This tutorial describes how to setup a local Yum repository on CentOS 7 system. Also, the same steps should work on RHEL and Scientific Linux 7 systems too.
If you have to install software, security updates and fixes often in multiple systems in your local network, then having a local repository is an efficient way. Because all required packages are downloaded over the fast LAN connection from your local server, so that it will save your Internet bandwidth and reduces your annual cost of Internet.
In this tutorial, I use two systems as described below:
Yum Server OS : CentOS 7 (Minimal Install) Yum Server IP Address : 192.168.1.101 Client OS : CentOS 7 (Minimal Install) Client IP Address : 192.168.1.102
Prerequisites
First, mount your CentOS 7 installation DVD. For example, let us mount the installation media on /mnt directory.
mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/
Now the CentOS installation DVD is mounted under /mnt directory. Next install vsftpd package and let the packages available over FTP to your local clients.
To do that change to /mnt/Packages directory:
cd /mnt/Packages/
Now install vsftpd package:
rpm -ivh vsftpd-3.0.2-9.el7.x86_64.rpm
Enable and start vsftpd service:
systemctl enable vsftpd systemctl start vsftpd
We need a package called “createrepo” to create our local repository. So let us install it too.
If you did a minimal CentOS installation, then you might need to install the following dependencies first:
rpm -ivh libxml2-python-2.9.1-5.el7.x86_64.rpm rpm -ivh deltarpm-3.6-3.el7.x86_64.rpm rpm -ivh python-deltarpm-3.6-3.el7.x86_64.rpm
Now install “createrepo” package:
rpm -ivh createrepo-0.9.9-23.el7.noarch.rpm
Build Local Repository
It’s time to build our local repository. Create a storage directory to store all packages from CentOS DVD’s.
As I noted above, we are going to use a FTP server to serve all packages to client systems. So let us create a storage location in our FTP server pub directory.
mkdir /var/ftp/pub/localrepo
Now, copy all the files from CentOS DVD(s) i.e from /mnt/Packages/ directory to the “localrepo” directory:
cp -ar /mnt/Packages/*.* /var/ftp/pub/localrepo/
Again, mount the CentOS installation DVD 2 and copy all the files to /var/ftp/pub/localrepo directory.
Once you copied all the files, create a repository file called “localrepo.repo” under /etc/yum.repos.d/ directory and add the following lines into the file. You can name this file as per your liking:
vi /etc/yum.repos.d/localrepo.repo
Add the following lines:
[localrepo] name=Unixmen Repository baseurl=file:///var/ftp/pub/localrepo gpgcheck=0 enabled=1
Note: Use three slashes(///) in the baseurl.
Now, start building local repository:
createrepo -v /var/ftp/pub/localrepo/
Now the repository building process will start.
Sample Output:
Now, list out the repositories using the following command:
yum repolist
Sample Output:
repo id repo name status base/7/x86_64 CentOS-7 - Base 8,465 extras/7/x86_64 CentOS-7 - Extras 30 localrepo Unixmen Repository 3,538 updates/7/x86_64 CentOS-7 - Updates 726
Clean the Yum cache and update the repository lists:
yum clean all yum update
After creating the repository, disable or rename the existing repositories if you only want to install packages from the local repository itself.
Alternatively, you can install packages only from the local repository by mentioning the repository as shown below.
yum install --disablerepo="*" --enablerepo="localrepo" httpd
Sample Output:
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile Resolving Dependencies --> Running transaction check ---> Package httpd.x86_64 0:2.4.6-17.el7.centos.1 will be installed --> Processing Dependency: httpd-tools = 2.4.6-17.el7.centos.1 for package: httpd-2.4.6-17.el7.centos.1.x86_64 --> Processing Dependency: /etc/mime.types for package: httpd-2.4.6-17.el7.centos.1.x86_64 --> Processing Dependency: libaprutil-1.so.0()(64bit) for package: httpd-2.4.6-17.el7.centos.1.x86_64 --> Processing Dependency: libapr-1.so.0()(64bit) for package: httpd-2.4.6-17.el7.centos.1.x86_64 --> Running transaction check ---> Package apr.x86_64 0:1.4.8-3.el7 will be installed ---> Package apr-util.x86_64 0:1.5.2-6.el7 will be installed ---> Package httpd-tools.x86_64 0:2.4.6-17.el7.centos.1 will be installed ---> Package mailcap.noarch 0:2.1.41-2.el7 will be installed --> Finished Dependency Resolution Dependencies Resolved =============================================================================================================================================================== Package Arch Version Repository Size =============================================================================================================================================================== Installing: httpd x86_64 2.4.6-17.el7.centos.1 localrepo 2.7 M Installing for dependencies: apr x86_64 1.4.8-3.el7 localrepo 103 k apr-util x86_64 1.5.2-6.el7 localrepo 92 k httpd-tools x86_64 2.4.6-17.el7.centos.1 localrepo 77 k mailcap noarch 2.1.41-2.el7 localrepo 31 k Transaction Summary =============================================================================================================================================================== Install 1 Package (+4 Dependent packages) Total download size: 3.0 M Installed size: 10 M Is this ok [y/d/N]:
Disable Firewall And SELinux:
As we are going to use the local repository only in our local area network, there is no need for firewall and SELinux. So, to reduce the complexity, I disabled both Firewalld and SELInux.
To disable the Firewalld, enter the following commands:
systemctl stop firewalld systemctl disable firewalld
To disable SELinux, edit file /etc/sysconfig/selinux,
vi /etc/sysconfig/selinux
Set SELINUX=disabled.
[...] SELINUX=disabled [...]
Reboot your server to take effect the changes.
Client Side Configuration
Now, go to your client systems. Create a new repository file as shown above under /etc/yum.repos.d/ directory.
vi /etc/yum.repos.d/localrepo.repo
and add the following contents:
[localrepo] name=Unixmen Repository baseurl=ftp://192.168.1.101/pub/localrepo gpgcheck=0 enabled=1
Note: Use double slashes in the baseurl and 192.168.1.101 is yum server IP Address.
Now, list out the repositories using the following command:
yum repolist
Clean the Yum cache and update the repository lists:
yum clean all yum update
Disable or rename the existing repositories if you only want to install packages from the server local repository itself.
Alternatively, you can install packages from the local repository by mentioning the repository as shown below.
yum install --disablerepo="*" --enablerepo="localrepo" httpd
Sample Output:
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile Resolving Dependencies --> Running transaction check ---> Package httpd.x86_64 0:2.4.6-17.el7.centos.1 will be installed --> Processing Dependency: httpd-tools = 2.4.6-17.el7.centos.1 for package: httpd-2.4.6-17.el7.centos.1.x86_64 --> Processing Dependency: /etc/mime.types for package: httpd-2.4.6-17.el7.centos.1.x86_64 --> Processing Dependency: libaprutil-1.so.0()(64bit) for package: httpd-2.4.6-17.el7.centos.1.x86_64 --> Processing Dependency: libapr-1.so.0()(64bit) for package: httpd-2.4.6-17.el7.centos.1.x86_64 --> Running transaction check ---> Package apr.x86_64 0:1.4.8-3.el7 will be installed ---> Package apr-util.x86_64 0:1.5.2-6.el7 will be installed ---> Package httpd-tools.x86_64 0:2.4.6-17.el7.centos.1 will be installed ---> Package mailcap.noarch 0:2.1.41-2.el7 will be installed --> Finished Dependency Resolution Dependencies Resolved ================================================================================ Package Arch Version Repository Size ================================================================================ Installing: httpd x86_64 2.4.6-17.el7.centos.1 localrepo 2.7 M Installing for dependencies: apr x86_64 1.4.8-3.el7 localrepo 103 k apr-util x86_64 1.5.2-6.el7 localrepo 92 k httpd-tools x86_64 2.4.6-17.el7.centos.1 localrepo 77 k mailcap noarch 2.1.41-2.el7 localrepo 31 k Transaction Summary ================================================================================ Install 1 Package (+4 Dependent packages) Total download size: 3.0 M Installed size: 10 M Is this ok [y/d/N]: y Downloading packages: (1/5): apr-1.4.8-3.el7.x86_64.rpm | 103 kB 00:01 (2/5): apr-util-1.5.2-6.el7.x86_64.rpm | 92 kB 00:01 (3/5): httpd-tools-2.4.6-17.el7.centos.1.x86_64.rpm | 77 kB 00:00 (4/5): httpd-2.4.6-17.el7.centos.1.x86_64.rpm | 2.7 MB 00:00 (5/5): mailcap-2.1.41-2.el7.noarch.rpm | 31 kB 00:01 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Total 1.0 MB/s | 3.0 MB 00:02 Running transaction check Running transaction test Transaction test succeeded Running transaction Installing : apr-1.4.8-3.el7.x86_64 1/5 Installing : apr-util-1.5.2-6.el7.x86_64 2/5 Installing : httpd-tools-2.4.6-17.el7.centos.1.x86_64 3/5 Installing : mailcap-2.1.41-2.el7.noarch 4/5 Installing : httpd-2.4.6-17.el7.centos.1.x86_64 5/5 Verifying : mailcap-2.1.41-2.el7.noarch 1/5 Verifying : httpd-2.4.6-17.el7.centos.1.x86_64 2/5 Verifying : apr-util-1.5.2-6.el7.x86_64 3/5 Verifying : apr-1.4.8-3.el7.x86_64 4/5 Verifying : httpd-tools-2.4.6-17.el7.centos.1.x86_64 5/5 Installed: httpd.x86_64 0:2.4.6-17.el7.centos.1 Dependency Installed: apr.x86_64 0:1.4.8-3.el7 apr-util.x86_64 0:1.5.2-6.el7 httpd-tools.x86_64 0:2.4.6-17.el7.centos.1 mailcap.noarch 0:2.1.41-2.el7 Complete!
That’s it. Now, you will be able to install softwares from your server local repository.
Cheers!
