## Chapter 2. SUSE Manager Daemon¶

The SUSE Manager daemon (rhnsd) runs on the client systems and periodically connects to SUSE Manager to check for updates and notifications. The daemon, which runs in the background, is typically started from the rcrhnsd initialization script.

To check for updates, rhnsd runs the external mgr_check program located in `/usr/sbin/`. This is a small application that makes the network connection to SUSE Manager. The SUSE Manager daemon does not listen on any network ports or talk to the network directly. All network activity is done via the mgr_check utility.

## 2.1. Configuring¶

The SUSE Manager daemon can be configured by editing the `/etc/sysconfig/rhn/rhnsd` configuration file. This is actually the configuration file the rhnsd initialization script uses. The most important setting offered by the daemon is its check-in frequency. The default interval time is four hours (240 minutes). If you modify the configuration file, you must (as `root`) restart the daemon with the command rcrhnsd `restart`.

The minimum time interval allowed is one hour (60 minutes). If you set the interval below one hour, it will default to four hours (240 minutes).

## 2.2. Viewing Status¶

You can view the status of the rhnsd by typing the command rcrhnsd `status` at a shell prompt.

## 2.3. Disabling Service¶

To disable the daemon, (as root) run the command chkconfig rhnsd off. Using this method only disables the service the next time the system is started. To stop the service immediately, use the command rcrhnsd `stop`.

## 2.4. Troubleshooting¶

If you see messages indicating that checkins are not taking place, the client on your system is not successfully reaching SUSE Manager. Make sure:

- your client is configured correctly.

- your system can communicate with SUSE Manager via SSL (port 443). You may test this by running the following command from a shell prompt:

      telnet xmlrpc.example.com 443

- the SUSE Manager daemon is activated and running. You may ensure this by running the following commands:

      chkconfig --level 345 rhnsd on
      rcrhnsd start

  If these are correct and your systems still indicate they are not checking in, please contact our technical support team.