Checksum type used in repomd.xml and for packages in the metadata between RHEL5 and RHEL6

• If you need to create a YUM repository on RHEL6 and need to provide the YUM repository service to RHEL5 clients, you need to create the repository using checksum type of sha because the of the differences below and RHEL5 clients cannot recognize sha256 checksum.

1. RHEL5 : The older default was "sha"
2. RHEL6 : The default is now "sha256".

•  Failure to do so will cause the error message below when you are accessing the YUM repository from a RHEL5 client with command like : "yum list"

1. Error Message : primary.xml.gz: [Errno -3] Error performing checksum

• Solution is as below:

1. createrepo -s sha