Configuring Private Cloud Appliance Direct Access

This procedure describes how to set up channels on the Private Cloud Appliance that are directly connected to ULN repositories on linux.oracle.com.

(Optional) Set the proxy.

If your organization uses a proxy server as an intermediary for Internet access, specify the proxy setting as described in Configuring the Use of a Proxy Server in the Oracle Linux documentation.

Note:

For Private Cloud Appliance direct configurations, specify the proxy setting in the /etc/sysconfig/rhn/up2date file, not in the /etc/yum.conf file.
Ensure that this appliance can access linux.oracle.com on ports 80 and 443.

See also the My Oracle Support document How to troubleshoot ULN connectivity (Doc ID 1958230.1).
Register the Private Cloud Appliance management node with ULN.

Follow the instructions in Registering Your Oracle Private Cloud Appliance for ULN Updates.

See also ULN Registration in the Oracle Linux documentation.
Subscribe the appliance to the ULN channels.
1. Log in to the ULN site.
2. In the list of registered systems, find this Private Cloud Appliance.
3. Deselect all channels. Some channels are pre-selected by default.
4. Subscribe to the appropriate PCA channels.
  
  For example, for Oracle Private Cloud Appliance release 2.4.4.2, subscribe to PCA 2.4.4.2 MN (pca2442_x86_64_mn) and PCA 2.4.4.2 CN (pca2442_x86_64_cn). For Oracle Private Cloud Appliance release 2.4.3.2, subscribe to pca2432_x86_64_mn and pca2432_x86_64_cn.
  
  PCA MN and CN channels are the only supported ULN channels for patching a Private Cloud Appliance. Any channels other than those will be deactivated during patching operations.
To add ULN channels from the command line, see the My Oracle Support document Oracle Linux: Managing ULN Channel Subscriptions via Command Line (Doc ID 1674425.1).

Use the following command to verify that the channels are visible on the management node:
```
# /usr/sbin/uln-channel --list
```
Create the ULN repositories on the appliance.

Run the following command on the master management node:
```
# /usr/sbin/pca-admin create uln-repo direct
Status: Success
```
This command checks whether a ULN repository is already configured by checking whether the file /nfs/shared_storage/conf/uln.conf exists. If this file does not already exist, this command creates the uln.conf file with entries that define the repository configuration as direct.

When successful, the repositories are available for management node and compute node updates at the following location:
```
/nfs/shared_storage/yum/pca_patch_pca_version
```
For example, repositories are configured at the following locations:
```
/nfs/shared_storage/yum/pca_patch_2.4.4.2/cn
/nfs/shared_storage/yum/pca_patch_2.4.4.2/mn
```
The entry for the ULN compute node repository is added to the ovm.repo file in the /etc/yum.repos.d directory on the compute nodes and enabled.

Use the following command to further verify that the repositories were created successfully:
```
# /usr/sbin/pca-admin show uln-repo
----------------------------------------
Repository Type Direct
Management Patch Repo Created Yes
Compute Patch Repo Created Yes
----------------------------------------

Status: Success	
```
The value of Created is No if no RPM packages have been delivered to that repository yet.

The ovca.log file catalogs repository creation operations, including information such as the channels that were used to populate the repositories, the names of the management node and compute node repositories, and the full path to the ULN configuration file.

The ULN configuration file shows the following:
```
# cat /nfs/shared_storage/conf/uln.conf
[uln]
repo_type = direct
cn_repo = False
mn_repo = False
```
The values of cn_repo or mn_repo will be True once the repositories are set up.

The following information is available if the repository setup did not complete successfully:
- The show uln-repo command shows the message "No patch repositories setup. Run create uln-repo to create repositories."
- The ovca.log file shows failure messages.
If the create uln-repo command completed successfully, any subsequent execution of the create uln-repo command will fail with a message that a repository is already set up and showing the URI of the repository.
Continue to Patching Management and Compute Nodes.