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

x
This howto guide shows youll 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.
2.
3.
4.

Provides lots of open source packages to install via Yum.

Epel repo is 100% open source and free to use.
It does not provide any core duplicate packages and no compatibility issues.
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-7-5.noarch.rpm
# rpm -ivh epel-release-7-5.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
Zabbix package 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.

Lets 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.