diff --git a/rpmbuild/copr-rpmbuild.yml b/rpmbuild/copr-rpmbuild.yml
index fcfffc104..4c48609ba 100644
--- a/rpmbuild/copr-rpmbuild.yml
+++ b/rpmbuild/copr-rpmbuild.yml
@@ -12,3 +12,8 @@
 #       cute
 #       multiline
 #       snippet
+#
+# Chroots that require active Red Hat subscription
+# rhsm:
+#   - rhel-*
+#   - epel-*
diff --git a/rpmbuild/copr_rpmbuild/config.py b/rpmbuild/copr_rpmbuild/config.py
index ebdcee715..0442b31af 100644
--- a/rpmbuild/copr_rpmbuild/config.py
+++ b/rpmbuild/copr_rpmbuild/config.py
@@ -12,8 +12,10 @@ class Config:
     """
     Configuration class for copr-rpmbuild
     """
+
     def __init__(self):
         self.tags_to_mock_snippet = []
+        self.rhsm = []
 
     def load_config(self):
         """
@@ -27,3 +29,4 @@ def load_config(self):
             pass
 
         self.tags_to_mock_snippet = config_data.get("tags_to_mock_snippet", [])
+        self.rhsm = config_data.get("rhsm", [])
diff --git a/rpmbuild/copr_rpmbuild/rhsm.py b/rpmbuild/copr_rpmbuild/rhsm.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..7f9db4f52
--- /dev/null
+++ b/rpmbuild/copr_rpmbuild/rhsm.py
@@ -0,0 +1,57 @@
+"""
+Red Hat Subscription Management
+
+Activating Red Hat subscription may take a lot of time and historically, the
+subscription service used to be unreliable, so we should wait for the
+subscription only when necessary.
+"""
+
+import os
+import time
+import logging
+from fnmatch import fnmatch
+
+
+log = logging.getLogger("__main__")
+
+
+def subscription_required(task, config):
+    """
+    Is subscription required for this task?
+    """
+    for pattern in config.rhsm:
+        if fnmatch(task["chroot"], pattern):
+            return True
+    return False
+
+
+def active_subscription():
+    """
+    Is subscription active on this system?
+    """
+    # This is not a 100% reliable check that the subscription is active. The
+    # ideal check would be running `subscription-manager status` and checking
+    # its exit code but that requires root privileges. This check will break
+    # in the following corner cases:
+    #   - The system is registered and then halted for a long time and then
+    #     booted again after the entitlement is no longer valid
+    #   - The system is unregistered from the server (but not from the client
+    #     itself), making all the client files stale
+    return os.path.exists("/etc/pki/consumer/cert.pem")
+
+
+def wait_for_subscription(timeout=86400):
+    """
+    Wait until this system has an active subscription
+    """
+    start = time.time()
+    attempt = 1
+    while True:
+        log.info("Checking Red Hat subscription (attempt #%s)", attempt)
+        if active_subscription():
+            log.info("Red Hat subscription active")
+            return
+        if time.time() > start + timeout:
+            raise RuntimeError("Waiting for Red Hat subscription timeouted!")
+        time.sleep(30)
+        attempt += 1
diff --git a/rpmbuild/main.py b/rpmbuild/main.py
index ab4edb2d3..964ec5d4a 100755
--- a/rpmbuild/main.py
+++ b/rpmbuild/main.py
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@
 import shutil
 import pprint
 import shlex
+from six.moves.urllib.parse import urlparse, urljoin, urlencode
 
 from copr_common.request import SafeRequest, RequestError
 from copr_rpmbuild import providers
@@ -25,7 +26,8 @@
     locate_srpm,
     package_version,
 )
-from six.moves.urllib.parse import urlparse, urljoin, urlencode
+from copr_rpmbuild.config import Config
+from copr_rpmbuild.rhsm import subscription_required, wait_for_subscription
 
 log = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 log.setLevel(logging.INFO)
@@ -256,6 +258,11 @@ def build_rpm(args, config):
     task = get_task(args, config, build_config_url_path, task_id)
     log_task(task)
 
+    copr_rpmbuild_config = Config()
+    copr_rpmbuild_config.load_config()
+    if subscription_required(task, copr_rpmbuild_config):
+        wait_for_subscription()
+
     try:
         source_json = {
             "clone_url": task["git_repo"],