Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Documentation

Understanding Management Stations

An instance assigned the role of management station mirrors and distributes software sources to instances on premises or in supported third-party clouds. A management station also acts as network proxy for instances to communicate with OS Management Hub in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.

You must create and register a management station before registering on-premises or third-party cloud instances. At least one management station is required to serve these instances. Management stations aren't used for OCI instances. You can deploy multiple management stations within a customer data center or third-party cloud.

Note

Management stations aren't used by OCI instances.

Mirror Syncing

A management station mirrors software sources to serve content to on-premises or third-party cloud instances. When a management station registers with OS Management Hub, the services also creates a recurring scheduled mirror sync job for the station. You can modify the execution time and frequency of the mirror sync job, but you can't delete the sync job.

When the mirror sync job runs, the station checks if it needs to update the mirrored software sources. The sync job updates the local mirror with the any changes in the vendor and custom software sources. The station also checks for new software sources to add to the local mirror.

When do mirror syncs occur?
How should I configure the mirror storage?

The following are best practices for configuring mirror storage.

Location

  • Use a volume that's separate from the root file system. This prevents OS issues if the mirror volume reaches capacity.

  • Consider using a network volume with either NFS or iSCSI protocol to make disaster recovery easier.

Size

When provisioning storage to use for the mirror, verify it's large enough to contain the mirrored software sources. Consider the following guidelines:

  • Enough storage allocated and mounted for Oracle Linux content mirrors. Storage requirements are relative to the scope and size of the Oracle Linux software sources needed by instances using the management station. Several hundred gigabytes to a few terabytes is commonly required.
  • Enough storage in /var/cache/dnf for repository metadata. Storage requirements are relative to the Oracle Linux software sources needed by instances using the management station. Large software sources can require 100 MB to 200 MB of storage per repository.

As you associate instances to the management station, monitor the mirror storage capacity and make changes as needed.

Which software sources does the management station mirror?

The management station mirrors only the software sources required to support the instances that use it. The list of mirrored software sources will remain empty until you register at least one instance to use the station. As you attach or detach software sources on that instance, the set of software sources the station mirrors changes to support the instance. The station updates its list of software sources at each scheduled mirror sync. You can also trigger the list of software sources to refresh immediately.

When mirroring custom software sources, the management station also mirrors any vendor software sources that the custom software source relies on. When a station no longer needs to mirror a software source, it's immediately deleted from the mirror volume.

For example, consider three instances using a management station. The following table lists the software sources attached to each instance and the resulting list of software sources mirrored on the management station.

Instance 1 Instance 2 Instance 3 List of Mirrored Software Sources

ol8_baseos_latest-x86_64

ol8_appstream-x86_64

ol8_uek7-x86_64

ol8_baseos_latest-x86_64

ol8_appstream-x86_64

ol9_baseos_latest-x86_64

ol9_addons-x86_64

ol9_appstream-x86_64

ol8_baseos_latest-x86_64

ol8_appstream-x86_64

ol8_uek7-x86_64

ol9_baseos_latest-x86_64

ol9_addons-x86_64

ol9_appstream-x86_64

Next, let's look at what happens if Instance 1 attaches a software source (ol8_custom_source which is based on ol8_developer-x86_64) and Instance 3 detaches a software source (ol9_addons-x86_64). The list of software sources on the management station updates to reflect the change. This update occurs either at the next scheduled sync or if you manually refresh the software source list.

Instance 1 Instance 2 Instance 3 List of Mirrored Software Sources

ol8_baseos_latest-x86_64

ol8_appstream-x86_64

ol8_uek7-x86_64

Attach: ol8_custom_source

ol8_baseos_latest-x86_64

ol8_appstream-x86_64

ol9_baseos_latest-x86_64

Detach:ol9_addons-x86_64

ol9_appstream-x86_64

ol8_baseos_latest-x86_64

ol8_appstream-x86_64

ol8_uek7-x86_64

Added: ol8_custom_source

Added: ol8_developer-x86_64

ol9_baseos_latest-x86_64

Removed:ol9_addons-x86_64

ol9_appstream-x86_64

Maintaining the Management Station Instance

By default, no software sources are attached to the instance that's assigned the role of management station. To update the management station instance, you need to first attach software sources to the management station and then create an update job. The software sources that you attach to the management station are different and separate from the sources mirrored and distributed to other instances.

What Data Is Stored in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure for Management Stations?

OS Management Hub stores the following information about management stations in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure:

  • Hostname
  • Permitted proxy addresses
  • Proxy listening port
  • Proxy forwarding port
  • Path to software source mirror
  • Capacity (percentage free) of mirror storage
  • Mirror listening ports
  • SSL certification path (if provided)
  • reposync command output
Note

If the management station is also being managed and updated using OS Management Hub, its instance information is also stored. See What Data Is Stored in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure for Instances?.