After setting up a fresh RHEL6 server and completing subscription registration, many admins encounter a perplexing situation where yum repolist shows empty repositories and /etc/yum.repos.d/redhat.repo gets wiped clean. Here's how to properly establish package channels when traditional methods fail.

The key indicators of this problem include:

# yum repolist
Loaded plugins: product-id, refresh-packagekit, security, subscription-manager
repolist: 0

And examining the repository file:

# cat /etc/yum.repos.d/redhat.repo
[Empty file]

First, verify your subscription status:

# subscription-manager list --consumed
# subscription-manager repos --list

Then force-refresh the subscription data:

# subscription-manager clean
# rm -rf /var/cache/yum/*
# subscription-manager refresh

For RHEL6 specifically, you may need to manually enable repositories:

# subscription-manager repos --enable=rhel-6-server-rpms \
--enable=rhel-6-server-optional-rpms \
--enable=rhel-6-server-extras-rpms \
--enable=rhel-6-server-supplementary-rpms

If repositories still don't appear, check these configuration files:

/etc/rhsm/rhsm.conf should contain valid entries:

[rhsm]
baseurl = https://cdn.redhat.com
repo_ca_cert = %(ca_cert_dir)s/redhat-uep.pem

Verify the system identity is properly registered:

# identity

After completing these steps, your yum repolist should show enabled repositories:

repo id                  repo name
rhel-6-server-rpms       Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Server (RPMs)
[...]

Test package installation:

# yum install -y telnet
# yum update

---

When dealing with RHEL6 systems, the most common repository-related issue occurs when the system appears properly subscribed but shows empty repositories. The key symptoms are:

• Empty /etc/yum.repos.d/redhat.repo file
• yum repolist showing no repositories
• Subscription Manager GUI not displaying products

First, confirm your subscription is truly active:

# Check current subscriptions
subscription-manager list --consumed

# Verify registration status
subscription-manager identity

If these show your subscription as active, we need to force repository regeneration.

The nuclear option that often works:

# Clean existing data
subscription-manager clean

# Re-register
subscription-manager register --force --username=YOUR_RHN_USER --password=YOUR_RHN_PASS

# Attach subscription
subscription-manager attach --pool=YOUR_POOL_ID

# Refresh repos
subscription-manager repos --enable=rhel-6-server-rpms \
                           --enable=rhel-6-server-optional-rpms \
                           --enable=rhel-6-server-extras-rpms

For older systems still using RHN Classic:

# Install RHN tools
yum install rhn-client-tools rhn-check rhn-setup

# Register system
rhn_register

# After registration
yum clean all
yum makecache

Enable verbose output to identify issues:

yum --verbose repolist

Check for these key indicators of success:

[output]
repo id              repo name                                           status
rhel-6-server-rpms   Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Server (RPMs)           10,672

Confirm repository metadata is properly cached:

ls -l /var/cache/yum/x86_64/6Server/

Check subscription manager logs for errors:

tail -n 50 /var/log/rhsm/rhsm.log