[TriLUG] Where's the RHN System ID Kept?

[Scott Chilcote]

Hi Folks,

While experimenting with some different disk partitioning, I wound up 
installing Redhat 8.0 a few times on the same machine.  Each time I had 
to go through the registration process for up2date in order to get 
updates from RHN.

I couldn't remember exactly what I'd given RHN for my system ID.  I 
guessed, and got it wrong; "athlonsystem" instead of "athlon system". 
As a result, RHN said that I didn't have an entitlement, for shame, go 
away, etc. and up2date refused to run.

Well, I eventually figured out that I could get on 
https://rhn.redhat.com and edit my user profile, but what I wanted to do 
was just fix the name of the RHN System ID on my installation.  I did 
some recursive string searches and found:

/etc/sysconfig/rhn/systemid:
<value><string>athlonsystem</string></value>

So I changed the string there to be

<value><string>athlon system</string></value>

And tried running up2date again.  No luck.  It still said my system ID 
was "athlonsystem" and refused to run.

I tried searching /proc, wondering if maybe the kernel was loading this 
string at boot time.  It wasn't there.  It's not in /proc/ksyms, either. 
  I even tried rebooting, and up2date still thinks my system is 
"athlonsystem".

Now that I've updated the ID on rhn.redhat.com, I can use up2date again. 
  I'm just perplexed that there's an identifier associated with my 
system that seems to be hidden.  Is RHN using something else to 
associate my system with its identifier?  Is there a hidden file or an 
encoded string somewhere else with this system ID?

I guess I've gotten so used to things being out in the open for the last 
several years that this situation seems weird.  On the other hand, 
RedHat is generously providing me with free updates for my system.  No 
complaints there.

So, is there a way to change the ID on my system once it's been set?

Thanks,

                Scott C.