A local mirrored yum repository is a copy of the standard yum repositories for CentOS that exists on your local network. It is kept up to date by synchronizing to an external site. If you have more than a few local hosts, using a local mirrored repo can significantly reduce internet traffic and speed up the update process.

This blog describes how to create, sync, test and use a local mirrored repo for CentOS 6.4. You will be shown how to create the repo, keep it in sync using cron, test the implementation and how to update the /etc/yum.repos.d directory on each host. It also provides 4 bash scripts that you can customize for your site to make maintenance easier.

Configuration and Synchronization Scripts
- repo_conf.sh
- repo_sync.sh
Initialize Your Mirrored Repository

Test Your Mirrored Repository
- repo_test.sh
Cron the Synchronization

Use Your Mirrored Repository
- repo_update.sh

Introduction

When you type “yum update” on a standard CentOS installation your site is updated from an external site that is randomly chosen from a list of mirrored repositories on the internet. The packages that need to be updated are detected by comparing version information from your site with the version information from the external site and then downloaded through the internet.

For a small number of hosts this works really well because most packages are small and there normally only a few that are updated at a time but once your network grows to more that a small number of hosts, keeping them all in sync can result in a fair amount of internet traffic.

Please note that the term “a small number of hosts” is deliberately vague. Some sites with a slow internet connection would probably see significant performance improvements once they reached 3 or 4 hosts whereas others with a very fast, fat pipe might not see any improvement until they had dozens of hosts. In my case I decided to switch over when I had about 20.

To reduce the internet traffic overhead associated with updating multiple hosts on your network, you can create a local mirrored repository that acts just like an external repository (which is, itself, mirrored). If you have a large site with a fast, fat internet pipe you should consider becoming an external repository to help the community.

This blog describes how to create the local repository, how to keep it synchronized, how to test it and how to update the /etc/yum.repos.d directories on your hosts to make it all work.

Site Configuration Parameters

The first thing that you need to do is determine where you want the local repository to reside. It must be a network resource that is visible to all of the hosts that want to use it. I use an NFS mount. For the purposes of this discussion we will assume that the network path to the mirrored repository is “/shared/repo/“.

Second you need to choose an administrative host that can create/update the repo directories and run the cron job to keep it in sync. For this discussion we will use the host “bigbob“.

Finally you need to determine which repositories you want to mirror. That decision is going to be site dependent but for me I chose the centos_6.4_extras, centos_6.4_os, centos_6.4_updates and elrepo_el6 repositories. The repositories with the “centos_” prefix. The repository with the “elrepo_el6” prefix is from the elrepo repository. It contains lots of useful stuff that is not in the standard release.

To see the repositories that you reference by default, take a look at the “/etc/yum.repos.d/*repo files on your system.

Here is a summary of the site configuration:

Network Path /shared/repo

Admin Host bigbob

Admin Path /shared/repo/bin

CentOS 5.4 Repos extras, os, updates

Other Repos elrepo

Conf Script /shared/repo/bin/repo_conf.sh

Sync Script /shared/repo/bin/repo_sync.sh

Test Script /shared/repo/bin/repo_test.sh

Update Script /shared/repo/bin/repo_update.sh

Network Path	`/shared/repo`
Admin Host	`bigbob`
Admin Path	`/shared/repo/bin`
CentOS 5.4 Repos	`extras, os, updates`
Other Repos	`elrepo`
Conf Script	`/shared/repo/bin/repo_conf.sh`
Sync Script	`/shared/repo/bin/repo_sync.sh`
Test Script	`/shared/repo/bin/repo_test.sh`
Update Script	`/shared/repo/bin/repo_update.sh`

Configuration and Synchronization Scripts

To configure your site, log into bigbob (your administrative host) and make sure that you have the createrepo package installed. You can do this by running the “yum info createrepo” to see if it is installed. If it is, then you are good to go. If it isn’t then run “yum install -y createrepo“.

After that create the /shared/repo/bin directory so that you have a place to store the scripts and make sure the /shared/repo is available as an NFS mount (or automount). I am not going to describe how to create an NFS mount or automount for hosts on your site. It is a complex topic and there are many great resources available on the web.

repo_conf.sh

Now you need to create the site configuration file. This is a simple bash script that is used by the other scripts to get basic configuration information such as where the repo is located.

#!/bin/bash

#
# Keep my local CentOS 6.4 repo mirror up to date. The local repo
# mirror is used by all CentOS 6.4 hosts on the internal nework.
#
mirror_repo="/shared/repo"
if [ ! -d $mirror_repo ] ; then
    echo "ERROR: mirror repo directory does not exist: $mirror_repo"
    exit 1
fi

#
# This is the generated repo file that is used in the
# /etc/yum.repos.d directory.
#
mirror_repo_file="$mirror_repo/yum.repos.d/local.repo"

#
# This is the test directory.
#
mirror_repo_test="$mirror_repo/test"

#!/bin/bash

# Keep my local CentOS 6.4 repo mirror up to date. The local repo

# mirror is used by all CentOS 6.4 hosts on the internal nework.

mirror_repo="/shared/repo"

if [ ! -d $mirror_repo ] ; then

echo "ERROR: mirror repo directory does not exist: $mirror_repo"

exit 1

# This is the generated repo file that is used in the

# /etc/yum.repos.d directory.

mirror_repo_file="$mirror_repo/yum.repos.d/local.repo"

# This is the test directory.

mirror_repo_test="$mirror_repo/test"

repo_sync.sh

Finally you need to create the synchronization script. This script also creates the mirror.

You will need to update the list variable at line 55 to change the external reference to an rsync site near you.

You will also need to update the excludes variable at line 66 to define which packages you wish to exclude. By default all packages are included.

#!/bin/bash

#
# Keep the local mirror repo in sync with the external repo.
# This can be run in a cron jobs as follows:
#
#    # Update once per day at 10:00PM.
#    0 22 * * * /shared/repo/bin/repo_sync.sh
#
# The configuration information is /shared/repo/bin/repo_conf.sh.
#
umask 0

#
# Keep my local CentOS 6.4 repo mirror up to date. The local repo
# mirror is used by all CentOS 6.4 hosts on the internal nework.
#
medir=$(dirname -- $(readlink -f $0))
if [ -f "$medir/repo_conf.sh" ] ; then
    . $medir/repo_conf.sh
else
    echo "ERROR: missing file: $medir/repo_conf.sh."
    exit 1
fi
if [[ "$mirror_repo" == "" ]] ; then
    echo "ERROR: mirror_repo not defined."
    exit 1
fi
if [[ "$mirror_repo_file" == "" ]] ; then
    echo "ERROR: mirror_repo_file not defined."
    exit 1
fi

# Semaphore file used to avoid collisions.
semaphore="$mirror_repo/.busy"
if [ -f $semaphore ] ; then
    echo "WARNING: sync already running: $(cat $semaphore)"
    exit 0
fi
echo "pid=$$, host=$(hostname -f), user=$(whoami), date='$(date)', sem=$semaphore" >$semaphore
chmod a+rw $semaphore

# Trap ^C interrupt.
function keyboard_interrupt() {
    echo
    echo "^C interrupt, exiting..."
    rm -f $semaphore
    exit 1
}
trap keyboard_interrupt SIGINT

# Emulate a 2D array.
# The first entry is the source, the second is the dst.
# Note that the trailing backslashes are important to rsync.
list=(
    # First pair.
    "rsync://mirrors.cat.pdx.edu/centos/6.4/"
    "${mirror_repo}/centos/6.4/"

    # Second pair.
    # URL: http://elrepo.org/tiki/Download
    ##! "rsync://mirrors.thzhost.com/elrepo/elrepo/el6/x86_64/"
    'rsync://mirrors.neterra.net/elrepo/elrepo/el6/x86_64/'
    "${mirror_repo}/elrepo/el6/x86_64/"
)

# Packages to exclude.
excludes=(
    'local_centos_6.4_xen4_x86_64'
    'local_centos_6.4_centosplus_x86_64'
    'local_centos_6.4_fasttrack_x86_64'
)

# Iterate over the pairs and rsync.
# Note the bandwidth is limited to be a good citizen.
# Also note that there is some trickiness where I used the --filter
# option because the equivalent --exclude command didn't work.
len=$(( ${#list[@]} / 2 - 1 ))
for i in $(seq 0 $len) ; do
    srcidx=$(( $i * 2 ))
    src=${list[$srcidx]}

    dstidx=$(( $srcidx + 1 ))
    dst=${list[$dstidx]}

    echo
    echo '# ================================================================'
    echo '# rsync'
    echo "#   src: $src"
    echo "#   dst: $dst"
    echo '# ================================================================'
    if [ ! -d $dst ] ; then
	mkdir -p $dst
    fi
    rsync -avzP \
	--delete \
	--bwlimit=1024 \
	--prune-empty-dirs \
	--include='*.rpm' \
	--exclude='i386' \
	--exclude='repodata' \
	--filter='-! */' \
	$src $dst
done

# Now create the yum repo data.
mirrored_pkgs=$(find $mirror_repo -type d -name x86_64)
for mirrored_pkg in ${mirrored_pkgs[@]}; do
    echo
    echo '# ================================================================'
    echo "# createrepo --update $mirrored_pkg"
    echo '# ================================================================'
    createrepo --pretty --workers 4 --update $mirrored_pkg
done

echo
echo '# ================================================================'
echo "# creating $mirror_repo/yum.repos.d/local.repo"
echo '# ================================================================'
local_repo="$mirror_repo_file"
local_repo_dir=$(dirname -- $local_repo)
if [ ! -d $local_repo_dir ] ; then
    mkdir -p $local_repo_dir
fi
if [ -f $local_repo ] ; then
    rm -f ${local_repo}
fi
offset=$(( ${#mirror_repo} + 2))
i=0
for mirrored_pkg in ${mirrored_pkgs[@]}; do
    #echo $mirrored_pkg
    title=$(echo $mirrored_pkg | cut -c ${offset}- | tr '/' '_')
    if (( $i > 0 )) ; then
	echo >>${local_repo}
    fi
    title="local_$title"
    prefix=''
    for exclude in ${excludes[@]}; do
	if [[ "$exclude" == "$title" ]] ; then
	    prefix='##!'
	fi
    done
    cat >>${local_repo} <<EOF
${prefix}[$title]
${prefix}name=$title
${prefix}baseurl=file://$mirrored_pkg
${prefix}gpgcheck=0
${prefix}enabled=1
EOF
    i=$(( $i + 1 ))
done

echo
echo '# ================================================================'
echo "# available repos"
echo '# ================================================================'
for mirrored_pkg in ${mirrored_pkgs[@]}; do
    echo $mirrored_pkg
done
echo
echo "local_repo_file: $local_repo"

rm -f $semaphore

echo
echo "repo_sync done"

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#!/bin/bash

# Keep the local mirror repo in sync with the external repo.

# This can be run in a cron jobs as follows:

# # Update once per day at 10:00PM.

# 0 22 * * * /shared/repo/bin/repo_sync.sh

# The configuration information is /shared/repo/bin/repo_conf.sh.

umask 0

# Keep my local CentOS 6.4 repo mirror up to date. The local repo

# mirror is used by all CentOS 6.4 hosts on the internal nework.

medir=$(dirname -- $(readlink -f $0))

if [ -f "$medir/repo_conf.sh" ] ; then

. $medir/repo_conf.sh

else

echo "ERROR: missing file: $medir/repo_conf.sh."

exit 1

if [[ "$mirror_repo" == "" ]] ; then

echo "ERROR: mirror_repo not defined."

exit 1

if [[ "$mirror_repo_file" == "" ]] ; then

echo "ERROR: mirror_repo_file not defined."

exit 1

# Semaphore file used to avoid collisions.

semaphore="$mirror_repo/.busy"

if [ -f $semaphore ] ; then

echo "WARNING: sync already running: $(cat $semaphore)"

exit 0

echo "pid=$$, host=$(hostname -f), user=$(whoami), date='$(date)', sem=$semaphore" >$semaphore

chmod a+rw $semaphore

# Trap ^C interrupt.

function keyboard_interrupt() {

echo

echo "^C interrupt, exiting..."

rm -f $semaphore

exit 1

}

trap keyboard_interrupt SIGINT

# Emulate a 2D array.

# The first entry is the source, the second is the dst.

# Note that the trailing backslashes are important to rsync.

list=(

# First pair.

"rsync://mirrors.cat.pdx.edu/centos/6.4/"

"${mirror_repo}/centos/6.4/"

# Second pair.

# URL: http://elrepo.org/tiki/Download

##! "rsync://mirrors.thzhost.com/elrepo/elrepo/el6/x86_64/"

'rsync://mirrors.neterra.net/elrepo/elrepo/el6/x86_64/'

"${mirror_repo}/elrepo/el6/x86_64/"

)

# Packages to exclude.

excludes=(

'local_centos_6.4_xen4_x86_64'

'local_centos_6.4_centosplus_x86_64'

'local_centos_6.4_fasttrack_x86_64'

)

# Iterate over the pairs and rsync.

# Note the bandwidth is limited to be a good citizen.

# Also note that there is some trickiness where I used the --filter

# option because the equivalent --exclude command didn't work.

len=$(( ${#list[@]} / 2 - 1 ))

for i in $(seq 0 $len) ; do

srcidx=$(( $i * 2 ))

src=${list[$srcidx]}

dstidx=$(( $srcidx + 1 ))

dst=${list[$dstidx]}

echo

echo '# ================================================================'

echo '# rsync'

echo "# src: $src"

echo "# dst: $dst"

echo '# ================================================================'

if [ ! -d $dst ] ; then

mkdir -p $dst

rsync -avzP \

--delete \

--bwlimit=1024 \

--prune-empty-dirs \

--include='*.rpm' \

--exclude='i386' \

--exclude='repodata' \

--filter='-! */' \

$src $dst

done

# Now create the yum repo data.

mirrored_pkgs=$(find $mirror_repo -type d -name x86_64)

for mirrored_pkg in ${mirrored_pkgs[@]}; do

echo

echo '# ================================================================'

echo "# createrepo --update $mirrored_pkg"

echo '# ================================================================'

createrepo --pretty --workers 4 --update $mirrored_pkg

done

echo

echo '# ================================================================'

echo "# creating $mirror_repo/yum.repos.d/local.repo"

echo '# ================================================================'

local_repo="$mirror_repo_file"

local_repo_dir=$(dirname -- $local_repo)

if [ ! -d $local_repo_dir ] ; then

mkdir -p $local_repo_dir

if [ -f $local_repo ] ; then

rm -f ${local_repo}

offset=$(( ${#mirror_repo} + 2))

i=0

for mirrored_pkg in ${mirrored_pkgs[@]}; do

#echo $mirrored_pkg

title=$(echo $mirrored_pkg | cut -c ${offset}- | tr '/' '_')

if (( $i > 0 )) ; then

echo >>${local_repo}

title="local_$title"

prefix=''

for exclude in ${excludes[@]}; do

if [[ "$exclude" == "$title" ]] ; then

prefix='##!'

done

cat >>${local_repo} <<EOF

${prefix}[$title]

${prefix}name=$title

${prefix}baseurl=file://$mirrored_pkg

${prefix}gpgcheck=0

${prefix}enabled=1

EOF

i=$(( $i + 1 ))

done

echo

echo '# ================================================================'

echo "# available repos"

echo '# ================================================================'

for mirrored_pkg in ${mirrored_pkgs[@]}; do

echo $mirrored_pkg

done

echo

echo "local_repo_file: $local_repo"

rm -f $semaphore

echo

echo "repo_sync done"

Initialize Your Mirrored Repository

Run the /shared/repo/bin/repo_sync.sh script to create the local mirrored repository. When this script finishes the following top level directories will have been created.

/shared/repo/centos The CentOS 6.4 repositories.

/shared/repo/elrepo The elrepo repositories.

/shared/repo/yum.repos.d The local.repo configuration for each host.

At this point the mirrored repository only exists on disk. It is not used.

Test Your Mirrored Repository

Before putting the mirrored repository into production we need to test it. That is done by running the following test script to create dummy local installation and then running the “yum list” command.

It works by creating /shared/repo/test directory that contains a local yum configuration file and then running the yum list command with that information: “yum -c yum.conf list“.

repo_test.sh

#!/bin/bash

#
# Test the installation by creating a local
# yum configuration.
#
medir=$(dirname -- $(readlink -f $0))
if [ -f "$medir/repo_conf.sh" ] ; then
    . $medir/repo_conf.sh
else
    echo "ERROR: missing file: $medir/repo_conf.sh."
    exit 1
fi
if [[ "$mirror_repo_test" == "" ]] ; then
    echo "ERROR: mirror_repo_test not defined."
    exit 1
fi
if [[ "$mirror_repo_file" == "" ]] ; then
    echo "ERROR: mirror_repo_file not defined."
    exit 1
fi

if [ ! -f $mirror_repo_file ] ; then
    echo "ERROR: local repo file not found: $mirror_repo_file"
    exit 1
fi

cd $mirror_repo_test
test_path=$(readlink -f .)
echo $test_path

if [ ! -f "yum.conf" ] ; then
    cat >yum.conf <<EOF
[main]
reposdir=${test_path}/yum.repos.d
persistdir=${test_path}/var/lib/yum
cachedir=${test_path}/var/cache/yum/$basearch/$releasever
keepcache=0
debuglevel=2
logfile=${test_path}/var/log/yum.log
exactarch=1
obsoletes=1
gpgcheck=1
plugins=1
installonly_limit=5
bugtracker_url=http://bugs.centos.org/set_project.php?project_id=16&ref=http://bugs.centos.org/bug_report_page.php?category=yum
distroverpkg=centos-release
EOF
fi

if [ ! -d "yum.repos.d" ] ; then
    mkdir yum.repos.d
fi

cp $mirror_repo_file yum.repos.d/
yum -c yum.conf list

#!/bin/bash

# Test the installation by creating a local

# yum configuration.

medir=$(dirname -- $(readlink -f $0))

if [ -f "$medir/repo_conf.sh" ] ; then

. $medir/repo_conf.sh

else

echo "ERROR: missing file: $medir/repo_conf.sh."

exit 1

if [[ "$mirror_repo_test" == "" ]] ; then

echo "ERROR: mirror_repo_test not defined."

exit 1

if [[ "$mirror_repo_file" == "" ]] ; then

echo "ERROR: mirror_repo_file not defined."

exit 1

if [ ! -f $mirror_repo_file ] ; then

echo "ERROR: local repo file not found: $mirror_repo_file"

exit 1

cd $mirror_repo_test

test_path=$(readlink -f .)

echo $test_path

if [ ! -f "yum.conf" ] ; then

cat >yum.conf <<EOF

[main]

reposdir=${test_path}/yum.repos.d

persistdir=${test_path}/var/lib/yum

cachedir=${test_path}/var/cache/yum/$basearch/$releasever

keepcache=0

debuglevel=2

logfile=${test_path}/var/log/yum.log

exactarch=1

obsoletes=1

gpgcheck=1

plugins=1

installonly_limit=5

bugtracker_url=http://bugs.centos.org/set_project.php?project_id=16&ref=http://bugs.centos.org/bug_report_page.php?category=yum

distroverpkg=centos-release

EOF

if [ ! -d "yum.repos.d" ] ; then

mkdir yum.repos.d

cp $mirror_repo_file yum.repos.d/

yum -c yum.conf list

Cron the Synchronization

The repository that you are mirroring will change periodically as bug fixes are released and packages are enhanced. When those changes occur, you need to make sure that they are reflected at your site. You do this by creating a cron job that periodically run the /shared/repo/bin/repo_sync.sh script.

0 22 * * * cd /shared/repo/bin && repo_sync.sh 2>cron.err 1>cron.out

As you can see, I do this once per day but that is probably overkill. You probably only need to do it weekly.

Please note that some sites lock down the package versions that are available to avoid the risk of instability so they would not do this.

Use Your Mirrored Repository

At this point you have a fully functioning mirrored repository but no one is using it. To use it on a host you to do the following:

Log onto the host.
Create a backup of the /etc/yum.repos.d directory.
Remove all of the files in /etc/yum.repos.d directory.
Copy /shared/repo/yum.repos.d/local.repo to /etc/yum.repos.d

repo_update.sh

You can use this script (or a variant) to do this automatically.

This script will automatically make a backup for your and it is re-entrant so it can be run it multiple times without causing problems because it will only update/backup if something has changed.

#!/bin/bash

#
# This script will update a host so that it uses a the new local repo.
# It must be run as root.
#
umask 0

medir=$(dirname -- $(readlink -f $0))
if [ -f "$medir/repo_conf.sh" ] ; then
    . $medir/repo_conf.sh
else
    echo "ERROR: missing file: $medir/repo_conf.sh."
    exit 1
fi
if [[ "$mirror_repo" == "" ]] ; then
    echo "ERROR: mirror_repo not defined."
    exit 1
fi
if [[ "$mirror_repo_file" == "" ]] ; then
    echo "ERROR: mirror_repo_file not defined."
    exit 1
fi

#
# First see if we need to do anything.
#
if [ -d /etc/yum.repos.d ] ; then 
    if [ ! -w /etc/yum.repos.d ] ; then
	echo "ERROR: you do not have write permission for /etc/yum.repos.d"
	exit 1
    fi
fi
local_repo="/etc/yum.repos.d/$(basename $mirror_repo_file)"
num=$(ls -1 /etc/yum.repos.d/* | wc -l)

if (( $num == 1 )) ; then
    # There is only one file in the depot.
    # It is ours?
    if [ -f $local_repo ] ; then
	# It is, copy over the new one if it is different.
	sum1=$(sum $mirror_repo_file | awk '{print $1}')
	sum2=$(sum $local_repo | awk '{print $1}')
	if (( $sum1 != $sum2 )) ; then
	    cp -v $mirror_repo_file $local_repo
	fi
	# all done.
	exit 0
    fi
fi

#
# Backup the current version and create the new one.
#
if [ -d "/etc/yum.repos.d" ] ; then
    dts=$(date +'%Y%m%d%H%M%S')
    backup_dir="/etc/yum.repos.d.backup.$dts"
    if [ -f $backup_dir ] ; then
	echo "ERROR: time stamped backup dir exists: $backup_dir"
	exit 1
    fi
    mv /etc/yum.repos.d $backup_dir
fi

mkdir /etc/yum.repos.d
chmod 0755 /etc/yum.repos.d
cp -v $mirror_repo_file $local_repo

#!/bin/bash

# This script will update a host so that it uses a the new local repo.

# It must be run as root.

umask 0

medir=$(dirname -- $(readlink -f $0))

if [ -f "$medir/repo_conf.sh" ] ; then

. $medir/repo_conf.sh

else

echo "ERROR: missing file: $medir/repo_conf.sh."

exit 1

if [[ "$mirror_repo" == "" ]] ; then

echo "ERROR: mirror_repo not defined."

exit 1

if [[ "$mirror_repo_file" == "" ]] ; then

echo "ERROR: mirror_repo_file not defined."

exit 1

# First see if we need to do anything.

if [ -d /etc/yum.repos.d ] ; then

if [ ! -w /etc/yum.repos.d ] ; then

echo "ERROR: you do not have write permission for /etc/yum.repos.d"

exit 1

local_repo="/etc/yum.repos.d/$(basename $mirror_repo_file)"

num=$(ls -1 /etc/yum.repos.d/* | wc -l)

if (( $num == 1 )) ; then

# There is only one file in the depot.

# It is ours?

if [ -f $local_repo ] ; then

# It is, copy over the new one if it is different.

sum1=$(sum $mirror_repo_file | awk '{print $1}')

sum2=$(sum $local_repo | awk '{print $1}')

if (( $sum1 != $sum2 )) ; then

cp -v $mirror_repo_file $local_repo

# all done.

exit 0

# Backup the current version and create the new one.

if [ -d "/etc/yum.repos.d" ] ; then

dts=$(date +'%Y%m%d%H%M%S')

backup_dir="/etc/yum.repos.d.backup.$dts"

if [ -f $backup_dir ] ; then

echo "ERROR: time stamped backup dir exists: $backup_dir"

exit 1

mv /etc/yum.repos.d $backup_dir

mkdir /etc/yum.repos.d

chmod 0755 /etc/yum.repos.d

cp -v $mirror_repo_file $local_repo

9 thoughts on “Create and use a local mirrored yum repository for CentOS 6.4 x86_64”

Mark says:

November 13, 2013 at 9:48 pm

Got to be the best Sys Admin How-To article I’ve ever seen! Nicely detailed & out of this world scripting. For a scripting novice, this is an amazing example.

regarding repo_sync.sh … I changed the external references to these

list=( # OS source & local destination. "rsync://mirrors.loosefoot.com/centos/6.4/os/x86_64/" "${mirror_repo}/centos/6.4/os/x86_64/"
# updates source & local destination. "rsync://mirrors.loosefoot.com/centos/6.4/updates/x86_64/" "${mirror_repo}/centos/6.4/updates/x86_64/" # extras source & local destination. "rsync://mirrors.loosefoot.com/centos/6.4/extras/x86_64/" "${mirror_repo}/centos/6.4/extras/x86_64/"
# EPEL source & local destination. "rsync://mirrors.kernel.org/fedora-epel/6/x86_64/" "${mirror_repo}/elrepo/el6/x86_64/" )

I kept everything the same. Ran the script; repos downloaded via rsync; then ran into this:

# ================================================================ # createrepo --update /shared/repo/elrepo/el6/x86_64 # ================================================================ Could not find valid repo at: /shared/repo/elrepo/el6/x86_64 Spawning worker 0 with 2997 pkgs Spawning worker 1 with 2998 pkgs Spawning worker 2 with 2997 pkgs Spawning worker 3 with 2998 pkgs

At this point the script stalls.

I ^c out, an ran again. repos were up to date, so it got to this point

createrepo –update /shared/repo/elrepo/el6/x86_64

… and stalled again.

Is there a configuration I can clear so I can just run the script again & get past this problem?

Thanks!

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1. jlinoff says:
  
  November 14, 2013 at 9:29 pm
  
  Thank you for your kind comments.
  
  The problem that you are running into is probably due to the fact that you do not have a shared mount point on your NFS server named “/share“. You can easily verify that by trying “ls /shared/*” or by typing the mount command.
  
  Your best bet is to find out what your mount points are and then change the mirror_repo variable at line 7 in the repo_conf.sh file to reflect that.
  
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Mark says:

November 15, 2013 at 5:59 pm

Turns out it wasn’t stalled … just took a very long time to complete.

repo_conf.sh … line 7 … was set to this as I intended:

mirror_repo=”/shared/repo”

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jlinoff says:

November 29, 2013 at 9:06 pm

Changed the elrepo reference from rsync://mirrors.thzhost.com/elrepo/elrepo/el6/x86_64/ to rsync://mirrors.neterra.net/elrepo/elrepo/el6/x86_64/ around line 62 of repo_sync.sh because it was generating a protection violation.

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Ben says:

January 2, 2014 at 12:21 pm

Great post, thank you! In section: Initialize Your Mirrored Repository, you state that:
/shared/repo/elrepo = The EPEL repositories.

But elrepo is not epel.

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1. jlinoff says:
  
  January 2, 2014 at 6:14 pm
  
  Thank you for pointing that out. I have changed the epel references to elrepo references to correct the problem.
  
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Marcus says:

March 20, 2014 at 11:40 pm

Wow! This is comprehensive and nearly bullet proof. I didn’t have to think about this much at all. All I did was edit the location of the repo and the version of CentOS to 6.5. The only oddity that I encountered was that some of the exclusions that I added were ignored. for instance xen4 and fasttrack and SCL” were still downloaded:

)

# Packages to exclude.

excludes=(

‘local_centos_6.5_xen4_x86_64’

‘local_centos_6.5_SCL_x86_64’

‘local_centos_6.5_contrib_x86_64’

‘local_centos_6.5_cr_x86_64’

‘local_centos_6.5_isos_x86_64’

‘local_centos_6.5_fasttrack_x86_64’

)

I can’t figure out why, but thank you very much! This saved me a lot of effort.

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Jon Forrest says:

March 31, 2014 at 4:36 pm

First of all, this is the best description on this topic I’ve ever seen.

Second, a typo:

“Finally you need to do is determine which repositories you want to mirror” ->

“Finally you need to determine which repositories you want to mirror”

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1. jlinoff says:
  
  March 31, 2014 at 7:12 pm
  
  Thank you for your kind comments. I have fixed the typo.
  
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Create and use a local mirrored yum repository for CentOS 6.4 x86_64

Contents

Introduction

Site Configuration Parameters

Configuration and Synchronization Scripts

repo_conf.sh

repo_sync.sh

Initialize Your Mirrored Repository

Test Your Mirrored Repository

repo_test.sh

Cron the Synchronization

Use Your Mirrored Repository

repo_update.sh

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`/shared/repo/centos`	The CentOS 6.4 repositories.
`/shared/repo/elrepo`	The elrepo repositories.
`/shared/repo/yum.repos.d`	The local.repo configuration for each host.