What's the difference between management services provided by Red Hat Network (RHN) Classic and Red Hat Customer Portal Subscription Management/RHSM?

Introduction:

With the introduction of the subscription management services provided by the Red Hat Customer Portal several years ago, Red Hat supported two hosted technologies for registering Red Hat Enterprise Linux servers and downloading updates.

• Red Hat Network Classic
• Red Hat Customer Portal (providing Red Hat Subscription Management)

This overlap continued as the Red Hat Customer Portal matured to become the preferred method (enabled by default) for subscription management and downloading updates while Red Hat Network Classic was maintained to support older versions of Red Hat products.

However, with the successful launch of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 using only the Red Hat Customer Portal the following article has been updated to compare the differences between the two services to assist customers in migrating from the Red Hat Network Classic service to the Red Hat Customer Portal Subscription Management service.

Strategic/Deployment Differences:

Red Hat Network Classic
Included with a Red Hat subscription, Red Hat Network Classic provides a hosted subscription and individual system management service for a deployment.

For customers wanting expanded systems management functionality, several additional product options associated to this Classic service are available.

• Smart Management enabled clients connected to the same RHN Classic service allowed for grouped system patching.
• The Red Hat Satellite Proxy product serves to extend and expand RHN Classic services with on-premise secure caching of content and updates, grouped system deployment of patches, and serving as a DMZ gateway device for customer data centers.
• The Red Hat Satellite 5 product serves as a comprehensive systems management platform including everything needed to manage system definitions, customized operating system deployments, customized layered applications, configuration management and provisioning. Red Hat Satellite provides true end-to-end systems management -- direct connection unneeded.

IMPORTANT - Red Hat Enterprise Linux versions as client systems managed by each platform:

• Red Hat Network Classic: RHEL versions 4, 5, and 6
• Red Hat Satellite Proxy: RHEL versions 4, 5, 6, and 7* (*Proxy 5.6+ together with Satellite 5.6+ only)
• Red Hat Satellite: RHEL versions 4, 5, 6 and 7* (*Satellite 5.6+ only)

Red Hat Customer Portal (aka Red Hat Subscription Management)
Included with a Red Hat subscription, Red Hat Subscription Management provides a comprehensive, end-to-end hosted subscription management service via the Customer Portal.

For customers needing expanded subscription delivery capability or comprehensive systems management functionality, several additional options are available.

• The Red Hat Subscription Asset Manager application serves as a means to the same subscription delivery services provided by Red Hat Customer Portal, but as an on-premise application. In addition to its DMZ gatewaying capability, Subscription Asset Manager can operated completely disconnected from the hosted service. This application is included (no additional fee) as part of a Red Hat Enterprise Linux subscription.
• The Red Hat Satellite 6 product is a comprehensive systems management platform including everything needed to manage system definitions, customized operating system deployments, customized layered applications, advanced configuration management and provisioning -- true end-to-end systems management -- from small to extremely large deployments.

IMPORTANT - Red Hat Enterprise Linux versions managed by each platform: versions 5.7+, 6.1+, and 7+

Comparison for migration:

Please refer to the following table for comparisons between RHN Classic and Red Hat Customer Portal Subscription Management capabilities. Note, this table may contain statements regarding future services not yet approved for implementation and does not indicate a commitment for delivery.

Additional information on migration options and deployment strategies for RHN Classic Hosted customers can be found at: Transition of Red Hat Network Classic Hosted to Red Hat Subscription Management and RHN Classic Hosted/stand-alone Proxy Customer Options for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 (RHEL 7)

References

1. Benefits of Red Hat Subscriptions
2. Benefits of Red Hat Subscription Management
3. Overview of Red Hat Subscription Management
4. Red Hat Subscription Management Guide
5. RHN Classic Hosted/stand-alone Proxy Customer Options for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 (RHEL 7)
6. Red Hat Satellite 5.7 documentation