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Chapter 2. Preparing for your installation

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Before you begin to install Red Hat Enterprise Linux, review the following sections to prepare your setup for the installation.

2.1. Recommended steps

Preparing for your RHEL installation consists of the following steps:

Steps

  1. Review and determine the installation method.
  2. Check system requirements.
  3. Review the installation boot media options.
  4. Download the required installation ISO image.
  5. Create a bootable installation medium.
  6. Prepare the installation source*.

*Only required for the Boot ISO (minimal install) image if you are not using the Content Delivery Network (CDN) to download the required software packages.

2.2. RHEL installation methods

You can install Red Hat Enterprise Linux using any of the following methods:

  • GUI-based installations
  • System or cloud image-based installations
  • Advanced installations
Note

This document provides details about installing RHEL using the user interfaces (GUI).

GUI-based installations

You can choose from the following GUI-based installation methods:

  • Install RHEL using an ISO image from the Customer Portal: Install Red Hat Enterprise Linux by downloading the DVD ISO image file from the Customer Portal. Registration is performed after the GUI installation completes. This installation method is also supported by Kickstart.
  • Register and install RHEL from the Content Delivery Network: Register your system, attach subscriptions, and install Red Hat Enterprise Linux from the Content Delivery Network (CDN). This installation method supports Boot ISO and DVD ISO image files; however, the Boot ISO image file is recommended as the installation source defaults to CDN for the Boot ISO image file. After registering the system, the installer downloads and installs packages from the CDN. This installation method is also supported by Kickstart.

    Important

    You can customize the RHEL installation for your specific requirements using the GUI. You can select additional options for specific environment requirements, for example, Connect to Red Hat, software selection, partitioning, security, and many more. For more information, see Customizing your installation.

System or cloud image-based installations

You can use system or cloud image-based installation methods only in virtual and cloud environments.

To perform a system or cloud image-based installation, use Red Hat Image Builder. Image Builder creates customized system images of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, including the system images for cloud deployment.

For more information about installing RHEL using image builder, see Composing a customized RHEL system image.

Advanced installations

You can choose from the following advanced installation methods:

  • Perform an automated RHEL installation using Kickstart: Kickstart is an automated process that helps you install the operating system by specifying all your requirements and configurations in a file. Kickstart file contains RHEL installation options, for example, the time zone, drive partitions, or packages to be installed. Providing a prepared Kickstart file completes installation without the need for any user intervention. This is useful when deploying Red Hat Enterprise Linux on a large number of systems at once.
  • Perform a remote RHEL installation using VNC: The RHEL installation program offers two Virtual Network Computing (VNC) installation modes: Direct and Connect. After a connection is established, the two modes do not differ. The mode you select depends on your environment.
  • Install RHEL from the network using PXE : With a network installation using preboot execution environment (PXE), you can install Red Hat Enterprise Linux to a system that has access to an installation server. At a minimum, two systems are required for a network installation.

Additional resources

2.3. System requirements

If this is a first-time install of Red Hat Enterprise Linux it is recommended that you review the guidelines provided for system, hardware, security, memory, and RAID before installing. See System requirements reference for more information.

If you want to use your system as a virtualization host, review the necessary hardware requirements for virtualization.

2.4. Installation boot media options

There are several options available to boot the Red Hat Enterprise Linux installation program.

Full installation DVD or USB flash drive
Create a full installation DVD or USB flash drive using the DVD ISO image. The DVD or USB flash drive can be used as a boot device and as an installation source for installing software packages.
Minimal installation DVD, CD, or USB flash drive
Create a minimal installation CD, DVD, or USB flash drive using the Boot ISO image, which contains only the minimum files necessary to boot the system and start the installation program.
Important

If you are not using the Content Delivery Network (CDN) to download the required software packages, the Boot ISO image requires an installation source that contains the required software packages.

PXE Server
A preboot execution environment (PXE) server allows the installation program to boot over the network. After a system boot, you must complete the installation from a different installation source, such as a local hard drive or a network location.
Image builder
With image builder, you can create customized system and cloud images to install Red Hat Enterprise Linux in virtual and cloud environments.

2.5. Types of installation ISO images

Two types of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 installation ISO images are available from the Red Hat Customer Portal.

DVD ISO image file

It is a full installation program that contains the BaseOS and AppStream repositories. With a DVD ISO file, you can complete the installation without access to additional repositories.

Important

You can use a Binary DVD for 64-bit IBM Z to boot the installation program using a SCSI DVD drive, or as an installation source.

Boot ISO image file

The Boot ISO image is a minimal installation that can be used to install RHEL in two different ways:

  1. When registering and installing RHEL from the Content Delivery Network (CDN).
  2. As a minimal image that requires access to the BaseOS and AppStream repositories to install software packages. The repositories are part of the DVD ISO image that is available for download from the Red Hat Customer Portal. Download and unpack the DVD ISO image to access the repositories.

The following table contains information about the images that are available for the supported architectures.

Table 2.1. Boot and installation images
ArchitectureInstallation DVDBoot DVD

AMD64 and Intel 64

x86_64 DVD ISO image file

x86_64 Boot ISO image file

ARM 64

AArch64 DVD ISO image file

AArch64 Boot ISO image file

IBM POWER

ppc64le DVD ISO image file

ppc64le Boot ISO image file

64-bit IBM Z

s390x DVD ISO image file

s390x Boot ISO image file

2.6. Downloading a RHEL installation ISO image

You can download Red Hat Enterprise Linux by visiting the Red Hat customer portal or you can choose to download it using the curl command.

2.6.1. Types of installation ISO images

Two types of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 installation ISO images are available from the Red Hat Customer Portal.

DVD ISO image file

It is a full installation program that contains the BaseOS and AppStream repositories. With a DVD ISO file, you can complete the installation without access to additional repositories.

Important

You can use a Binary DVD for 64-bit IBM Z to boot the installation program using a SCSI DVD drive, or as an installation source.

Boot ISO image file

The Boot ISO image is a minimal installation that can be used to install RHEL in two different ways:

  1. When registering and installing RHEL from the Content Delivery Network (CDN).
  2. As a minimal image that requires access to the BaseOS and AppStream repositories to install software packages. The repositories are part of the DVD ISO image that is available for download from the Red Hat Customer Portal. Download and unpack the DVD ISO image to access the repositories.

The following table contains information about the images that are available for the supported architectures.

Table 2.2. Boot and installation images
ArchitectureInstallation DVDBoot DVD

AMD64 and Intel 64

x86_64 DVD ISO image file

x86_64 Boot ISO image file

ARM 64

AArch64 DVD ISO image file

AArch64 Boot ISO image file

IBM POWER

ppc64le DVD ISO image file

ppc64le Boot ISO image file

64-bit IBM Z

s390x DVD ISO image file

s390x Boot ISO image file

2.6.2. Downloading an ISO image from the Customer Portal

The Boot ISO image is a minimal image file that supports registering your system, attaching subscriptions, and installing RHEL from the Content Delivery Network (CDN). The DVD ISO image file contains all repositories and software packages and does not require any additional configuration.

Prerequisites

  • You have an active Red Hat subscription.
  • You are logged in to the Product Downloads section of the Red Hat Customer Portal at Product Downloads.

Procedure

  1. Open the browser and access https://access.redhat.com/downloads/content/rhel.

    This page lists popular downloads for Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

  2. Click Download Now beside the ISO image that you require.
  3. If the desired version of RHEL is not listed, click All Red Hat Enterprise Linux Downloads.

    1. From the Product Variant drop-down menu, select the variant and architecture that you require.

      • Optional: Select the Packages tab to view the packages contained in the selected variant. For information about the packages available in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, see the Package Manifest document.
    2. From the Version drop-down menu, select the RHEL version you want to download. By default, the latest version for the selected variant and architecture is selected.

      The Product Software tab displays the image files, which include:

      • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Binary DVD image.
      • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Boot ISO image.

      Additional images may be available, for example, preconfigured virtual machine images.

    3. Click Download Now beside the ISO image that you require.

2.6.3. Downloading an ISO image using curl

With the curl tool, you can fetch the required file from the web using the command line to save locally or pipe it into another program as required. This section explains how to download installation images using the curl command.

Prerequisites

  • The curl and jq packages are installed.

    If your Linux distribution does not use yum or apt, or if you do not use Linux, download the most appropriate software package from the curl website.

  • You have an offline token generated from Red Hat API Tokens.
  • You have a checksum of the file you want to download from Product Downloads.

Procedure

  1. Create a bash file with the following content:

    #!/bin/bash
    # set the offline token and checksum parameters
    offline_token="<offline_token>"
    checksum=<checksum>
    
    # get an access token
    access_token=$(curl https://sso.redhat.com/auth/realms/redhat-external/protocol/openid-connect/token -d grant_type=refresh_token -d client_id=rhsm-api -d refresh_token=$offline_token | jq -r '.access_token')
    
    # get the filename and download url
    image=$(curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $access_token" "https://api.access.redhat.com/management/v1/images/$checksum/download")
    filename=$(echo $image | jq -r .body.filename)
    url=$(echo $image | jq -r .body.href)
    
    # download the file
    curl $url -o $filename

    In the text above, replace <offline_token> with the token collected from the Red Hat API portal and <checksum> with the checksum value taken from the Product Downloads page.

  2. Make this file executable.

    $ chmod u+x FILEPATH/FILENAME.sh
  3. Open a terminal window and execute the bash file.

    $ ./FILEPATH/FILENAME.sh
Warning

Use password management that is consistent with networking best practices.

  • Do not store passwords or credentials in a plain text.
  • Keep the token safe against unauthorized use.

Additional resources

2.7. Creating a bootable installation medium for RHEL

This section contains information about using the ISO image file that you have downloaded to create a bootable physical installation medium, such as a USB, DVD, or CD. For more information about downloading the ISO images, see Downloading the installation ISO image

Note

By default, the inst.stage2= boot option is used on the installation medium and is set to a specific label, for example, inst.stage2=hd:LABEL=RHEL8\x86_64. If you modify the default label of the file system containing the runtime image, or if you use a customized procedure to boot the installation system, verify that the label is set to the correct value.

2.7.1. Installation boot media options

There are several options available to boot the Red Hat Enterprise Linux installation program.

Full installation DVD or USB flash drive
Create a full installation DVD or USB flash drive using the DVD ISO image. The DVD or USB flash drive can be used as a boot device and as an installation source for installing software packages.
Minimal installation DVD, CD, or USB flash drive
Create a minimal installation CD, DVD, or USB flash drive using the Boot ISO image, which contains only the minimum files necessary to boot the system and start the installation program.
Important

If you are not using the Content Delivery Network (CDN) to download the required software packages, the Boot ISO image requires an installation source that contains the required software packages.

PXE Server
A preboot execution environment (PXE) server allows the installation program to boot over the network. After a system boot, you must complete the installation from a different installation source, such as a local hard drive or a network location.
Image builder
With image builder, you can create customized system and cloud images to install Red Hat Enterprise Linux in virtual and cloud environments.

2.7.2. Creating a bootable DVD or CD

You can create a bootable installation DVD or CD using burning software and a CD/DVD burner. The exact steps to produce a DVD or CD from an ISO image file vary greatly, depending on the operating system and disc burning software installed. Consult your system’s burning software documentation for the exact steps to burn a CD or DVD from an ISO image file.

Warning

You can create a bootable DVD or CD using either the DVD ISO image (full install) or the Boot ISO image (minimal install). However, the DVD ISO image is larger than 4.7 GB, and as a result, it might not fit on a single or dual-layer DVD. Check the size of the DVD ISO image file before you proceed. A USB flash drive is recommended when using the DVD ISO image to create bootable installation media.

2.7.3. Creating a bootable USB device on Linux

You can create a bootable USB device which you can then use to install Red Hat Enterprise Linux on other machines.

Important

Following this procedure overwrites any data previously stored on the USB drive without any warning. Back up any data or use an empty flash drive. A bootable USB drive cannot be used for storing data.

Prerequisites

  • You have downloaded an installation ISO image as described in Downloading the installation ISO image.
  • You have a USB flash drive with enough capacity for the ISO image. The required size varies, but the recommended USB size is 8 GB.

Procedure

  1. Connect the USB flash drive to the system.
  2. Open a terminal window and display a log of recent events.

    $ dmesg|tail

    Messages resulting from the attached USB flash drive are displayed at the bottom of the log. Record the name of the connected device.

  3. Log in as a root user:

    $ su -

    Enter your root password when prompted.

  4. Find the device node assigned to the drive. In this example, the drive name is sdd.

    # dmesg|tail
    [288954.686557] usb 2-1.8: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=1, SerialNumber=2
    [288954.686559] usb 2-1.8: Product: USB Storage
    [288954.686562] usb 2-1.8: SerialNumber: 000000009225
    [288954.712590] usb-storage 2-1.8:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
    [288954.712687] scsi host6: usb-storage 2-1.8:1.0
    [288954.712809] usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
    [288954.716682] usbcore: registered new interface driver uas
    [288955.717140] scsi 6:0:0:0: Direct-Access     Generic  STORAGE DEVICE   9228 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0
    [288955.717745] sd 6:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg4 type 0
    [288961.876382] sd 6:0:0:0: sdd Attached SCSI removable disk
  5. Write the ISO image directly to the USB device:

    # dd if=/image_directory/image.iso of=/dev/device
    • Replace /image_directory/image.iso with the full path to the ISO image file that you downloaded,
    • Replace device with the device name that you retrieved with the dmesg command.

      In this example, the full path to the ISO image is /home/testuser/Downloads/rhel-8-x86_64-boot.iso, and the device name is sdd:

      # dd if=/home/testuser/Downloads/rhel-8-x86_64-boot.iso of=/dev/sdd
      Note

      Ensure that you use the correct device name, and not the name of a partition on the device. Partition names are usually device names with a numerical suffix. For example, sdd is a device name, and sdd1 is the name of a partition on the device sdd.

  6. Wait for the dd command to finish writing the image to the device. The data transfer is complete when the # prompt appears. When the prompt is displayed, log out of the root account and unplug the USB drive. The USB drive is now ready to be used as a boot device.

2.7.4. Creating a bootable USB device on Windows

You can create a bootable USB device on a Windows system with various tools. Red Hat recommends using Fedora Media Writer, available for download at https://github.com/FedoraQt/MediaWriter/releases. Note that Fedora Media Writer is a community product and is not supported by Red Hat. You can report any issues with the tool at https://github.com/FedoraQt/MediaWriter/issues.

Important

Following this procedure overwrites any data previously stored on the USB drive without any warning. Back up any data or use an empty flash drive. A bootable USB drive cannot be used for storing data.

Prerequisites

  • You have downloaded an installation ISO image as described in Downloading the installation ISO image.
  • You have a USB flash drive with enough capacity for the ISO image. The required size varies, but the recommended USB size is 8 GB.

Procedure

  1. Download and install Fedora Media Writer from https://github.com/FedoraQt/MediaWriter/releases.
  2. Connect the USB flash drive to the system.
  3. Open Fedora Media Writer.
  4. From the main window, click Custom Image and select the previously downloaded Red Hat Enterprise Linux ISO image.
  5. From the Write Custom Image window, select the drive that you want to use.
  6. Click Write to disk. The boot media creation process starts. Do not unplug the drive until the operation completes. The operation may take several minutes, depending on the size of the ISO image, and the write speed of the USB drive.
  7. When the operation completes, unmount the USB drive. The USB drive is now ready to be used as a boot device.

2.7.5. Creating a bootable USB device on Mac OS X

You can create a bootable USB device which you can then use to install Red Hat Enterprise Linux on other machines.

Important

Following this procedure overwrites any data previously stored on the USB drive without any warning. Back up any data or use an empty flash drive. A bootable USB drive cannot be used for storing data.

Prerequisites

  • You have downloaded an installation ISO image as described in Downloading the installation ISO image.
  • You have a USB flash drive with enough capacity for the ISO image. The required size varies, but the recommended USB size is 8 GB.

Procedure

  1. Connect the USB flash drive to the system.
  2. Identify the device path with the diskutil list command. The device path has the format of /dev/disknumber, where number is the number of the disk. The disks are numbered starting at zero (0). Typically, disk0 is the OS X recovery disk, and disk1 is the main OS X installation. In the following example, the USB device is disk2:

    $ diskutil list
    /dev/disk0
    #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
    0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *500.3 GB   disk0
    1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
    2:          Apple_CoreStorage                         400.0 GB   disk0s2
    3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
    4:          Apple_CoreStorage                         98.8 GB    disk0s4
    5:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s5
    /dev/disk1
    #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
    0:                  Apple_HFS YosemiteHD             *399.6 GB   disk1
    Logical Volume on disk0s1
    8A142795-8036-48DF-9FC5-84506DFBB7B2
    Unlocked Encrypted
    /dev/disk2
    #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
    0:     FDisk_partition_scheme                        *8.1 GB     disk2
    1:               Windows_NTFS SanDisk USB             8.1 GB     disk2s1
  3. Identify your USB flash drive by comparing the NAME, TYPE and SIZE columns to your flash drive. For example, the NAME should be the title of the flash drive icon in the Finder tool. You can also compare these values to those in the information panel of the flash drive.
  4. Unmount the flash drive’s filesystem volumes:

    $ diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disknumber
    					Unmount of all volumes on disknumber was successful

    When the command completes, the icon for the flash drive disappears from your desktop. If the icon does not disappear, you may have selected the wrong disk. Attempting to unmount the system disk accidentally returns a failed to unmount error.

  5. Write the ISO image to the flash drive:

    # sudo dd if=/path/to/image.iso of=/dev/rdisknumber
    Note

    Mac OS X provides both a block (/dev/disk*) and character device (/dev/rdisk*) file for each storage device. Writing an image to the /dev/rdisknumber character device is faster than writing to the /dev/disknumber block device.

    For example, to write the /Users/user_name/Downloads/rhel-8-x86_64-boot.iso file to the /dev/rdisk2 device, enter the following command:

    # sudo dd if=/Users/user_name/Downloads/rhel-8-x86_64-boot.iso of=/dev/rdisk2
  6. Wait for the dd command to finish writing the image to the device. The data transfer is complete when the # prompt appears. When the prompt is displayed, log out of the root account and unplug the USB drive. The USB drive is now ready to be used as a boot device.

2.8. Preparing an installation source

The Boot ISO image file does not include any repositories or software packages; it contains only the installation program and the tools required to boot the system and start the installation. This section contains information about creating an installation source for the Boot ISO image using the DVD ISO image that contains the required repositories and software packages.

Important

An installation source is required for the Boot ISO image file only if you decide not to register and install RHEL from the Content Delivery Network (CDN).

2.8.1. Types of installation source

You can use one of the following installation sources for minimal boot images:

  • DVD: Burn the DVD ISO image to a DVD. The DVD will be automatically used as the installation source (software package source).
  • Hard drive or USB drive: Copy the DVD ISO image to the drive and configure the installation program to install the software packages from the drive. If you use a USB drive, verify that it is connected to the system before the installation begins. The installation program cannot detect media after the installation begins.

    • Hard drive limitation: The DVD ISO image on the hard drive must be on a partition with a file system that the installation program can mount. The supported file systems are xfs, ext2, ext3, ext4, and vfat (FAT32).
    Warning

    On Microsoft Windows systems, the default file system used when formatting hard drives is NTFS. The exFAT file system is also available. However, neither of these file systems can be mounted during the installation. If you are creating a hard drive or a USB drive as an installation source on Microsoft Windows, verify that you formatted the drive as FAT32. Note that the FAT32 file system cannot store files larger than 4 GiB.

    In Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, you can enable installation from a directory on a local hard drive. To do so, you need to copy the contents of the DVD ISO image to a directory on a hard drive and then specify the directory as the installation source instead of the ISO image. For example: inst.repo=hd:<device>:<path to the directory>

  • Network location: Copy the DVD ISO image or the installation tree (extracted contents of the DVD ISO image) to a network location and perform the installation over the network using the following protocols:

    • NFS: The DVD ISO image is in a Network File System (NFS) share.
    • HTTPS, HTTP or FTP: The installation tree is on a network location that is accessible over HTTP, HTTPS or FTP.

2.8.2. Specify the installation source

You can specify the installation source using any of the following methods:

2.8.3. Ports for network-based installation

The following table lists the ports that must be open on the server for providing the files for each type of network-based installation.

Table 2.3. Ports for network-based installation
Protocol usedPorts to open

HTTP

80

HTTPS

443

FTP

21

NFS

2049, 111, 20048

TFTP

69

Additional resources

2.8.4. Creating an installation source on an NFS server

Use this installation method to install multiple systems from a single source, without having to connect to physical media.

Prerequisites

  • You have an administrator-level access to a server with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, and this server is on the same network as the system to be installed.
  • You have downloaded a Binary DVD image. For more information, see Downloading the installation ISO image.
  • You have created a bootable CD, DVD, or USB device from the image file. For more information, see Creating installation media.
  • You have verified that your firewall allows the system you are installing to access the remote installation source. For more information, see Ports for network-based installation.

Procedure

  1. Install the nfs-utils package:

    # yum install nfs-utils
  2. Copy the DVD ISO image to a directory on the NFS server.
  3. Open the /etc/exports file using a text editor and add a line with the following syntax:

    /exported_directory/ clients
    • Replace /exported_directory/ with the full path to the directory with the ISO image.
    • Replace clients with one of the following:

      • The host name or IP address of the target system
      • The subnetwork that all target systems can use to access the ISO image
      • To allow any system with network access to the NFS server to use the ISO image, the asterisk sign (*)

      See the exports(5) man page for detailed information about the format of this field.

      For example, a basic configuration that makes the /rhel8-install/ directory available as read-only to all clients is:

      /rhel8-install *
  4. Save the /etc/exports file and exit the text editor.
  5. Start the nfs service:

    # systemctl start nfs-server.service

    If the service was running before you changed the /etc/exports file, reload the NFS server configuration:

    # systemctl reload nfs-server.service

    The ISO image is now accessible over NFS and ready to be used as an installation source.

Note

When configuring the installation source, use nfs: as the protocol, the server host name or IP address, the colon sign (:), and the directory holding the ISO image. For example, if the server host name is myserver.example.com and you have saved the ISO image in /rhel8-install/, specify nfs:myserver.example.com:/rhel8-install/ as the installation source.

2.8.5. Creating an installation source using HTTP or HTTPS

You can create an installation source for a network-based installation using an installation tree, which is a directory containing extracted contents of the DVD ISO image and a valid .treeinfo file. The installation source is accessed over HTTP or HTTPS.

Prerequisites

  • You have an administrator-level access to a server with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, and this server is on the same network as the system to be installed.
  • You have downloaded a Binary DVD image. For more information, see Downloading the installation ISO image.
  • You have created a bootable CD, DVD, or USB device from the image file. For more information, see Creating installation media.
  • You have verified that your firewall allows the system you are installing to access the remote installation source. For more information, see Ports for network-based installation.
  • The httpd package is installed.
  • The mod_ssl package is installed, if you use the https installation source.
Warning

If your Apache web server configuration enables SSL security, prefer to enable the TLSv1.3 protocol. By default, TLSv1.2 is enabled and you may use the TLSv1 (LEGACY) protocol.

Important

If you use an HTTPS server with a self-signed certificate, you must boot the installation program with the noverifyssl option.

Procedure

  1. Copy the DVD ISO image to the HTTP(S) server.
  2. Create a suitable directory for mounting the DVD ISO image, for example:

    # mkdir /mnt/rhel8-install/
  3. Mount the DVD ISO image to the directory:

    # mount -o loop,ro -t iso9660 /image_directory/image.iso /mnt/rhel8-install/

    Replace /image_directory/image.iso with the path to the DVD ISO image.

  4. Copy the files from the mounted image to the HTTP(S) server root.

    # cp -r /mnt/rhel8-install/ /var/www/html/

    This command creates the /var/www/html/rhel8-install/ directory with the content of the image. Note that some other copying methods might skip the .treeinfo file which is required for a valid installation source. Entering the cp command for entire directories as shown in this procedure copies .treeinfo correctly.

  5. Start the httpd service:

    # systemctl start httpd.service

    The installation tree is now accessible and ready to be used as the installation source.

    Note

    When configuring the installation source, use http:// or https:// as the protocol, the server host name or IP address, and the directory that contains the files from the ISO image, relative to the HTTP server root. For example, if you use HTTP, the server host name is myserver.example.com, and you have copied the files from the image to /var/www/html/rhel8-install/, specify http://myserver.example.com/rhel8-install/ as the installation source.

2.8.6. Creating an installation source using FTP

You can create an installation source for a network-based installation using an installation tree, which is a directory containing extracted contents of the DVD ISO image and a valid .treeinfo file. The installation source is accessed over FTP.

Prerequisites

  • You have an administrator-level access to a server with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, and this server is on the same network as the system to be installed.
  • You have downloaded a Binary DVD image. For more information, see Downloading the installation ISO image.
  • You have created a bootable CD, DVD, or USB device from the image file. For more information, see Creating installation media.
  • You have verified that your firewall allows the system you are installing to access the remote installation source. For more information, see Ports for network-based installation.
  • The vsftpd package is installed.

Procedure

  1. Open and edit the /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf configuration file in a text editor.

    1. Change the line anonymous_enable=NO to anonymous_enable=YES
    2. Change the line write_enable=YES to write_enable=NO.
    3. Add lines pasv_min_port=<min_port> and pasv_max_port=<max_port>. Replace <min_port> and <max_port> with the port number range used by FTP server in passive mode, for example, 10021 and 10031.

      This step might be necessary in network environments featuring various firewall/NAT setups.

    4. Optional: Add custom changes to your configuration. For available options, see the vsftpd.conf(5) man page. This procedure assumes that default options are used.

      Warning

      If you configured SSL/TLS security in your vsftpd.conf file, ensure that you enable only the TLSv1 protocol, and disable SSLv2 and SSLv3. This is due to the POODLE SSL vulnerability (CVE-2014-3566). See https://access.redhat.com/solutions/1234773 for details.

  2. Configure the server firewall.

    1. Enable the firewall:

      # systemctl enable firewalld
    2. Start the firewall:

      # systemctl start firewalld
    3. Configure the firewall to allow the FTP port and port range from the previous step:

      # firewall-cmd --add-port min_port-max_port/tcp --permanent
      # firewall-cmd --add-service ftp --permanent

      Replace <min_port> and <max_port> with the port numbers you entered into the /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf configuration file.

    4. Reload the firewall to apply the new rules:

      # firewall-cmd --reload
  3. Copy the DVD ISO image to the FTP server.
  4. Create a suitable directory for mounting the DVD ISO image, for example:

    # mkdir /mnt/rhel8-install
  5. Mount the DVD ISO image to the directory:

    # mount -o loop,ro -t iso9660 /image-directory/image.iso /mnt/rhel8-install

    Replace /image-directory/image.iso with the path to the DVD ISO image.

  6. Copy the files from the mounted image to the FTP server root:

    # mkdir /var/ftp/rhel8-install
    # cp -r /mnt/rhel8-install/ /var/ftp/

    This command creates the /var/ftp/rhel8-install/ directory with the content of the image. Note that some copying methods can skip the .treeinfo file which is required for a valid installation source. Entering the cp command for whole directories as shown in this procedure will copy .treeinfo correctly.

  7. Make sure that the correct SELinux context and access mode is set on the copied content:

    # restorecon -r /var/ftp/rhel8-install
    # find /var/ftp/rhel8-install -type f -exec chmod 444 {} \;
    # find /var/ftp/rhel8-install -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;
  8. Start the vsftpd service:

    # systemctl start vsftpd.service

    If the service was running before you changed the /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf file, restart the service to load the edited file:

    # systemctl restart vsftpd.service

    Enable the vsftpd service to start during the boot process:

    # systemctl enable vsftpd

    The installation tree is now accessible and ready to be used as the installation source.

    Note

    When configuring the installation source, use ftp:// as the protocol, the server host name or IP address, and the directory in which you have stored the files from the ISO image, relative to the FTP server root. For example, if the server host name is myserver.example.com and you have copied the files from the image to /var/ftp/rhel8-install/, specify ftp://myserver.example.com/rhel8-install/ as the installation source.

2.8.7. Preparing a hard drive as an installation source

This module describes how to install RHEL using a hard drive as an installation source with ext2, ext3, ext4, or XFS file systems. You can use this method for the systems without network access and the optical drive. Hard drive installations use an ISO image of the installation DVD. An ISO image is a file that contains an exact copy of the content of a DVD. With this file present on a hard drive, you can choose Hard drive as the installation source when you boot the installation program.

  • To check the file system of a hard drive partition on a Windows operating system, use the Disk Management tool.
  • To check the file system of a hard drive partition on a Linux operating system, use the parted tool.
Note

You cannot use ISO files on LVM (Logical Volume Management) partitions.

Procedure

  1. Download an ISO image of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux installation DVD. Alternatively, if you have the DVD on physical media, you can create an image of an ISO with the following command on a Linux system:

    dd if=/dev/dvd of=/path_to_image/name_of_image.iso

    where dvd is your DVD drive device name, name_of_image is the name you give to the resulting ISO image file, and path_to_image is the path to the location on your system where you want to store the image.

  2. Copy and paste the ISO image onto the system hard drive or a USB drive.
  3. Use a SHA256 checksum program to verify that the ISO image that you copied is intact. Many SHA256 checksum programs are available for various operating systems. On a Linux system, run:

    $ sha256sum /path_to_image/name_of_image.iso

    where name_of_image is the name of the ISO image file. The SHA256 checksum program displays a string of 64 characters called a hash. Compare this hash to the hash displayed for this particular image on the Downloads page in the Red Hat Customer Portal. The two hashes should be identical.

  4. Specify the HDD installation source on the kernel command line before starting the installation:

    inst.repo=hd:<device>:/path_to_image/name_of_image.iso
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