Once you have configured your local machine to install RPM packages from your RPM local repository, you may also deploy RPM packages to the same repository using the UI or using the REST API.
Through the REST API you also have the option to deploy by checksum or deploying from an archive.
For example, to deploy an RPM package into a repository called rpm-local you could use the following:
curl -u<USERNAME>:<PASSWORD> -XPUT http://localhost:8080/artifactory/rpm-local/<PATH_TO_METADATA_ROOT> -T <TARGET_FILE_PATH>
where PATH_TO_METADATA_ROOT specifies the path from the repository root to the deploy folder.