diff --git a/cephadm-preflight.yml b/cephadm-preflight.yml
index 4420832..5326695 100644
--- a/cephadm-preflight.yml
+++ b/cephadm-preflight.yml
@@ -42,9 +42,10 @@
 
     - name: fail when ceph_origin is custom with no repository defined
       fail:
-        msg: "You must define 'ceph_custom_repositories' when ceph_origin is 'custom'"
+        msg: "You must define 'ceph_custom_repositories' or 'custom_repo_url' when ceph_origin is 'custom'"
       when:
         - ceph_origin == 'custom'
+        - custom_repo_url is undefined
         - ceph_custom_repositories is undefined
 
     - name: rhcs related tasks
@@ -111,6 +112,19 @@
     - name: enable custom repo
       when: ceph_origin == 'custom'
       block:
+        - name: set_fact ceph_custom_repositories
+          set_fact:
+            ceph_custom_repositories:
+              - name: ceph_custom
+                description: Ceph custom repo
+                gpgcheck: "{{ 'yes' if custom_repo_gpgkey is defined else 'no' }}"
+                state: present
+                gpgkey: "{{ custom_repo_gpgkey | default(omit) }}"
+                baseurl: "{{ custom_repo_url }}"
+                file: ceph_custom
+                priority: '2'
+          when: ceph_custom_repositories is undefined
+
         - name: setup custom repositories
           yum_repository:
             name: "{{ item.name }}"
diff --git a/doc/source/index.rst b/doc/source/index.rst
index 26ca25d..4cd9985 100644
--- a/doc/source/index.rst
+++ b/doc/source/index.rst
@@ -157,10 +157,18 @@ ceph_dev_sha1
 **default**
   "latest"
 
+custom_repo_url
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+**description**
+  The url of the repository when ``ceph_origin`` is 'custom'.
+  Mutually exclusive with ``ceph_custom_repositories``.
+
 ceph_custom_repositories
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
-This variable is a list, the following options can be specified for each element that represents a repository to be set up:
+This variable is a list.
+Mutually exclusive with ``custom_repo_url``.
+The following options can be specified for each element that represents a repository to be set up:
 
 name
 ####