Description of Problem: The date/time on the satellite box needs to be correct, or the clien machines will be unable to connect, due to cookie errors. Installer should check the date using rdate -s, prompt the user for a sync source or something similar, and set the system hostname accordingly. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): see bug 63780
I dont like this idea. Asking the user for a host to rdate to in an installer designed to be as minimal and as easy as possible seems like a bad idea. The best fix is to setup ntp. I dont really think this should be the satellite installers responsibility. Thats more of a generic sysadmin task that should be performed by the admin of the box. Plus the probabaly arises of "where do I ntp to" and more importantly, does the network allow ntp out? if not it needs to be a local ntp server, and again, prompting for a ntp server seems weird.
timing is a critical factor for things working; if we can do a cheap check in the client, even one that may sometimes fail, it will catch the more serious issues. Even rdate'ing to time.nist.gov or something. Just to check to see how far off the system is from the outside world, and warning. I agree the installer shouldn't set up NTP, but it can do some fairly cheap checks, can't it?
Per GDK, this is something we should clarify in the initial documentation. Over to him for verbage update in the install docs.
This time sensitivity issue will be well-covered in the docs. Joe, please close.