Choosing Between RHN and Athena

IS&T strongly recommends that you set up periodic Operating System updates to keep up with security and other fixes. IS&T supports two ways to do this for Linux:

• The Red Hat Network
• Athena

This document compares the two so that you can decide which one is best for you.

Athena is primarily focused on maximizing the amount of available software, and minimizing the amount of administration, whether that administration is of user accounts or of software and system updates. By default Athena installs a large suite of MIT-specific application and system software. That software is kept up to date automatically. Any user in the Athena account registration database can log in from the console. Nobody has remote access. These defaults are changeable to provide control over when updates occur, what additional software is added, who can log in, and what remote access is allowed.

Red Hat Network is primarily focused on allowing the system administrator to take the most detailed control possible, and to fully understand and manage each subtle aspect of configuration and update. No user account or update default is set. You are responsible for adding additional third party, or MIT-recommended software.

Most customer requirements fall somewhere in between the two extremes of needing to do no local administration, and needing to take total control. The following table clarifies important aspects of how each system behaves by default, and how to adjust the configuration: