Guys,
I'm running about 100 RHEL AS4 servers for business critical usage. My hardware platform is mostly Dell 1950/2950, and I mainly use AS4-u*.

Recently, I'm trying to implement automatically system updating on these boxes with the help of YUM. Now I faced a critical issue. Redhat only supplies updated packages for paid customers, how can I get rid of limitation without any extra payment please?

Some of you may suggest using CentOS instead, but limitation in real world is the productive applications, they are supported by a third party, and they officially support RHEL AS4 *ONLY*.

Is there any suggestions on this matter please?
Or if I choose yum repositories for CentOS, how badly will it affect our service at most?

Any hints would be welcome and appreciated.

Use CentOS repos - install the centos-release rpm and it's deps. Your servers will subtly convert from RHEL to CentOS (branding and a few other harmless bits and pieces) and you'll be away just fine.

If you are not happy with this, then you've got bigger issues at stake, as you appear to be wanting to defraud a major software house...

Mod, thanks for your informative response.
Basically I dont care much about the license issue as most of other companies here in my country pay little attention.
So the only two choices are using centos' repo or do not implement updates.

If you wish to remain legal, yes. If your third parties don't support anything other that RHEL, regardless or technical realities, surely they shouldn't support illegal instances of RHEL either?

So you'd like us to tell you how to steal from other companies? Sure...please go ahead and post some of your companies products online for free, so we can steal from YOU, too.

Doesn't matter if everyone else does something wrong...it matters what YOU do. If you steal, you're a thief, period. Either get your company to pay for what they want to use, or write what you want yourself.

Why not say Redhat steal 99.9% of themselves from open source world? Based on GPL, the modified version is free to the public.

My company supplies free services to the public indeed.

You must be serious, Redhat should be the real thief.
I highly suggested you have a comprehensive reading of GPL first before posting.

Why not? Because it's totally wrong, that's why. You have NO moral high ground to even think of trying to take. Don't bother trying to defend your intended actions.

Oh...RedHat should be called a thief, by selling products. YOU read the GPL...they provide source code, and the enhancements they make to it, for free, to anyone.

The services you want to get for free, are part of what you PAY FOR, along with their support, etc. Grow up. You're a thief, and you're trying to justify it. And since, as you say:

why should we care about your thieving company, and what they want? Pay for what you want, use something else, or WRITE YOUR OWN SOFTWARE. That's it. I'm sure you can use Google to find whatever you'd need, right???

@edenCC: This is simple -- no need to argue. If you want to play, you need to pay. If you can't/won't pay, use a RHEL clone instead.

If you update your system with non-Red Hat repositories then technically you are not really running RHEL.

RHEL uses SW supplied FREE (GPL) by upstream providers, then adds support/updates (paid), but also supplies all src free (GPL again).
There's no way that equates to 'thief'.

If(!) you want to be honest with your 3rd party suppliers, you pay for RHEL updates/support.
If you use Centos, it's free, but no support.
It's that simple.
How do you think Centos get their copy of RHEL source?

TB0ne, before I read this post, I need to tell you that:
License fee is for upcoming updates/services.

IF YOU DONT NEED ANY FURTHER SERVICES, ABSOLUTELY YOU DONT NEED TO PAY ANYTHING.

What I try to do is to implement the updating service myself. There're many choices...
1, give up updatings.
2, use the RPMs from CentOS ( I'm wondering you may call CentOS thief as well. )
3, use the source code from Redhat's public repos and compile them by myself.

That's an option. If you have a tinderbox where you want to build the SRPMS yourself and then distribute them internally, I don't see any issue.

As I understand it, part of what you're paying for with RHEL support is binary packages that have been built, adequately tested, and provided via the RHN in a timely fashion.

-------

BTW, perhaps everyone could calm down a bit. We all had a chance to vent and explain how we feel. In case it's not abundantly clear by now, if anyone's intention is to subvert a paid-for service, you're not going to get any help.

Right, that's what everyone here has said, and no one but you is having a problem with it.

If you don't pay for them, that's the only good thing to do.

No, they aren't. Read their terms of service, along with many other things. CentOS is essentially the EXACT SAME THING as RHEL, but COMMUNITY SUPPORTED. They make no secret of things, and RedHat tests out many new ideas and programs in CentOS, before they're shipped out with RHEL. Testing costs time and money.......

Wrong. Again, RHEL is PAID FOR support. You can get some updates, but not the most current, from the repos.

Grow up. No one here is going to help you steal, period. Any argument you make is baseless, since YOU ARE STEALING, AND STEALING IS WRONG. No matter how you spin it, that's what you're doing.

Either use CentOS, or pay...those are your options. Otherwise, use some other OS that's produced in your country, where, as you say, no one pays much attention to licenses.

And again...if you won't post your companies products to others, for free, why should anyone give YOU anything for free?

AFAIK
that's Fedora (not Centos).
Centos is just a src rebuild of RHEL, hence the binary compatibility (in theory, although personally I wouldn't mix RHEL & Centos repos on the same box).