Create an FTP-based YUM/DNF repository on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8

Software repositories are usually used over the internet and can be accessed by multiple users worldwide. However, you can create your own local repository on your local server and use it as a single user, or allow access to other machines on your LAN using an HTTP web server or FTP.

The advantage of creating a local repository is that you don’t require an internet connection to

install software packages or updates. Another benefit is, of course, the download speed. Since the packages are downloaded via a local network, the updates perform quickly.

Yellowdog Updater, Modified (YUM) or Dandified YUM (DNF) are software package managers that manage the RPM-based Linux distributions. With YUM or DNF, you can install and update groups of computers without having to manually update each one using RPM.

In this article, I will explain how to set up a local YUM/DNF repository on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8 using the installation DVD or ISO file. I will also show you how to find and install software packages on client RHEL 8 machines using the Very Secure FTP Daemon (vsftpd) server. For Apache web server instructions, see Create your own Apache-based YUM/DNF repository on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.

Prerequisites

You will need to set up two machines with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 systems, one local repo server, and one client machine that will use the local repository from the local server. For example:

• Local Repository Server: RHEL 8 [10.0.0.10]

• Local Client Machine: RHEL 8 [10.0.0.11]

• RHEL 8 installation DVD

• vsftpd FTP server

Create your repository

Creating your repository involves a number of steps.

Step 1: Mount the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 media

First, mount the local media (the DVD, USB stick, etc.) that contains Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8. Use the installation DVD:

$ sudo mount /dev/cdrom /mnt 
mount: /mnt: WARNING: device write-protected, mounted read-only.

Or mount the ISO image:

$ sudo mount -o loop rhel-8.0-x86_64-dvd.iso /mnt

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Step 2: Create a local YUM repository from the mounted media

Move the existing repo files located in /etc/yum.repos.d:

$ sudo mv /etc/yum.repos.d/*.repo /tmp/

From this point, it is better if you continue as the root user. Switch to superuser with su command.

Next, create a directory for the repo:

# mkdir /local_repo

Use this directory with vsftpd for serving files over the LAN.

Create the new local repository’s configuration file local-dvdrom.repo under the /etc/yum.repos.d directory:

# touch /etc/yum.repos.d/local-dvdrom.repo
# chmod  u+rw,g+r,o+r  /etc/yum.repos.d/local-dvdrom.repo

Step 3: Copy media content to the local directory

Copy the ISO files locally under the /local_repo directory:

# cd /mnt
# tar cvf - . | (cd /local_repo/; tar xvf -)

Wait until the files are copied, then verify the files were copied using:

# ls -l /local_repo/
total 56
dr-xr-xr-x. 4 root root    38 Apr  4  2019 AppStream
dr-xr-xr-x. 4 root root    38 Apr  4  2019 BaseOS
dr-xr-xr-x. 3 root root    18 Apr  4  2019 EFI
-r--r--r--. 1 root root  8266 Mar  1  2019 EULA
-r--r--r--. 1 root root  1455 Apr  4  2019 extra_files.json
-r--r--r--. 1 root root 18092 Mar  1  2019 GPL
dr-xr-xr-x. 3 root root    76 Apr  4  2019 images
dr-xr-xr-x. 2 root root   256 Apr  4  2019 isolinux
-r--r--r--. 1 root root   103 Apr  4  2019 media.repo
-r--r--r--. 1 root root  1669 Mar  1  2019 RPM-GPG-KEY-redhat-beta
-r--r--r--. 1 root root  5134 Mar  1  2019 RPM-GPG-KEY-redhat-release
-r--r--r--. 1 root root  1796 Apr  4  2019 TRANS.TBL

Step 4: Configure the local YUM/DNF repository

Edit the repo configuration file you created earlier:

# vim /etc/yum.repos.d/local-dvdrom.repo

Paste this configuration into it:

[LocalRepo_BaseOS]
name=LocalRepo_BaseOS
metadata_expire=-1
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
baseurl=file:///local_repo/BaseOS/
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-redhat-release

[LocalRepo_AppStream]
name=LocalRepo_AppStream
metadata_expire=-1
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
baseurl=file:///local_repo/AppStream/
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-redhat-release

Install the required packages for creating, configuring and managing the local repository:

# yum repolist
Updating Subscription Management repositories.
Unable to read consumer identity
This system is not registered to Red Hat Subscription Management. You can use subscription-manager to register.
LocalRepo_AppStream                              94 MB/s | 5.3 MB     00:00    
LocalRepo_BaseOS                                 97 MB/s | 2.2 MB     00:00    
repo id                              repo name                            status
LocalRepo_AppStream                  LocalRepo_AppStream                  4,672
LocalRepo_BaseOS                     LocalRepo_BaseOS                     1,658


# yum install createrepo  yum-utils
Updating Subscription Management repositories.
Unable to read consumer identity
This system is not registered to Red Hat Subscription Management. You can use subscription-manager to register.
Last metadata expiration check: 0:02:33 ago on Sat 05 Oct 2019 09:52:46 PM UTC.
Package dnf-utils-4.0.2.2-3.el8.noarch is already installed.
Dependencies resolved.
================================================================================
 Package              Arch      Version            Repository              Size
================================================================================
Installing:
 createrepo_c         x86_64    0.11.0-1.el8       LocalRepo_AppStream     76 k
Installing dependencies:
 createrepo_c-libs    x86_64    0.11.0-1.el8       LocalRepo_AppStream    101 k
 drpm                 x86_64    0.3.0-14.el8       LocalRepo_AppStream     71 k

Transaction Summary
================================================================================
Install  3 Packages

Total size: 249 k
Installed size: 556 k
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Downloading Packages:
Running transaction check
Transaction check succeeded.
Running transaction test
Transaction test succeeded.
Running transaction
  Preparing        :                                                        1/1 
  Installing       : drpm-0.3.0-14.el8.x86_64                               1/3 
  Installing       : createrepo_c-libs-0.11.0-1.el8.x86_64                  2/3 
  Installing       : createrepo_c-0.11.0-1.el8.x86_64                       3/3 
  Running scriptlet: createrepo_c-0.11.0-1.el8.x86_64                       3/3 
  Verifying        : createrepo_c-0.11.0-1.el8.x86_64                       1/3 
  Verifying        : createrepo_c-libs-0.11.0-1.el8.x86_64                  2/3 
  Verifying        : drpm-0.3.0-14.el8.x86_64                               3/3 
Installed products updated.

Installed:
  createrepo_c-0.11.0-1.el8.x86_64     createrepo_c-libs-0.11.0-1.el8.x86_64    
  drpm-0.3.0-14.el8.x86_64            

Complete!

Finally, run the createrepo command:

# createrepo /local_repo/
Directory walk started
Directory walk done - 6647 packages
Temporary output repo path: /local_repo/.repodata/
Preparing sqlite DBs
Pool started (with 5 workers)
Pool finished

Step 5: Test and verify your local repository

In this step, you clean up the temporary repository files and verify that the local repository is enabled:

# yum clean all
Updating Subscription Management repositories.
Unable to read consumer identity
This system is not registered to Red Hat Subscription Management. You can use subscription-manager to register.
12 files removed

# yum repolist
Updating Subscription Management repositories.
Unable to read consumer identity
This system is not registered to Red Hat Subscription Management. You can use subscription-manager to register.
LocalRepo_AppStream                             120 MB/s | 5.3 MB     00:00    
LocalRepo_BaseOS                                103 MB/s | 2.2 MB     00:00    
repo id                              repo name                            status
LocalRepo_AppStream                  LocalRepo_AppStream                  4,672
LocalRepo_BaseOS                     LocalRepo_BaseOS                     1,658

Verify that the local repository was created:

# ls /local_repo/repodata/
26617821a5263fb13c7a49cc5e2d0b979b926eb17b9b4ed0b7df624e04c272f2-other.sqlite.bz2
5626e6dd41648dc6395def6889f4cc0e7f1006bb7d7eca748c9abd4c67fa5b9b-other.xml.gz
6290a72e46a90f98896c14f7664440de10c798d158ce0afe5f15a9f3896b7824-primary.xml.gz
a5c265589796231ed91b8b25a0473d05915bf62496495a004d321d042b26360c-filelists.sqlite.bz2
c8b51f43bdaa4f14cd5b083851cef1068e9284fa6557eb4552ba2ae22e7f72d5-primary.sqlite.bz2
ed21f77d28e263df02739a4bd55eb7247ffd0531c871bfe677d4b205dbffd5e8-filelists.xml.gz
repomd.xml

You can see that the local repository generated files, so everything is ok at this point.

If you read the above command output carefully, you are getting the warning message, This system is not registered to Red Hat Subscription Management. You can use subscription-manager to register. If you want to suppress or prevent this message while running the dnf or yum command then edit the file /etc/yum/pluginconf.d/subscription-manager.conf:

# vim /etc/yum/pluginconf.d/subscription-manager.conf

and change the parameter enabled=1 to enabled=0:

[main]
enabled=0

Set up your FTP server

As I mentioned before, this article covers setting up your own repository using an FTP server (in this case, vsftpd). I'll walk you through installing and configuring vsftpd to serve your repo.

Install vsftpd

To set up your FTP server to handle your rep, first install vsftpd:

# yum install vsftpd
Last metadata expiration check: 0:45:11 ago on Sun 06 Oct 2019 01:35:13 PM UTC.
Dependencies resolved.
=========================================================================================
 Package        Arch           Version                 Repository                   Size
=========================================================================================
Installing:
 vsftpd         x86_64         3.0.3-28.el8            LocalRepo_AppStream         180 k

Transaction Summary
=========================================================================================
Install  1 Package

Total size: 180 k
Installed size: 356 k
Is this ok [y/N]: y

Configure vsftpd to auto-start at boot

Once vsftpd is installed, start and enable the service to auto-start at boot and verify its status using the following commands:

# systemctl start vsftpd

# systemctl enable vsftpd
Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/vsftpd.service → /usr/lib/systemd/system/vsftpd.service.

# systemctl status nginx
● vsftpd.service - Vsftpd ftp daemon
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/vsftpd.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: active (running) since Sun 2019-10-06 10:15:47 UTC; 22s ago
 Main PID: 18330 (vsftpd)
    Tasks: 1 (limit: 2348)
   Memory: 7.6M
   CGroup: /system.slice/vsftpd.service
           └─18330 /usr/sbin/vsftpd /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf

Oct 06 10:15:47 server systemd[1]: Starting Vsftpd ftp daemon...
Oct 06 10:15:47 server vsftpd[3593]: Started Vsftpd ftp daemon.

Configure the firewall

Next, you must configure the firewall so that vsftpd can be reached:

# firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=21/tcp
success
# firewall-cmd --reload
success

Verify that vsftpd is up and running

You can now verify that your FTP server is up and running by using an FTP client to connect tolocalhost. For example:

$ ftp localhost
Trying ::1...
Connected to localhost (::1).
220 (vsFTPd 3.0.3)
Name (localhost:bb): bb
331 Please specify the password.
Password:
230 Login successful.
Remote system type is UNIX.
Using binary mode to transfer files.
ftp> ls
229 Entering Extended Passive Mode (|||50522|)
150 Here comes the directory listing.
drwxrwxr-x  3 1001 1001 4096 Aug 07 04:46 Documents
-rw-rw-r--  1 1001 1001  4 Aug 07 04:46 example.txt
-rw-rw-r--  1 1001 1001 20 Aug 07 17:45 test.txt
226 Directory send OK.
ftp> quit
221 Goodbye.
$

Configure vsftpd

To configure vsftpd, open the configuration file:

# vim /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf 

When opened, change the following:

anonymous_enable=YES
#
# Uncomment this to allow local users to log in.
# When SELinux is enforcing check for SE bool ftp_home_dir
local_enable=YES
#
# Uncomment this to enable any form of FTP write command.
write_enable=NO

Add the following line anywhere in the configuration file:

local_root=/local_repo

Test and clean up

Finally, restart and test the vsftpd service:

# systemctl restart vsftpd

# systemctl status vsftpd
● vsftpd.service - Vsftpd ftp daemon
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/vsftpd.service; disabled; vendor preset: disa>
   Active: active (running) since Sun 2019-10-06 14:31:30 UTC; 7s ago
  Process: 6514 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/vsftpd /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf (code=exited, status=>
 Main PID: 6515 (vsftpd)
    Tasks: 1 (limit: 11528)
   Memory: 644.0K
   CGroup: /system.slice/vsftpd.service
           └─6515 /usr/sbin/vsftpd /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf

Oct 06 14:31:30 server systemd[1]: Starting Vsftpd ftp daemon...
Oct 06 14:31:30 server systemd[1]: Started Vsftpd ftp daemon.

Change permissions and set SELinux

Continue the security configuration by changing the permissions on the local_repo directory and configuring SELinux. To change the permissions:

# setfacl -R -m u:root:rwx /local_repo/

Then, check if SELinux is enforcing:

# getenforce
Enforcing

If it is Enforcing, type:

# chcon -Rt public_content_t /local_repo/

Set up the client

Now, to configure the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 client machine’s repository.

Add the repos

On the client machine, add the local repos from the server to the client’s YUM configuration:

$ sudo vim /etc/yum.repos.d/local-rhel8.repo 

Then paste the following configuration (be sure to change the server IP address according to your setup):

[LocalServerRepo]
name=LocalServerRepo
enabled=1
gpgcheck=0
baseurl=ftp://10.0.0.10/

Test the repo

Test the LocalServerRepo by installing a package. For example:

$ yum repolist
Not root, Subscription Management repositories not updated
LocalServerRepo                                 112 MB/s | 7.2 MB     00:00    
Last metadata expiration check: 0:00:02 ago on Sun 06 Oct 2019 01:04:21 PM UTC.
repo id                              repo name                            status
LocalServerRepo                      LocalServerRepo                      6,647

$ sudo yum install nano
Updating Subscription Management repositories.
Unable to read consumer identity
This system is not registered to Red Hat Subscription Management. You can use subscription-manager to register.
LocalServerRepo                                 103 MB/s | 7.2 MB     00:00    
Last metadata expiration check: 0:00:02 ago on Sun 06 Oct 2019 01:07:33 PM UTC.
Dependencies resolved.
================================================================================
 Package      Arch           Version              Repository               Size
================================================================================
Installing:
 nano         x86_64         2.9.8-1.el8          LocalServerRepo         580 k

Transaction Summary
================================================================================
Install  1 Package

Total download size: 580 k
Installed size: 2.2 M
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Downloading Packages:
nano-2.9.8-1.el8.x86_64.rpm                      19 MB/s | 580 kB     00:00    
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total                                            17 MB/s | 580 kB     00:00     
Running transaction check
Transaction check succeeded.
Running transaction test
Transaction test succeeded.
Running transaction
  Preparing        :                                                        1/1 
  Installing       : nano-2.9.8-1.el8.x86_64                                1/1 
  Running scriptlet: nano-2.9.8-1.el8.x86_64                                1/1 
  Verifying        : nano-2.9.8-1.el8.x86_64                                1/1 
Installed products updated.

Installed:
  nano-2.9.8-1.el8.x86_64                                                       

Complete!

That’s all! You now have an FTP-based local YUM/DNF repository in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, using the installation DVD or ISO file.