How to Switch CentOS 7 Repositories to Vault (Archived Repos)

After the end of CentOS 7’s lifecycle (EOL on June 30, 2024), the official repositories were disabled, and systems can no longer receive updates. However, Red Hat provides archived repositories via Vault, which can still be used to install packages. Vault link: https://vault.centos.org 

Manual Repository Update

To use the archived repositories, you need to update the /etc/yum.repos.d/CentOS-Base.repo file by replacing its content with the following:

[base]
name=CentOS-$releasever - Base
baseurl=http://vault.centos.org/7.9.2009/os/$basearch/
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-CentOS-7

[updates]
name=CentOS-$releasever - Updates
baseurl=http://vault.centos.org/7.9.2009/updates/$basearch/
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-CentOS-7

[extras]
name=CentOS-$releasever - Extras
baseurl=http://vault.centos.org/7.9.2009/extras/$basearch/
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-CentOS-7

[centosplus]
name=CentOS-$releasever - Plus
baseurl=http://vault.centos.org/7.9.2009/centosplus/$basearch/
gpgcheck=1
enabled=0
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-CentOS-7

[contrib]
name=CentOS-$releasever - Contrib
baseurl=http://vault.centos.org/7.9.2009/contrib/$basearch/
gpgcheck=1
enabled=0
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-CentOS-7

Automatic Setup (Commands)

If you’d rather not edit the file manually, you can run the following commands:
1. Back up the current repo file:

mv /etc/yum.repos.d/CentOS-Base.repo /etc/yum.repos.d/CentOS-Base.repo.old

2. Add the archived repositories:

cat << 'EOF' > /etc/yum.repos.d/CentOS-Base.repo
[base]
name=CentOS-$releasever - Base
baseurl=http://vault.centos.org/7.9.2009/os/$basearch/
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-CentOS-7

[updates]
name=CentOS-$releasever - Updates
baseurl=http://vault.centos.org/7.9.2009/updates/$basearch/
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-CentOS-7

[extras]
name=CentOS-$releasever - Extras
baseurl=http://vault.centos.org/7.9.2009/extras/$basearch/
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-CentOS-7

[centosplus]
name=CentOS-$releasever - Plus
baseurl=http://vault.centos.org/7.9.2009/centosplus/$basearch/
gpgcheck=1
enabled=0
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-CentOS-7

[contrib]
name=CentOS-$releasever - Contrib
baseurl=http://vault.centos.org/7.9.2009/contrib/$basearch/
gpgcheck=1
enabled=0
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-CentOS-7
EOF

3. Clear cache and update the system:

yum clean all
yum makecache
yum update -y

4. Check if new repositories are connected:

yum repolist

If everything is configured correctly, you should see repositories pointing to vault.centos.org in the list.