Linux yum update: Error: Cannot retrieve metalink for repository: epel. Please verify its path and try again

Looks like the connection to repository has not been successfully established.

Show details about the error by:
$ URLGRABBER_DEBUG=1 yum check-update ........

Temporary working around ... You could try with 1 of 2 options below:

1. Change the Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux (EPEL) configuration

locate epel.repo, example /etc/yum.repos.d/epel.repo

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

Search for, and mask the mirrorlist: #mirrorlist

Search for, and unmask the baseurl: baseurl=....

2. Temporarily change the epel related files' names in /etc/yum.repos.d/

$ mv epel.repo epel.repo_bk
$ mv epel-testing.repo epel-testing.repo_bk

Then, go ahead to update.

$ yum clean all

$ yum update