This chapter covered the management of RPM packages. You learned how to add, remove, and upgrade packages, and how to add updates-locally and remotely. It's important to upgrade kernels by installing them, side by side with currently working kernels.
You also learned how to query packages, examine to which package a file belongs, the steps necessary to validate a package signature, and how to find the current list of installed RPMs. You also read about installing and building source RPMs.
If you have an RHEL subscription, you can keep your system up to date through the RHN. You can install more packages from the RHN or configured repositories using yum. Alternatively, you can connect to the same repositories using tools such as pirut. In either case, yum provides automatic dependency resolution, which simplifies the installation and update process.
You can automate your entire installation with kickstart. Every RHEL system has a kickstart template file in the /root directory, which you can modify and use to install RHEL on other systems automatically. Alternatively, you can use the GUI Kickstart Configurator to create an appropriate kickstart file.