Red Hat System Administration II
- Section Install Red Hat Enterprise Linux
- Guided Exercise: Install Red Hat Enterprise Linux
- Automate Installation with Kickstart
- Guided Exercise: Automate Installation with Kickstart
- Install and Configure Virtual Machines
- Quiz: Install and Configure Virtual Machines
- Lab: Install Red Hat Enterprise Linux
- Summary
Abstract
| Goal |
Install Red Hat Enterprise Linux on servers and virtual machines. |
| Objectives |
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| Sections |
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| Lab |
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Red Hat provides different forms of installation media that you can download from the Customer Portal website by using your active subscription.
A binary image file in ISO 9660 format that contains the Anaconda Red Hat Enterprise Linux installation program, and the BaseOS and AppStream package repositories. These repositories contain the needed packages to complete the installation without additional repositories.
A smaller "boot ISO" image file that contains Anaconda requires a configured network to access package repositories that are made available by using HTTP, FTP, or NFS.
A QCOW2 image contains a prebuilt system disk that is ready to deploy as a virtual machine in cloud or enterprise virtual environments. Red Hat uses QCOW2 as the standard image format for KVM-based virtualization.
Source code (human-readable programming language instructions) for Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The source DVDs have no documentation. This image helps to compile or develop your software according to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux version.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 supports the following architectures:
AMD and Intel 64-bit architectures (x86-64-v2)
The 64-bit ARM architecture (ARMv8.0-A)
64-bit IBM Z (z14)
IBM Power Systems, Little Endian (POWER9)
After downloading, create bootable installation media according to the instructions in the reference section.
The Red Hat Image Builder tool helps to create customized images of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Image Builder enables administrators to build custom system images for deployment on cloud platforms or on virtual environments for specialized use cases.
Use the composer-cli command or the Red Hat web console interface to access Image Builder.
To install Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9, you must have a minimum of 10 GiB of space on the partition where RHEL will be installed.
The minimum RAM requirement depends on the installation type:
| Installation type | Recommended minimum RAM size |
|---|---|
| Local media installation (USB, DVD) |
1.5 GiB for x86-64-v2, ARMv8.0-A, and z14 architectures 3 GiB for POWER9 architecture |
| NFS network installation |
1.5 GiB for x86-64-v2, ARMv8.0-A, and z14 architectures 3 GiB for POWER9 architecture |
| HTTP, HTTPS, or FTP network installation |
3 GiB for x86-64-v2, and z14 architectures 4 GiB for ARMv8.0-A, and POWER9 architecture |
By using the binary DVD or boot ISO, administrators install a new RHEL system on a bare-metal server or on a virtual machine. The Anaconda program supports two installation methods: manual and automated.
The manual installation interacts with the user to query how Anaconda installs and configures the system.
The automated installation uses a Kickstart file to direct Anaconda how to install the system.
Anaconda starts as a graphical application when you boot the system from the binary DVD or from the boot ISO.
At the screen, select the language, and click . Individual users can choose a preferred language after installation.
Anaconda presents the window, the central interface to customize parameters before beginning the installation.
From this window, configure the installation parameters by selecting the icons in any order. Select an item to view or to edit. In any item, click to return to this central screen.
Anaconda marks mandatory items with a triangle warning symbol and message. The orange status bar at the bottom of the screen reminds you to complete the required information before the installation begins.
Complete the following items as needed:
: Add keyboard layouts.
: Select additional languages to install.
: Select the system's location city by clicking the interactive map or selecting it from the lists. Specify the local time zone even when using Network Time Protocol (NTP).
: Register the system with your Red Hat account and select the system purpose. The system purpose feature enables the registration process to automatically attach the most appropriate subscription to the system. You must first connect to the network by using the icon to register the system.
: Provide the source package location that Anaconda requires for installation. The installation source field already refers to the DVD when using the binary DVD.
: Select the base environment to install, and add any add-ons. The environment installs only the essential packages to run Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
: Select and partition the disks for Red Hat Enterprise Linux to install to. To complete this task, the administrator must know partitioning schemes and file-system selection criteria. The default radio button for automatic partitioning allocates the selected storage devices by using all available space.
: The kdump kernel crash dump feature collects information about the state of the system memory when the kernel crashes. Red Hat engineers analyze a kdump file to identify the cause of a crash. Use this Anaconda item to enable or to disable kdump.
: Detected network connections are listed on the left. Select a connection to display its details. By default, Anaconda activates the network automatically. Click for the selected network connection.
: By activating a security profile, Anaconda applies restrictions and recommendations that the selected profile defines during installation.
: The installation program prompts to set a
rootpassword. The final stage of the installation process continues only after you define arootpassword.: Create an optional non-root account. Creating a local, general-use account is a recommended practice. You can also create accounts after the installation is complete.
Note
When setting the
rootuser password, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 enables an option to lock therootuser access to the system. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 also enables password-based SSH access to therootuser.
After you complete the installation configuration, and resolve all warnings, click . Clicking aborts the installation without applying any changes to the system.
When the installation finishes, click . Anaconda displays the screen when installing a graphical desktop. Accept the license information and optionally register the system with the subscription manager. You might skip system registration until later.
During a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 installation, Anaconda provides two virtual consoles. The first virtual console has five windows that the tmux software terminal multiplexer supplies. You can access that console by using Ctrl+Alt+F1. The second virtual console, which is displayed by default, shows the Anaconda graphical interface. You can access it by using Ctrl+Alt+F6.
The tmux terminal provides a shell prompt in the second window in the first virtual console. You can use the terminal to enter commands to inspect and troubleshoot the system while the installation continues. The other windows provide diagnostic messages, logs, and additional information.
The following table lists the keystroke combinations to access the virtual consoles and the tmux terminal windows. In the tmux terminal, the keyboard shortcuts are performed in two actions: press and release Ctrl+B, and then press the number key of the window to access. In the tmux terminal, you can also use Alt+Tab to rotate the current focus between the windows.
| Key sequence | contents |
|---|---|
| Ctrl+Alt+F1 | Access the tmux terminal multiplexer. |
| Ctrl+B 1 | In the tmux terminal, access the main information page for the installation process. |
| Ctrl+B 2 | In the tmux terminal, provide a root shell.
Anaconda stores the installation log files in the /tmp directory. |
| Ctrl+B 3 | In the tmux terminal, display the contents of the /tmp/anaconda.log file. |
| Ctrl+B 4 | In the tmux terminal, display the contents of the /tmp/storage.log file. |
| Ctrl+B 5 | In the tmux terminal, display the contents of the /tmp/program.log file. |
| Ctrl+Alt+F6 | Access the Anaconda graphical interface. |
Note
For compatibility with earlier Red Hat Enterprise Linux versions, the virtual consoles from Ctrl+Alt+F2 through Ctrl+Alt+F5 also present root shells during installation.
References
For further information, refer to Understanding the Various RHEL .iso Files at https://access.redhat.com/solutions/104063
For further information, refer to Creating a Bootable Installation Medium for Red Hat Enterprise Linux at https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/9/html-single/performing_a_standard_rhel_9_installation/index#assembly_creating-a-bootable-installation-medium_assembly_preparing-for-your-installation
For further information, refer to Composing a Customized RHEL System Image at https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/9/html-single/composing_a_customized_rhel_system_image/index
For further information, refer to Performing a Standard RHEL 9 Installation at https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/9/html-single/performing_a_standard_rhel_9_installation/index
