In environments with limited or no internet access—like secure datacenters or air-gapped systems—managing software packages can be a hassle. That’s where setting up a local YUM repository on your RHEL machine becomes incredibly handy.

In this guide, I’ll walk you through the step-by-step process to set up your own local repository server for RHEL 8 and RHEL 9 using httpd (Apache) and createrepo.

Let’s dive in! 🏊‍♂️

1: Download Necessary Packages on a Machine with Internet

Before we begin, you’ll need access to a machine that can connect to the internet, just once.

On that machine:

mkdir -p ~/offline-repo-packages
cd ~/offline-repo-packages

# Download createrepo and httpd with their dependencies
yumdownloader --resolve createrepo httpd

This downloads the RPM packages and their dependencies to your local folder.

2: Move Packages to Your Repo Server

Once downloaded:

  1. Upload the .rpm files to an external SFTP server.
  2. From your internal RHEL server (which doesn’t have internet access), download them to a local folder.

3: Install Required Tools on the Repo Server

Now on the RHEL machine where you’ll host the local repo:

sudo yum install *.rpm

This installs httpd (Apache web server) and createrepo which we’ll use to generate repository metadata.

4: Create Directory Structure

We’ll separate the repo based on OS versions—RHEL 8 and RHEL 9:

sudo -u apache mkdir -p /var/www/html/repo/rhel8
sudo -u apache mkdir -p /var/www/html/repo/rhel9

Move the relevant .rpm files into each folder based on the version.

5: Create Repo Metadata

Use createrepo to generate metadata for each folder:

sudo -u apache createrepo /var/www/html/repo/rhel8
sudo -u apache createrepo /var/www/html/repo/rhel9

📝 Tip: Run this command every time you add or remove packages from the repo folders.

6: Configure Apache to Serve the Repo

Edit your Apache config file (usually found at /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf) to look like this:

ServerRoot "/etc/httpd"
Listen 80
Listen 8001 #for custom Port

Include conf.modules.d/*.conf

User apache
Group apache

ServerAdmin root@localhost
DocumentRoot "/var/www/html"

<Directory />
    AllowOverride none
    Require all denied
</Directory>

<Directory "/var/www/html">
    Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
    AllowOverride None
    Require all granted
</Directory>

<IfModule dir_module>
    DirectoryIndex index.html
</IfModule>

TypesConfig /etc/mime.types
AddDefaultCharset UTF-8

<IfModule mime_magic_module>
    MIMEMagicFile conf/magic
</IfModule>

EnableSendfile on
LogLevel warn

IncludeOptional conf.d/*.conf

Then, start and enable the Apache server:

sudo systemctl enable --now httpd

7: Create the YUM Repo Config File

Let’s now configure the local repo client-side so yum knows about it.

First, remove any existing .repo files (optional but ensures a clean slate):

sudo rm -r /etc/yum.repos.d/
sudo mkdir -p /etc/yum.repos.d/

Then create a new file:

sudo vim /etc/yum.repos.d/local.repo

Add the following content based on your RHEL version:

For RHEL 8:

[local-repo]
name=Local RHEL8 Repository
baseurl=http://<your-server-ip>:port/repo/rhel8
enabled=1
gpgcheck=0

For RHEL 9:

[local-repo]
name=Local RHEL9 Repository
baseurl=http://<your-server-ip>:port/repo/rhel9
enabled=1
gpgcheck=0

Replace <your-server-ip>:port with the IP address and port of your repo server.

8: Test the Local Repo

Run the following to make sure the repo is working:

sudo yum repolist

You should see local-repo listed.

To see available packages:

sudo yum list available

This will only show packages that are not currently installed on the system.

🛠️ Troubleshooting & Tips

  • Permissions: Make sure the repo folders are owned by the apache user and have 775 permissions:

    sudo chown -R apache:apache /var/www/html/repo/
sudo chmod -R 775 /var/www/html/repo/

  • Test with curl:

    curl -vk http://<your-server-ip>/repo/rhel8/repodata/repomd.xml

    This should return metadata XML without error.

  • Metadata Refresh: After adding new RPMs, always re-run:

    sudo -u apache createrepo /var/www/html/repo/rhel8

Final Thoughts

Setting up a local YUM repo can save time, bandwidth, and headaches—especially in environments where you need tight control over packages or no external internet access is allowed.

It’s a great tool in the sysadmin or DevOps toolkit and also teaches a lot about how Linux package management works under the hood.