Improve handling around EPEL requirement for RPM packages. (#16406)

- Explicitly pull in EPEL on all systems where it’s required in
  kickstart.sh
- Explicitly depend on EPEL in our repository config packages for
  systems where it’s required.
- Document the requirement to use EPEL on these systems.

4 files changed, 35 insertions, 18 deletions

diff --git a/packaging/installer/kickstart.sh b/packaging/installer/kickstart.sh
index ef1e22c899..6d657e93ec 100755
--- a/packaging/installer/kickstart.sh
+++ b/packaging/installer/kickstart.sh
@@ -1321,24 +1321,20 @@ netdata_avail_check() {
 
 # Check for any distro-specific dependencies we know we need.
 check_special_native_deps() {
-  if [ "${DISTRO_COMPAT_NAME}" = "centos" ] && [ "${SYSVERSION}" = "7" ]; then
-    progress "Checking for libuv availability."
-    if ${pm_cmd} search --nogpgcheck -v libuv | grep -q "No matches found"; then
-      progress "libuv not found, checking for EPEL availability."
-      if ${pm_cmd} search --nogpgcheck -v epel-release | grep -q "No matches found"; then
-        warning "Unable to find a suitable source for libuv, cannot install using native packages on this system."
-        return 1
-      else
-        progress "EPEL is available, attempting to install so that required dependencies are available."
+  if [ "${DISTRO_COMPAT_NAME}" = "centos" ] && [ "${SYSVERSION}" -gt 6 ]; then
+    progress "EPEL is required on this system, checking if it’s available."
 
-        # shellcheck disable=SC2086
-        if ! run_as_root env ${env} ${pm_cmd} ${install_subcmd} ${pkg_install_opts} epel-release; then
-          warning "Failed to install EPEL, even though it is required to install native packages on this system."
-          return 1
-        fi
-      fi
+    if ${pm_cmd} search --nogpgcheck -v epel-release | grep -q "No matches found"; then
+      warning "Unable to find a suitable source for libuv, cannot install using native packages on this system."
+      return 1
     else
-      return 0
+      progress "EPEL is available, attempting to install so that required dependencies are available."
+
+      # shellcheck disable=SC2086
+      if ! run_as_root env ${env} ${pm_cmd} ${install_subcmd} ${pkg_install_opts} epel-release; then
+        warning "Failed to install EPEL, even though it is required to install native packages on this system."
+        return 1
+      fi
     fi
   fi
 }
diff --git a/packaging/installer/methods/packages.md b/packaging/installer/methods/packages.md
index 8f21f99668..d49e213941 100644
--- a/packaging/installer/methods/packages.md
+++ b/packaging/installer/methods/packages.md
@@ -44,7 +44,9 @@ repositories at that top level:
 
 Within each top level group of repositories, there are directories for each supported group of distributions:
 
-- `el`: Is for Red Hat Enterprise Linux and binary compatible distros, such as CentOS, Alma Linux, and Rocky Linux.
+- `amazonlinux`: Is for Amazon Linux and binary compatible distros.
+- `el`: Is for Red Hat Enterprise Linux and binary compatible distros that are not covered by other repos, such
+  as CentOS, Alma Linux, and Rocky Linux.
 - `fedora`: Is for Fedora and binary compatible distros.
 - `ol`: Is for Oracle Linux and binary compatible distros.
 - `opensuse`: Is for openSUSE and binary compatible distros.
@@ -64,6 +66,13 @@ appropriate repository configuration package from https://repo.netdata.cloud/rep
 directly on the target system using the system package manager. This will ensure any packages needed to use the
 repository are also installed, and will help enable a seamless transition if we ever need to change our infrastructure.
 
+> ### Note
+>
+> On RHEL and other systems that use the `el` repostiroies, some of the dependencies for Netdata can only be found
+> in the EPEL repository, which is not enabled or installed by default on most of these systems. This additional
+> repository _should_ be pulled in automatically by our repository config packages, but if it is not you may need
+> to manually install `epel-release` to be able to successfully install the Netdata packages.
+
 ## Manual setup of DEB packages.
 
 Netdata’s official DEB repositories are hosted at https://repo.netdata.cloud/repos. We provide four groups of
diff --git a/packaging/repoconfig/debian/changelog b/packaging/repoconfig/debian/changelog
index 02eedfc365..d056fa43ba 100644
--- a/packaging/repoconfig/debian/changelog
+++ b/packaging/repoconfig/debian/changelog
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+netdata-repo (2-2) unstable; urgency=medium
+
+  * Version bump to keep in sync with RPM repo packages
+
+ -- Netdata Builder <bot@netdata.cloud>  Mon, 13 Nov 2023 11:15:00 -0500
+
 netdata-repo (2-1) unstable; urgency=medium
 
   * Switched to new package hosting infrastructure
diff --git a/packaging/repoconfig/netdata-repo.spec b/packaging/repoconfig/netdata-repo.spec
index 6139e52bbd..242178ba71 100644
--- a/packaging/repoconfig/netdata-repo.spec
+++ b/packaging/repoconfig/netdata-repo.spec
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 
 Name:           netdata-repo
 Version:        2
-Release:        1
+Release:        2
 Summary:        Netdata stable repositories configuration.
 
 Group:          System Environment/Base
@@ -25,6 +25,10 @@ BuildArch:      noarch
 Requires:       yum-plugin-priorities
 %endif
 
+%if 0%{?centos_ver} && 0%{!?amazon_linux:1} && 0%{!?oraclelinux:1}
+Requires:       epel-release
+%endif
+
 # Overlapping file installs
 Conflicts:      netdata-repo-edge
 
@@ -104,6 +108,8 @@ This package contains the official Netdata package repository configuration for
 %endif
 
 %changelog
+* Mon Nov 13 2023 Austin Hemmelgarn <austin@netdata.cloud> 2-2
+- Add EPEL requirement for RHEL packages.
 * Wed Dec 7 2022 Austin Hemmelgarn <austin@netdata.cloud> 2-1
 - Switch to new hosting at repo.netdata.cloud.
 * Mon Jun 6 2022 Austin Hemmelgarn <austin@netdata.cloud> 1-2