Oracle Linux Yum Server Setup

 

This document applies to Oracle Linux and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4, 5 and 6, Oracle VM 2 and 3, Exadata and Exalogic.

 

...Register the Oracle Linux Host with the Oracle Unbreakable Linux Network

...Install and Setup Apache
...Oracle Unbreakable Linux Network Yum Server Setup
...Synchronize the Linux Yum Server with Oracle Unbreakable Linux Network

...Install and Setup Apache

...Synchronize the Oracle linux Yum Server with the Oracle Public Yum Repository

 

Step 1	Step 2	Step 3	Step 4	Step 5
Register the Linux host with ULN	Install and Setup Apache	Access ULN, enable YUM, and select RPM channels	Synchronize the Linux Yum server with ULN	Setup Yum clients

Note: Unbreakable Linux Network registration requires an Oracle Single Sign-on account and a valid customer service identifier (CSI). Before registering the yum server, visit the Unbreakable Linux Network, sign in, or create an Oracle Single Sign-on account, then sign in to the Unbreakable Linux Network portal.

 

# rpm --import /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY

 

Tip: If the RPM-GPG-KEY is not in the /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/ directory, locate the file and use the correct path to import the GPG key. For example, as root, type "find / -name RPM-GPG-KEY -print" to locate the RPM-GPG-KEY file.

 

Once the GPG key has been imported, the Linux host can be registered at the Oracle Unbreakable Linux Network from the command line or using a X Windows application. Linux 4 and 5 systems use the up2date command as root to access the registration screen by typing “up2date --register” for X Windows or "up2date --nox --register" for text mode. Linux 6 systems use the "uln_register" command as root to access the registration screen. The registration process requires you to enter your Unbreakable Linux Network associated Oracle Single Sign-on user name and password and a valid Oracle Linux Support Identifier number (CSI).

List 4 shows the six steps to register a Linux host with the Oracle Unbreakable Linux Network:

1.      Review the Unbreakable Linux Privacy Statement

2.      Register a User Account

3.      Register a System Profile—Hardware

4.      Register a System Profile—Packages

5.      Send Profile Information to the Unbreakable Linux Network

6.      Finished Registration

 

The following examples walk through the six steps to register a Linux host with the Oracle Unbreakable Linux Network.

 

From the Review the Unbreakable Linux Privacy Statement screen use the Alt key to select the Next tab, once the Next tab is selected press the Enter key to proceed.  

 

Figure 1 shows the Review the Unbreakable Linux Privacy Statement screen.

On the Register a User Account screen, enter your  your Unbreakable Linux Network associated Oracle Single Sign-on User name, Password, Password confirmation and a valid Oracle VM CSI number. Use the Alt key to select the Next tab, and then press the Enter key to proceed.

 

Figure 2 shows the Register a User Account screen.

 

 

Once Apache is installed, configure Apache to automatically start by typing “chkconfig httpd on”. Next, start Apache by typing “service httpd start”. The next example shows how to install, configure and start Apache.

 

Using up2date, as root type (OL 5.x):

Once the “up2date -i httpd”, or "yum install httpd", “chkconfig httpd on” and “service httpd start” commands have completed, test Apache by pointing a web browser to the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) or the IP address of the Apache server. You will see the default Apache test page as shown in Figure 7.

 

 

Tip: If you don’t see the default Apache test page, check if iptables is blocking http traffic on the Apache host. Consider disabling iptables to test Apache by typing “sudo /sbin/service iptables stop”.

 

Next, create the yum repository base directory in /var/www/html by typing "mkdir -p /var/www/html/yum".

Table 2 shows the approximate disk space requirements for the Oracle Unbreakable Linux Network Oracle VM and Linux RPM channels:

 

Figure 8 shows the Systems tab and the YUM server.

 

From the YUM servers Systems Details page click the Edit button, as shown in Figure 9.

From the Edit Systems Properties page, select the Yum Server check box, enter a valid CSI number, then click the Apply Changes button, as shown in Figure 10.

Step 1	Step 2	Step 3
Install and configure Apache	Synchronize the Linux Yum server with the Oracle public yum repository	Setup Yum clients

 

Local yum repositories are setup using Oracle's public .repo files, the reposync and createrepo commands along with a cron job to automatically synchronize the local Yum repository to the Oracle public Yum repository.

 

Tip: The reposync and createrepo commands are part of the yum-utils RPM package. If your Oracle Linux Yum server does not have reposync and/or createrepo, install the yum-utils RPM by typing "yum install yum-utils" as the root user.

 

 

# cd /etc/yum.repos.d/

# wget http://public-yum.oracle.com/public-yum-el5.repo (Linux 5)

# wget http://public-yum.oracle.com/public-yum-ol6.repo (Linux 6)

 

For Oracle VM 3, create a repo file on the yum server name "/etc/yum.repos.d/public-yum-ovm3.repo" with the following contents:

 

[ovm3_latest]
name=Oracle VM Server 3 Latest ($basearch)
baseurl=http://public-yum.oracle.com/repo/OracleVM/OVM3/latest/x86_64/
gpgkey=http://public-yum.oracle.com/RPM-GPG-KEY-oracle-el5
gpgcheck=1
enabled=1

 

Next, using your favorite text editor, edit the repo files and enable each desired RPM repository by changing enabled=0 to enabled=1. To enable a repository change enabled=0 to enabled=1. Note that enabled=0 disableds an RPM repository and enabled=1 enables an RPM repository.

 

 

Next, download the RPMs for the first time using the reposync command. The next example shows how to dowload the el5_latest RPMs.

# reposync -r el5_latest -p /var/www/html/yum/public/

 

The next example shows how to dowload the ol6_latest RPMs to the /var/www/html/yum/public/ directory.

The next example shows how to dowload the ovm3_latest RPMs.

# reposync -r ovm3_latest -p /var/www/html/yum/public/

 

Note: As needed substitute the path, i.e. -p /var/www/html/yum/public/ with the desired path.

 

The reposync command -r switch is used to indicate which repository in the repo file to download. The reposync command -p switch is used to indicate which directory is used for the local repository. Consult resosync's man pages for further deatails by typing "man reposync". 

 

 

The next example shows the contents of a script named update-oracle-repo.log located in the /usr/local/bin/ directory that updates the Oracle Linux 5 and 6 latest repositories.

# cat /usr/local/bin/update-oracle-repo.log
reposync -r ol6_latest -p /var/www/html/yum/public/
createrepo /var/www/html/yum/public/el5_latest/getPackage/
reposync -r el5_latest -p /var/www/html/yum/public/
createrepo /var/www/html/yum/public/ol6_latest/getPackage/

 

 

As root or any other user with access to the script, type "chrontab -e" to edit your crontab file, or create a new crontab file if one does not already exist. The next example shows how to create a crontab file as root that will run the update-oracle-repo.log script at midnight every weekday and log the results to /var/log/update-oracle-repo-result.log.

 

# crontab -e

15 0 * * * /usr/local/bin/update-repository.sh > /var/log/update-oracle-repo-result.log

Crontab Syntax:
1 2 3 4 5 /path/to/command arg1 arg2
1: Minute (0-59)
   2: Hours (0-23)
       3: Day (0-31)
          4: Month (0-12 [12 == December])
              5: Day of the week(0-7 [7 or 0 == sunday])
                 /path/to/command - Command name or script to schedule

 

To make a Yum Server available to a Linux or Oracle VM host create a .repo file that points to the Yum Server. On a Linux or Oracle VM host, as root create a file in /etc/yum.repos.d/ directory with the .repo extention, i.e. my-ol5-local-yum-server.repo. The .repo file can have any name as long as it has a .repo extention. In the .repo file add the desired RPM channel connection settings.

 

A yum .repo configuration file can contain one or more sections to define RPM repositories.

Table 4 lists the repository directives.

Directive Description	Explanation
baseurl	The location of the RPM repository, i.e. file://, ftp://, or http://. This directive is required
enabled	If set to 1, enables the RPM repository.
name	A descriptive name for the RPM repository. This directive is required

Tip: Consult the yum.conf(5) man page for additional details.

 

The next example shows a .repo file named my-ol5-local-yum-server.repo that points a Linux host to use the el5_latest RPM channel on a Yum server named "<yum_server>". Replace <yum_server> with the IP address or fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of your Yum server.

 

# vi /etc/yum.repos.d/my-ol5-local-yum-server.repo

[el5_latest]
name=Oracle Linux $releasever - $basearch - latest
baseurl=http://<yum_server>/var/www/html/yum/public/el5_latest/getPackage/
gpgcheck=1
enabled=1

 

 

The following list shows all of the Oracle public RPM channels that can be added to a Linux host's .repo file. Replace <yum_server> with the IP address or fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of your Yum server.

Oracle Linux 5 .repo File Entries:
[el5_latest]
name=Oracle Linux $releasever - $basearch - latest
baseurl=http://<yum_server>/yum/OracleLinux/OL5/latest/$basearch/
gpgcheck=1
enabled=1

[el5_ga_base]
name=Oracle Linux $releasever GA installation media copy - $basearch - base
baseurl=http://<yum_server>/yum/EnterpriseLinux/EL5/5/base/$basearch/
gpgcheck=1
enabled=0

[el5_u1_base]
name=Enterprise Linux $releasever U1 - $basearch - base
baseurl=http://<yum_server>/yum/EnterpriseLinux/EL5/1/base/$basearch/
gpgcheck=1
enabled=0

[el5_u2_base]
name=Enterprise Linux $releasever U2 - $basearch - base
baseurl=http://<yum_server>/yum/EnterpriseLinux/EL5/2/base/$basearch/
gpgcheck=1
enabled=0

[el5_u3_base]
name=Enterprise Linux $releasever U3 - $basearch - base
baseurl=http://<yum_server>/yum/EnterpriseLinux/EL5/3/base/$basearch/
gpgcheck=1
enabled=0

[el5_u4_base]
name=Enterprise Linux $releasever U4 - $basearch - base
baseurl=http://<yum_server>/yum/EnterpriseLinux/EL5/4/base/$basearch/
gpgcheck=1
enabled=0

[el5_u5_base]
name=Enterprise Linux $releasever U5 - $basearch - base
baseurl=http://<yum_server>/yum/EnterpriseLinux/EL5/5/base/$basearch/
gpgcheck=1
enabled=0

[el5_u6_base]
name=Enterprise Linux $releasever U6 - $basearch - base
baseurl=http://<yum_server>/yum/EnterpriseLinux/EL5/6/base/$basearch/
gpgcheck=1
enabled=0

[el5_u7_base]
name=Enterprise Linux $releasever U7 - $basearch - base
baseurl=http://<yum_server>/yum/EnterpriseLinux/EL5/7/base/$basearch/
gpgcheck=1
enabled=0

[el5_u8_base]
name=Enterprise Linux $releasever U8 - $basearch - base
baseurl=http://<yum_server>/yum/EnterpriseLinux/EL5/8/base/$basearch/
gpgcheck=1
enabled=0

[el5_addons]
name=Enterprise Linux $releasever Add ons ($basearch)
baseurl=http://<yum_server>/yum/EnterpriseLinux/EL5/addons/$basearch/
gpgkey=http://public-yum.oracle.com/RPM-GPG-KEY-oracle-el5
gpgcheck=1
enabled=0

[el5_oracle_addons]
name=Oracle Software addons for Enterprise Linux $releasever ($basearch)
baseurl=http://<yum_server>/yum/EnterpriseLinux/EL5/oracle_addons/$basearch/
gpgkey=http://public-yum.oracle.com/RPM-GPG-KEY-oracle-el5
gpgcheck=1
enabled=0

[ol5_UEK_latest]
name=Latest Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel for Oracle Linux $releasever ($basearch)
baseurl=http://<yum_server>/yum/OracleLinux/OL5/UEK/latest/$basearch/
gpgkey=http://public-yum.oracle.com/RPM-GPG-KEY-oracle-el5
gpgcheck=1
enabled=0

[ol5_UEK_base]
name=Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel for Oracle Linux $releasever ($basearch)
baseurl=http://<yum_server>/yum/OracleLinux/OL5/UEK/base/$basearch/
gpgkey=http://public-yum.oracle.com/RPM-GPG-KEY-oracle-el5
gpgcheck=1
enabled=0

[el5_unsupported]
name=Productivity Applications for Enterprise Linux $releasever ($basearch)
baseurl=http://<yum_server>/yum/EnterpriseLinux/EL5/unsupported/$basearch/
gpgkey=http://public-yum.oracle.com/RPM-GPG-KEY-oracle-el5
gpgcheck=1
enabled=0

Oracle Linux 6 .repo File Entries:
[el6_latest]
name=Oracle Linux $releasever - $basearch - latest
baseurl=http://<yum_server>/yum/OracleLinux/OL6/latest/$basearch/
gpgcheck=1
enabled=1

[el6_ga_base]
name=Oracle Linux $releasever GA - $basearch - base
baseurl=http://<yum_server>/yum/OracleLinux/OL6/0/base/$basearch/
gpgcheck=1
enabled=0

[el6_u1_base]
name=Oracle Linux $releasever U1 - $basearch - base
baseurl=http://<yum_server>/yum/OracleLinux/OL6/1/base/$basearch/
gpgcheck=1
enabled=0

[el6_u2_base]
name=Oracle Linux $releasever U2 - $basearch - base
baseurl=http://<yum_server>/yum/OracleLinux/OL6/2/base/$basearch/
gpgcheck=1
enabled=0

[el6_u3_base]
name=Oracle Linux $releasever U3 - $basearch - base
baseurl=http://<yum_server>/yum/OracleLinux/OL6/3/base/$basearch/
gpgcheck=1
enabled=0

[el6_UEK_latest]
name=Latest Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel for Oracle Linux - $basearch - base
baseurl=http://<yum_server>/yum/OracleLinux/OL6/UEK/latest/$basearch/
gpgcheck=1
enabled=1

[el6_UEK_base]
name=Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel for Oracle Linux - $basearch - base
baseurl=http://<yum_server>/yum/OracleLinux/OL6/UEK/base/$basearch/
gpgcheck=1
enabled=0

 

Installing, removing, and updating RPM packages is a fundamental Linux lifecycle operation. This section of the Oracle Cloud Cookbook introduces the most frequently used yum commands to query RPM repositories, install, uninstall, & update RPM packages.

 

Linux distributions have one or more package managers. The yum package manager is the default RPM package manager for Red Hat distributions such as Oracle Linux and CentOS. Yum stands for Yellowdog Updater Modified. Yum is a client command for updating RPMs from RPM repositories on yum servers. Yum servers maintain up-to-date RPM header and metadata that point yum clients to RPMs and their RPM dependencies.

 

The yum command requires an argument to specify the action to take. The most commonly used yum commands are:

• install
• remove
• update
• list
• search

The install and remove commands work as expected, they install or remove the listed RPM packages. The install, remove and update commands determine what other packages must be installed or removed (dependencies) and presents the details for confirmation. Wildcards can be used in the package names to specify a group of related packages. For example:

# yum install 'foo'
# yum remove 'foo'
# yum update 'foo'
# yum install 'foo fie fo fum'
# yum remove 'foo fie fo fum'
# yum update 'foo fie fo fum'

The repolist command with its subcommands queries the RPM repository entries in a yum client's .repo files.

 

The next example shows the output from the "yum repolist enabled" command. The "yum repolist enabled" command lists a yum client's enabled repositories with the status and the number of RPMs.

# yum repolist enabled
Loaded plugins: rhnplugin, security
This system is not registered with ULN.
ULN support will be disabled.
repo id                                             repo name                                                                               status
el5_latest                                       Oracle Linux 5 Latest (x86_64)                                                 4,221
epel                                                Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 5 - x86_64                       7,194
repolist: 11,415

 

The next example shows the output from the "yum repolist disabled" command. The "yum repolist disabled" command lists a yum client's disabled repositories.

# yum repolist disabled
Loaded plugins: rhnplugin, security
This system is not registered with ULN.
ULN support will be disabled.
repo id                                             repo name                                                                                     
epel-debuginfo                                Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 5 - x86_64 - Debug                                        
epel-source                                     Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 5 - x86_64 - Source                                       
epel-testing                                     Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 5 - Testing - x86_64                                      
epel-testing-debuginfo                   Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 5 - Testing - x86_64 - Debug                              
epel-testing-source                         Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 5 - Testing - x86_64 - Source                             
repolist: 0

 

The next example shows the output from the "yum repolist all" command. The "yum repolist all" command lists a yum client's enabled and disabled repositories with the status and the number of RPMs.

# yum repolist all
Loaded plugins: rhnplugin, security
This system is not registered with ULN.
ULN support will be disabled.
repo id                                     repo name                                                                                             status
el5_latest                             Oracle Linux 5 Latest (x86_64)                                                                enabled: 4,221
epel                                      Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 5 - x86_64                                      enabled: 7,194
epel-debuginfo                     Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 5 - x86_64 - Debug                        disabled
epel-source                          Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 5 - x86_64 - Source                        disabled
epel-testing                          Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 5 - Testing - x86_64                        disabled
epel-testing-debuginfo         Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 5 - Testing - x86_64 - Debug           disabled
epel-testing-source              Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 5 - Testing - x86_64 - Source          disabled
repolist: 11,415

 

The "yum repolist -v" command verbosly lists all enabled repositories. The yum repolist -v command is useful to list the details from all configured repositories. The next example shows the output from the "yum repolist -v" command.

# yum repolist -v
Loading "rhnplugin" plugin
Loading "security" plugin
Config time: 0.048
This system is not registered with ULN.
ULN support will be disabled.
Yum Version: 3.2.22
Setting up Package Sacks
pkgsack time: 0.039
Repo-id      : el5_latest
Repo-name    : Oracle Linux 5 Latest (x86_64)
Repo-updated : Fri Oct 26 10:30:15 2012
Repo-pkgs    : 4,221
Repo-size    : 5.3 G
Repo-baseurl : http://192.168.4.13/yum/OracleLinux/OL5/latest/x86_64/
Repo-expire  : 3,600 second(s) (last: Fri Oct 26 16:47:06 2012)

Repo-id      : epel
Repo-name    : Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 5 - x86_64
Repo-revision: 1351273445
Repo-tags    : binary-x86_64
Repo-updated : Fri Oct 26 10:46:18 2012
Repo-pkgs    : 7,194
Repo-size    : 5.4 G
Repo-mirrors : http://mirrors.fedoraproject.org/mirrorlist?repo=epel-5&arch=x86_64
Repo-expire  : 3,600 second(s) (last: Fri Oct 26 16:47:13 2012)

repolist: 11,415

 

The yum clean command with its subcommands (clean [ headers | packages | metadata | dbcache | plugins | expire-cache | all) is used to clean the yum cache headers, packages, metadata, dbcache, plugins and expire-cache. The yum clean command with its subcommands is useful to make sure the yum cache is clean. The next example shows how to clean the yum cache.

# yum clean all
Loaded plugins: rhnplugin, security
Cleaning up Everything

 

The yum makecache command downloads the metadata for all enabled yum repositories. The yum makecache command is useful to make sure the cache is current.

# yum makecache
Loaded plugins: rhnplugin, security
This system is not registered with ULN.
ULN support will be disabled.
el5_latest                                            | 1.9 kB     00:00
el5_latest/filelists_db                          | 7.1 MB     00:00
el5_latest/other_db                             |  20 MB     00:01
el5_latest/primary_db                         | 6.1 MB     00:00
epel                                                     | 3.7 kB     00:00
epel/filelists_db                                    | 5.5 MB     00:06
epel/updateinfo                                    | 473 kB     00:01
epel/other_db                                       | 2.3 MB     00:03
epel/group_gz                                      | 168 kB     00:00
epel/primary_db                                   | 3.8 MB     00:05
Metadata Cache Created

 

The yum list command without any options lists all of the packages in all configured repositories and all of the installed packages on a Linux host. Note that yum list all and yum list generate the same output. The next example shows how to list all the available packages.

# yum list | less

 

The yum list installed command lists all the installed packages on the system. The yum list installed command is equivalent to rpm -qa. The next example shows how to list all the installed packages on the system.

# yum list installed | less

 

The next example shows how to confirm if a package, i.e. ntp, is already installed. Substitute the RPM package name ntp with the name of the RPM package you would like to query.

# yum list ntp
Loaded plugins: rhnplugin, security
This system is not registered with ULN.
ULN support will be disabled.
Installed Packages
ntp.x86_64                     4.2.2p1-15.el5_7.1                      installed

 

Repositories offer package groups to manage related packages as sets. Many 3rd party repositories add packages to these groups and provide their packages as additional groups. The next example shows how to list all the available RPM package groups.

# yum grouplist

 

The "yum provides" command lists which package a file belongs to. For example, to list the name of the package that has the /etc/ntp.conf file, type the following:

# yum provides /etc/ntp.conf
Loaded plugins: rhnplugin, security
This system is not registered with ULN.
ULN support will be disabled.
ntp-4.2.2p1-15.el5_7.1.x86_64 : Synchronizes system time using the Network Time Protocol (NTP).
Repo        : el5_latest
Matched from:
Filename    : /etc/ntp.conf

ntp-4.2.2p1-15.el5_7.1.x86_64 : Synchronizes system time using the Network Time Protocol (NTP).
Repo        : installed
Matched from:
Other       : Provides-match: /etc/ntp.conf

 

The yum install <packagename> command installs <packagename> including all of the required dependencies. The next example shows how to install the ntp package. Substitute ntp with the package you would like to install.

# yum install ntp

 

It is possible to install multiple packages by adding the package names to the end of the line.

# yum install foo fie fo fum

 

The yum remove <packagename> command removes <packagename> including all of the required dependencies. The next example shows how to remove the ntp package. Substitute ntp with the package you would like to remove.

# yum remove ntp

 

 

Tip: Wildcards can be used with the search directive, such as * (match anything) and ? (match any single character).

 

The yum groupinstall 'the group's name enclosed in single quotes' command is used to install package groups. The following example shows how to install, update and remove a package group.

# yum groupinstall 'FTP Server'
# yum groupupdate 'FTP Server'
# yum groupremove 'FTP Server'