The code base for Red Hat Satellite was released as open source some time ago as Spacewalk, and the future looks quite bright. I am excited to see this, and am interested in the possibilities that it presents for Linux management.
There are two nasty drawbacks that aren’t mentioned up front (though are mentioned in the technical FAQ): first, it relies on an Oracle database rather than PostgreSQL or mySQL or other open source database; secondly, it will support Fedora clients or CentOS clients or Red Hat clients – only one of the three at a time. This also suggests that it will not support other RPM-based distributions such as Yellow Dog or OpenSuSE.
Presumably, it also will not work with APT – and not because APT doesn”t support RPM because it does (in the form of APT-RPM).
UNIX Administratosphere 