How to access Optional and Supplementary channels, and -devel packages using Red Hat Subscription Management (RHSM)?

Solution Verified - Updated

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.7 and newer
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.1 and newer
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
  • Certificate-based RHN via Red Hat Subscription Management (RHSM)

Issue

  • How to receive optional and supplementary content with my Red Hat Enterprise Linux subscription when using Certificate-based Red Hat Subscription Management
  • How to add the optional and supplementary channel with Subscription Management

Resolution

Command Line Interface (CLI) Method

When using Red Hat Subscription Manager (RHSM) and subscription-manager tooling, Optional and Supplementary repositories are provided but disabled by default (enabled=0 in /etc/yum.repos.d/redhat.repo).

Enabled repositories can be viewed by the following command:

# yum repolist

While all repositories can be viewed by the following command:

# subscription-manager repos --list
Using subscription-manager

The command subscription-manager repos --enable/disable can be used to enable a repository,

# subscription-manager repos --enable <channel_id>

For RHEL6:
# subscription-manager repos --enable rhel-6-server-optional-rpms

For RHEL7:
# subscription-manager repos --enable rhel-7-server-optional-rpms
Using yum-config-manager

The yum-config-manager command is provided by the yum-utils package RPM on RHEL6. It is not available on RHEL5.

You can enable repositories by running the following command:

# yum-config-manager --enable <channel_id>

For example:
# yum-config-manager --enable rhel-6-server-optional-rpms
Manually editing redhat.repo:

You can manually edit /etc/yum.repo.d/redhat.repo to set enabled=1 for the supplementary and optional channels.

  • RHEL5 redhat.repo:

    [rhel-5-server-supplementary]
name = Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Server - Supplementary (RPMs)
baseurl = https://cdn.redhat.com/content/dist/rhel/server/5/$releasever/$basearch/supplementary/os
enabled = 1
...  
[rhel-5-server-productivity-rpms]
name = Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Server - Optional Productivity Applications (RPMs)
baseurl = https://cdn.redhat.com/content/dist/rhel/server/5/$releasever/$basearch/productivity/os
enabled = 1

  • RHEL6 redhat.repo:

    [rhel-6-server-supplementary]
name = Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Server - Supplementary (RPMs)
baseurl = https://cdn.redhat.com/content/dist/rhel/server/6/$releasever/$basearch/supplementary/os
enabled = 1
...
[rhel-6-server-optional-rpms]
name = Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Server - Optional (RPMs)
baseurl = https://cdn.redhat.com/content/dist/rhel/server/6/$releasever/$basearch/optional/os
enabled = 1
Using yum --enablerepo

You can use a one time option such as:

# yum --enablerepo=rhel-6-server-optional-rpms install <package name>

The above will not permanently enable the channel in the redhat.repo, but will allow you to access packages in the channel in a one-off manner.

Graphical User Interface (GUI) Method:

To enable and disable repositories, use the Add/Remove Software application by navigating to:

System --> Administration --> Add/Remove Software

Next, within the Add/Remove Software window, select the System menu item and select Software Sources.

For RHEL7

To enable and disable repositories:

Applications --> System Tools --> Red Hat Subscription Manager

To add and remove packages:

Applications --> System Tools --> Software

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