Using Docker to reposync RHEL content to a systems local storage.

I recently got the opportunity to go on site with a customer, and as such would be on a plane for some period of time (5+hrs). Because of this long section of down time, I wanted to use the time to do some work. However the work I want to focus on requires that I have resources. I plan to work on scripting or automating the deployments of OpenShift with KVM,  but due to my flight (travel accommodations) I will not be connected, or don't want to rely on slow / unreliable internet speeds for package downloads.

Because Satellite (a repository manager) is bulking and my laptops resources are limited.  I decided that hosting the content with a web server an syncing it would be the fastest and most light way to accomplish my goals.

However, as I run Fedora, getting the repositories (packages) was going to require some ingenuity, because reposync only works if you can attach to the repositories, which requires a RHEL server (with a subscription), this means installing a VM, which takes time.

Luckily we have containers! Which means that instead of installing RHEL, in a VM, and mounting a filesystem into the VM. Or turning this VM into the hosting server for the content. I can simply mount my storage (in my case this was an SC card), as part of a RHEL7 container, and use the container and its tools to do what I need to get the content.

$ sudo docker pull registry.access.redhat.com/rhel7
$ sudo docker run -it --rm -v /var/run/<user>/<drive_name>:/opt rhel7 /bin/bash

From here the steps to get the content may vary, but the basic process goes like:

# subscription-manager register --username <RHN_USERNAME> --auto-attach
[Password]: 

• Note: Extra effort, to enable channels might be needed, depending on how auto-attach does, at selecting your subscriptions.

# rpm --import /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-redhat-release

# for repo in rhel-7-server-rpms rhel-7-server-extras-rpms rhel-7-server-ose-3.3-rpm; do reposync --gpgcheck -l --repoid=${repo} --download_path=/opt/ --downloadcomps --download-metadata
# for repo in rhel-7-server-rpms rhel-7-server-extras-rpms rhel-7-server-ose-3.3-rpm; do createrepo -v /opt/${repo} -o /opt/${repo} -g /opt/${repo}/comps.xml; done

Note: I based the repositories (and some of the process) I would need off of - https://docs.openshift.com/container-platform/3.3/install_config/install/disconnected_install.html#disconnected-syncing-repos

Because of this method (using Docker), I don't need waste time installing a VM to do these operations, or use unnecessary resources to host this content. This leaves me more room for the VM's I plan to run as part of my scripting / testing, and allowed me to get the content faster than I originally expected.