Why does installation of RHEL6 or 7 fail with error `[abrt] anaconda-13.21.195: YumBaseError: Error: rpmdb open failed`?

Issue

• Installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6/7 using DVD media
• The partition /var was created but left unformatted.
• It fails with the following backtrace.

:The following was filed automatically by anaconda:
:anaconda 13.21.195 exception report
:Traceback (most recent call first):
:  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/yum/config.py", line 1027, in _getsysver
:    raise Errors.YumBaseError("Error: " + str(e))
:  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/yum/config.py", line 882, in readStartupConfig
:    startupconf.releasever = _getsysver(startupconf.installroot, startupconf.distroverpkg)
:  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/yum/__init__.py", line 299, in _getConfig
:    startupconf = config.readStartupConfig(fn, root)
:  File "/usr/lib/anaconda/yuminstall.py", line 836, in doConfigSetup
:    YumSorter._getConfig(self)
:  File "/usr/lib/anaconda/yuminstall.py", line 390, in setup
:    self.doConfigSetup(root=self.anaconda.rootPath)
:  File "/usr/lib/anaconda/yuminstall.py", line 1331, in doBackendSetup
:    self.ayum.setup()
:  File "/usr/lib/anaconda/backend.py", line 225, in doBackendSetup
:    if anaconda.backend.doBackendSetup(anaconda) == DISPATCH_BACK:
:  File "/usr/lib/anaconda/dispatch.py", line 210, in moveStep
:    rc = stepFunc(self.anaconda)
:  File "/usr/lib/anaconda/dispatch.py", line 126, in gotoNext
:    self.moveStep()
:  File "/usr/lib/anaconda/gui.py", line 1388, in nextClicked
:    self.anaconda.dispatch.gotoNext()
:YumBaseError: Error: rpmdb open failed