Yum update fails with the below error : kernel-firmware-2.6.32-754.10.1.el6.noarch conflicts with vzkernel-firmware-2.6.32-042stab130.1.noarch

Symptoms 

Unable to complete the yum update on a CentOS 6 OpenVZ Server. Getting the below error:

CONFIG_TEXT: file /lib/firmware/3com/typhoon.bin from install of kernel-firmware-2.6.32-754.10.1.el6.noarch conflicts with file from package vzkernel-firmware-2.6.32-042stab130.1.noarch

OS distribution installed is RHEL/CentOS 6

Cause

vzkernel-firmware is an excessive package for RHEL/CentOS 6 distribution and duplicates kernel-firmware

Resolution

Package vzkernel-firmware is provided for distributions other than RHEL/CentOS 6, which lacks the package. On a CentOS 6, this package is not needed and it conflicts with the kernel-firmware package.

Remove the vzkernel-firmware package to solve the issue:

1. Connect the server via SSH.
2. Run the below command:

   # rpm -e vzkernel-firmware --nodeps

3. Exclude the vzkernel-firmware package from /etc/yum.repos.d/openvz.repo file.

   CONFIG_TEXT: [openvz-kernel-rhel6]
   name=OpenVZ RHEL6-based kernel
   #baseurl=http://download.openvz.org/kernel/branches/rhel6-2.6.32/current/
   mirrorlist=http://download.openvz.org/kernel/mirrors-rhel6-2.6.32
   enabled=1
   gpgcheck=1
   gpgkey=http://download.openvz.org/RPM-GPG-Key-OpenVZ
   exclude=vzkernel-firmware

4. Run yum update again

Note: Resolution can be applied on the same kind of kernel-firmware errors with different kernel version. Consider this as a example.