This article demonstrates how to use the two main options:

to keep your CentOS 7 system alive with Oracle Linux updates. You’ll learn the steps needed to receive Oracle Linux patches for free.

You can also find out how to then quickly configure your system to receive updates as part of Oracle Linux Extended Support (covering updates from January, 2025 to June, 2028) for your CentOS 7 system.

Free updates from yum.oracle.com

Fixes released until December, 2024

  • Check that your CentOS 7 system is configured to receive updates from the CentOS community; follow these commands to change the yum repository configuration.

# sed -i 's/mirrorlist/#mirrorlist/' *
# sed -i 's/#baseurl=http:\/\/mirror.centos.org/baseurl=http:\/\/vault.centos.org/' *

  • Download and verify the Oracle Linux GPG Key.

# wget https://yum.oracle.com/RPM-GPG-KEY-oracle-ol7 -O /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-oracle
# gpg --import /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-oracle
# cp /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-oracle /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY

  • Download the basic yum repository configuration for Oracle Linux 7.

# wget http://yum.oracle.com/public-yum-ol7.repo -O /etc/yum.repos.d/public-yum-ol7.repo

  • Swap release and logos RPMs, containing indemntification files, linux distribution logos, and remove the CentOS 7 yum configuration with following steps.

# yum swap centos-release redhat-release-server -y
# yum swap centos-logos oracle-logos -y

  • Install Oracle Linux 7 yum configuration for your CentOS 7 system and proceed to get proper yum configuration in-place.

# yum install oraclelinux-release-el7
# /usr/bin/ol_yum_configure.sh

  • [OPTIONAL] Enable further yum repository channels, based on requirements that your CentOS 7 machine has.

# yum search release |grep oracle
oraclelinux-release.x86_64 : Oracle Linux 7 release file
oracle-ceph-release-el7.x86_64 : Ceph Storage yum repository configuration
oracle-epel-release-el7.x86_64 : Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux (EPEL) yum
oracle-gluster-release-el7.x86_64 : Gluster yum repository configuration
oracle-golang-release-el7.x86_64 : Go Language  yum repository configuration
oracle-graalvm-ce-release-el7.x86_64 : Oracle GraalVM Community yum repository
oracle-instantclient-release-el7.x86_64 : Oracle Instant Client yum repository
oracle-linux-manager-client-release-el7.x86_64 : Oracle Linux Manager Client yum
oracle-linux-manager-server-release-el7.x86_64 : Oracle Linux Manager Server yum
oracle-nodejs-release-el7.x86_64 : Node.js yum repository configuration
oracle-olcne-release-el7.x86_64 : Oracle Linux Cloud Native Environment yum
oracle-openstack-release-el7.x86_64 : Oracle OpenStack for Oracle Linux yum
oracle-ovirt-release-el7.x86_64 : oVirt yum repository configuration
oracle-php-release-el7.x86_64 : PHP yum repository configuration
oracle-release-el7.x86_64 : Oracle Software yum repository configuration
oracle-software-release-el7.x86_64 : Oracle Software yum repository
oracle-softwarecollection-release-el7.x86_64 : Software Collection Library yum
oracle-spacewalk-client-release-el7.x86_64 : Spacewalk Client yum repository
oracle-spacewalk-server-release-el7.x86_64 : Spacewalk Server yum repository
oraclelinux-developer-release-el7.x86_64 : Oracle Linux Developer yum repository
oraclelinux-release-el7.x86_64 : Oracle Linux yum repository configuration

  • For example, to enable developer and epel yum channels, proceed as follows.

# yum install oraclelinux-developer-release-el7.x86_64 oracle-epel-release-el7.x86_64 -y

  • [OPTIONAL] Enable the latest UEKR6 channel.

# yum-config-manager --enable ol7_UEKR6

  • [OPTIONAL] Disable UEK channel(s) to only rely on the Red Hat Compatible Kernel (RHCK).

# yum-config-manager --disable ol7_UEKR*

  • Update your system to receive all the latest bug and security fixes for Enterprise Linux 7.

# yum update -y

Updates from Unbreakable Linux Network

Fixes released until December, 2024 – Extended Support offers fixes until June, 2028

  • Check that your CentOS 7 system is configured to receive updates from CentOS community; follow these commands to change the yum repository configuration.

# sed -i 's/mirrorlist/#mirrorlist/' *
# sed -i 's/#baseurl=http:\/\/mirror.centos.org/baseurl=http:\/\/vault.centos.org/' *

  • Ensure you have downloaded the required packages for the Unbreakable Linux Network (ULN) configuration.

# wget https://linux-update.oracle.com/rpms/uln_register_ol7.tgz (character only CentOS 7 installation)
# wget https://linux-update.oracle.com/rpms/uln_register-gnome_ol7.tgz (CentOS 7 installation with GUI)

  • To upgrade the existing packages already on your server, use the following command (assuming both the tar files are in the current directory).

# tar -xzf uln_register_ol7.tgz
# tar -xzf uln_register-gnome_ol7.tgz (only if rhn-setup-gnome is already installed)
# cd uln_migrate
# rpm -Uvh *.rpm --force

  • Note: if you don’t have rhn-setup-gnome installed, use the following command.

# tar -xzf uln_register_ol7.tgz
# cd uln_migrate
# rpm -Uvh *.rpm

Note: If the step includes furhter RPM dependencies, proceed on installing them from CentOS yum repositories.

  • Download and verify the Oracle Linux GPG Key.

# wget https://yum.oracle.com/RPM-GPG-KEY-oracle-ol7 -O /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-oracle
# gpg --import /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-oracle
# cp /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-oracle /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY

  • Register your system to ULN by running the following command as root.

# uln_register

  • Swap release and logos files.

# yum swap centos-release redhat-release-server -y
# yum swap centos-logos oracle-logos -y

  • Update your system to receive all the latest bug and security fixes for Enterprise Linux 7.

# yum update -y

Note: Premier Support for Enterprise Linux 7 ends in December, 2024. Starting from January, 2025, you will only have to enable the “Extended Support” yum channel  to continue to receive updates for your CentOS 7 system.