Accessing Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Extended Life Cycle Support (ELS) content after the ELS phase has ended

Updated

Issue

  • How to access Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Extended Life Cycle Support (ELS) content after my Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 ELS subscription has expired?

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Server
  • Red Hat Subscription Manager (RHSM) or Satellite 6

Resolution

On November 30, 2020 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Extended Life Cycle Support ended. The content made available during this period is now available for all qualifying Red Hat subscriptions that include the 'Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server' product. This content is now available without any additional addon subscription.

Connecting Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 systems to ELS content via Red Hat Subscription Management (RHSM)

Firstly, ensure that the system is using 5Server as its release version, as ELS content is only released for the 5Server

# subscription-manager release --set 5Server

Find qualifying Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server subscription.

# subscription-manager list --all --available
+-------------------------------------------+
    Available Subscriptions
+-------------------------------------------+
Subscription Name: Red Hat Developer Subscription for Individuals
Provides:          Red Hat Developer Tools (for RHEL Server for ARM)
                   Red Hat Software Collections (for RHEL Server for ARM)
<SNIP>
                   Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server    <<<< MUST HAVE THIS IN THE PROVIDES SECTION
SKU:               RH00798
Contract:          12345678
Pool ID:           8a85f9a1790fb0ed0179138f3abcdef12
Available:         8
Suggested:         1
Service Level:     Self-Support
Service Type:      
Subscription Type: Standard
Ends:              04/26/2022
System Type:       Physical

IMPORTANT: the subscription provided to the client MUST have the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server product as shown in the example above.

Copy the Pool ID above, and attach the subscription.

# subscription-manager attach --pool 8a85f9a1790fb0ed0179138fabcdef12
Successfully attached a subscription for: Red Hat Developer Subscription for Individuals

Lastly, enable the rhel-5-server-retired-els-rpms repository.

# subscription-manager repos --enable rhel-5-server-retired-els-rpms
Repo 'rhel-5-server-retired-els-rpms' is enabled for this system.

Enabling Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 ELS content with Satellite 6

In the case of Satellite 6, if your Satellite does not include a qualifying Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server subscription, please follow the Satellite 6 documentation for your version of Satellite to create, upload or edit your manifest with a qualifying Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server subscription.
Red Hat Satellite 6 Documentation

After the Satellite has been populated with a manifest, visit the Content -> Red Hat Repositories page to enable the rhel-5-server-retired-els-rpms repository. Using the default search values of Available and RPM, paste the repository label rhel-5-server-retired-els-rpms into the search bar at the top. Expand the product name Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Server - Retired Extended Life Cycle Support (RPMs) and choose the architecture you require by clicking the blue and white plus button to the right of the architecture.

Example
Example

Once the repository is enabled navigate to the Content -> Sync Status page of the Satellite WebUI. Locate the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server product name and click it to expand it. At the bottom of the expanded list, near the Satellite tools repositories, you will find the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Server - Retired Extended Life Cycle Support RPMs x86_64. Check the box to the left and click the Synchronize Now button at the bottom right of the page.
Example

Alternatively, you can enable and sync the repository with the commands below using the hammer command on the CLI of Satellite 6:

# hammer repository-set enable --name "Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Server - Retired Extended Life Cycle Support (RPMs)" --product "Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server" --basearch x86_64 --organization "Default Organization"

# hammer repository synchronize --name "Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Server - Retired Extended Life Cycle Support RPMs x86_64" --product "Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server" --organization "Default Organization" --async

Lastly, you will need to attach a qualifying Red Hat subscription to the RHEL 5 client and enable the repository to make the content available to the client.

# subscription-manager repos --enable rhel-5-server-retired-els-rpms
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