Chapter 3.
Red Hat Network Daemon
The Red Hat Network Daemon (rhnsd) periodically connects to Red Hat Network to check for up-
dates and notifications. The daemon, which runs in the background, is typically started from the ini-
tialization scripts in /etc/init.d/rhnsd or /etc/rc.d/init.d/rhnsd.
Tip
Provisioning-entitled systems served by an RHN Satellite Server may have actions immediately ini-
tiated or pushed to them. Refer to Section 6.4.2.6.1 System Details
Details for instructions on
enabling this feature.
To check for updates, rhnsd runs an external program called rhn_check located in /usr/sbin/.
This is a small application that actually makes the network connection to RHN. The Red Hat Network
Daemon does not listen on any network ports or talk to the network directly. All network activity is
done via the rhn_check utility.
3.1. Configuring
The Red Hat Network Daemon can be configured by editing the /etc/sysconfig/rhn/rhnsd
configuration file. This is actually the configuration file the rhnsd initialization script uses. The most
important setting offered by the daemon is its check-in frequency. The default interval time is four
hours (240 minutes). If you modify the configuration file, you must (as root) restart the daemon with
the command service rhnsd restart or /etc/rc.d/init.d/rhnsd restart.
Important
The minimum time interval allowed is one hour (60 minutes). If you set the interval below one hour, it
will default to four hours (240 minutes).
3.2. Viewing Status
You can view the status of the rhnsd by typing the command service rhnsd status or
/etc/rc.d/init.d/rhnsd status at a shell prompt.
3.3. Disabling
To disable the daemon, (as root) run the ntsysv utility and uncheck rhnsd. You can also (as root)
execute the command chkconfig rhnsd off. Using these two methods will only disable the ser-
vice the next time the system is started. To stop the service immediately, use the command service
rhnsd stop or /etc/rc.d/init.d/rhnsd stop.
