In this guide we’ll explore how you can create Local repositories of CentOS 8 by using Rsync and hosting them with Nginx web server. The Local CentOS 8 mirrors are created by having a Local cron job which regularly checks for updates in the upstream repositories and update them locally accordingly.
By Creating CentOS 8 Local repository mirrors, you’ll be able to configure your CentOS 8 servers to access packages without the need for internet access. This will improve your security and reduces the amount of bandwidth consumed by pulling RPM packages from external sources.
In this setup, we’ll use a CentOS 7 or CentOS 8 server to perform the actions. You should have an external storage with enough capacity to host repository packages and potential growth.
For CentOS 7 & CentOS 6, check: How To Create Local CentOS 7 6 & EPEL Repository Sync Mirrors
Step 1: Install Nginx Web Server
As Nginx is used as a web server of choice, install it in your CentOS 7 system.
CentOS 8
sudo dnf -y install @nginxCentOS 7:
sudo yum -y install epel-release
sudo yum -y install nginxAfter installation, start and enable the service.
sudo systemctl enable --now nginxConfirm that the service is running.
$ systemctl status nginx
● nginx.service - The nginx HTTP and reverse proxy server
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/nginx.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
Active: active (running) since Fri 2019-11-01 00:28:39 EAT; 4s ago
Process: 7378 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/nginx (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Process: 7376 ExecStartPre=/usr/sbin/nginx -t (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Process: 7375 ExecStartPre=/usr/bin/rm -f /run/nginx.pid (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Main PID: 7380 (nginx)
Tasks: 2 (limit: 11512)
Memory: 9.4M
CGroup: /system.slice/nginx.service
├─7380 nginx: master process /usr/sbin/nginx
└─7381 nginx: worker process
Nov 01 00:28:39 centos8.novalocal systemd[1]: Starting The nginx HTTP and reverse proxy server...
Nov 01 00:28:39 centos8.novalocal nginx[7376]: nginx: the configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf syntax is ok
Nov 01 00:28:39 centos8.novalocal nginx[7376]: nginx: configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf test is successful
Nov 01 00:28:39 centos8.novalocal systemd[1]: nginx.service: Failed to parse PID from file /run/nginx.pid: Invalid argument
Nov 01 00:28:39 centos8.novalocal systemd[1]: Started The nginx HTTP and reverse proxy server.Open http port in the firewall.
sudo firewall-cmd --add-service=http --permanent
sudo firewall-cmd --reloadStep 2: Create Repository directories
I have a secondary disk in my server that will be used to store repository data – /dev/vdc of 100GB.
$ lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
vda 252:0 0 20G 0 disk
├─vda1 252:1 0 1G 0 part /boot
└─vda2 252:2 0 9G 0 part
├─cl-root 253:0 0 8G 0 lvm /
└─cl-swap 253:1 0 1G 0 lvm [SWAP]
vdc 252:32 0 100G 0 disk
I’ll create a partition on this block device and mount it under the /data directory. Let’s start by creating a partition on it.
sudo parted -s -a optimal -- /dev/vdc mklabel gpt
sudo parted -s -a optimal -- /dev/vdc mkpart primary 0% 100%
sudo parted -s -- /dev/vdc align-check optimal 1
Create a physical volume and volume group in it.
$ sudo pvcreate /dev/vdc1 Physical volume "/dev/vdc1" successfully created. $ sudo vgcreate data /dev/vdc1 Volume group "data" successfully created
Create a Logical volume
$ sudo lvcreate -n repos -l+100%FREE data Logical volume "repos" created.
Create a file system
$ sudo mkfs.xfs /dev/mapper/data-repos
meta-data=/dev/mapper/data-repos isize=512 agcount=4, agsize=1965824 blks
= sectsz=512 attr=2, projid32bit=1
= crc=1 finobt=1, sparse=1, rmapbt=0
= reflink=1
data = bsize=4096 blocks=7863296, imaxpct=25
= sunit=0 swidth=0 blks
naming =version 2 bsize=4096 ascii-ci=0, ftype=1
log =internal log bsize=4096 blocks=3839, version=2
= sectsz=512 sunit=0 blks, lazy-count=1
realtime =none extsz=4096 blocks=0, rtextents=0
Create directory for mounting the Logical volume.
sudo mkdir /dataCreate a mount point
$ sudo vim /etc/fstab
/dev/mapper/data-repos /data xfs defaults 0 0 Mount it.
sudo mount -aConfirm:
$ df -hT /data
Filesystem Type Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/data-repos xfs 100G 247M 100G 1% /dataCreate base directory for CentOS 8 repository data.
sudo mkdir -p /data/repos/centos/8/Confirm all directories are created.
$ tree /data/
/data/
└── repos
└── centos
└── 8
3 directories, 0 files
Step 3: Create Repositories Sync script
Let’s now create a script that will be used to sync contents from the remote repositories to our local system.
$ sudo vim /etc/centos8_reposync.shPaste below data.
#!/bin/bash
repos_base_dir="/data/repos/centos/8/"
# Start sync if base repo directory exist
if [[ -d "$repos_base_dir" ]] ; then
# Start Sync
rsync -avSHP --delete rsync://mirror.liquidtelecom.com/centos/8/ "$repos_base_dir"
# Download CentOS 8 repository key
wget -P $repos_base_dir wget https://www.centos.org/keys/RPM-GPG-KEY-CentOS-Official
fiMake the script executable.
sudo chmod +x /etc/centos8_reposync.shInstall Tmux and initiate first execution.
$ sudo yum -y install tmux
$ tmux
$ sudo /etc/centos8_reposync.shThe script should start running.
A number of directories should be created.
$ ls -1 /data/repos/centos/8/ AppStream BaseOS centosplus COMPOSE_ID cr extras fasttrack isos PowerTools
Wait for the initial script to finish running then create a cron job for weekly sync.
I’ll set my sync to run every Sunday 6pm.
$ sudo crontab -e
00 18 * * 7 /etc/centos8_reposync.shStep 4: Configure Nginx
Create Nginx configuration file to serve the repository contents.
$ sudo vim /etc/nginx/conf.d/centos.conf
server
listen 80;
server_name repos.example.com;
root /data/repos/;
location /
autoindex on;
- Where repos.example.com is the domain name you’ll use to access the repositories.
Configure SELinux Labels.
sudo semanage fcontext -a -t httpd_sys_content_t "/data/repos(/.*)?"
sudo restorecon -Rv /data/reposRestart nginx after the change.
sudo nginx -t
sudo systemctl restart nginxOpen the server URL to confirm it is working.
Step 5: Configure CentOS 8 Client machines
Now that our mirror is ready, we can configure our CentOS 8 machines to use the local repositories.
Start by backing up current repositories
cd /etc/yum.repos.d/
sudo mkdir old-repos
sudo mv *.repo old-repos Create a new repository file
sudo vim local.repoModify below and paste it.
[BaseOS]
name=CentOS-$releasever - Base
baseurl=//repos.computingpost.com/centos/$releasever/BaseOS/$basearch/os/
gpgcheck=1
enabled=1
gpgkey=//repos.computingpost.com/centos/$releasever/RPM-GPG-KEY-CentOS-Official
[AppStream]
name=CentOS-$releasever - AppStream
baseurl=//repos.computingpost.com/centos/$releasever/AppStream/$basearch/os/
gpgcheck=1
enabled=1
gpgkey=//repos.computingpost.com/centos/$releasever/RPM-GPG-KEY-CentOS-Official
[centosplus]
name=CentOS-$releasever - Plus
baseurl=//repos.computingpost.com/centos/$releasever/centosplus/$basearch/os/
gpgcheck=1
enabled=0
gpgkey=//repos.computingpost.com/centos/$releasever/RPM-GPG-KEY-CentOS-Official
[extras]
name=CentOS-$releasever - Extras
baseurl=//repos.computingpost.com/centos/$releasever/extras/$basearch/os/
gpgcheck=1
enabled=1
gpgkey=//repos.computingpost.com/centos/$releasever/RPM-GPG-KEY-CentOS-Official
[PowerTools]
name=CentOS-$releasever - PowerTools
baseurl=//repos.computingpost.com/centos/$releasever/PowerTools/$basearch/os/
gpgcheck=1
enabled=0
gpgkey=//repos.computingpost.com/centos/$releasever/RPM-GPG-KEY-CentOS-Official
[cr]
name=CentOS-$releasever - cr
baseurl=//repos.computingpost.com/centos/$releasever/cr/$basearch/os/
gpgcheck=1
enabled=0
gpgkey=//repos.computingpost.com/centos/$releasever/RPM-GPG-KEY-CentOS-Official
[fasttrack]
name=CentOS-$releasever - fasttrack
baseurl=//repos.computingpost.com/centos/$releasever/fasttrack/$basearch/os/
gpgcheck=1
enabled=0
gpgkey=//repos.computingpost.com/centos/$releasever/RPM-GPG-KEY-CentOS-OfficialWhere:
- repos.computingpost.com is the Domain used for repos access
Clean current repo cache:
sudo yum clean allThe update:
$ sudo yum makecache
CentOS-8 - AppStream 1.2 MB/s | 4.3 kB 00:00
CentOS-8 - Base 3.9 kB/s | 3.9 kB 00:01
CentOS-8 - Extras 881 kB/s | 1.5 kB 00:00
Metadata cache created.
List repositories:
$ sudo yum repolist
Last metadata expiration check: 0:02:10 ago on Fri 01 Nov 2019 12:41:38 PM EAT.
repo id repo name status
AppStream CentOS-8 - AppStream 5,089
BaseOS CentOS-8 - Base 2,843
extras CentOS-8 - Extras 3Run system update from it.
sudo yum -y updateStep 6: Enabling Disabled repositories
Some repositories are disabled by default. To enable them, install yum-utils package.
sudo yum install yum-utils
To activate the repository, use the command:
sudo yum-config-manager --enable reponameBelow are the examples to enable PowerTools and centosplus repositories:
sudo yum-config-manager --enable PowerTools
sudo yum-config-manager --enable centosplusConfirm:
$ sudo yum repolist
CentOS-8 - AppStream 1.7 MB/s | 4.3 kB 00:00
CentOS-8 - Base 2.0 MB/s | 3.9 kB 00:00
CentOS-8 - PowerTools 75 MB/s | 1.8 MB 00:00
CentOS-8 - Plus 58 MB/s | 833 kB 00:00
CentOS-8 - Extras 783 kB/s | 1.5 kB 00:00
repo id repo name status
AppStream CentOS-8 - AppStream 5,089
BaseOS CentOS-8 - Base 2,843
PowerTools CentOS-8 - PowerTools 1,507
centosplus CentOS-8 - Plus 26
extras CentOS-8 - Extras 3
To disable, substitute –enable with –disable.
You now have working Local CentOS 8 Mirrors. Enjoy and check a similar guide we have for users running Satellite / Katello / Foreman.
How To Sync CentOS 8 repositories on Satellite / Katello / Foreman
