How to Enable EPEL Repository for RHEL/CentOS 7.x/6.x/5.x

This howto guide shows you’ll how to enable EPEL repository under RHEL/CentOS 6/5 to install additional standard open source packages by using YUM command.

What is EPEL

EPEL (Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux) is open source and free community based repository project from Fedora team which provides 100% high quality add-on software packages for Linux distribution including RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux), CentOS, and Scientific Linux. Epel project is not a part of RHEL/Cent OS but it is designed for major Linux distributions by providing lots of open source packages like networking, sys admin, programming, monitoring and so on. Most of the epel packages are maintained by Fedora repo.

Why we use EPEL repository?

1. Provides lots of open source packages to install via Yum.
2. Epel repo is 100% open source and free to use.
3. It does not provide any core duplicate packages and no compatibility issues.
4. All epel packages are maintained by Fedora repo.

How To Enable EPEL Repository in RHEL/CentOS 7/6/5?

First, you need to download the file using Wget and then install it using RPM on your system to enable the EPEL repository. Use below links based on your Linux OS versions. (Make sure you must be root user).

RHEL/CentOS 7 64 Bit

## RHEL/CentOS 7 64-Bit ##
# wget http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/7/x86_64/e/epel-release-7-8.noarch.rpm
# rpm -ivh epel-release-7-8.noarch.rpm

RHEL/CentOS 6 32-64 Bit

## RHEL/CentOS 6 32-Bit ##
# wget http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/6/i386/epel-release-6-8.noarch.rpm
# rpm -ivh epel-release-6-8.noarch.rpm
## RHEL/CentOS 6 64-Bit ##
# wget http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/6/x86_64/epel-release-6-8.noarch.rpm
# rpm -ivh epel-release-6-8.noarch.rpm

RHEL/CentOS 5 32-64 Bit

## RHEL/CentOS 5 32-Bit ##
# wget http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/5/i386/epel-release-5-4.noarch.rpm
# rpm -ivh epel-release-5-4.noarch.rpm
## RHEL/CentOS 5 64-Bit ##
# wget http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/5/x86_64/epel-release-5-4.noarch.rpm
# rpm -ivh epel-release-5-4.noarch.rpm

RHEL/CentOS 4 32-64 Bit

## RHEL/CentOS 4 32-Bit ##
# wget http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/4/i386/epel-release-4-10.noarch.rpm
# rpm -ivh epel-release-4-10.noarch.rpm
## RHEL/CentOS 4 64-Bit ##
# wget http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/4/x86_64/epel-release-4-10.noarch.rpm
# rpm -ivh epel-release-4-10.noarch.rpm

How Do I Verify EPEL Repo?

You need to run the following command to verify that the EPEL repository is enabled. Once you ran the command you will see epel repository.

# yum repolist

Sample Output

Loaded plugins: downloadonly, fastestmirror, priorities
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
* base: centos.aol.in
* epel: ftp.cuhk.edu.hk
* extras: centos.aol.in
* rpmforge: be.mirror.eurid.eu
* updates: centos.aol.in
Reducing CentOS-5 Testing to included packages only
Finished
1469 packages excluded due to repository priority protections
repo id                           repo name                                                      status
base                              CentOS-5 - Base                                               2,718+7
epel Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 5 - i386 4,320+1,408
extras                            CentOS-5 - Extras                                              229+53
rpmforge                          Red Hat Enterprise 5 - RPMforge.net - dag                      11,251
repolist: 19,075

How Do I Use EPEL Repo?

You need to use YUM command for searching and installing packages. For example we search for Zabbixpackage using epel repo, lets see it is available or not under epel.

# yum --enablerepo=epel info zabbix

Sample Output

Available Packages
Name       : zabbix
Arch       : i386
Version    : 1.4.7
Release    : 1.el5
Size       : 1.7 M
Repo : epel
Summary    : Open-source monitoring solution for your IT infrastructure
URL        : http://www.zabbix.com/
License    : GPL
Description: ZABBIX is software that monitors numerous parameters of a network.

Let’s install Zabbix package using epel repo option –enablerepo=epel switch.

# yum --enablerepo=epel install zabbix

Note: The epel configuration file is located under /etc/yum.repos.d/epel.repo.

This way you can install as many as high standard open source packages using EPEL repo.