Plesk Update or OS conversion to AlmaLinux 8 fails on CentOS 7: EPEL repository should be enabled for PHP X.Y

Symptoms

• Plesk Update fails with the following error message in /var/log/plesk/install/autoinstaller3.log:

  CONFIG_TEXT: ERROR: Components and product validation detected at least one important issue:
  EPEL repository should be enabled for PHP 7.4
  PHP installation requires 'epel' OS repository to be enabled.
  Make sure it is available and enabled, then try again.

• Conversion from CentOS 7 to AlmaLinux 8 fails with:

  CONFIG_TEXT: ERROR - centos2alma process has failed. Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/etc/yum.repos.d/epel.repo'

• Installation of Plesk Email Security extension fails:

  PLESK_ERROR: Installing Amavis
  Execution filemng has failed with exit code 1, stdout: , stderr: Error: Unknown repo: 'epel'

Cause

EPEL repository is not enabled in the system.

Resolution

1. Connect to the Plesk server via SSH.

2. Create file /etc/yum.repos.d/epel.repo:

   # touch /etc/yum.repos.d/epel.repo

3. Open this file in a text editor. In this example, we are using vi editor:

   # vi /etc/yum.repos.d/epel.repo

4. Add the following content there:

   CONFIG_TEXT: [epel]
   name=Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 7 - $basearch
   # It is much more secure to use the metalink, but if you wish to use a local mirror
   # place its address here.
   #baseurl=http://download.example/pub/epel/7/$basearch
   metalink=https://mirrors.fedoraproject.org/metalink?repo=epel-7&arch=$basearch&infra=$infra&content=$contentdir
   failovermethod=priority
   enabled=1
   gpgcheck=1
   gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-EPEL-7
   
   [epel-debuginfo]
   name=Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 7 - $basearch - Debug
   # It is much more secure to use the metalink, but if you wish to use a local mirror
   # place its address here.
   #baseurl=http://download.example/pub/epel/7/$basearch/debug
   metalink=https://mirrors.fedoraproject.org/metalink?repo=epel-debug-7&arch=$basearch&infra=$infra&content=$contentdir
   failovermethod=priority
   enabled=0
   gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-EPEL-7
   gpgcheck=1
   
   [epel-source]
   name=Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux 7 - $basearch - Source
   # It is much more secure to use the metalink, but if you wish to use a local mirror
   # place it's address here.
   #baseurl=http://download.example/pub/epel/7/source/tree/
   metalink=https://mirrors.fedoraproject.org/metalink?repo=epel-source-7&arch=$basearch&infra=$infra&content=$contentdir
   failovermethod=priority
   enabled=0
   gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-EPEL-7
   gpgcheck=1
   
   

5. Save the changes and close the file.

6. Reinstall EPEL repository:

   # yum reinstall epel-release

7. Restart Plesk update.