How to convert RHEL 6.x to CentOS 6.x

In day-today system administration, we need ftp server for internal purposes. What amused me further was the fact that the machine was running RHEL. No way we should be using this machine with RHEL on top bearing licencing cost. Here are following process to convert RHEL 6.x to CentOS 6.x

1. Clean up existing cache of metadata and packages. Also, erase Red Hat subscription manager

# yum clean all
# rpm -e subscription-manager

2. Create a directory to keep CentOS packages

# mkdir /root/centos
# cd /root/centos

3. Download the packages

# wget http://mirror.centos.org/centos/6.3/os/x86_64/RPM-GPG-KEY-CentOS-6
# wget http://mirror.centos.org/centos/6.3/os/x86_64/Packages/centos-release-6-3.el6.centos.9.x86_64.rpm
# wget http://mirror.centos.org/centos/6.3/os/x86_64/Packages/yum-3.2.29-30.el6.centos.noarch.rpm
# wget http://mirror.centos.org/centos/6.3/os/x86_64/Packages/yum-utils-1.1.30-14.el6.noarch.rpm
# wget http://mirror.centos.org/centos/6.3/os/x86_64/Packages/yum-plugin-fastestmirror-1.1.30-14.el6.noarch.rpm

4. Next enter the commands below to first import CentOS GPG key, to install the packages and then to upgrade to CentOS 6

# rpm –import RPM-GPG-KEY-CentOS-6
# rpm -e –nodeps redhat-release-server
# rpm -e yum-rhn-plugin rhn-setup rhn-check rhn-setup-gnome rhnsd
# rpm -Uhv –force *.rpm
# yum update
# yum upgrade

5. Reboot the server in order to complete the installation.

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