Getting Started

CIQ Bridge is delivered as a CIQ-maintained package repository through CIQ Depot. This guide walks through entitling your organization, installing the Depot Client on a CentOS 7.9 host, and enabling the Bridge repository so that yum pulls updates from CIQ instead of the retired CentOS mirrors.

Prerequisites

A running CentOS 7.9 system (x86_64).
A CIQ Portal account with an active organization entitled to CIQ Bridge. If you need access, contact CIQ Sales.
Your access token from portal.ciq.com/token.
Root or sudo access on the target system.

Note

If your organization is not yet entitled to CIQ Bridge, contact CIQ Sales to arrange access before continuing.

Step 1: Install the Depot Client

The Depot Client (depot) is a command-line tool that configures CIQ repositories on your system. CentOS 7 uses yum as its package manager, so install the client with yum:


sudo yum install -y yum-utils
sudo yum-config-manager --add-repo https://depot.ciq.com/dlv2/depot-el\$releasever.\$basearch/
sudo rpm --import https://ciq.com/keys/rpm-gpg-key-ciq
sudo yum install -y depot

Note

These commands use yum, which is the package manager on CentOS 7. The Depot Client installation guide shows the dnf equivalents used on EL8/EL9 systems.

Step 2: Authenticate


sudo depot login -u YOUR_USERNAME -t YOUR_TOKEN

You should see:


Connected to https://depot.ciq.com

Step 3: Enable the Bridge repository

Confirm that CIQ Bridge appears in your entitled products:


sudo depot list


PRODUCT_ID    PRODUCT_NAME                              ENABLED
bridge        CIQ Bridge (CentOS 7 extended life)       no

Enable it:


sudo depot enable bridge

The Depot Client writes the Bridge repository configuration to /etc/yum.repos.d/ and prioritizes the CIQ-maintained content over the retired CentOS repositories. The client also installs a systemd timer that periodically refreshes your enabled product configuration.

Step 4: Apply updates

With the repository enabled, update the system with yum:


sudo yum update

To apply only security-relevant updates, install the security plugin, then update with --security:


sudo yum install -y yum-plugin-security
sudo yum update --security

You can also list the advisories that apply to your system:


sudo yum updateinfo list security

Security-only updates and yum updateinfo work because CIQ publishes updateinfo.xml in the Bridge repository, which maps package updates to their advisories. See Security and errata for details.

Cloud marketplace images

Pre-built CIQ Bridge images are also available on the Azure Marketplace and Google Cloud Marketplace for launching CentOS 7.9 instances that are pre-configured for CIQ Bridge updates.

Getting help

If a repository does not enable or updates do not appear, contact CIQ Support.

CIQ Bridge Security and Errata