yum update fails

i have RHEL 6.3
[root@RHEL6 yum.repos.d]# uname -a
Linux RHEL6.3-64-BuildMac 2.6.32-279.el6.x86_64 #1 SMP Wed Jun 13 18:24:36 EDT 2012 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
My /etc/yum.conf looks like
[main]
cachedir=/var/cache/yum/$basearch/$releasever
keepcache=0
debuglevel=2
logfile=/var/log/yum.log
exactarch=1
obsoletes=1
gpgcheck=1
plugins=1
installonly_limit=3
reposdir=/etc/yum.repos.d/rhel.repo
The contents of my /etc.yum.repo.d/rhel.repo looks like
[rhelrepo]
name=my rhel repo
baseurl=
#gpgkey=
enabled=1
gpgcheck=0 

But my yum update fails with the following error

[root@RHEL6 yum.repos.d]# yum update
Loaded plugins: product-id, security, subscription-manager
Updating certificate-based repositories.
Unable to read consumer identity
Setting up Update Process
No Packages marked for Update

please could somebody help

4 Answers

Disable subscription manager and try

Change enable=0 in /etc/yum/pluginconf.d/product-id.conf and /etc/yum/pluginconf.d/subscription-manager.conf

[main]

enabled=0

and then clean cache

rm -rfv /var/cache/yum/*

yum clean all

This may be of help. I haven't had this error myself, though, so I couldn't test.

RHEL requires that you identify yourself as a legitimate customer for updates, and the error message you posted seems to say that failed.

To fix the "Unable to read consumer identity" warning:

$ vi /etc/yum/pluginconf.d/subscription-manager.conf

Then change enabled to 0 so the file looks like this:

[main]
enabled=0

Then your "Unable to read consumer identity" warning will go away. Also, your update probably was not failing, there were probably just no packages to update at the time. Leaving it with the warning is fine too, it has no functional impact.