diff --git a/elements/rhel-common/README.md b/elements/rhel-common/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..64eb571b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/elements/rhel-common/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+This element contains the common installation steps between RHEL os releases.
diff --git a/elements/rhel/pre-install.d/00-rhsm b/elements/rhel-common/pre-install.d/00-rhsm
similarity index 90%
rename from elements/rhel/pre-install.d/00-rhsm
rename to elements/rhel-common/pre-install.d/00-rhsm
index db1dd24d..274244a5 100755
--- a/elements/rhel/pre-install.d/00-rhsm
+++ b/elements/rhel-common/pre-install.d/00-rhsm
@@ -44,7 +44,11 @@ if [ -n "$DIB_RHSM_USER" ] && [ -n "$DIB_RHSM_PASSWORD" ] ; then
             subscription-manager attach --pool $DIB_RHSM_POOL
         fi
         # optional repo required for diskimage-builder dependency
-        repos="--enable rhel-6-server-optional-rpms"
+        if [ "$DISTRO_NAME" == "rhel7" ]; then
+            repos="--enable rhel-7-server-optional-rpms"
+        else
+            repos="--enable rhel-6-server-optional-rpms"
+        fi
         if [[ -n "$DIB_RHSM_REPOS" ]]; then
             for repo in $DIB_RHSM_REPOS; do
                 repos="$repos --enable $repo"
diff --git a/elements/rhel/pre-install.d/10-rhel-blacklist b/elements/rhel-common/pre-install.d/10-rhel-blacklist
similarity index 100%
rename from elements/rhel/pre-install.d/10-rhel-blacklist
rename to elements/rhel-common/pre-install.d/10-rhel-blacklist
diff --git a/elements/rhel/element-deps b/elements/rhel/element-deps
index e5228c33..66b94cc8 100644
--- a/elements/rhel/element-deps
+++ b/elements/rhel/element-deps
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 cache-url
 dib-run-parts
+rhel-common
 rpm-distro
 yum
diff --git a/elements/rhel7/element-deps b/elements/rhel7/element-deps
index c6e5925f..4f33c20e 100644
--- a/elements/rhel7/element-deps
+++ b/elements/rhel7/element-deps
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 cache-url
 dib-run-parts
 redhat-common
+rhel-common
 rpm-distro
 source-repositories
 yum