By doing so, we’ll be able to configure our CentOS 8 servers to access the packages without connecting to the Internet. It helps us in reducing the amount of BandWidth and improves security control. Time can also be saved which is being consumed by pulling RPM packages from external sources.

Before going to start make sure you’ve an external storage with enough capacity to host repository packages & potential growth.

Step 1: Install Nginx Server

sudo dnf -y install @nginx

Start & enable the nginx services.

sudo systemctl enable --now nginx

Double check that the status is in working state.

systemctl status nginx

Allow Firewall control.

sudo firewall-cmd --add-service=http --permanent
sudo firewall-cmd --reload

Step 2: Create Repository Directories

In my server the secondary storage capacity is of 100 GB that I can easily use to store data /dev/vdc.

$ 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 

Now, we will create partition on this disk and mount it under /data directory.

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

Next, create a physical volume & group volume in this disk.

$ sudo pvcreate /dev/vdc1
Physical volume "/dev/vdc1" successfully created.

 $ sudo vgcreate data /dev/vdc1
  Volume group "data" successfully created

In the next step we’ll create a logical volume on this disk

$ sudo lvcreate -n repos -l+100%FREE data

Logical volume "repos" created.

Now, create a file system on the given disk.

$ 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

To mount the Logical Volume, make a directory for it.

sudo mkdir /data

Now, create a mount point

sudo vim /etc/fstab
/dev/mapper/data-repos /data xfs defaults 0 0 

Proceed with mounting it.

sudo mount -a

Make sure it is mounted.

$ df -hT /data
Filesystem             Type  Size   Used   Avail Use% Mounted on
 /dev/mapper/data-repos xfs   100G   247M   100G   1%  /data

For storing data in repositories, create a base directory.

sudo mkdir -p /data/repos/centos/8/

Make sure all directories are created.

$ tree /data/
 /data/
 └── repos
     └── centos
         └── 8
 3 directories, 0 files 

Step 3: Create Repositories Sync script

We need a script for syncing contents from the remote repositories to the our local system

sudo vim /etc/centos8_reposync.sh

Copy and paste the given data into that file.

!/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

Run the following command to make the script executable.

sudo chmod +x /etc/centos8_reposync.sh

Now install Tmux & initiate first execution.

sudo yum -y install tmux
tmux
 sudo /etc/centos8_reposync.sh

You’ll see the script start running.

Various directories will be created.

$ ls -1 /data/repos/centos/8/
 AppStream
 BaseOS
 centosplus
 COMPOSE_ID
 cr
 extras
 fasttrack
 isos
 PowerTools

When the script finish up then create a cron job for weekly sync.

You can set your desired time I’m going to set it every Sunday at 6 pm.

$ sudo crontab -e
 00 18 * * 7  /etc/centos8_reposync.sh 

Step 4: Configuring Nginx

First of all create a nginx config 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;     }
 }

Note: repos.example.com is the your domain name, so set it accordingly to access the repositories.

Make sure you’ve configure SELinux labels.

sudo semanage fcontext -a -t httpd_sys_content_t "/data/repos(/.*)?"
sudo restorecon -Rv /data/repos

Restart nginx services

sudo nginx -t
sudo systemctl restart nginx

Check that nginx is working by the URL repos.osradar.com
Note: You can use your own domain to access this.

Step 5: Configuring CentOS 8 Client machines

To use the local repositories, we have to configure our CentOS machines as our mirror is ready.

Take a backup of current repositories before proceeding.

cd /etc/yum.repos.d/
sudo mkdir old-repos
sudo mv *.repo old-repos

Make a new repository file.

sudo vim local.repo

Copy & paste the given data into above file.

[BaseOS]
 name=CentOS-$releasever - Base
 baseurl=http://repos.osradar.com/centos/$releasever/BaseOS/$basearch/os/
 gpgcheck=1
 enabled=1
 gpgkey=http://repos.osradar.com/centos/$releasever/RPM-GPG-KEY-CentOS-Official
 [AppStream]
 name=CentOS-$releasever - AppStream
 baseurl=http://repos.osradar.com/centos/$releasever/AppStream/$basearch/os/
 gpgcheck=1
 enabled=1
 gpgkey=http://repos.osradar.com/centos/$releasever/RPM-GPG-KEY-CentOS-Official
 [centosplus]
 name=CentOS-$releasever - Plus
 baseurl=http://repos.cosradar.com/centos/$releasever/centosplus/$basearch/os/
 gpgcheck=1
 enabled=0
 gpgkey=http://repos.osradar.com/centos/$releasever/RPM-GPG-KEY-CentOS-Official
 [extras]
 name=CentOS-$releasever - Extras
 baseurl=http://repos.osradar.com/centos/$releasever/extras/$basearch/os/
 gpgcheck=1
 enabled=1
 gpgkey=http://repos.osradar.com/centos/$releasever/RPM-GPG-KEY-CentOS-Official
 [PowerTools]
 name=CentOS-$releasever - PowerTools
 baseurl=http://repos.osradar.com/centos/$releasever/PowerTools/$basearch/os/
 gpgcheck=1
 enabled=0
 gpgkey=http://repos.osradar.com/centos/$releasever/RPM-GPG-KEY-CentOS-Official
 [cr]
 name=CentOS-$releasever - cr
 baseurl=http://repos.osradar.com/centos/$releasever/cr/$basearch/os/
 gpgcheck=1
 enabled=0
 gpgkey=http://repos.osradar.com/centos/$releasever/RPM-GPG-KEY-CentOS-Official
 [fasttrack]
 name=CentOS-$releasever - fasttrack
 baseurl=http://repos.osradar.com/centos/$releasever/fasttrack/$basearch/os/
 gpgcheck=1
 enabled=0
 gpgkey=http://repos.osradar.com/centos/$releasever/RPM-GPG-KEY-CentOS-Official

Note: You can use your own domain for this.

Now clean up current repo cache by the following command

sudo yum clean all

After it update it.

$ 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.

Now list repositories and run system update.

sudo yum repolist

sudo yum -y update

Step 6: Enable repositories which are being disabled

By default, some repositories are disable. Enable them by following command.

sudo yum istall yum-utils

Type given command to activate the repository.

sudo yum-config-manager --enable reponame

Enable PowerTools & centosplus repositories.

sudo yum-config-manager --enable PowerTools
sudo yum-config-manager --enable centosplus

Double check these

$ 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, substitue -enable with -disable.

Congratulations you’ve done. Here’s the similar tutorial if you want to sync through satellite.

How To Sync CentOS 8 repositories on Satellite / Katello / Foreman

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