diff --git a/elements/rhel7/README.rst b/elements/rhel7/README.rst
index 4a8b2a64e..11536af01 100644
--- a/elements/rhel7/README.rst
+++ b/elements/rhel7/README.rst
@@ -3,9 +3,30 @@ rhel7
 =====
 Use RHEL 7 cloud images as the baseline for built disk images.
 
-Note: As of this writing, RHEL 7 is still in beta, so final download
-locations are not available.  This element defaults to using the RHEL 6.5
-image, but that will need to be overridden using the appropriate DIB_*
-environment variables to point at a RHEL 7 image.
+Because RHEL 7 base images are not publicly available, it is necessary to first
+download the RHEL 7 cloud image from the Red Hat Customer Portal and pass the
+path to the resulting file to disk-image-create as the ``DIB_LOCAL_IMAGE``
+environment variable.
 
-For further details see the redhat-common README.
+The cloud image can be found at (login required):
+https://access.redhat.com/downloads/content/69/ver=/rhel---7/7.1/x86_64/product-downloads
+
+Then before running the image build, define DIB_LOCAL_IMAGE (replace the file
+name with the one downloaded, if it differs from the example)::
+  export DIB_LOCAL_IMAGE=rhel-guest-image-7.1-20150224.0.x86_64.qcow2
+
+The downloaded file will then be used as the basis for any subsequent image
+builds.
+
+For further details about building RHEL 7 images, see the rhel-common and
+redhat-common element README files.
+
+Environment Variables
+---------------------
+
+DIB_LOCAL_IMAGE
+  :Required: Yes
+  :Default: None
+  :Description: The RHEL 7 base image you have downloaded. See the element
+                description above for more details.
+  :Example: ``DIB_LOCAL_IMAGE=/tmp/rhel7-cloud.qcow2``
diff --git a/elements/rhel7/root.d/10-rhel7-cloud-image b/elements/rhel7/root.d/10-rhel7-cloud-image
index 87c082ecd..55d39274b 100755
--- a/elements/rhel7/root.d/10-rhel7-cloud-image
+++ b/elements/rhel7/root.d/10-rhel7-cloud-image
@@ -26,9 +26,12 @@ if [ -n "$DIB_LOCAL_IMAGE" ]; then
     BASE_IMAGE_FILE=`basename $DIB_LOCAL_IMAGE`
     BASE_IMAGE_TAR=$BASE_IMAGE_FILE.tgz
 else
+    if [ -z "${BASE_IMAGE_FILE:-}" -o -z "${DIB_CLOUD_IMAGES}" ]; then
+        echo "No source for a base image file configured."
+        echo "See rhel7 element readme for details on how to obtain and use a base image."
+        exit 1
+    fi
     DIB_RELEASE=${DIB_RELEASE:-latest}
-    DIB_CLOUD_IMAGES=${DIB_CLOUD_IMAGES:-http://rhn.redhat.com}
-    BASE_IMAGE_FILE=${BASE_IMAGE_FILE:-rhel-guest-image-7.0-20140506.1.x86_64.qcow2}
     BASE_IMAGE_TAR=$DIB_RELEASE-rhel-server-$ARCH-latest.tgz
     IMAGE_LOCATION=$DIB_CLOUD_IMAGES/$BASE_IMAGE_FILE
     CACHED_IMAGE=$DIB_IMAGE_CACHE/$BASE_IMAGE_FILE