diff --git a/elements/rhel/README.md b/elements/rhel/README.md
index cf0480b2e..25a5a9bc1 100644
--- a/elements/rhel/README.md
+++ b/elements/rhel/README.md
@@ -1,8 +1,10 @@
 # Overrides:
 
 ## General
-* Set DIB_CLOUD_IMAGES to a URL for downloading base Red Hat Enterprise Linux cloud image.
-* Set DIB_CLOUD_RELEASE to a use a non-default name for the Red Hat Enterprise Linux cloud image.
+* Downloading the Red Hat Enterprise Linux cloud image requires a valid Red Hat Network login and a subscription to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Server product.
+* diskimage-builder does not integrate directly with RHN, so a manual download is required.  Please visit https://rhn.redhat.com/rhn/software/channel/downloads/Download.do?cid=16952 to download the qcow2 file.
+* Set DIB_CLOUD_IMAGES to "file:///download_path"
+* Overriding of DIB_RELEASE is necessary when a new version of the RHEL qcow2 image is available and the default image has not yet been updated in diskimage-builder.
 
 ## Red Hat Subscription Manager (RHSM)
 
diff --git a/elements/rhel/root.d/10-rhel-cloud-image b/elements/rhel/root.d/10-rhel-cloud-image
index 1141b7f14..56d119305 100755
--- a/elements/rhel/root.d/10-rhel-cloud-image
+++ b/elements/rhel/root.d/10-rhel-cloud-image
@@ -9,9 +9,9 @@ if [ 'amd64' = "$ARCH" ] ; then
   ARCH="x86_64"
 fi
 
-DIB_RELEASE=${DIB_RELEASE:-latest}
+DIB_RELEASE=${DIB_RELEASE:-"6.5-20140121.0"}
 DIB_CLOUD_IMAGES=${DIB_CLOUD_IMAGES:-http://rhn.redhat.com}
-BASE_IMAGE_FILE=${BASE_IMAGE_FILE:-rhel-guest-image-6-6.5-20131115.0-1.qcow2}
+BASE_IMAGE_FILE=${BASE_IMAGE_FILE:-rhel-guest-image-$DIB_RELEASE.x86_64.qcow2}
 BASE_IMAGE_TAR=$DIB_RELEASE-rhel-server-$ARCH-latest.tgz
 CACHED_TAR=$DIB_IMAGE_CACHE/$BASE_IMAGE_TAR