RHCSA Practical Lab Series – Configuring YUM/DNF Repositories

CloudNetOps

28 Feb 2025 — 2 min read

🔍 Lab 17: Setting Up Default Package Repositories in RHEL 9

📌 Objective

In this lab, you will:

✔ Configure YUM/DNF repositories for package management
✔ Set up BaseOS and AppStream repositories
✔ Verify repository functionality and install packages

📌 Step 1: Copy the Repository Configuration File

🔹 Copy an existing repository configuration file to the correct location:

[root@node2 ~]# scp root@node1:/etc/yum.repos.d/rhcsa.repo /etc/yum.repos.d/

📌 Explanation:

scp → Securely transfers files between nodes.
/etc/yum.repos.d/ → The directory where YUM/DNF stores repository configurations.

✅ Check if the file was copied successfully:

[root@node2 ~]# ls /etc/yum.repos.d/

🔹 Expected Output:

rhcsa.repo  redhat.repo

✅ If rhcsa.repo is listed, proceed to Step 2.

📌 Step 2: Manually Configure Repository Files

🔹 Open the repository configuration file:

[root@node2 ~]# vim /etc/yum.repos.d/rhcsa.repo

🔹 Ensure the file contains the following content:

[Base]
name=Base
baseurl=http://content/rhel9.0/x86_64/dvd/BaseOS
enabled=1
gpgcheck=no

[AppStream]
name=AppStream
baseurl=http://content/rhel9.0/x86_64/dvd/AppStream
enabled=1
gpgcheck=no

📌 Explanation:

[Base] → Defines the BaseOS repository.
[AppStream] → Defines the AppStream repository.
baseurl → Points to the repository location.
enabled=1 → Activates the repository.
gpgcheck=no → Disables GPG key verification (for testing purposes).

✅ Save and exit the file (ESC + :wq).

📌 Step 3: Verify Repository Configuration

🔹 Confirm that the new repositories are recognized:

[root@node2 ~]# yum repoinfo

🔹 Expected Output:

Repo-id      : Base
Repo-name    : BaseOS
Repo-baseurl : http://content/rhel9.0/x86_64/dvd/BaseOS
Enabled      : Yes

Repo-id      : AppStream
Repo-name    : AppStream
Repo-baseurl : http://content/rhel9.0/x86_64/dvd/AppStream
Enabled      : Yes

✅ If both repositories are listed, they are correctly configured.

📌 Step 4: Install and Test a Package

🔹 Try installing an essential package (e.g., vsftpd for FTP server):

[root@node2 ~]# yum -y install vsftpd

📌 Explanation:

-y → Automatically confirms installation.
vsftpd → The package name (from BaseOS/AppStream repositories).

✅ Verify the installation:

[root@node2 ~]# rpm -q vsftpd

🔹 Expected Output:

vsftpd-3.0.3-44.el9.x86_64

✅ If the package is installed successfully, the repository is fully functional.

📌 Step 5: Enable and Start the Installed Service (Optional)

🔹 Enable and start the vsftpd service:

[root@node2 ~]# systemctl enable --now vsftpd

🔹 Check if the service is running:

[root@node2 ~]# systemctl status vsftpd

🔹 Expected Output:

● vsftpd.service - Vsftpd ftp daemon
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/vsftpd.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: active (running) since Mon 2024-03-25 11:00:00 UTC; 5s ago

✅ If Active: running, the FTP server is running successfully.

📌 Troubleshooting Tips

🔹 If the repository does not work, try clearing and updating the cache:

[root@node2 ~]# yum clean all
[root@node2 ~]# yum makecache

🔹 If the package installation fails, check for network connectivity:

[root@node2 ~]# ping -c 4 content

🔹 If the repository URL is incorrect, manually verify with curl:

[root@node2 ~]# curl -I http://content/rhel9.0/x86_64/dvd/BaseOS

✅ If a 200 OK response is received, the URL is accessible.

✅ Final Summary

✔ Configured BaseOS and AppStream repositories
✔ Verified repository functionality with yum repoinfo
✔ Installed and tested vsftpd to confirm package management works
✔ Enabled and started a service from the repository