Install and configure local YUM Server on CentOS 7 [Guide]

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In this tutorial, we will show you how to configure and use local yum repository besides the typical online repository. For those new to YUM, Yellowdog Updater, Modified (YUM) is a software package manager that manages the RPM-based Linux distributions.

With YUM, one can install and update groups of computers without having to manually update each one using RPM.

The biggest advantage of using a local YUM repository is to perform any type of package installation without the need of the internet connection. The packages are stored in the local repository.

Another added benefit is the speed of download. Since the packages are downloaded via a local network, the updates will happen at a lightning speed.

Setting up local YUM server on CentOS 7

Before we begin, the first thing to do is to disable SELinux firewall because we are working on the local environment.

Step 1 – Disable SELinux

Let’s first edit the configuration file and change “SELINUX=enforcing” to “SELINUX=disabled”

vi /etc/sysconfig/selinux

Stop firewall and disable on system boot.

systemctl stop firewalld

systemctl disable firewalld

Then reboot the system.

reboot

Step 2 – Mount CentOS 7 media

Mount the local media like DVD, USB stick etc that contains CentOS 7 / Oracle Linux 7 / RHEL 7 etc.

Here we used the CentOS 7 DVD and mount it. Here we mount DVD media to “/mnt” directory

mount -t iso9660 /dev/sr0 /mnt

Step 3 – Copy media content to the Server

Before copying media, we will create a folder inside the server root directory.

mkdir /localrepo

Now copy media to the created folder.

cp -rv /mnt/* /localrepo/

Step 4 – Configure the Local Repository

Take a backup of the repository folder.

cd /etc

Backup repository folder.

cp -r yum.repos.d yum.repos.d-bak

Delete all online repository files.

rm -rf yum.repos.d/*

Create locate repository file.

vim yum.repos.d/local.repo

Add the following line to the file for Centos 7.

[centos7]
name=centos7
baseurl=file:///localrepo/
enabled=1
gpgcheck=0

Then save and exit the file. For your information, here is what each of the items means in the above command.

[centos7] – Name of the Section.
name = Name of the repository
baseurl = Location of the package
Enabled = Enable repository
gpgcheck= Enable secure installation
gpgkey = Location of the key
gpgcheck is optional (If you set gpgcheck=0, there is no need to mention gpgkey)

Now update the local repository.

createrepo /localrepo/

Now enable the local repository.

yum clean all

List repository

yum repolist all

Step 5 – Test Local Repository

Now you can run update command and check if the update is working or not.

 yum update

Here is my system showing the updates. You can type “y” to confirm installation.

Now we will install the “zip” package.

yum install zip

Enter “y” to continue installation. Then it will install the IP package.

Step 6 – Host RPM Packages

Generally, YUM server uses HTTP or FTP as the medium to transfer packages. Here we are going to HTTP.

Install Apache.

 yum install httpd

Check the status of Apache.

systemctl status httpd

If service is not started you can start it following command:

systemctl start httpd

Enable Apache on system boot.

chkconfig httpd on

Now we will configure apache with created Repository path:

Normally Apache document root is “/var/www/html” . Here we are going to change it to our repository path.

Open the configuration file.

vi /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

Find “DocumentRoot” and change the path. Then change the “Directory” path too.

After that find “Options Indexes FollowSymLinks” and change it to “Options All Indexes FollowSymLinks”. The file should look like below:

Then remove the Apache welcome page.

rm -rf /etc/httpd/conf.d/welcome.conf

Check for Apache configuration syntax.

httpd -t

Now restart Apache.

systemctl restart httpd

Use Server IPS to browse Repository.

http://Server-IP

Step 6 – Configure the Client Machine Repository

Backup the current repository folder.

cp -r /etc/yum.repos.d /etc/yum.repos.d-bak

Remove all repository files.

rm -rf /etc/yum.repos.d/*

Now create a new repository file.

vi /etc/yum.repos.d/localrepo.repo

Add following line to file:

[localrepo]
name=Centos7 Repository
baseurl=http://10.94.10.206/
gpgcheck=0
enabled=1

Save and exit the file.

List the repository.

yum repolist

We can see our local repository listed here. Clean yum cache.

yum clean all

Now update repository.

yum update

Test local repository from the client machine. Now we will install “elinks” from our local repository.

If you want you can proceed with typing “y”. It means our local repository working fine

There you go, you have successfully configured the local YUM repository on CentOS.