora, Zeal (29 December 2017). Enterprise Cloud Security and Governance. Packt. ISBN   9781788298513. Pentest & Patch Management.
  5. ↑ "OpenSCAP Auditing of client systems". docs.oracle.com. Retrieved 2017-02-01.
  6. ↑ "Configuring Inter-Server Synchronization". docs.oracle.com. Retrieved 2017-02-02.
  7. ↑ "Installing and Upgrading Spacewalk Proxies". docs.oracle.com. Archived from the original on 2017-11-07. Retrieved 2017-02-02.
  8. ↑ "Spacewalk API FAQ". Archived from the original on 2017-02-02. Retrieved 2017-01-31.
  9. ↑ "Introduction to Using Oracle Unbreakable Linux Network". Oracle Linux Blog. 2015-02-25. Archived from the original on 2016-08-09. Retrieved 2017-02-01.
  10. ↑ "PostgreSQL – spacewalk". Fedorahosted.org. 2012-03-07. Archived from the original on 2013-09-08. Retrieved 2012-10-14.
  11. ↑ "Spacewalk 2.0 provided to manage Oracle Linux systems". Senior Vice President of Linux and Virtualization Engineering. 2013-11-13. Archived from the original on 2016-07-01. Retrieved 2017-01-31.
  12. ↑ "Oracle Linux Manager". docs.oracle.com.
  13. ↑ "Friday Spotlight: Spacewalk 2.2 on public yum and Oracle Instant Client on ULN". Oracle's Linux Blog. 2015-01-30. Archived from the original on 2017-02-07. Retrieved 2017-02-07.
  14. ↑ "Spacewalk client released for Oracle Linux 7". Oracle's Linux Blog. 2014-11-04. Archived from the original on 2015-09-10. Retrieved 2017-02-01.
  15. ↑ Miller, Avi (8 May 2017). "Announcing the release of Spacewalk 2.6" . Retrieved 24 February 2018.
  16. ↑ Miller, Avi (16 Apr 2017). "Announcing the release of Spacewalk 2.7". Archived from the original on 26 September 2018. Retrieved 26 September 2018.
  17. ↑ Miller, Avi (5 August 2020). "Announcing the release of Spacewalk 2.10 for Oracle Linux" . Retrieved 5 August 2020.
  18. ↑ "Oracle Spacewalk Documentation Home". oracle.com. Archived from the original on 2017-10-20. Retrieved 2017-01-30.
  19. ↑ "Novell Rolls Out Advanced Linux Systems Management Solution". Novell.com. 2011-03-03. Archived from the original on 2012-10-09. Retrieved 2012-10-14.
  20. ↑ "Uyuni: Forking Spacewalk with Salt and Containers". 2018-05-26. Archived from the original on 2018-08-26. Retrieved 2018-08-23.
  21. ↑ "We're back to Earth, and the Earth is flat! Welcome Uyuni!". 2018-06-02. Archived from the original on 2018-08-23. Retrieved 2018-08-23.
  22. ↑ "First Public Beta for SUSE Manager 4.0!". 2019-03-14. Archived from the original on 2019-04-02. Retrieved 2020-08-20.
  23. ↑ "Project Spacewalk Announcement". Red Hat. 2008-06-02. Archived from the original on 2019-07-21. Retrieved 2017-01-31.
  24. ↑ "Red Hat stretches Linux system management tentacle". The Register . 2009-09-02. Archived from the original on 2014-02-21. Retrieved 2014-02-05.
  25. ↑ "(Spacewalk) Frequently Asked Questions". Red hat. 2015. Archived from the original on 2016-12-22. Retrieved 2017-02-01.
  26. ↑ "Satellite version 6 with Puppet, git, Foreman, Katello, Pulp and Candlepin included - questions on using Puppet". Archived from the original on 2014-11-06. Retrieved 2014-11-06.
  27. ↑ "Spacewalk: Free & Open Source Linux Systems Management". redhat.com. Archived from the original on 2010-04-17. Retrieved 2012-10-14.
  28. ↑ "Red Hat Satellite 5: Important information and changes". Red Hat. 2020-05-19. Retrieved 2020-06-28.
  29. ↑ "Spacewalk 2.10 Release notes". Github. Retrieved 18 March 2020.
  30. ↑ "Spacewalk 2.9 Release notes". Github. Archived from the original on 3 August 2019. Retrieved 16 September 2019.
  31. ↑ "Spacewalk 2.8 Release Notes". Github. Archived from the original on 16 September 2019. Retrieved 16 September 2019.
  32. ↑ "Spacewalk 2.7 Release Notes". Github. Archived from the original on 16 September 2019. Retrieved 16 September 2019.
  33. ↑ "Spacewalk 2.6 Release Notes". Github. Archived from the original on 3 August 2019. Retrieved 16 September 2019.
  34. ↑ "Spacewalk 2.5 Release Notes". Github. Archived from the original on 3 August 2019. Retrieved 16 September 2019.
  35. ↑ "Spacewalk 2.4 Release Notes". Github. Archived from the original on 16 September 2019. Retrieved 16 September 2019.
  36. ↑ "Spacewalk 2.3 Release Notes". Github. Archived from the original on 3 August 2019. Retrieved 16 September 2019.
  37. ↑ "Spacewalk 2.2 Release Notes". Github. Archived from the original on 3 August 2019. Retrieved 16 September 2019.
  38. ↑ "Spacewalk 2.1 Release Notes". Github. Archived from the original on 3 August 2019. Retrieved 16 September 2019.
  39. ↑ "Spacewalk 2.0 Release Notes". Github. Archived from the original on 3 August 2019. Retrieved 16 September 2019.
  40. ↑ "Spacewalk 1.9 Release Notes". Github. Archived from the original on 3 August 2019. Retrieved 16 September 2019.
  41. ↑ "Spacewalk 1.8 Release Notes". Github. Archived from the original on 16 September 2019. Retrieved 16 September 2019.
  42. ↑ "Spacewalk 1.7 Release Notes". Github. Archived from the original on 16 September 2019. Retrieved 16 September 2019.
  43. ↑ "Spacewalk 1.6 Release Notes". Github. Archived from the original on 3 August 2019. Retrieved 16 September 2019.
  44. ↑ "Spacewalk 1.5 Release Notes". Github. Archived from the original on 16 September 2019. Retrieved 16 September 2019.
  45. ↑ "Spacewalk 1.4 Release Notes". Github. Archived from the original on 16 September 2019. Retrieved 16 September 2019.
  46. ↑ "Spacewalk 1.3 Release Notes". Github. Archived from the original on 16 September 2019. Retrieved 16 September 2019.
  47. ↑ "Spacewalk 1.2 Release Notes". Github. Archived from the original on 16 September 2019. Retrieved 16 September 2019.
  48. ↑ "Spacewalk 1.1 Release Notes". Github. Archived from the original on 16 September 2019. Retrieved 16 September 2019.
  49. ↑ "Spacewalk 1.0 Release Notes". Github. Archived from the original on 16 September 2019. Retrieved 16 September 2019.
  50. ↑ "Spacewalk 0.8 Release Notes". Github. Archived from the original on 16 September 2019. Retrieved 16 September 2019.
  51. ↑ "Spacewalk 0.7 Release Notes". Github. Archived from the original on 16 September 2019. Retrieved 16 September 2019.
  52. ↑ "Spacewalk 0.6 Release Notes". Github. Archived from the original on 16 September 2019. Retrieved 16 September 2019.
  53. ↑ "Spacewalk 0.5 Release Notes". Github. Archived from the original on 16 September 2019. Retrieved 16 September 2019.
  54. ↑ "Spacewalk-announce-list — Spacewalk 0.4 is here!". www.redhat.com. Archived from the original on 2019-07-26. Retrieved 2019-09-16.
  55. ↑ "Spacewalk-list — Announcing Spacewalk 0.3". www.redhat.com. Archived from the original on 2019-07-21. Retrieved 2019-09-16.
  56. ↑ "Spacewalk-list — Spacewalk 0.2 available". www.redhat.com. Archived from the original on 2019-07-21. Retrieved 2019-09-16.
  57. ↑ "Spacewalk-list — Introducing Project Spacewalk". www.redhat.com. Archived from the original on 2019-07-21. Retrieved 2017-02-02.
  58. ↑ Midtrapanon, Soranut; Wills, Gary (2 May 2019). Linux patch management: With security assessment features (PDF). 4th International Conference on Internet of Things, Big Data and Security. Heraklion, Crete. pp. 270–277. Archived from the original on 17 September 2019.
  59. ↑ "Spacewalk Home". Red Hat. 2015. Archived from the original on 2016-11-19. Retrieved 2017-02-02.

Resources

ResourceNotes
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. Archived from the original on 2017-02-03. Retrieved 2017-02-02.
  2. ↑ "Migration from Fedorahosted Trac". 2016-11-16. Archived from the original on 2017-02-02. Retrieved 2017-02-02.
  3. ↑ "Spacewalk wiki has a new home!". spacewalk-devel. 2017-01-13. Archived from the original on 2017-02-02. Retrieved 2017-02-02.
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