RHN

RHN stands for Red Hat Network, a subscription-management and content-delivery platform provided by Red Hat for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). It was designed to help organizations manage software subscriptions, register systems, and distribute updates and security advisories.

Key capabilities included registering systems to an account, attaching entitlements to those systems, and enabling channel-based access to Red Hat software repositories. RHN offered a web-based interface (often referred to as RHN Classic) and tools for monitoring subscription usage and compliance, as well as access to Red Hat errata and update streams.

For larger deployments, RHN could be integrated with on-premises management tools such as Red Hat Satellite, which evolved from Spacewalk/Foreman-based architectures, to automate provisioning, patching, and configuration management across many systems. Over time, Red Hat shifted customers toward Red Hat Subscription Management (RHSM) and Satellite 6 for modern subscription and systems-management workflows, with RHN Classic gradually sunset.

Current status: RHN as a standalone service has been phased out. The Red Hat product family now centers on Red Hat Subscription Management (RHSM), Red Hat Satellite, and related cloud-management offerings. The RHN branding remains a part of Red Hat’s historical product lineage, representing an earlier approach to software-subscription management within the Red Hat ecosystem.