YUM server configuration?

What is YUM?                                                           

YUM (Yellowdog Updater Modified) is an open source command-line as well as graphical based package management tool for RPM (RedHat Package Manager) based Linux systems. It allows users and system administrator to easily install, update, remove or search software packages on a systems. It was developed and released by Seth Vidal under GPL (General Public License) as an open source, means anyone can allowed to download and access the code to fix bugs and develop customized packages. YUM uses numerous third party repositories to install packages automatically by resolving their dependencies issues.

To configure yum server, first of all we need to identify the installed Linux OS version and it's corresponding public yum repository.

[root@localhost ~]# cat /etc/redhat-release
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 5.4 (Tikanga)

[root@localhost ~]# cd /etc/yum.repos.d/

Now we will be creating public-yum-el5.repo named file with following details to cofig the yum server pointing public yum repository.

[root@localhost ~]# vi public-yum-el5.repo

[el5_u4_base]
name=Enterprise Linux $releasever Update 4 installation media copy ($basearch)
baseurl=http://public-yum.oracle.com/repo/EnterpriseLinux/EL5/4/base/$basearch/
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-oracle
gpgcheck=0
enabled=1


Note : Make sure you have changed the value of enabled to 1 from 0, Save and Exit;


List repository packages in Oracle Linux as shown below now.

[root@localhost ~]# yum list

Now we are ready to install any packages required with following yum install command:

[root@localhost ~]# yum install [package_name]

For example, I wanted to install elfutils-devel packages but it has dependent packages to be installed first. As we have already configured the yum server then we just need to provide some start string of the package to be installed ending with asterisk(*) then it will automatically download/install all its dependent packages along as follows:

[root@localhost yum.repos.d]# yum install elfutils*
Loaded plugins: rhnplugin, security
This system is not registered with ULN.
ULN support will be disabled.
Setting up Install Process
Package elfutils-libelf-0.137-3.el5.x86_64 already installed and latest version
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package elfutils.x86_64 0:0.137-3.el5 set to be updated
---> Package elfutils-devel.i386 0:0.137-3.el5 set to be updated
---> Package elfutils-devel.x86_64 0:0.137-3.el5 set to be updated
---> Package elfutils-devel-static.i386 0:0.137-3.el5 set to be updated
---> Package elfutils-devel-static.x86_64 0:0.137-3.el5 set to be updated
---> Package elfutils-libelf.i386 0:0.137-3.el5 set to be updated
---> Package elfutils-libelf-devel.i386 0:0.137-3.el5 set to be updated
---> Package elfutils-libelf-devel.x86_64 0:0.137-3.el5 set to be updated
---> Package elfutils-libelf-devel-static.i386 0:0.137-3.el5 set to be updated
---> Package elfutils-libelf-devel-static.x86_64 0:0.137-3.el5 set to be updated
---> Package elfutils-libs.i386 0:0.137-3.el5 set to be updated
---> Package elfutils-libs.x86_64 0:0.137-3.el5 set to be updated
--> Finished Dependency Resolution

Dependencies Resolved

=================================================================================================
 Package                             Arch          Version              Repository          Size
=================================================================================================
Installing:
 elfutils                            x86_64        0.137-3.el5          el5_u5_base        215 k
 elfutils-devel                      i386          0.137-3.el5          el5_u5_base         61 k
 elfutils-devel                      x86_64        0.137-3.el5          el5_u5_base         62 k
 elfutils-devel-static               i386          0.137-3.el5          el5_u5_base        122 k
 elfutils-devel-static               x86_64        0.137-3.el5          el5_u5_base        119 k
 elfutils-libelf                     i386          0.137-3.el5          el5_u5_base         58 k
 elfutils-libelf-devel               i386          0.137-3.el5          el5_u5_base         24 k
 elfutils-libelf-devel               x86_64        0.137-3.el5          el5_u5_base         24 k
 elfutils-libelf-devel-static        i386          0.137-3.el5          el5_u5_base         66 k
 elfutils-libelf-devel-static        x86_64        0.137-3.el5          el5_u5_base         64 k
 elfutils-libs                       i386          0.137-3.el5          el5_u5_base        193 k
 elfutils-libs                       x86_64        0.137-3.el5          el5_u5_base        183 k

Transaction Summary
=================================================================================================
Install      12 Package(s)
Upgrade       0 Package(s)

Total download size: 1.2 M
Is this ok [y/N]: y

Note : Here you can see it asks for all dependent packages to be downloaded or not so we will press (y) to download all dependent packages.


Downloading Packages:
(1/12): elfutils-libelf-devel-0.137-3.el5.x86_64.rpm                      |  24 kB     00:00   
(2/12): elfutils-libelf-devel-0.137-3.el5.i386.rpm                        |  24 kB     00:00   
(3/12): elfutils-libelf-0.137-3.el5.i386.rpm                              |  58 kB     00:00   
(4/12): elfutils-devel-0.137-3.el5.i386.rpm                               |  61 kB     00:00   
(5/12): elfutils-devel-0.137-3.el5.x86_64.rpm                             |  62 kB     00:00   
(6/12): elfutils-libelf-devel-static-0.137-3.el5.x86_64.rpm               |  64 kB     00:00   
(7/12): elfutils-libelf-devel-static-0.137-3.el5.i386.rpm                 |  66 kB     00:00   
(8/12): elfutils-devel-static-0.137-3.el5.x86_64.rpm                      | 119 kB     00:00   
(9/12): elfutils-devel-static-0.137-3.el5.i386.rpm                        | 122 kB     00:00   
(10/12): elfutils-libs-0.137-3.el5.x86_64.rpm                             | 183 kB     00:00   
(11/12): elfutils-libs-0.137-3.el5.i386.rpm                               | 193 kB     00:00   
(12/12): elfutils-0.137-3.el5.x86_64.rpm                                  | 215 kB     00:00   
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total                                                             54 kB/s | 1.2 MB     00:21   
warning: rpmts_HdrFromFdno: Header V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID 1e5e0159
el5_u5_base/gpgkey                                                        | 1.4 kB     00:00   
Importing GPG key 0x1E5E0159 "Oracle OSS group (Open Source Software group) <build@oss.oracle.com>" from /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-oracle
Is this ok [y/N]: y

Note : Here it asks whether you want to install all downloaded packages so we will hit (y)

Running rpm_check_debug
Running Transaction Test
Finished Transaction Test
Transaction Test Succeeded
Running Transaction
  Installing     : elfutils-libs                                                            1/12
  Installing     : elfutils-libelf                                                          2/12
  Installing     : elfutils                                                                 3/12
  Installing     : elfutils-libs                                                            4/12
  Installing     : elfutils-libelf-devel                                                    5/12
  Installing     : elfutils-libelf-devel                                                    6/12
  Installing     : elfutils-libelf-devel-static                                             7/12
  Installing     : elfutils-libelf-devel-static                                             8/12
  Installing     : elfutils-devel-static                                                    9/12
  Installing     : elfutils-devel                                                          10/12
  Installing     : elfutils-devel                                                          11/12
  Installing     : elfutils-devel-static                                                   12/12

Installed:
  elfutils.x86_64 0:0.137-3.el5                                                                 
  elfutils-devel.i386 0:0.137-3.el5                                                             
  elfutils-devel.x86_64 0:0.137-3.el5                                                           
  elfutils-devel-static.i386 0:0.137-3.el5                                                     
  elfutils-devel-static.x86_64 0:0.137-3.el5                                                   
  elfutils-libelf.i386 0:0.137-3.el5                                                           
  elfutils-libelf-devel.i386 0:0.137-3.el5                                                     
  elfutils-libelf-devel.x86_64 0:0.137-3.el5                                                   
  elfutils-libelf-devel-static.i386 0:0.137-3.el5                                               
  elfutils-libelf-devel-static.x86_64 0:0.137-3.el5                                             
  elfutils-libs.i386 0:0.137-3.el5                                                             
  elfutils-libs.x86_64 0:0.137-3.el5                                                           

Complete!


Finally, you saw all dependent packages got installed in such an ease way by configuring yum server.