Chapter 1. Obtaining Red Hat Enterprise Linux

If you have a Red Hat subscription, you can download ISO image files of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 installation DVD from the Software & Download Center that is part of the Red Hat customer portal. If you do not already have a subscription, either purchase one or obtain a free evaluation subscription from the Software & Download Center at https://access.redhat.com/downloads.

If you have a subscription or evaluation subscription, follow these steps to obtain the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 ISO image files:

Visit the customer portal at https://access.redhat.com/login and enter your Login and Password.
Click Downloads to visit the Software & Download Center.
In the Red Hat Enterprise Linux area, click the Download your software link to obtain a list of all currently supported Red Hat Enterprise Linux products.
Select a version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux and click on the link to that version. Note that you only need to select the most current version of the product; each release is a complete, functional version of the operating system and does not require previous releases. Ensure that you select a server release if you plan to deploy Red Hat Enterprise Linux to a server, or a client release if you plan to deploy to a client machine. Choose between 32-bit and 64-bit versions.
Each version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux is available as an ISO image file for a single DVD, around 3 GB – 4 GB in size.
The page lists ISO image files.
Figure 1.1. Selecting ISO Image Files

This same page contains links to ISO image files for the source code for Red Hat Enterprise Linux. You do not need to download the source code to install the operating system.
The page also contains a link to boot.iso. Click on this link to download an ISO image named rhel-variant-version-architecture-boot.iso which is around 200 MB in size. You can use this image file to produce minimal boot media — bootable CDs, DVDs, or USB devices with which you can boot a system when you plan to complete the installation from an installation source available on a hard disk or over a network connection. Refer to Section 2.3, “Making Minimal Boot Media” for information on how to use the rhel-variant-version-architecture-boot.iso file.
Note that the link to every image file is accompanied by MD5 and SHA-256 checksums. After your download completes, use a checksum tool such as md5sum or sha256sum to generate a checksum on your local copy of the file. If the value that you generate locally matches the value published on the website, you know that the image file is genuine and uncorrupted.

After you download an ISO image file of the installation DVD from the Red Hat Network, you can:

burn it to a physical DVD (refer to Section 2.1, “Making an installation DVD”).
transfer it to a USB device (refer to Section 2.2, “Preparing a USB flash drive as an installation source”).
use it to prepare minimal boot media (refer to Section 2.3, “Making Minimal Boot Media”).
place it on a server to prepare for installations over a network (refer to Section 4.1, “Preparing for a Network Installation” for x86 architectures, Section 12.1, “Preparing for a Network Installation” for POWER or Section 19.1, “Preparing for a Network Installation” for IBM System z).
place it on a hard drive to prepare for installation to use the hard drive as an installation source (refer to Section 4.2, “Preparing for a Hard Drive Installation” for x86 architectures, Section 12.2, “Preparing for a Hard Drive Installation” for POWER or Section 19.2, “Preparing for a Hard Drive Installation” for IBM System z).
place it on a pre-boot execution environment (PXE) server to prepare for installations using PXE boot (refer to Chapter 30, Setting Up an Installation Server).

Chapter 1. Obtaining Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Figure 1.1. Selecting ISO Image Files