Documentation / Setting up a host to access CIQ Depot via DNF or YUM

Setting Up a Host to Access CIQ Depot via DNF or YUM

Here is an example setting up a client to connect to CIQ Depot. In this example, the client is running CentOS 7, and the organization in question has access to CIQ Bridge, which provides extended life to CentOS 7 now that it has reached it’s end of life.

There are several basic steps required here:

Installation of depot Client Tool

For upgrade instructions, see Upgrading the depot client tool.

CIQ Depot has a client tool which must be installed on the client system in question to begin. You can do that by copy and pasting the following command into a terminal:

# Supported el versions: el8, el9

sudo dnf install -y --disablerepo="*" https://depot.ciq.com/dlv2/depot-el8.$(uname -m)/depot.rpm

For CentOS 7 installation, see the CIQ Bridge installation instructions.

Setting Up the Client Host

Once the CIQ Depot Client has been installed, you must register the host with the core CIQ Depot services. CIQ will provide you with the [USER STRING] and the [USER TOKEN] to use for this step.

You can do this with the following command:

sudo depot login -u [USER STRING] -t [USER TOKEN]

note: the [USER STRING] and [USER TOKEN] are not secure credentials, nor do they need to be. These tokens are persisted in clear text on the host system in multiple locations as part of the configuration of DNF, YUM, APT, Rsync, and other processes. The goal is to provide a gateway to access distributable packages, not to be a secure vault.

After the host has been registered, you can configure DNF for this host. It will automatically configure all repositories which match the host configuration and are enabled by default.

sudo depot enable

Or to configure specific products:

sudo depot list

sudo depot enable PRODUCT_ID

Updating the Client Tool

The depot rpm will install a repo file: /etc/yum.repos.d/ciq-depot-client.repo. This points to CIQ Depot for the latest client tool.

To upgrade the CIQ Depot client tool, run:

sudo dnf update

To manually update or re-install, run:

Replace el8 with your system’s el version.

sudo dnf upgrade -y --disablerepo="*" https://depot.ciq.com/dlv2/depot-el8.$(uname -m)/depot.rpm

Automatic Repository Refresh

The depot client includes a systemd timer (depot-refresh.timer) that automatically refreshes repository configurations for enabled products. This ensures your system stays up-to-date with the latest repository metadata and configurations from CIQ Depot.

Timer Configuration

The depot-refresh timer is configured to:

The timer automatically runs depot refresh, which regenerates the repository configuration files in /etc/yum.repos.d/ for all enabled products based on the current host configuration; it does not modify or update the DNF/YUM package metadata caches.

Managing the Timer

To check the status of the refresh timer:

sudo systemctl status depot-refresh.timer

To see when the timer last ran and when it will run next:

sudo systemctl list-timers depot-refresh.timer

To manually trigger a refresh at any time:

sudo depot refresh

The timer is enabled by default when you install the depot client and will automatically keep your enabled products refreshed.