Installation Guide
Installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 on all architectures
Abstract
Chapter 1. Getting Started
1.1. Graphical Installation
1.2. Remote Installation
Connect Mode
can be used to perform a graphical installation completely remotely. For systems with a display and keyboard, but without the capacity to run the graphical interface, Direct Mode
can instead be used to facilitate setup. For more information, see the Chapter 25, Using VNC.
1.3. Automated Installation
Chapter 2. Downloading Red Hat Enterprise Linux
- Binary DVD
- A full installation image that boots the installation program and performs the entire installation without additional package repositories.
Note
Binary DVDs are also available for IBM Z. They can be used to boot the installation program using a SCSI DVD drive or as installation sources. - Boot.iso
- A minimal boot image that boots the installation program but requires access to additional package repositories. Red Hat does not provide the repository; you must create it using the full installation ISO image.
Note
Procedure 2.1. Downloading Red Hat Enterprise Linux ISO Images
- Visit the Customer Portal at https://access.redhat.com/home. If you are not logged in, click LOG IN on the right side of the page. Enter your account credentials when prompted.
- Click DOWNLOADS at the top of the page.
- Click Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
- Ensure that you select the appropriate Product Variant and Architecture for your installation target. By default,
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server
andx86_64
are selected. If you are not sure which variant best suits your needs, see http://www.redhat.com/en/technologies/linux-platforms/enterprise-linux. Additionally, a list of packages available for every variant is available in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Package Manifest. - A list of available downloads is displayed; most notably, a minimal Boot ISO image and a full installation Binary DVD ISO image. These files are described above. Additional images can be available, such as preconfigured virtual machine images, which are beyond the scope of this document.
- Choose the image file that you want to use. You have two ways to download it from the Customer Portal:
- Click its name to begin downloading it to your computer using your web browser.
- Right-click the name and then click curl can, however, be used to resume interrupted download attempts from the Customer Portal, which means that you need not download the whole file again and thus you save your time and bandwidth consumption.or a similar menu item, the exact wording of which depends on the browser that you are using. This action copies the URL of the file to your clipboard, which allows you to use an alternative application to download the file to your computer. This approach is especially useful if your Internet connection is unstable: in that case, you browser might fail to download the whole file, and an attempt to resume the interrupted download process fails because the download link contains an authentication key which is only valid for a short time. Specialized applications such as
Procedure 2.2. Using curl to Download Installation Media
- Make sure the curl package is installed by running the following command as root:
#
yum install curl
If your Linux distribution does not use yum, or if you do not use Linux at all, download the most appropriate software package from the curl web site. - Open a terminal window, enter a suitable directory, and type the following command:
$
curl -o filename.iso 'copied_link_location'
Replace filename.iso with the ISO image name as displayed in the Customer Portal, such asrhel-server-7.0-x86_64-dvd.iso
. This is important because the download link in the Customer Portal contains extra characters which curl would otherwise use in the downloaded file name, too. Then, keep the single quotation mark in front of the next parameter, and replace copied_link_location with the link that you have copied from the Customer Portal; copy it again if you copied the commands above in the meantime. Note that in Linux, you can paste the content of the clipboard into the terminal window by middle-clicking anywhere in the window, or by pressing Shift+Insert. Finally, use another single quotation mark after the last parameter, and press Enter to run the command and start transferring the ISO image. The single quotation marks prevent the command line interpreter from misinterpreting any special characters that might be included in the download link.Example 2.1. Downloading an ISO image with curl
The following is an example of a curl command line:$
curl -o rhel-server-7.0-x86_64-dvd.iso 'https://access.cdn.redhat.com//content/origin/files/sha256/85/85a...46c/rhel-server-7.0-x86_64-dvd.iso?_auth_=141...7bf'
Note that the actual download link is much longer because it contains complicated identifiers. - If your Internet connection does drop before the transfer is complete, refresh the download page in the Customer Portal; log in again if necessary. Copy the new download link, use the same basic
curl
command line parameters as earlier but be sure to use the new download link, and add-C -
to instruct curl to automatically determine where it should continue based on the size of the already downloaded file.Example 2.2. Resuming an interrupted download attempt
The following is an example of a curl command line that you use if you have only partially downloaded the ISO image of your choice:$
curl -o rhel-server-7.0-x86_64-dvd.iso 'https://access.cdn.redhat.com//content/origin/files/sha256/85/85a...46c/rhel-server-7.0-x86_64-dvd.iso?_auth_=141...963' -C -
- Optionally, you can use a checksum utility such as sha256sum to verify the integrity of the image file after the download finishes. All downloads on the Download Red Hat Enterprise Linux page are provided with their checksums for reference:
$
sha256sum rhel-server-7.0-x86_64-dvd.iso
85a...46c rhel-server-7.0-x86_64-dvd.iso
Similar tools are available for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. You can also use the installation program to verify the media when starting the installation; see Section 23.2.2, “Verifying Boot Media” for details.
- Burn it to a CD or DVD as described in Section 3.1, “Making an Installation CD or DVD”.
- Use it to create a bootable USB drive; see Section 3.2, “Making Installation USB Media”.
- Place it on a server to prepare for a network installation. For specific directions, see Section 3.3.3, “Installation Source on a Network”.
- Place it on a hard drive to use the drive as an installation source. For specific instructions, see Section 3.3.2, “Installation Source on a Hard Drive”.
- Use it to prepare a Preboot Execution Environment (PXE) server, which allows you to boot the installation system over a network. See Chapter 24, Preparing for a Network Installation for instructions.
Chapter 3. Making Media
Note
inst.stage2=
boot option is used on the installation media and set to a specific label (for example, inst.stage2=hd:LABEL=RHEL7\x20Server.x86_64
). If you modify the default label of the file system containing the runtime image, or if using a customized procedure to boot the installation system, you must ensure this option is set to the correct value. See Specifying the Installation Source for details.
3.1. Making an Installation CD or DVD
Note
3.2. Making Installation USB Media
3.2.1. Making Installation USB Media on Linux
Warning
Procedure 3.1. Making USB Media on Linux
- Connect a USB flash drive to the system and execute the
dmesg
command. A log detailing all recent events will be displayed. At the bottom of this log, you will see a set of messages caused by the USB flash drive you just connected. It will look like a set of lines similar to the following:[ 170.171135] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk
Note the name of the connected device - in the above example, it issdb
. - Log in as
root
:$
su -
Provide your root password when prompted. - Make sure that the device is not mounted. First, use the
findmnt device
command and the device name you found in the earlier steps. For example, if the device name issdb
, use the following command:#
findmnt /dev/sdb
If the command displays no output, you can proceed with the next step. However, if the command does provide output, it means that the device was automatically mounted and you must unmount it before proceeding. A sample output will look similar to the following:#
findmnt /dev/sdb
TARGET SOURCE FSTYPE OPTIONS /mnt/iso /dev/sdb iso9660 ro,relatimeNote theTARGET
column. Next, use theumount target
command to unmount the device:#
umount /mnt/iso
- Use the
dd
command to write the installation ISO image directly to the USB device:#
dd if=/image_directory/image.iso of=/dev/device bs=blocksize
Replace /image_directory/image.iso with the full path to the ISO image file you downloaded, device with the device name as reported by thedmesg
command earlier, and blocksize with a reasonable block size (for example,512k
) to speed up the writing process. Thebs
parameter is optional, but it can speed up the process considerably.Important
Make sure to specify the output as the device name (for example,/dev/sda
), not as a name of a partition on the device (for example,/dev/sda1
).For example, if the ISO image is located in/home/testuser/Downloads/rhel-server-7-x86_64-boot.iso
and the detected device name issdb
, the command will look like the following:#
dd if=/home/testuser/Downloads/rhel-server-7-x86_64-boot.iso of=/dev/sdb bs=512k
- Wait for
dd
to finish writing the image to the device. Note that no progress bar is displayed; the data transfer is finished when the#
prompt appears again. After the prompt is displayed, log out from theroot
account and unplug the USB drive.
Note
inst.stage2=
boot option is specified. Refer to Section 23.1, “Configuring the Installation System at the Boot Menu” for information about the inst.stage2=
boot option.
3.2.2. Making Installation USB Media on Windows
Note
Important
Procedure 3.2. Making USB Media on Windows
- Download and install Fedora Media Writer.
- Download the Red Hat Enterprise Linux ISO image you want to use to create the media. (See Chapter 2, Downloading Red Hat Enterprise Linux for instructions on obtaining ISO images.)
- Plug in the USB drive you will be using to create bootable media.
- Open Fedora Media Writer.
- In the main window, click Custom Image and select the downloaded Red Hat Enterprise Linux ISO image.
- From the drop-down menu, select the drive you want to use. If the drive does not appear, verify that the USB drive is connected and restart Fedora Media Writer.
- Click Write to disk. The boot media creation process will begin. Do not unplug the drive until the operation completes. Depending on the size of the ISO image and the write speed of the USB drive, writing the image can take several minutes.
Figure 3.1. Fedora Media Writer
- When the creation process finishes and the
Complete!
message appears, unmount the USB drive using the Safely remove hardware icon in the system's notification area.
3.2.3. Making Installation USB Media on Mac OS X
dd
command line tool to write the installation image to a USB flash drive. Note that some steps involve use of the sudo
command, which is only available when logged in with an administrator account that requires a password.
Warning
Procedure 3.3. Making USB Media on Mac OS X
- Connect a USB flash drive to the system and 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). Disk 0 is likely to be the OS X recovery disk, and Disk 1 is likely to be your main OS X installation. In the following example, it isdisk2
:$
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 *8.0 GB disk2 1: Windows_NTFS SanDisk USB 8.0 GB disk2s1To identify your USB flash drive, compare theNAME
,TYPE
andSIZE
columns to what you know about your flash drive. For example, theNAME
should be the same as the title of the flash drive icon in the Finder. You can also compare these values to those in the flash drive's information panel; right-click on the drive icon and select Get Info. - Use the
diskutil unmountDisk
command to unmount the flash drive's filesystem volumes:$
diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disknumber
Unmount of all volumes on disknumber was successfulWhen you do this, the icon for the flash drive disappears from your desktop. If it does not, you might have identified the wrong disk. If you attempt to unmount the system disk accidentally, you get afailed to unmount
error. - Use the
dd
command as a parameter of thesudo
command to write the ISO image to the flash drive:$
sudo dd if=/path/to/image.iso of=/dev/rdisknumber bs=1m>
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 to the/dev/disknumber
block device.Example 3.1. Writing an ISO Image to a Disk
To write the/Users/user_name/Downloads/rhel-server-7-x86_64-boot.iso
file to the/dev/rdisk2
device:$
sudo dd if=/Users/user_name/Downloads/rhel-server-7-x86_64-boot.iso of=/dev/rdisk2
- Wait for the command to finish. Note that no progress bar is displayed; however, to check the status of the operation while it is still running, press Ctrl+t in the terminal:
load: 1.02 cmd: dd 3668 uninterruptible 0.00u 1.91s 112+0 records in 111+0 records out 116391936 bytes transferred in 114.834860 secs (1013559 bytes/sec)
- The speed of the data transfer depends on the speed of your USB ports and the flash drive. After the prompt is displayed again, the data transfer is finished. You can then unplug the flash drive.
3.3. Preparing Installation Sources
DVD
: You can burn the binary DVD ISO image onto a DVD and configure the installation program to install packages from this disk.Hard drive
: You can place the binary DVD ISO image on a hard drive and install packages from it.Network location
: You can copy the binary DVD ISO image or the installation tree (extracted contents of the binary DVD ISO image) to a network location accessible from the installation system and perform the installation over the network using the following protocols:NFS
: The binary DVD ISO image is placed into a Network File System (NFS) share.HTTPS
,HTTP
orFTP
: The installation tree is placed on a network location accessible overHTTP
,HTTPS
, orFTP
.
- In the installation program's graphical interface: After the graphical installation begins and you select your preferred language, the Installation Summary screen will appear. Navigate to the Installation Source screen and select the source you want to configure. For details, see:
- Section 8.11, “Installation Source” for 64-bit AMD, Intel, and ARM systems
- Section 13.12, “Installation Source” for IBM Power Systems servers
- Section 18.12, “Installation Source” for IBM Z
- Using a boot option: You can specify custom boot options to configure the installation program before it starts. One of these options allows you to specify the installation source to be used. See the
inst.repo=
option in Section 23.1, “Configuring the Installation System at the Boot Menu” for details. - Using a Kickstart file: You can use the
install
command in a Kickstart file and specify an installation source. See Section 27.3.1, “Kickstart Commands and Options” for details on theinstall
Kickstart command, and Chapter 27, Kickstart Installations for information about Kickstart installations in general.
3.3.1. Installation Source on a DVD
3.3.2. Installation Source on a Hard Drive
xfs
, ext2
, ext3
, ext4
, and vfat
(FAT32
). Note that on Microsoft Windows systems, the default file system used when formatting hard drives is NTFS
, and 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 to be used as an installation source on Microsoft Windows, make sure to format the drive as FAT32
.
Important
FAT32
file system does not support files larger than 4 GiB. Some Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 installation media can be larger than that, which means you cannot copy them to a drive with this file system.
3.3.3. Installation Source on a Network
3.3.3.1. Installation Source on an NFS Server
NFS
installation method uses an ISO image of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux binary DVD placed in a Network File System
server's exported directory, which the installation system must be able to read. To perform an NFS-based installation, you will need another running system which will act as the NFS host.
Procedure 3.4. Preparing for Installation Using NFS
- Install the nfs-utils package by running the following command as
root
:#
yum install nfs-utils
- Copy the full Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 binary DVD ISO image to a suitable directory on the NFS server. For example, you can create directory
/rhel7-install/
for this purpose and save the ISO image here. - 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 holding the ISO image. Instead of clients, use the host name or IP address of the computer which is to be installed from this NFS server, the subnetwork from which all computers are to have access the ISO image, or the asterisk sign (*
) if you want to allow any computer with network access to the NFS server to use the ISO image. See theexports(5)
man page for detailed information about the format of this field.The following is a basic configuration which makes the/rhel7-install/
directory available as read-only to all clients:/rhel7-install *
- Save the
/etc/exports
file after finishing the configuration and exit the text editor. - Start the
nfs
service:#
systemctl start nfs.service
If the service was already running before you changed the/etc/exports
file, enter the following command instead, in order for the running NFS server to reload its configuration:#
systemctl reload nfs.service
NFS
and ready to be used as an installation source.
nfs:
as the protocol, the server's host name or IP address, the colon sign (:
), and the directory holding the ISO image. For example, if the server's host name is myserver.example.com
and you have saved the ISO image in /rhel7-install/
, specify nfs:myserver.example.com:/rhel7-install/
as the installation source.
3.3.3.2. Installation Source on an HTTP, HTTPS or FTP Server
.treeinfo
file. The installation source is accessed over HTTP
, HTTPS
, or FTP
.
Procedure 3.5. Preparing Installation Using HTTP or HTTPS
- Install the httpd package by running the following command as
root
:#
yum install httpd
AnHTTPS
server needs additional configuration. For detailed information, see section Setting Up an SSL Server in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 System Administrator's Guide. However,HTTPS
is not necessary in most cases, because no sensitive data is sent between the installation source and the installer, andHTTP
is sufficient.Warning
If your Apache web server configuration enables SSL security, make sure to only enable theTLSv1
protocol, and disableSSLv2
andSSLv3
. This is due to the POODLE SSL vulnerability (CVE-2014-3566). See https://access.redhat.com/solutions/1232413 for details.Important
If you decide to useHTTPS
and the server is using a self-signed certificate, you must boot the installer with thenoverifyssl
option. - Copy the full Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 binary DVD ISO image to the HTTP(S) server.
- Mount the binary DVD ISO image, using the
mount
command, to a suitable directory:#
mount -o loop,ro -t iso9660 /image_directory/image.iso /mount_point/
Replace /image_directory/image.iso with the path to the binary DVD ISO image, and /mount_point/ with the path to the directory in which you want the content of the ISO image to appear. For example, you can create directory/mnt/rhel7-install/
for this purpose and use that as the parameter of themount
command. - Copy the files from the mounted image to the HTTP server root.
#
cp -r /mnt/rhel7-install/ /var/www/html/
This command creates the/var/www/html/rhel7-install/
directory with the content of the image. - Start the
httpd
service:#
systemctl start httpd.service
http://
or https://
as the protocol, the server's host name or IP address, and the directory in which you have stored the files from the ISO image, relative to the HTTP server root. For example, if you are using HTTP
, the server's host name is myserver.example.com
, and you have copied the files from the image to /var/www/html/rhel7-install/
, specify http://myserver.example.com/rhel7-install/
as the installation source.
Procedure 3.6. Preparing for Installation Using FTP
- Install the vsftpd package by running the following command as
root
:#
yum install vsftpd
- Optionally, open the
/etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf
configuration file in a text editor, and edit any options you want to change. For available options, see thevsftpd.conf(5)
man page. The rest of this procedure assumes that default options are used; notably, to follow the rest of the procedure, anonymous users of the FTP server must be permitted to download files.Warning
If you configured SSL/TLS security in yourvsftpd.conf
file, make sure to only enable theTLSv1
protocol, and disableSSLv2
andSSLv3
. This is due to the POODLE SSL vulnerability (CVE-2014-3566). See https://access.redhat.com/solutions/1234773 for details. - Copy the full Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 binary DVD ISO image to the FTP server.
- Mount the binary DVD ISO image, using the
mount
command, to a suitable directory:#
mount -o loop,ro -t iso9660 /image_directory/image.iso /mount_point
Replace /image_directory/image.iso with the path to the binary DVD ISO image, and /mount_point with the path to the directory in which you want the content of the ISO image to appear. For example, you can create directory/mnt/rhel7-install/
for this purpose and use that as the parameter of themount
command. - Copy the files from the mounted image to the FTP server root:
#
cp -r /mnt/rhel7-install/ /var/ftp/
This command creates the/var/ftp/rhel7-install/
directory with the content of the image. - Start the
vsftpd
service:#
systemctl start vsftpd.service
If the service was already running before you changed the/etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf
file, restart it to ensure the edited file is loaded. To restart, execute the following command:#
systemctl restart vsftpd.service
ftp://
as the protocol, the server's 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's host name is myserver.example.com
and you have copied the files from the image to /var/ftp/rhel7-install/
, specify ftp://myserver.example.com/rhel7-install/
as the installation source.
3.3.3.3. Firewall Considerations for Network-based Installations
Protocol used | Ports to open |
---|---|
FTP | 21 |
HTTP | 80 |
HTTPS | 443 |
NFS | 2049 , 111 , 20048 |
TFTP | 69 |
Part I. AMD64, Intel 64, and ARM 64 - Installation and Booting
Chapter 4. Quick Installation Guide
4.1. Interactive Installation
- Select Install Red Hat Enterprise Linux in the boot menu and press Enter.
- After Anaconda, the Red Hat Enterprise Linux installer, started, select your language and region, and click Continue.
- The Installation Summary is the central screen to set configuration options:You can display and modify the individual options in any order. If a configuration option was automatically configured correctly, no further action is required. However, if items are marked with an exclamation point icon, you must complete the configuration for these items before you can begin the installation.
Note
Nothing will be written to the disk until you click thebutton. - Select Date & Time:
- Set your region and the nearest city in your time zone.
- Click Installation Summary.to return to the
- Select:
- Use theand buttons to add and remove keyboard layouts.
- If you enable multiple keyboard layouts, move your preferred layout to the top of the list using thebutton to set it as default.
- Click Installation Summary.to return to the
- Select Installation Destination:
- Select the target disk. A check mark is displayed next to the selected target.The selected disk is partitioned automatically.
- Click Installation Summary.to return to the
- Select Network and Hostname:
- Click the Ethernet sliding switch in the top right corner to enable the network configuration.
- Optional, select the device and clickto update the network interface configuration.
- Click Installation Summary.to return to the
Note
Anaconda applies the network settings immediately. They are used during the setup and after the installation. - On the Installation Summary screen, click .
- The installation starts and the Configuration screen is displayed:During the installation:
- Select Root Password:
- Enter the password for the
root
user and confirm it. - Click Configuration screen.to return to the
- Select User Creation:
- Enter the user's full name.
- Optionally, update the automatically generated user name.
- Set the password and confirm it.
- Optionally, check the Make this user administrator check box. This will add the user to the
wheel
group and allow this account to usesudo
without any further configuration. - Click Configuration screen.to return to the
- Wait until the installation completes and click.
- After the installed system has been started:
- If you installed the server using the Server with GUI base environment, the Initial Setup application is started automatically:
- Accept the license agreement.
- Register the system.
For details, see Chapter 30, Initial Setup. - If you selected any other base environment during the installation:
- Log into the system as the
root
user. - Register the system and automatically attach a subscription:
# subscription-manager register --auto-attach \ --username=user_name --password=password
4.2. Automatic Installation
Generating the USB Boot Media
- Record an installation in a Kickstart file:
- Manually install Red Hat Enterprise Linux once. For details see Section 4.1, “Interactive Installation”.
- Boot the installed system. During the installation, Anaconda created a Kickstart file with the settings in the
/root/anaconda-ks.cfg
file.
- Download the Red Hat Enterprise Linux installation DVD ISO file to the
/tmp/
directory. - Mount the installation ISO file to the
/mnt/
directory. For example:# mount -o loop /tmp/rhel-server-7.3-x86_64-dvd.iso /mnt/
- Create a working directory and copy the DVD content to it. For example:
# mkdir /root/rhel-install/ # shopt -s dotglob # cp -avRf /mnt/* /root/rhel-install/
- Unmount the ISO file:
# umount /mnt/
- Copy the Kickstart file generated during the installation to the working directory:
# cp /root/anaconda-ks.cfg /root/rhel-install/
- To register Red Hat Enterprise Linux after the installation automatically and attach a subscription, append the following to the
/root/rhel-install/anaconda-ks.cfg
file:%post subscription-manager register --auto-attach --username=user_name --password=password %end
- Display the installation DVD volume name:
# isoinfo -d -i rhel-server-7.3-x86_64-dvd.iso | grep "Volume id" | \ sed -e 's/Volume id: //' -e 's/ /\\x20/g'
RHEL-7.3\x20Server.x86_64
- Add a new menu entry to the boot
/root/rhel-install/isolinux/isolinux.cfg
file that uses the Kickstart file. For example:####################################### label kickstart menu label ^Kickstart Installation of RHEL7.3 kernel vmlinuz append initrd=initrd.img inst.stage2=hd:LABEL=RHEL-7.3\x20Server.x86_64 inst.ks=hd:LABEL=RHEL-7.3\x20Server.x86_64:/anaconda-ks.cfg #######################################
Note
Set theinst.stage2=hd:LABEL=
andinst.ks=hd:LABEL=
options to the DVD volume name retrieved in the previous step. - Before you create the
/root/rhel-ks.iso
file from the working directory, execute the following steps for a USB UEFI boot or for a CDROM UEFI boot:- For a USB UEFI boot, follow the steps:
- Mount the volume:
# mount /root/rhel-install/images/efiboot.img /mnt/
- Edit the file
/mnt/EFI/BOOT/grub.cfg
: - Add a new menu entry:
####################################### 'Kickstart Installation of RHEL-7.3' --class fedora --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os { linuxefi /images/pxeboot/vmlinuz inst.stage2=hd:LABEL=RHEL-7.3\x20Server.x86_64 inst.ks=hd:LABEL=RHEL-7.3\x20Server.x86_64:/anaconda-ks.cfg initrdefi /images/pxeboot/initrd.img } #######################################
- Unmount the volume:
# umount /mnt
- For a CDROM UEFI boot, follow the steps:
- Edit the file
/root/rhel-install/EFI/BOOT/grub.cfg
: - Add a new menu entry to the file:
####################################### 'Kickstart Installation of RHEL-7.3' --class fedora --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os { linuxefi /images/pxeboot/vmlinuz inst.stage2=hd:LABEL=RHEL-7.3\x20Server.x86_64 inst.ks=hd:LABEL=RHEL-7.3\x20Server.x86_64:/anaconda-ks.cfg initrdefi /images/pxeboot/initrd.img } #######################################
- Create the
/root/rhel-ks.iso
file from the working directory:# mkisofs -untranslated-filenames -volid "RHEL-7.3 Server.x86_64" -J -joliet-long -rational-rock -translation-table -input-charset utf-8 -b isolinux/isolinux.bin -c isolinux/boot.cat -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table -eltorito-alt-boot -e images/efiboot.img -no-emul-boot -o /root/rhel-ks.iso -graft-points /root/rhel-install/
Note
Set the-V
option to the DVD volume name retrieved in an earlier step and replace\x20
in the string with a space. - Make the ISO image created by the command `mkisofs` bootable:
# isohybrid --uefi /root/rhel-ks.iso
- Create an installation USB drive. For details, see Section 3.2.1, “Making Installation USB Media on Linux”.
Install Red Hat Enterprise Linux Using the Kickstart File
- Boot the installation USB drive. See Chapter 7, Booting the Installation on 64-bit AMD, Intel, and ARM systems.
- Select the entry with the Kickstart configuration that you created in Section 4.2, “Automatic Installation”.
Chapter 5. Planning for Installation on 64-bit AMD, Intel, and ARM Systems
5.1. Upgrade or Install?
- Clean Install
- A clean install is performed by backing up all data from the system, formatting disk partitions, performing an installation of Red Hat Enterprise Linux from installation media, and then restoring any user data.
Note
This is the recommended method for upgrading between major versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. - In-Place Upgrade
- An in-place upgrade is a way of upgrading your system without removing the older version first. The procedure requires installing the migration utilities available for your system and running them as any other software. In Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the Preupgrade Assistant assesses your current system and identifies potential problems you might encounter during or after the upgrade. It also performs minor fixes and modifications to the system. The Red Hat Upgrade Tool utility downloads the packages and performs the actual upgrade. An in-place upgrade requires a lot of troubleshooting and planning and should only be done if there is no other choice. For more information on the Preupgrade Assistant, see Chapter 29, Upgrading Your Current System.
Warning
Never perform an in-place upgrade on a production system without first testing it on a cloned backup copy of the system.
5.2. Is Your Hardware Compatible?
5.3. Supported Installation Targets
- Storage connected by a standard internal interface, such as SCSI, SATA, or SAS
- BIOS/firmware RAID devices
- NVDIMM devices in sector mode on the Intel64 and AMD64 architectures, supported by the
nd_pmem
driver. - Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapters and multipath devices. Some can require vendor-provided drivers.
- Xen block devices on Intel processors in Xen virtual machines.
- VirtIO block devices on Intel processors in KVM virtual machines.
5.4. System Specifications List
- If you plan to use a customized partition layout, record:
- The model numbers, sizes, types, and interfaces of the hard drives attached to the system. For example, Seagate ST3320613AS 320 GB on SATA0, Western Digital WD7500AAKS 750 GB on SATA1. This will allow you to identify specific hard drives during the partitioning process.
- If you are installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux as an additional operating system on an existing system, record:
- Information about the partitions used on the system. This information can include file system types, device node names, file system labels, and sizes. This will allow you to identify specific partitions during the partitioning process. Remember that different operating systems identify partitions and drives differently, therefore even if the other operating system is a Unix operating system, the device names can be reported by Red Hat Enterprise Linux differently. This information can usually be found by executing the equivalent of the
mount
command andblkid
command and in the/etc/fstab
file.If you have other operating systems already installed, the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 installation program attempts to automatically detect and configure to boot them. You can manually configure any additional operating systems if they are not detected properly. For more information, see Section 8.14.1, “Boot Loader Installation”.
- If you plan to install from an image on a local hard drive:
- The hard drive and directory that holds the image.
- If you plan to install from a network location:
- The make and model numbers of the network adapters on your system. For example, Netgear GA311. This will allow you to identify adapters when manually configuring the network.
- IP, DHCP, and BOOTP addresses
- Netmask
- Gateway IP address
- One or more name server IP addresses (DNS)
- The location of the installation source on an FTP server, HTTP (web) server, HTTPS (web) server, or NFS server.
If any of these networking requirements or terms are unfamiliar to you, contact your network administrator for assistance. - If you plan to install on an iSCSI target:
- The location of the iSCSI target. Depending on your network, you might also need a CHAP user name and password, and perhaps a reverse CHAP user name and password.
- If your computer is part of a domain:
- You should verify that the domain name will be supplied by the DHCP server. If not, you will need to input the domain name manually during installation.
5.5. Disk Space and Memory Requirements
Note
/
and swap
) must be dedicated to Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
Installation type | Minimum required RAM |
---|---|
Local media installation (USB, DVD) | 768 MiB |
NFS network installation | 768 MiB |
HTTP, HTTPS, or FTP network installation | 1.5 GiB |
Note
5.6. RAID and Other Disk Devices
5.6.1. Hardware RAID
5.6.2. Software RAID
Note
5.6.3. USB Disks
5.6.4. NVDIMM devices
- Version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux is 7.6 or later.
- The architecture of the system is Intel 64 or AMD64.
- The device is configured to sector mode. Anaconda can reconfigure NVDIMM devices to this mode.
- The device must be supported by the
nd_pmem
driver.
- The system uses UEFI.
- The device must be supported by firmware available on the system, or by a UEFI driver. The UEFI driver may be loaded from an option ROM of the device itself.
- The device must be made available under a namespace.
/boot
and /boot/efi
directories on the device. See Section 8.14.4, “Manual Partitioning” for more information. Note that the Execute-in-place (XIP) feature of NVDIMM devices is not supported during booting and the kernel is loaded into conventional memory.
5.6.5. Considerations for Intel BIOS RAID Sets
/etc/fstab
, /etc/crypttab
or other configuration files which refer to devices by their device node paths might not work in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7. Therefore, you should replace device node paths (such as /dev/sda
) with file system labels or device UUIDs instead. You can find the file system labels and device UUIDs using the blkid
command.
5.6.6. Considerations for Intel BIOS iSCSI Remote Boot
5.7. Choose an Installation Boot Method
Note
%post
section of a kickstart file.
- Full installation DVD or USB drive
- You can create bootable media from the full installation DVD ISO image. In this case, a single DVD or USB drive can be used to complete the entire installation - it will serve both as a boot device and as an installation source for installing software packages. See Chapter 3, Making Media for instructions on how to make a full installation DVD or USB drive.
- Minimal boot CD, DVD or USB Flash Drive
- A minimal boot CD, DVD or USB flash drive is created using a small ISO image, which only contains data necessary to boot the system and start the installation. If you use this boot media, you will need an additional installation source from which packages will be installed. See Section 3.2, “Making Installation USB Media” for instructions on making boot CDs, DVDs and USB flash drives.
- PXE Server
- A preboot execution environment (PXE) server allows the installation program to boot over the network. After you boot the system, you complete the installation from a different installation source, such as a local hard drive or a location on a network. For more information on PXE servers, see Chapter 24, Preparing for a Network Installation.
5.8. Automating the Installation with Kickstart
5.9. Using a Beta Release with UEFI Secure Boot
Note
Procedure 5.1. Adding a Custom Private Key for UEFI Secure Boot
- First, disable UEFI Secure Boot on the system, and install Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 normally.
- After the installation finishes, the system will reboot. Secure Boot should still be disabled at this point. Reboot the system, log in and, if applicable, go through the Initial Setup screens as described in Chapter 30, Initial Setup.
- After finishing the first boot and going through Initial Setup, install the kernel-doc package if not installed already:
#
yum install kernel-doc
This package provides a certificate file which contains the Red Hat CA public Beta key, located in/usr/share/doc/kernel-keys/kernel-version/kernel-signing-ca.cer
, where kernel-version is the kernel version string without the platform architecture suffix - for example,3.10.0-686.el7
. - Execute the following commands to enroll the public key into the system Machine Owner Key (MOK) list:
#
kr=$(uname -r)
#
mokutil --import /usr/share/doc/kernel-keys/${kr%.$(uname -p)}/kernel-signing-ca.cer
Enter a password of your choosing when prompted.Note
Make sure to remember the password. It is required to finish this procedure as well as to remove the imported key when it is no longer needed. - Reboot the system again. During startup you will be prompted to confirm that you want to complete the pending key enrollment request. Select yes, and provide the password which you set earlier using the
mokutil
command in the previous step. The system will reboot again after you do so, and the key will be imported into the system firmware. You can turn on Secure Boot on this or any subsequent reboot.
Warning
#
mokutil --reset
Chapter 6. Updating Drivers During Installation on AMD64 and Intel 64 Systems
Important
- place the ISO image file of the driver disc in a location accessible to the installation program, on a local hard drive, on a USB flash drive, or on a CD or DVD.
- create a driver disc by extracting the image file onto a CD or a DVD, or a USB flash drive. See the instructions for making installation discs in Section 3.1, “Making an Installation CD or DVD” for more information on burning ISO image files to a CD or DVD, and Section 3.2, “Making Installation USB Media” for instructions on writing ISO images to USB drives.
Warning
6.1. Limitations of Driver Updates During Installation
6.2. Preparing for a Driver Update During Installation
- Automatic driver update
- When starting the installation, the Anaconda installation program will attempt to detect all attached storage devices. If there is a storage device labeled
OEMDRV
present when the installation begins, Anaconda will always treat it like a driver update disc and attempt to load drivers present on it. - Assisted driver update
- You can specify the
inst.dd
boot option when starting the installation. If you use this option without any parameters, Anaconda will display a list of all storage devices connected to the system, and it will prompt you to select a device which contains a driver update. - Manual driver update
- You can specify the
inst.dd=location
boot option when starting the installation, where location is the path to a driver update disc or ISO image. When you specify this option, Anaconda will attempt to load any driver updates it finds at the specified location. With manual driver updates, you can specify either locally available storage devices, or a network location (anHTTP
,HTTPS
orFTP
server).
Note
inst.dd=location
and inst.dd
at the same time. However, what Anaconda does in this case depends on the type of location that you use. If it is a device, Anaconda prompts you to select drivers to update from the specified device and then it offers you additional devices. If location is a network location, Anaconda first prompts you to select a device containing a driver update and then it lets you update drivers from the specified network location.
OEMDRV
, and it must be physically connected to the installation system. To use the assisted method, you can use any local storage device any label other than OEMDRV
. To use the manual method, you can use any local storage with a different label, or a network location accessible from the installation system.
Important
ip=
option when loading a driver update from a network location. See Section 23.1, “Configuring the Installation System at the Boot Menu” for details.
6.2.1. Preparing to Use a Driver Update Image File on Local Storage
- In order for the installation program to automatically recognize the driver disk, the volume label of the storage device must be
OEMDRV
. Also, you will need to extract the contents of the ISO image file to the root directory of the storage device rather than copy the ISO image itself. See Section 6.3.1, “Automatic Driver Update”. Note that installation of a driver from a device labeledOEMDRV
is always recommended and preferable to the manual installation. - For manual installation, simply copy the ISO image, as a single file, onto the storage device. You can rename the file if you find it helpful but you must not change the file name extension, which must remain
.iso
, for exampledd.iso
. See Section 6.3.3, “Manual Driver Update” to learn how to select the driver update manually during installation.
6.2.2. Preparing a Driver Disc
rhdd3
, which is a signature file that contains the driver disc's description, and a directory named rpms
, which contains the RPM packages with the actual drivers for various architectures.
.iso
, then you have not created the disc correctly and should try again. Ensure that you choose an option similar to Burn from Image if you use a Linux desktop other than GNOME, or if you use a different operating system.
6.3. Performing a Driver Update During Installation
- let the installation program automatically find and offer a driver update for installation,
- let the installation program prompt you to locate a driver update,
- manually specify a path to a driver update image or an RPM package.
Important
6.3.1. Automatic Driver Update
OEMDRV
volume label to your computer before starting the installation process.
Note
OEMDRV
block device to automatically load a Kickstart file. This file must be named ks.cfg
and placed in the root of the device to be loaded. See Chapter 27, Kickstart Installations for more information about Kickstart installations.
OEMDRV
, it will treat it as a driver update disc and attempt to load driver updates from this device. You will be prompted to select which drivers to load:
Figure 6.1. Selecting a Driver
6.3.2. Assisted Driver Update
OEMDRV
volume label available to install a driver during installation. However, if no such device is detected and the inst.dd
option was specified at the boot command line, the installation program lets you find the driver disk in interactive mode. In the first step, select a local disk partition from the list for Anaconda to scan for ISO files. Then, select one of the detected ISO files. Finally, select one or more available drivers. The image below demonstrates the process in the text user interface with individual steps highlighted.
Figure 6.2. Selecting a Driver Interactively
Note
OEMDRV
volume label, either use the inst.dd
option with no arguments and use the menu to select the device, or use the following boot option for the installation program to scan the media for drivers:
inst.dd=/dev/sr0
6.3.3. Manual Driver Update
inst.dd=location
to it, where location is a path to the driver update disc:
Figure 6.3. Specifying a Path to a Driver Update
6.3.4. Blacklisting a Driver
modprobe.blacklist=driver_name
option to it. Replace driver_name with names of a driver or drivers you want to disable, for example:
modprobe.blacklist=ahci
modprobe.blacklist=
boot option will remain disabled on the installed system and appear in the /etc/modprobe.d/anaconda-blacklist.conf
file. See Chapter 23, Boot Options for more information about blacklisting drivers and other boot options.
Chapter 7. Booting the Installation on 64-bit AMD, Intel, and ARM systems
NFS
, FTP
, HTTP
, or HTTPS
methods. Booting and installing from the full installation DVD is the easiest method to get started with. Other methods require some additional setup but provide different advantages that might suit your needs better. For example, when installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux on a large number of computers at the same time, the best approach is booting from a PXE server and installing from a source in a shared network location.
Boot method | Installation source |
---|---|
Full installation media (DVD or USB) | The boot media itself |
Minimal boot media (CD or USB) | Full installation DVD ISO image or the installation tree extracted from this image, placed in a network location or on a hard drive |
Network boot (PXE) | Full installation DVD ISO image or the installation tree extracted from this image, placed in a network location |
- Section 7.1.1, “Booting from Physical Media” describes how to boot the installation program using physical media (Red Hat Enterprise Linux DVD, Boot CD-ROM, USB flash drive).
- Section 7.1.2, “Booting from the Network Using PXE” describes how to boot the installation program using PXE.
- Section 7.2, “The Boot Menu” contains information on the boot menu.
7.1. Starting the Installation Program
Important
Note
7.1.1. Booting from Physical Media
Procedure 7.1. Booting the Installation from Physical Media
- Disconnect any drives which you do not need for the installation. See Section 5.6.3, “USB Disks” for more information.
- Power on your computer system.
- Insert the media in your computer.
- Power off your computer with the boot media still inside.
- Power on your computer system. Note that you might need to press a specific key or combination of keys to boot from the media or configure your system's Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) to boot from the media. For more information, see the documentation that came with your system.
7.1.2. Booting from the Network Using PXE
Network Boot
or Boot Services
. Also, ensure that the BIOS is configured to boot first from the correct network interface. Some BIOS systems specify the network interface as a possible boot device, but do not support the PXE standard. See your hardware's documentation for more information. Once you properly enable PXE booting, the computer can boot the Red Hat Enterprise Linux installation system without any other media.
Procedure 7.2. Booting the Installation from the Network Using PXE
- Ensure that the network cable is attached. The link indicator light on the network socket should be lit, even if the computer is not switched on.
- Switch on the computer.
- Depending on your hardware, some network setup and diagnostic information can be displayed before your computer connects to a PXE server. Once it connects, a menu is displayed according to the configuration of the PXE server. Press the number key that corresponds to the desired option. If you are not sure of which option to select, ask your server administrator.
Chapter 8. Installing Using Anaconda
- Use Kickstart to automate the installation as described in Chapter 27, Kickstart Installations
- Perform the graphical installation remotely by connecting to the installation system from another computer with a graphical display using the VNC (Virtual Network Computing) protocol - see Chapter 25, Using VNC
8.1. Introduction to Anaconda
8.2. Consoles and Logging During the Installation
8.2.1. Accessing Consoles
root
privileges, unless this prompt was specifically disabled using a boot option or a Kickstart command.
Note
Note
Shortcut | Contents |
---|---|
Ctrl+b 1 | Main installation program window. Contains text-based prompts (during text mode installation or if you use VNC Direct Mode), and also some debugging information. |
Ctrl+b 2 | Interactive shell prompt with root privileges. |
Ctrl+b 3 | Installation log; displays messages stored in /tmp/anaconda.log . |
Ctrl+b 4 | Storage log; displays messages related storage devices from kernel and system services, stored in /tmp/storage.log . |
Ctrl+b 5 | Program log; displays messages from other system utilities, stored in /tmp/program.log . |
8.2.2. Saving Screenshots
/tmp/anaconda-screenshots/
.
autostep --autoscreenshot
command in a Kickstart file to capture and save each step of the installation automatically. See Section 27.3.1, “Kickstart Commands and Options” for details.
8.3. Installing in Text Mode
Important
inst.xdriver=vesa
option - see Chapter 23, Boot Options.
Figure 8.1. Text Mode Installation
[x]
, and screens which require your attention before the installation can begin are marked with [!]
. Available commands are displayed below the list of available options.
Note
Processing...
label. To refresh to the current status of text menu items, use the r option at the text mode prompt.
- The installer will always use the English language and the US English keyboard layout. You can configure your language and keyboard settings, but these settings will only apply to the installed system, not to the installation.
- You cannot configure any advanced storage methods (LVM, software RAID, FCoE, zFCP and iSCSI).
- It is not possible to configure custom partitioning; you must use one of the automatic partitioning settings. You also cannot configure where the boot loader will be installed.
- You cannot select any package add-ons to be installed; they must be added after the installation finishes using the Yum package manager.
inst.text
boot option used either at the boot command line in the boot menu, or in your PXE server configuration. See Chapter 7, Booting the Installation on 64-bit AMD, Intel, and ARM systems for information about booting and using boot options.
8.4. Installing in the Graphical User Interface
Figure 8.2. The Installation Summary Screen
Shortcut keys | Usage |
---|---|
Tab and Shift+Tab | Cycle through active control elements (buttons, check boxes, and so on.) on the current screen |
Up and Down | Scroll through lists |
Left and Right | Scroll through horizontal toolbars and table entries |
Space and Enter | Select or remove a highlighted item from selection and expand and collapse drop-down menus |
8.5. Welcome Screen and Language Selection
Note
GeoIP
module.
Figure 8.3. Language Configuration
8.6. The Installation Summary Screen
Figure 8.4. The Installation Summary Screen
Note
Figure 8.5. Network Configuration Screen When No Network Is Detected
8.7. Date & Time
- Using your mouse, click on the interactive map to select a specific city. A red pin appears indicating your selection.
- You can also scroll through the Region and City drop-down menus at the top of the screen to select your time zone.
- Select Etc at the bottom of the Region drop-down menu, then select your time zone in the next menu adjusted to GMT/UTC, for example
GMT+1
.
timezone
command in timezone
(required) for details.
Note
Note
8.8. Language Support
Español
. Then you can select a locale specific to your region in the right panel, for example Español (Costa Rica)
. You can select multiple languages and multiple locales. The selected languages are highlighted in bold in the left panel.
Figure 8.6. Configuring Language Support
Note
8.9. Keyboard Configuration
Figure 8.7. Keyboard Configuration
Important
Note
8.10. Security Policy
Important
/root/openscap_data
directory on the installed system.
Figure 8.8. Security policy selection screen
Note
HTTP
, HTTPS
or FTP
server. Use the full address of the content, including the protocol (such as http://
). A network connection must be active (enabled in Section 8.12, “Network & Hostname”) before you can load a custom profile. The content type will be detected automatically by the installer.
8.11. Installation Source
Figure 8.9. Installation Source Screen
- Auto-detected installation media
- If you started the installation using the full installation DVD or USB drive, the installation program will detect it and display basic information under this option. Click thebutton to ensure that the media is suitable for installation. This integrity test is the same as the one performed if you selected
Test this media & Install Red Hat Enterprise Linux
in the boot menu, or if you used therd.live.check
boot option. - ISO file
- This option will appear if the installation program detected a partitioned hard drive with mountable file systems. Select this option, click thebutton, and browse to the installation ISO file's location on your system. Then click to ensure that the file is suitable for installation.
- On the network
- To specify a network location, select this option and choose from the following options in the drop-down menu:
- http://
- https://
- ftp://
- nfs
Using your selection as the start of the location URL, type the rest into the address box. If you choose NFS, another box will appear for you to specify any NFS mount options.Important
When selecting an NFS-based installation source, you must specify the address with a colon (:
) character separating the host name from the path. For example:server.example.com:/path/to/directory
To configure a proxy for an HTTP or HTTPS source, click the Enable HTTP proxy and type the URL into the Proxy URL box. If your proxy requires authentication, check Use Authentication and enter a user name and password. Click .button. CheckIf your HTTP or HTTPS URL refers to a repository mirror list, mark the check box under the input field.
8.12. Network & Hostname
Important
Note
em1
or wl3sp0
. For information about these standards, see the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Networking Guide.
Figure 8.10. Network & Hostname Configuration Screen
localhost.localdomain
means that no specific static host name for target system is configured, and the actual host name of installed system will be configured during process of network configuration (for example, by NetworkManager using DHCP or DNS).
Important
Note
8.12.1. Edit Network Connections
- Mark the Automatically connect to this network when it is available check box if you want to use the connection every time the system boots. You can use more than one connection that will connect automatically. This setting will carry over to the installed system.
Figure 8.11. Network Auto-Connection Feature
- By default, IPv4 parameters are configured automatically by the DHCP service on the network. At the same time, the IPv6 configuration is set to the
Automatic
method. This combination is suitable for most installation scenarios and usually does not require any changes.Figure 8.12. IP Protocol Settings
8.12.2. Advanced Network Interfaces
Figure 8.13. Network & Hostname Configuration Screen
Bond
- represents NIC (Network Interface Controller) Bonding, a method to bind multiple network interfaces together into a single, bonded, channel.Bridge
- represents NIC Bridging, a method to connect multiple separate network into one aggregate network.Team
- represents NIC Teaming, a new implementation to aggregate links, designed to provide a small kernel driver to implement the fast handling of packet flows, and various applications to do everything else in user space.VLAN
- represents a method to create multiple distinct broadcast domains, which are mutually isolated.
Figure 8.14. Advanced Network Interface Dialog
Note
8.13. Software Selection
- Add-ons listed above the horizontal line are specific to the environment you selected. If you select any add-ons in this part of the list and then select a different environment, your selection will be lost.
- Add-ons listed below the horizontal line are available for all environments. Selecting a different environment will not impact the selections made in this part of the list.
Figure 8.15. Example of a Software Selection for a Server Installation
server
variant provides environments designed for servers, while the workstation
variant has several choices for deployment as a developer workstation, and so on.
repodata/*-comps-variant.architecture.xml
file on the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Installation DVD which you are using as the installation source. This file contains a structure describing available environments (marked by the <environment>
tag) and add-ons (the <group>
tag).
Important
%packages
section of the Kickstart file. See Section 27.3.2, “Package Selection” for instructions on selecting packages to install in a Kickstart file, and Chapter 27, Kickstart Installations for general information about automating the installation with Kickstart.
8.13.1. Core Network Services
- centralized logging through the
rsyslog
service - email through SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol)
- network file sharing through NFS (Network File System)
- remote access through SSH (Secure SHell)
- resource advertising through mDNS (multicast DNS)
8.14. Installation Destination
Warning
Important
Important
Special cases
- If you have a RAID card, be aware that some BIOS types do not support booting from the RAID card. In such a case, the
/boot
partition must be created on a partition outside of the RAID array, such as on a separate hard drive. It is necessary to use an internal hard drive for partition creation with problematic RAID cards. A/boot
partition is also necessary for software RAID setups. If you have chosen to automatically partition your system, you should manually edit your/boot
partition; see Section 8.14.4, “Manual Partitioning” for more details. - To configure the Red Hat Enterprise Linux boot loader to chain load from a different boot loader, you must specify the boot drive manually by clicking the Full disk summary and bootloader link from the Installation Destination screen. See Section 8.14.1, “Boot Loader Installation” for instructions on specifying a boot drive.
- When you install Red Hat Enterprise Linux on a system with both multipath and non-multipath storage devices, the automatic partitioning layout in the installation program might create volume groups that contain a mix of multipath and non-multipath devices. This defeats the purpose of multipath storage. We advise that you select only multipath or only non-multipath devices on the Installation Destination screen. Alternatively, proceed to manual partitioning.
Figure 8.16. Storage Space Overview
- In the Partitioning section, you can select how storage devices are partitioned and how volumes are created. You can configure the partitions, manually or allow the installation program to do it automatically.Automatic partitioning is recommended if you are doing a clean installation on previously unused storage or do not need to keep any data that might be present on the storage. To proceed this way, leave the default selection of the Automatically configure partitioning radio button, and the installation program will create the necessary partitions and volumes on the storage space for you.For automatic partitioning, you can also select the I would like to make additional space available check box to choose how to reassign space from other file systems to this installation. After you click , there are two dialogs that can appear. If you selected automatic partitioning but there is not enough storage space to complete the installation using the recommended partitioning configuration, a dialog will appear:
Figure 8.17. Installation Options Dialog with Option to Reclaim Space
You can click to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux software selection link. The link will navigate you to the Software selection section, where you can change what software you want to install, and free some aditional storage space.Alternatively, you can click Installation Destination screen, where it is possible to add more storage devices, or to choose to configure partitioning manually. Click to free some storage space from existing file systems. See Section 8.14.3, “Reclaim Disk Space” for details.to return to theThe second dialog appears if you cannot create enough free space. In this case, you have to add more disks on the initial storage screen or quit the installation.If you select the I will configure partitioning radio button for manual setup, you will be brought to the Manual Partitioning screen after clicking . See Section 8.14.4, “Manual Partitioning” for details. - In the Encryption section, you can select the Encrypt my data check box to encrypt all partitions except for the
/boot
partition. See the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Security Guide for information on encryption.
8.14.1. Boot Loader Installation
Warning
Figure 8.18. Summary of Selected Disks
Warning
8.14.1.1. MBR and GPT Considerations
- BIOS systems, and UEFI systems in BIOS compatibility mode
- If the disk is already formatted, the partitioning scheme is retained.If the disk is not formatted, or the user erased all partitions from the disk, Anaconda will use:
- MBR if the disk has less than 232 sectors. Most commonly, disks sectors are 512 bytes in size, in which case this would be equivalent to 2 TiB.
- GPT if the disk has 232 sectors or more.
Note
Append theinst.gpt
option to the boot command line to override the default behavior and use GPT on a disk of less than 232 sectors in size. Note that you cannot manually override Anaconda to use MBR on a disk which is 232 sectors in size or larger.
You need to create a BIOS Boot (biosboot) partition to install on a BIOS system where the disk containing the boot loader uses GPT. Thebiosboot
partition should be 1 MiB in size. However, you do not need thebiosboot
partition if the disk containing the boot loader uses MBR. - UEFI systems
- Only GPT is allowed on UEFI systems. In order to install on a formatted disk with a MBR, you must first reformat it.You need to create an EFI System Partition (
/boot/efi
), regardless of the partitioning scheme. The/boot/efi
partition should be at least 50 MiB in size; its recommended size is 200 MiB.Note
Neither thebiosboot
norefi
partition can reside on an LVM volume. Use standard physical partitions for them.
8.14.2. Encrypt Partitions
Figure 8.19. Enter Passphrase for an Encrypted Partition
Warning
8.14.3. Reclaim Disk Space
Warning
Figure 8.20. Reclaim Disk Space from Existing File Systems
8.14.4. Manual Partitioning
Warning
Figure 8.21. The Manual Partitioning Screen
Note
8.14.4.1. Adding File Systems and Configuring Partitions
/
, /home
, /boot
, and swap
. You can also create additional partitions and volumes as you require. See Section 8.14.4.4, “Recommended Partitioning Scheme” for further details.
Note
/boot
partition, a /
(root) volume, and a swap volume proportionate to the size of the available storage. These are the recommended file systems for a typical installation, but you can add additional file systems and mount points if you need to.
/
for the root partition or /boot
for the boot partition. Then enter the size of the file system in the Desired Capacity text field; for example, 2GiB
. If you leave the field empty or if you specify a size bigger than available space, all remaining free space is used instead. After entering these details, click the button to create the partition.
Note
/boot
, and then create the rest of the partitions, letting the installation program allocate the remaining capacity to them.
Standard Partition
, BTRFS
, LVM
, and LVM Thin Provisioning
. Note that the /boot
partition will always be located on a standard partition, regardless of the value selected in this menu.
Figure 8.22. Configuring Mount Points
Figure 8.23. Rescanning Disks
Figure 8.24. Customizing Partitions
- Mount Point - enter the file system's mount point. For example, if a file system should be the root file system, enter
/
; enter/boot
for the/boot
file system, and so on. For a swap file system, the mount point should not be set - setting the file system type toswap
is sufficient. - Desired Capacity - enter the desired size of the file system. You can use common size units such as KiB or GiB. The default is MiB if no other unit is specified.
- Device type - choose one of these types: Standard Partition, LVM, RAID, LVM Thin Provisioning, or BTRFS. Check the adjacent Encrypt box to encrypt the partition or volume. You will be prompted to set a password later. RAID is only available if two or more disks are selected for partitioning, and if you choose this type, you can also set the RAID Level. Similarly, if you select LVM, you can specify the Volume Group.
- File system - in the drop-down menu, select the appropriate file system type for this partition or volume. Check the adjacent Reformat box to format an existing partition, or leave it unchecked to retain your data. Note that newly created partitions and volumes must be reformatted, and the check box cannot be unchecked in this case.
- Label - assign a label to the partition. Labels are used for you to easily recognize and address individual partitions.
- Name - assign a name to an LVM or Btrfs volume. Note that standard partitions are named automatically when they are created and their name cannot be edited, such as
/home
being assigned the namesda1
.
Important
/usr
or /var
is partitioned separately from the rest of the root volume, the boot process becomes much more complex because these directories contain components critical to it. In some situations, such as when these directories are placed on an iSCSI drive or an FCoE location, the system can either be unable to boot, or hang with a Device is busy
error when powering off or rebooting.
/usr
or /var
, not to directories below them. For example, a separate partition for /var/www
will work without issues.
8.14.4.1.1. File System Types
Device Types
- standard partition - A standard partition can contain a file system or swap space, or it can provide a container for software RAID or an LVM physical volume.
- logical volume (LVM) - Creating an LVM partition automatically generates an LVM logical volume. LVM can improve performance when using physical disks. For information on how to create a logical volume, see Section 8.14.4.3, “Create LVM Logical Volume”. For more information regarding LVM, see the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Logical Volume Manager Administration guide.
- LVM thin provisioning - Using thin provisioning, you can manage a storage pool of free space, known as a thin pool, which can be allocated to an arbitrary number of devices when needed by applications. The thin pool can be expanded dynamically when needed for cost-effective allocation of storage space. For more information regarding LVM, see the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Logical Volume Manager Administration guide.
Warning
Anaconda does not support overprovisioned LVM thin pools.Note
The installer will automatically reserve 20% of any requested space for an LVM thin pool logical volume in the volume group containing it. This is a safety measure to ensure that you can extend either the metadata volume or the data volume of your thinly provisioned logical volume. - software RAID - Creating two or more software RAID partitions allows you to create a RAID device. One RAID partition is assigned to each disk on the system. To create a RAID device, see Section 8.14.4.2, “Create Software RAID”. For more information regarding RAID, see the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Storage Administration Guide.
File Systems
- xfs - XFS is a highly scalable, high-performance file system that supports file systems up to 16 EiB (approximately 16 billion GiB), files up to 8 EiB (approximately 8 billion GiB), and directory structures containing tens of millions of entries. XFS supports metadata journaling, which facilitates quicker crash recovery. The XFS file system can also be defragmented and resized while mounted and active. This file system is selected by default and is highly recommended. For information on how to translate common commands from previously used ext4 file system to XFS, see Appendix F, Reference Table for ext4 and XFS Commands.The maximum supported size of an XFS file system in Red Hat Enterprise Linux is currently 500 TiB.
- ext4 - The ext4 file system is based on the ext3 file system and features a number of improvements. These include support for larger file systems and larger files, faster and more efficient allocation of disk space, no limit on the number of subdirectories within a directory, faster file system checking, and more robust journaling.The maximum supported size of an ext4 file system in Red Hat Enterprise Linux is currently 50 TiB.
- ext3 - The ext3 file system is based on the ext2 file system and has one main advantage - journaling. Using a journaling file system reduces time spent recovering a file system after a crash as there is no need to check the file system for metadata consistency by running the
fsck
utility every time a crash occurs. - ext2 - An ext2 file system supports standard Unix file types, including regular files, directories, or symbolic links. It provides the ability to assign long file names, up to 255 characters.
- vfat - The VFAT file system is a Linux file system that is compatible with Microsoft Windows long file names on the FAT file system.
- swap - Swap partitions are used to support virtual memory. In other words, data is written to a swap partition when there is not enough RAM to store the data your system is processing.
- BIOS Boot - A very small partition required for booting a device with a GUID partition table (GPT) on a BIOS system. See Section 8.14.1, “Boot Loader Installation” for details.
- EFI System Partition - A small partition required for booting a device with a GUID partition table (GPT) on a UEFI system. See Section 8.14.1, “Boot Loader Installation” for details.
8.14.4.2. Create Software RAID
Figure 8.25. Creating a Software RAID Partition - the Device Type Menu Expanded
- Create a mount point as described in Section 8.14.4.1, “Adding File Systems and Configuring Partitions”. By configuring this mount point, you configure the RAID device.
- Keeping the partition selected in the left pane, select the configuration button below the pane to open the Configure Mount Point dialog. Select which disks will be included in the RAID device and click .
- Click the Device Type drop-down menu and select RAID.
- Click the File System drop-down menu and select your preferred file system type (see Section 8.14.4.1.1, “File System Types”.
- Click the RAID Level drop-down menu and select your preferred level of RAID.The available RAID levels are:
- RAID0 - Optimized performance (stripe)
- Distributes data across multiple disks. Level 0 RAIDs offer increased performance over standard partitions, and can be used to pool the storage of multiple disks into one large virtual device. Note that Level 0 RAIDs offer no redundancy, and that the failure of one device in the array destroys data in the entire array. RAID 0 requires at least two RAID partitions.
- RAID1 - Redundancy (mirror)
- Mirrors all data on one disk onto one or more other disks. Additional devices in the array provide increasing levels of redundancy. RAID 1 requires at least two RAID partitions.
- RAID4 - Error detection (parity)
- Distributes data across multiple disks, and uses one disk in the array to store parity information that safeguards the array in case any disk within the array fails. Because all parity information is stored on one disk, access to this disk creates a bottleneck in the performance of the array. RAID 4 requires at least three RAID partitions.
- RAID5 - Distributed error detection
- Distributes data and parity information across multiple disks. Level 5 RAIDs therefore offer the performance advantages of distributing data across multiple disks, but do not share the performance bottleneck of level 4 RAIDs because the parity information is also distributed through the array. RAID 5 requires at least three RAID partitions.
- RAID6 - Redundant
- Level 6 RAIDs are similar to level 5 RAIDs, but instead of storing only one set of parity data, they store two sets. RAID 6 requires at least four RAID partitions.
- RAID10 - Redundancy (mirror) and Optimized performance (stripe)
- Level 10 RAIDs are nested RAIDs or hybrid RAIDs. They are constructed by distributing data over mirrored sets of disks. For example, a level 10 RAID array constructed from four RAID partitions consists of two mirrored pairs of striped partitions. RAID 10 requires at least four RAID partitions.
- Click Installation Summary screen.to save your changes, and either continue with another partition or click to return to the
8.14.4.3. Create LVM Logical Volume
Important
lvm
command. To return to the text-mode installation, press Ctrl+Alt+F1.
Figure 8.26. Configuring a Logical Volume
- Create a mount point for the LVM volume as described in Section 8.14.4.1, “Adding File Systems and Configuring Partitions”.
- Click the Device Type drop-down menu and select LVM. The Volume Group drop-down menu appears and displays the newly-created volume group name.
- Optionally, either click the menu and select Create a new volume group or click to configure the newly-created volume group, if you need to. Both the Create a new volume group option and the button lead to the Configure Volume Group dialog, where you can rename the logical volume group and select which disks will be included.
Note
The configuration dialog does not allow you to specify the size of the volume group's physical extents. The size will always be set to the default value of 4 MiB. If you want to create a volume group with different physical extents, create it manually by switching to an interactive shell and using thevgcreate
command, or use a Kickstart file with thevolgroup --pesize=size
command.Figure 8.27. Customizing an LVM Volume Group
The available RAID levels are the same as with actual RAID devices. See Section 8.14.4.2, “Create Software RAID” for more information. You can also mark the volume group for encryption and set the size policy for it. The available policy options are:- Automatic - the size of the volume group is set automatically so that it is just large enough to contain the configured logical volumes. This is optimal if you do not need free space within the volume group.
- As large as possible - the volume group is created with maximum size, regardless of the size of the configured logical volumes it contains. This is optimal if you plan to keep most of your data on LVM and later need to increase the size of some existing logical volumes, or if you need to create additional logical volumes within this group.
- Fixed - with this option, you can set an exact size of the volume group. Any configured logical volumes must then fit within this fixed size. This is useful if you know exactly how large you would like the volume group to be.
Clickwhen the group is configured. - Click Installation Summary screen.to save your changes, and either continue with another partition or click to return to the
Warning
/boot
partition on an LVM volume is not supported.
8.14.4.4. Recommended Partitioning Scheme
/boot
/
(root)/home
swap
-
/boot
partition - recommended size at least 1 GiB - The partition mounted on
/boot
contains the operating system kernel, which allows your system to boot Red Hat Enterprise Linux, along with files used during the bootstrap process. Due to the limitations of most firmwares, creating a small partition to hold these is recommended. In most scenarios, a 1 GiB boot partition is adequate. Unlike other mount points, using an LVM volume for/boot
is not possible -/boot
must be located on a separate disk partition.Warning
Normally, the/boot
partition is created automatically by the installation program. However, if the/
(root) partition is larger than 2 TiB and (U)EFI is used for booting, you need to create a separate/boot
partition that is smaller than 2 TiB to boot the machine successfully.Note
If you have a RAID card, be aware that some BIOS types do not support booting from the RAID card. In such a case, the/boot
partition must be created on a partition outside of the RAID array, such as on a separate hard drive. root
- recommended size of 10 GiB- This is where "
/
", or the root directory, is located. The root directory is the top-level of the directory structure. By default, all files are written to this file system unless a different file system is mounted in the path being written to (for example,/boot
or/home
).While a 5 GiB root file system allows you to install a minimal installation, it is recommended to allocate at least 10 GiB so that you can install as many package groups as you want.Important
Do not confuse the/
directory with the/root
directory. The/root
directory is the home directory of the root user. The/root
directory is sometimes referred to as slash root to distinguish it from the root directory. /home
- recommended size at least 1 GiB- To store user data separately from system data, create a dedicated file system for the
/home
directory. This file system should be sized based on the amount of data that will be stored locally, number of users, and so on. This will enable you to upgrade or reinstall Red Hat Enterprise Linux without erasing user data files. If you select automatic partitioning, it is recommended to have at least 55GiB of disk space available for the installation, to ensure that the/home
file system is created. swap
partition - recommended size at least 1 GB- Swap file systems support virtual memory; data is written to a swap file system when there is not enough RAM to store the data your system is processing. Swap size is a function of system memory workload, not total system memory and therefore is not equal to the total system memory size. Therefore, it is important to analyze what applications a system will be running and the load those applications will serve in order to determine the system memory workload. Application providers and developers should be able to provide some guidance.When the system runs out of swap space, the kernel terminates processes as the system RAM memory is exhausted. Configuring too much swap space results in storage devices being allocated but idle and is a poor use of resources. Too much swap space can also hide memory leaks. The maximum size for a swap partition and other additional information can be found in the
mkswap(8)
manual page.The following table provides the recommended size of a swap partition depending on the amount of RAM in your system and whether you want sufficient memory for your system to hibernate. If you let the installation program partition your system automatically, the swap partition size will be established using these guidelines. Automatic partitioning setup assumes hibernation is not in use. The maximum size of the swap partition is limited to 10% of the total size of the hard drive, and the installer cannot create swap partitions more than 128GB in size. If you want to set up enough swap space to allow for hibernation, or if you want to set the swap partition size to more than 10% of the system's storage space, or more than 128GB, you must edit the partitioning layout manually.Table 8.3. Recommended System Swap Space Amount of RAM in the system Recommended swap space Recommended swap space if allowing for hibernation less than 2 GB 2 times the amount of RAM 3 times the amount of RAM 2 GB - 8 GB Equal to the amount of RAM 2 times the amount of RAM 8 GB - 64 GB 4GB to 0.5 times the amount of RAM 1.5 times the amount of RAM more than 64 GB workload dependent (at least 4GB) hibernation not recommended At the border between each range listed above (for example, a system with 2 GB, 8 GB, or 64 GB of system RAM), discretion can be exercised with regard to chosen swap space and hibernation support. If your system resources allow for it, increasing the swap space can lead to better performance.Distributing swap space over multiple storage devices - particularly on systems with fast drives, controllers and interfaces - also improves swap space performance.
Note
8.14.4.4.1. Advice on Partitions
- Consider encrypting any partitions that might contain sensitive data. Encryption prevents unauthorized people from accessing the data on the partitions, even if they have access to the physical storage device. In most cases, you should at least encrypt the
/home
partition. - Each kernel installed on your system requires approximately 56 MB on the
/boot
partition.- 32 MB initramfs
- 14 MB kdump initramfs
- 3.5 MB system map
- 6.6 MB vmlinuz
Note
For rescue mode,initramfs
andvmlinuz
require 80 MB.The default partition size of 1 GiB for/boot
should suffice for most common uses. However, it is recommended that you increase the size of this partition if you are planning on retaining multiple kernel releases or errata kernels. - The
/var
directory holds content for a number of applications, including the Apache web server. It also is used to store downloaded update packages on a temporary basis. Ensure that the partition containing the/var
directory has enough space to download pending updates and hold your other content. - The PackageKit update software downloads updated packages to
/var/cache/yum/
by default. If you create a separate partition or volume for/var
, ensure that it is at least 5 GB in size to accommodate downloaded package updates. - The
/usr
directory holds the majority of software content on a Red Hat Enterprise Linux system. For an installation of the default set of software, allocate at least 5 GB of space. If the system will be used as a software development workstation, allocate at least 10GB. - If
/usr
or/var
is partitioned separately from the rest of the root volume, the boot process becomes much more complex because these directories contain components critical to it. In some situations, such as when these directories are placed on an iSCSI drive or an FCoE location, the system can either be unable to boot, or it can hang with aDevice is busy
error when powering off or rebooting.This limitation only applies to/usr
or/var
, not to directories below them. For example, a separate partition for/var/www
will work without issues. - Consider leaving a portion of the space in an LVM volume group unallocated. This unallocated space gives you flexibility if your space requirements change but you do not want to remove data from other partitions to reallocate storage. You can also select the Thin provisioning device type for the partition to have the unused space handled automatically by the volume.
- If you separate subdirectories into partitions, you can retain content in those subdirectories if you decide to install a new version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux over your current system. For instance, if you intend to run a MySQL database in
/var/lib/mysql/
, make a separate partition for that directory in case you need to reinstall later. - On a BIOS system with its boot loader using GPT (GUID partition table), you need to create the
biosboot
partition of 1 MiB in size. See Section 8.14.1, “Boot Loader Installation” for more details. - UEFI systems need to contain a small partition with a mount point of
/boot/efi/
containing an EFI System Partition file system. Its recommended size is 200 MiB, which is also the default value for automatic partitioning.
8.15. Storage Devices
Figure 8.28. Storage Space Overview
Note
dmeventd
daemon is not performed during installation.
8.15.1. The Storage Devices Selection Screen
- Multipath Devices
- Storage devices accessible through more than one path, such as through multiple SCSI controllers or Fiber Channel ports on the same system.The installation program only detects multipath storage devices with serial numbers that are 16 or 32 characters long.
- Other SAN Devices
- Devices available on a Storage Area Network (SAN).
- NVDIMM Devices
- Non-Volatile Dual In-line Memory Module (NVDIMM) storage devices on the machine.
Figure 8.29. Tabbed Overview of Specialized Storage Devices
- - use to attach iSCSI devices; continue with
- - use to configure a Fibre Channel Over Internet storage device; continue with
- - use to reconfigure a NVDIMM device into sector mode; continue with
Figure 8.30. The Storage Devices Search Tab
/etc/fstab
file.
Important
8.15.1.1. Advanced Storage Options
Figure 8.31. Advanced Storage Options
8.15.1.1.1. Configuring iSCSI Parameters
Figure 8.32. The iSCSI Discovery Details Dialog
Note
Procedure 8.1. iSCSI Discovery and Starting an iSCSI Session
- Enter the IP address of the iSCSI target in the Target IP Address field.
- Provide a name in the iSCSI Initiator Name field for the iSCSI initiator in iSCSI qualified name (IQN) format. A valid IQN entry contains:
- the string
iqn.
(note the period) - a date code that specifies the year and month in which your organization's Internet domain or subdomain name was registered, represented as four digits for the year, a dash, and two digits for the month, followed by a period. For example, represent September 2010 as
2010-09.
- your organization's Internet domain or subdomain name, presented in reverse order with the top-level domain first. For example, represent the subdomain
storage.example.com
ascom.example.storage
- a colon followed by a string that uniquely identifies this particular iSCSI initiator within your domain or subdomain. For example,
:diskarrays-sn-a8675309
A complete IQN can therefore look as follows:iqn.2010-09.storage.example.com:diskarrays-sn-a8675309
. Anaconda prepopulates the iSCSI Initiator Name field with a name in this format to help you with the structure.For more information on IQNs , see 3.2.6. iSCSI Names in RFC 3720 - Internet Small Computer Systems Interface (iSCSI) available from http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3720#section-3.2.6 and 1. iSCSI Names and Addresses in RFC 3721 - Internet Small Computer Systems Interface (iSCSI) Naming and Discovery available from http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3721#section-1. - Use the Discovery Authentication Type drop-down menu to specify the type of authentication to use for iSCSI discovery. The following options are available:
- no credentials
- CHAP pair
- CHAP pair and a reverse pair
- If you selected CHAP Username and CHAP Password fields.as the authentication type, provide the user name and password for the iSCSI target in the
- If you selected CHAP Username and CHAP Password field and the user name and password for the iSCSI initiator in the Reverse CHAP Username and Reverse CHAP Password fields.as the authentication type, provide the user name and password for the iSCSI target in the
- Optionally check the box labeled Bind targets to network interfaces.
- Click the Anaconda attempts to discover an iSCSI target based on the information that you provided. If discovery succeeds, the dialog displays a list of all iSCSI nodes discovered on the target.button.
- Each node is presented with a check box beside it. Click the check boxes to select the nodes to use for installation.
Figure 8.33. The Dialog of Discovered iSCSI Nodes
- The Node login authentication type menu provides the same options as the Discovery Authentication Type menu described in step 3. However, if you needed credentials for discovery authentication, it is typical to use the same credentials to log into a discovered node. To do that, use the additional option from the menu. When the proper credentials have been provided, the button becomes available.
- Clickto initiate an iSCSI session.
8.15.1.1.2. Configuring FCoE Parameters
Figure 8.34. Configure FCoE Parameters
- Use DCB
- Data Center Bridging (DCB) is a set of enhancements to the Ethernet protocols designed to increase the efficiency of Ethernet connections in storage networks and clusters. Enable or disable the installation program's awareness of DCB with the check box in this dialog. This option should only be enabled for network interfaces that require a host-based DCBX client. Configurations on interfaces that implement a hardware DCBX client should leave this check box empty.
- Use auto vlan
- Auto VLAN indicates whether VLAN discovery should be performed. If this box is checked, then the FIP (FCoE Initiation Protocol) VLAN discovery protocol will run on the Ethernet interface once the link configuration has been validated. If they are not already configured, network interfaces for any discovered FCoE VLANs will be automatically created and FCoE instances will be created on the VLAN interfaces. This option is enabled by default.
8.15.1.1.3. Configuring NVDIMM Devices
Figure 8.35. Reconfigure NVDIMM
Warning
Figure 8.36. Successfully reconfigured NVDIMM
8.16. Kdump
Figure 8.37. Kdump Enablement and Configuration
8.17. Begin Installation
Figure 8.38. Ready to Install
Warning
8.19. Installation Complete
login:
prompt) appears.
Chapter 9. Troubleshooting Installation on 64-bit AMD, Intel, and ARM Systems
/tmp
directory. These files are listed in the following table.
Log file | Contents |
---|---|
/tmp/anaconda.log | general Anaconda messages |
/tmp/program.log | all external programs run during the installation |
/tmp/storage.log | extensive storage module information |
/tmp/packaging.log | yum and rpm package installation messages |
/tmp/syslog | hardware-related system messages |
/tmp/anaconda-tb-identifier
, where identifier is a random string.
/var/log/anaconda/
. However, if installation is unsuccessful, or if the inst.nosave=all
or inst.nosave=logs
options are used when booting the installation system, these logs will only exist in the installation program's RAM disk. This means they are not saved permanently and will be lost once the system is powered down. To store them permanently, copy those files to another system on the network by using scp
on the system running the installation program, or copy them to a mounted storage device (such as an USB flash drive). Details on how to transfer the log files over the network are below. Note that if you use an USB flash drive or other removable media, you should make sure to back up any data on it before starting the procedure.
Procedure 9.1. Transferring Log Files Onto a USB Drive
- On the system you are installing, press Ctrl+Alt+F2 to access a shell prompt. You will be logged into a root account and you will have access to the installation program's temporary file system.
- Connect a USB flash drive to the system and execute the
dmesg
command. A log detailing all recent events will be displayed. At the bottom of this log, you will see a set of messages caused by the USB flash drive you just connected. It will look like a set of lines similar to the following:[ 170.171135] sd 5:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk
Note the name of the connected device - in the above example, it issdb
. - Go to the
/mnt
directory and once there, create new directory which will serve as the mount target for the USB drive. The name of the directory does not matter; this example uses the nameusb
.#
mkdir usb
- Mount the USB flash drive onto the newly created directory. Note that in most cases, you do not want to mount the whole drive, but a partition on it. Therefore, do not use the name
sdb
- use the name of the partition you want to write the log files to. In this example, the namesdb1
is used.#
mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/usb
You can now verify that you mounted the correct device and partition by accessing it and listing its contents - the list should match what you expect to be on the drive.#
cd /mnt/usb
#
ls
- Copy the log files to the mounted device.
#
cp /tmp/*log /mnt/usb
- Unmount the USB flash drive. If you get an error message saying that the target is busy, change your working directory to outside the mount (for example,
/
).#
umount /mnt/usb
Procedure 9.2. Transferring Log Files Over the Network
- On the system you are installing, press Ctrl+Alt+F2 to access a shell prompt. You will be logged into a root account and you will have access to the installation program's temporary file system.
- Switch to the
/tmp
directory where the log files are located:#
cd /tmp
- Copy the log files onto another system on the network using the
scp
command:#
scp *log user@address:path
Replace user with a valid user name on the target system, address with the target system's address or host name, and path with the path to the directory you want to save the log files into. For example, if you want to log in asjohn
to a system with an IP address of192.168.0.122
and place the log files into the/home/john/logs/
directory on that system, the command will have the following form:#
scp *log john@192.168.0.122:/home/john/logs/
When connecting to the target system for the first time, the SSH client asks you to confirm that the fingerprint of the remote system is correct and that you want to continue:The authenticity of host '192.168.0.122 (192.168.0.122)' can't be established.
ECDSA key fingerprint is a4:60:76:eb:b2:d0:aa:23:af:3d:59:5c:de:bb:c4:42.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)?
Typeyes
and press Enter to continue. Then, provide a valid password when prompted. The files will start transferring to the specified directory on the target system.
9.1. Trouble Beginning the Installation
9.1.1. System Does Not Boot When UEFI Secure Boot Is Enabled
9.1.2. Problems with Booting into the Graphical Installation
- Use the basic graphics mode
- You can attempt to perform the installation using the basic graphics driver. To do this, either select> in the boot menu, or edit the installation program's boot options and append
inst.xdriver=vesa
at the end of the command line. - Specify the display resolution manually
- If the installation program fails to detect your screen resolution, you can override the automatic detection and specify it manually. To do this, append the
inst.resolution=x
option at the boot menu, where x is your display's resolution (for example,1024x768
). - Use an alternate video driver
- You can also attempt to specify a custom video driver, overriding the installation program's automatic detection. To specify a driver, use the
inst.xdriver=x
option, where x is the device driver you want to use (for example,nouveau
).Note
If specifying a custom video driver solves your problem, you should report it as a bug at https://bugzilla.redhat.com under theanaconda
component. Anaconda should be able to detect your hardware automatically and use the appropriate driver without your intervention. - Perform the installation using VNC
- If the above options fail, you can use a separate system to access the graphical installation over the network, using the Virtual Network Computing (VNC) protocol. For details on installing using VNC, see Chapter 25, Using VNC.
9.1.3. Serial Console Not Detected
inst.text
and console=
boot options. See Chapter 23, Boot Options for more details.
9.2. Trouble During the Installation
9.2.1. No Disks Detected
9.2.2. Reporting Traceback Messages
Figure 9.1. The Crash Reporting Dialog Box
tty1
, where you can request more precise information that will enhance the bug report. To return to the graphical interface from tty1
, use the continue
command.
Figure 9.2. The Expanded Crash Reporting Dialog Box
Procedure 9.3. Reporting Errors to Red Hat Customer Support
- In the menu that appears, select Report a bug to Red Hat Customer Portal.
- To report the bug to Red Hat, you first need to provide your Customer Portal credentials. Click.
Figure 9.3. Customer Portal Credentials
- A new window is now open, prompting you to enter your Customer Portal user name and password. Enter your Red Hat Customer Portal credentials.
Figure 9.4. Configure Red Hat Customer Support
If your network settings require you to use aHTTP
orHTTPS
proxy, you can configure it by expanding the Advanced menu and entering the address of the proxy server.When you put in all required credentials, click OK to proceed. - A new window appears, containing a text field. Write down any useful information and comments here. Describe how the error can be reproduced by explaining each step you took before the crash reporting dialog appeared. Provide as much relevant detail as possible, including any information you acquired when debugging. Be aware that the information you provide here can become publicly visible on the Customer Portal.If you do not know what caused the error, check the box labeled I don't know what caused this problem at the bottom of the dialog.Then, click.
Figure 9.5. Describe the Problem
- Next, review the information that will be sent to the Customer Portal. The explanation you provided is in the comment tab. Other tabs include such information as your system's host name and other details about the installation environment. You can remove any items you do not want sent to Red Hat, but be aware that providing less detail can affect the investigation of the issue.Clickwhen you finish reviewing the information to be sent.
Figure 9.6. Review the Data to Be Sent
- Review the list of files that will be sent and included in the bug report as individual attachments. These files provide system information that will assist the investigation. If you do not want to send certain files, uncheck the box next to each one. To provide additional files that can help find the problem, click.Once you have reviewed the files to be sent, check the box labeled I have reviewed the data and agree with submitting it. Then, click to send the report and attachments to the Customer Portal.
Figure 9.7. Review the Files to Be Sent
- When the dialog reports that processing has finished, you can click Show log to view details of the reporting process or Close to return to the initial crash reporting dialog box. There, click Quit to exit the installation.
9.2.3. Creating Pre-installation Log Files
inst.debug
option to create log files from the environment before the installation starts. These log files contain, for example, the current storage configuration.
- Select theentry.
- Press the Tab key to edit the boot options.
- Append
inst.debug
to the options. For example:> vmlinuz ...
inst.debug
For further details, see Chapter 23, Boot Options. - Press Enter to start the setup.
/tmp/pre-anaconda-logs/
directory before Anaconda starts. To access the log files:
- Switch to the console. See Section 8.2.1, “Accessing Consoles”.
- Change into the
/tmp/pre-anaconda-logs/
directory:# cd /tmp/pre-anaconda-logs/
9.3. Problems After Installation
9.3.1. Are You Unable to Boot With Your RAID Card?
grub>
) and a flashing cursor might be all that appears. If this is the case, you must repartition your system and move your /boot
partition and the boot loader outside the RAID array. The /boot
partition and the boot loader must be on the same drive.
9.3.2. Trouble With the Graphical Boot Sequence
Procedure 9.4. Disabling Graphical Boot Temporarily
- Start your computer and wait until the boot loader menu appears. If you set your boot loader timeout period to 0, hold down the Esc key to access it.
- When the boot loader menu appears, use your cursor keys to highlight the entry you want to boot and press the e key to edit this entry's options.
- In the list of options, find the kernel line - that is, the line beginning with the keyword
linux
(or, in some cases,linux16
orlinuxefi
). On this line, locate therhgb
option and delete it. The option might not be immediately visible; use the cursor keys to scroll up and down. - Press F10 or Ctrl+X to boot your system with the edited options.
Procedure 9.5. Disabling Graphical Boot Permanently
- Log in to the
root
account using thesu -
command:$
su -
- Use the grubby tool to find the default GRUB2 kernel:
#
grubby --default-kernel
/boot/vmlinuz-3.10.0-229.4.2.el7.x86_64 - Use the grubby tool to remove the
rhgb
boot option from the default kernel, identified in the last step, in your GRUB2 configuration. For example:#
grubby --remove-args="rhgb" --update-kernel /boot/vmlinuz-3.10.0-229.4.2.el7.x86_64
--remove-args="rhgb"
parameter with the --args="rhgb"
paramter. This will restore the rhgb
boot option to the default kernel in your GRUB2 configuration.
9.3.3. Booting into a Graphical Environment
startx
command. Note, however, that this is just a one-time fix and does not change the log in process for future log ins.
graphical.target
. When you are finished, reboot the computer. You will presented with a graphical login prompt after the system restarts.
Procedure 9.6. Setting Graphical Login as Default
- Open a shell prompt. If you are in your user account, become root by typing the
su -
command. - Change the default target to
graphical.target
. To do this, execute the following command:#
systemctl set-default graphical.target
root
:
#
systemctl set-default multi-user.target
9.3.4. No Graphical User Interface Present
9.3.5. X Server Crashing After User Logs In
$
df -h
/home
partition. The following is a sample output of the df
command:
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on /dev/mapper/vg_rhel-root 20G 6.0G 13G 32% / devtmpfs 1.8G 0 1.8G 0% /dev tmpfs 1.8G 2.7M 1.8G 1% /dev/shm tmpfs 1.8G 1012K 1.8G 1% /run tmpfs 1.8G 0 1.8G 0% /sys/fs/cgroup tmpfs 1.8G 2.6M 1.8G 1% /tmp /dev/sda1 976M 150M 760M 17% /boot /dev/dm-4 90G 90G 0 100% /home
/home
partition is full, which causes the crash. You can make some room on the partition by removing unneeded files. After you free up some disk space, start X using the startx
command.
df
and an explanation of the options available (such as the -h
option used in this example), see the df(1)
man page.
9.3.6. Is Your RAM Not Being Recognized?
free -m
command. If the displayed total amount of memory does not match your expectations, it is likely that at least one of your memory modules is faulty. On BIOS-based systems, you can use the Memtest86+ utility to test your system's memory - see Section 23.2.1, “Loading the Memory (RAM) Testing Mode” for details.
Note
free
command. For details about kdump and its memory requirements, see the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Kernel Crash Dump Guide.
mem=
kernel option.
Procedure 9.7. Configuring the Memory Manually
- Start your computer and wait until the boot loader menu appears. If you set your boot loader timeout period to 0, hold down the Esc key to access it.
- When the boot loader menu appears, use your cursor keys to highlight the entry you want to boot and press the e key to edit this entry's options.
- In the list of options, find the kernel line - that is, the line beginning with the keyword
linux
(or, in some cases,linux16
). Append the following option to the end of this line:mem=xxM
Replace xx with the amount of RAM you have in MiB. - Press F10 or Ctrl+X to boot your system with the edited options.
- Wait for the system to boot and log in. Then, open a command line and execute the
free -m
command again. If total amount of RAM displayed by the command matches your expectations, append the following to the line beginning withGRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX
in the/etc/default/grub
file to make the change permanent:mem=xxM
Replace xx with the amount of RAM you have in MiB. - After you updated the file and saved it, refresh the boot loader configuration so that the change will take effect. Run the following command with root privileges:
#
grub2-mkconfig --output=/boot/grub2/grub.cfg
/etc/default/grub
, the above example would look similar to the following:
GRUB_TIMEOUT=5 GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR="$(sed 's, release.*$,,g' /etc/system-release)" GRUB_DEFAULT=saved GRUB_DISABLE_SUBMENU=true GRUB_TERMINAL_OUTPUT="console" GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="rd.lvm.lv=rhel/root vconsole.font=latarcyrheb-sun16 rd.lvm.lv=rhel/swap $([ -x /usr/sbin/rhcrashkernel.param ] && /usr/sbin/rhcrashkernel-param || :) vconsole.keymap=us rhgb quiet mem=1024M" GRUB_DISABLE_RECOVERY="true"
9.3.7. Is Your System Displaying Signal 11 Errors?
rd.live.check
boot option at the boot menu. See Section 23.2.2, “Verifying Boot Media” for details.
Part II. IBM Power Systems - Installation and Booting
Important
ppc
and ppc64
, respectively). Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 supports only 64-bit Power Systems servers (ppc64
).
Chapter 10. Planning for Installation on IBM Power Systems
10.1. Upgrade or Install?
10.2. Is Your Hardware Compatible?
10.3. IBM Installation Tools
- Install and configure Linux on a non-virtualized IBM Power Systems server.
- Install and configure Linux on servers with previously-configured logical partitions (LPARs, also known as virtualized servers).
- Install IBM service and productivity tools on a new or previously installed Linux system. The IBM service and productivity tools include dynamic logical partition (DLPAR) utilities.
- Upgrade system firmware level on IBM Power Systems servers.
- Perform diagnostics or maintenance operations on previously installed systems.
- Migrate a LAMP server (software stack) and application data from a System x to a System p system. A LAMP server is a bundle of open source software. LAMP is an acronym for Linux, Apache HTTP Server, MySQL relational database, and the PHP (or sometimes Perl, or Python) language.
10.4. Preparation for IBM Power Systems Servers
Important
c00000
, otherwise you might see errors such as:
DEFAULT CATCH!, exception-handler=fff00300
10.5. Supported Installation Targets
- Storage connected by a standard internal interface, such as SCSI, SATA, or SAS
- Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapters and multipath devices. Some can require vendor-provided drivers.
- Virtualized installation on IBM Power Systems servers is also supported when using Virtual SCSI (vSCSI) adapters in virtual client LPARs
Important
10.6. System Specifications List
- If you plan to use a customized partition layout, record:
- The model numbers, sizes, types, and interfaces of the hard drives attached to the system. For example, Seagate ST3320613AS 320 GB on SATA0, Western Digital WD7500AAKS 750 GB on SATA1. This will allow you to identify specific hard drives during the partitioning process.
- If you are installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux as an additional operating system on an existing system, record:
- Information about the partitions used on the system. This information can include file system types, device node names, file system labels, and sizes. This will allow you to identify specific partitions during the partitioning process. Remember that different operating systems identify partitions and drives differently, therefore even if the other operating system is a Unix operating system, the device names can be reported by Red Hat Enterprise Linux differently. This information can usually be found by executing the equivalent of the
mount
command andblkid
command and in the/etc/fstab
file.If you have other operating systems already installed, the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 installation program attempts to automatically detect and configure to boot them. You can manually configure any additional operating systems if they are not detected properly. For more information, see Section 13.15.1, “Boot Loader Installation”.
- If you plan to install from an image on a local hard drive:
- The hard drive and directory that holds the image.
- If you plan to install from a network location:
- The make and model numbers of the network adapters on your system. For example, Netgear GA311. This will allow you to identify adapters when manually configuring the network.
- IP, DHCP, and BOOTP addresses
- Netmask
- Gateway IP address
- One or more name server IP addresses (DNS)
- The location of the installation source on an FTP server, HTTP (web) server, HTTPS (web) server, or NFS server.
If any of these networking requirements or terms are unfamiliar to you, contact your network administrator for assistance. - If you plan to install on an iSCSI target:
- The location of the iSCSI target. Depending on your network, you might also need a CHAP user name and password, and perhaps a reverse CHAP user name and password.
- If your computer is part of a domain:
- You should verify that the domain name will be supplied by the DHCP server. If not, you will need to input the domain name manually during installation.
10.7. Disk Space and Memory Requirements
Note
/
, swap
and a PReP
boot partition) must be dedicated to Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
Installation type | Minimum required RAM |
---|---|
Local media installation (USB, DVD) | 1,280 MiB |
NFS network installation | 1,280 MiB |
HTTP, HTTPS, or FTP network installation | 1,664 MiB |
10.8. RAID and Other Disk Devices
10.8.1. Hardware RAID
10.8.2. Software RAID
Note
10.8.3. USB Disks
10.9. Choose an Installation Boot Method
Note
%post
section of a kickstart file.
- Full installation DVD or USB drive
- You can create bootable media from the full installation DVD ISO image. In this case, a single DVD or USB drive can be used to complete the entire installation - it will serve both as a boot device and as an installation source for installing software packages. See Chapter 3, Making Media for instructions on how to make a full installation DVD or USB drive.
- Minimal boot CD, DVD or USB Flash Drive
- A minimal boot CD, DVD or USB flash drive is created using a small ISO image, which only contains data necessary to boot the system and start the installation. If you use this boot media, you will need an additional installation source from which packages will be installed. See Chapter 3, Making Media for instructions on making boot CDs, DVDs and USB flash drives.
- PXE Server
- A preboot execution environment (PXE) server allows the installation program to boot over the network. After you boot the system, you complete the installation from a different installation source, such as a local hard drive or a location on a network. For more information on PXE servers, see Chapter 24, Preparing for a Network Installation.
10.10. Automating the Installation with Kickstart
Chapter 11. Updating Drivers During Installation on IBM Power Systems
Important
- place the ISO image file of the driver disc in a location accessible to the installation program, on a local hard drive, on a USB flash drive, or on a CD or DVD.
- create a driver disc by extracting the image file onto a CD or a DVD, or a USB flash drive. See the instructions for making installation discs in Section 3.1, “Making an Installation CD or DVD” for more information on burning ISO image files to a CD or DVD, and Section 3.2, “Making Installation USB Media” for instructions on writing ISO images to USB drives.
Warning
11.1. Preparing for a Driver Update During Installation
- Automatic driver update
- When starting the installation, the Anaconda installation program will attempt to detect all attached storage devices. If there is a storage device labeled
OEMDRV
present when the installation begins, Anaconda will always treat it like a driver update disc and attempt to load drivers present on it. - Assisted driver update
- You can specify the
inst.dd
boot option when starting the installation. If you use this option without any parameters, Anaconda will display a list of all storage devices connected to the system, and it will prompt you to select a device which contains a driver update. - Manual driver update
- You can specify the
inst.dd=location
boot option when starting the installation, where location is the path to a driver update disc or ISO image. When you specify this option, Anaconda will attempt to load any driver updates it finds at the specified location. With manual driver updates, you can specify either locally available storage devices, or a network location (anHTTP
,HTTPS
orFTP
server).
Note
inst.dd=location
and inst.dd
at the same time. However, what Anaconda does in this case depends on the type of location that you use. If it is a device, Anaconda prompts you to select drivers to update from the specified device and then it offers you additional devices. If location is a network location, Anaconda first prompts you to select a device containing a driver update and then it lets you update drivers from the specified network location.
OEMDRV
, and it must be physically connected to the installation system. To use the assisted method, you can use any local storage device any label other than OEMDRV
. To use the manual method, you can use any local storage with a different label, or a network location accessible from the installation system.
Important
ip=
option when loading a driver update from a network location. See Section 23.1, “Configuring the Installation System at the Boot Menu” for details.
11.1.1. Preparing to Use a Driver Update Image File on Local Storage
- In order for the installation program to automatically recognize the driver disk, the volume label of the storage device must be
OEMDRV
. Also, you will need to extract the contents of the ISO image file to the root directory of the storage device rather than copy the ISO image itself. See Section 11.2.1, “Automatic Driver Update”. Note that installation of a driver from a device labeledOEMDRV
is always recommended and preferable to the manual installation. - For manual installation, simply copy the ISO image, as a single file, onto the storage device. You can rename the file if you find it helpful but you must not change the file name extension, which must remain
.iso
, for exampledd.iso
. See Section 11.2.2, “Assisted Driver Update” to learn how to select the driver update manually during installation.
11.1.2. Preparing a Driver Disc
rhdd3
, which is a signature file that contains the driver disc's description, and a directory named rpms
, which contains the RPM packages with the actual drivers for various architectures.
.iso
, then you have not created the disc correctly and should try again. Ensure that you choose an option similar to Burn from Image if you use a Linux desktop other than GNOME, or if you use a different operating system.
11.2. Performing a Driver Update During Installation
- let the installation program automatically find and offer a driver update for installation,
- let the installation program prompt you to locate a driver update,
- manually specify a path to a driver update image or an RPM package.
Important
11.2.1. Automatic Driver Update
OEMDRV
volume label to your computer before starting the installation process.
Note
OEMDRV
block device to automatically load a Kickstart file. This file must be named ks.cfg
and placed in the root of the device to be loaded. See Chapter 27, Kickstart Installations for more information about Kickstart installations.
OEMDRV
, it will treat it as a driver update disc and attempt to load driver updates from this device. You will be prompted to select which drivers to load:
Figure 11.1. Selecting a Driver
11.2.2. Assisted Driver Update
OEMDRV
volume label available to install a driver during installation. However, if no such device is detected and the inst.dd
option was specified at the boot command line, the installation program lets you find the driver disk in interactive mode. In the first step, select a local disk partition from the list for Anaconda to scan for ISO files. Then, select one of the detected ISO files. Finally, select one or more available drivers. The image below demonstrates the process in the text user interface with individual steps highlighted.
Figure 11.2. Selecting a Driver Interactively
Note
OEMDRV
volume label, either use the inst.dd
option with no arguments and use the menu to select the device, or use the following boot option for the installation program to scan the media for drivers:
inst.dd=/dev/sr0
11.2.3. Manual Driver Update
inst.dd=location
to it, where location is a path to the driver update disc:
Figure 11.3. Specifying a Path to a Driver Update
11.2.4. Blacklisting a Driver
modprobe.blacklist=driver_name
option to it. Replace driver_name with names of a driver or drivers you want to disable, for example:
modprobe.blacklist=ahci
modprobe.blacklist=
boot option will remain disabled on the installed system and appear in the /etc/modprobe.d/anaconda-blacklist.conf
file. See Chapter 23, Boot Options for more information about blacklisting drivers and other boot options.
Chapter 12. Booting the Installation on IBM Power Systems
Figure 12.1. The SMS Console
Important
inst.vnc
boot option (see Enabling Remote Access).
12.2. Installing from a Different Source
Boot method | Installation source |
---|---|
Full installation media (DVD) | The boot media itself |
Minimal boot media (CD or DVD) | Full installation DVD ISO image or the installation tree extracted from this image, placed in a network location or on a hard drive |
Network boot | Full installation DVD ISO image or the installation tree extracted from this image, placed in a network location |
12.3. Booting from the Network Using an Installation Server
Select Boot Options
in the SMS menu, then Select Boot/Install Device
. Finally, select your network device from the list of available devices.
Procedure 12.1. How to Start the Installation Program from the Network
- Ensure that the network cable is attached. The link indicator light on the network socket should be lit, even if the computer is not switched on.
- Switch on the computer.
- Networking setup and diagnostic information usually appears before your computer connects to the server, although this depends on the hardware in use. Then you will see a menu with options specifying how the network boot server is setup. Press the number key that corresponds to the desired option. In case you are not sure which option you should select, ask your server administrator.
Important
vmlinuz
and initrd.img
images to boot your system over a network. You cannot use the ppc64.img
image to boot over a network; the file is too large for TFTP.
Chapter 13. Installing Using Anaconda
- Use Kickstart to automate the installation as described in Chapter 27, Kickstart Installations
- Perform the graphical installation remotely by connecting to the installation system from another computer with a graphical display using the VNC (Virtual Network Computing) protocol - see Chapter 25, Using VNC
13.1. Introduction to Anaconda
13.2. Consoles and Logging During the Installation
13.2.1. Accessing Consoles
root
privileges, unless this prompt was specifically disabled using a boot option or a Kickstart command.
Note
Note
Shortcut | Contents |
---|---|
Ctrl+b 1 | Main installation program window. Contains text-based prompts (during text mode installation or if you use VNC Direct Mode), and also some debugging information. |
Ctrl+b 2 | Interactive shell prompt with root privileges. |
Ctrl+b 3 | Installation log; displays messages stored in /tmp/anaconda.log . |
Ctrl+b 4 | Storage log; displays messages related storage devices from kernel and system services, stored in /tmp/storage.log . |
Ctrl+b 5 | Program log; displays messages from other system utilities, stored in /tmp/program.log . |
13.2.2. Saving Screenshots
/tmp/anaconda-screenshots/
.
autostep --autoscreenshot
command in a Kickstart file to capture and save each step of the installation automatically. See Section 27.3.1, “Kickstart Commands and Options” for details.
13.3. Installing in Text Mode
Important
inst.xdriver=vesa
option - see Chapter 23, Boot Options.
Figure 13.1. Text Mode Installation
[x]
, and screens which require your attention before the installation can begin are marked with [!]
. Available commands are displayed below the list of available options.
Note
Processing...
label. To refresh to the current status of text menu items, use the r option at the text mode prompt.
- The installer will always use the English language and the US English keyboard layout. You can configure your language and keyboard settings, but these settings will only apply to the installed system, not to the installation.
- You cannot configure any advanced storage methods (LVM, software RAID, FCoE, zFCP and iSCSI).
- It is not possible to configure custom partitioning; you must use one of the automatic partitioning settings. You also cannot configure where the boot loader will be installed.
- You cannot select any package add-ons to be installed; they must be added after the installation finishes using the Yum package manager.
inst.text
boot option used either at the boot command line in the boot menu, or in your PXE server configuration. See Chapter 12, Booting the Installation on IBM Power Systems for information about booting and using boot options.
13.4. Using the HMC vterm
13.5. Installing in the Graphical User Interface
Figure 13.2. The Installation Summary Screen
Shortcut keys | Usage |
---|---|
Tab and Shift+Tab | Cycle through active control elements (buttons, check boxes, and so on.) on the current screen |
Up and Down | Scroll through lists |
Left and Right | Scroll through horizontal toolbars and table entries |
Space and Enter | Select or remove a highlighted item from selection and expand and collapse drop-down menus |
13.6. Welcome Screen and Language Selection
Note
GeoIP
module.
Figure 13.3. Language Configuration
13.7. The Installation Summary Screen
Figure 13.4. The Installation Summary Screen
Note
Figure 13.5. Network Configuration Screen When No Network Is Detected
13.8. Date & Time
- Using your mouse, click on the interactive map to select a specific city. A red pin appears indicating your selection.
- You can also scroll through the Region and City drop-down menus at the top of the screen to select your time zone.
- Select Etc at the bottom of the Region drop-down menu, then select your time zone in the next menu adjusted to GMT/UTC, for example
GMT+1
.
timezone
command in timezone
(required) for details.
Note
Note
13.9. Language Support
Español
. Then you can select a locale specific to your region in the right panel, for example Español (Costa Rica)
. You can select multiple languages and multiple locales. The selected languages are highlighted in bold in the left panel.
Figure 13.6. Configuring Language Support
Note
13.10. Keyboard Configuration
Figure 13.7. Keyboard Configuration
Important
Note
13.11. Security Policy
Important
/root/openscap_data
directory on the installed system.
Figure 13.8. Security policy selection screen
Note
HTTP
, HTTPS
or FTP
server. Use the full address of the content, including the protocol (such as http://
). A network connection must be active (enabled in Section 13.13, “Network & Hostname”) before you can load a custom profile. The content type will be detected automatically by the installer.
13.12. Installation Source
Figure 13.9. Installation Source Screen
- Auto-detected installation media
- If you started the installation using the full installation DVD or USB drive, the installation program will detect it and display basic information under this option. Click thebutton to ensure that the media is suitable for installation. This integrity test is the same as the one performed if you selected
Test this media & Install Red Hat Enterprise Linux
in the boot menu, or if you used therd.live.check
boot option. - ISO file
- This option will appear if the installation program detected a partitioned hard drive with mountable file systems. Select this option, click thebutton, and browse to the installation ISO file's location on your system. Then click to ensure that the file is suitable for installation.
- On the network
- To specify a network location, select this option and choose from the following options in the drop-down menu:
- http://
- https://
- ftp://
- nfs
Using your selection as the start of the location URL, type the rest into the address box. If you choose NFS, another box will appear for you to specify any NFS mount options.Important
When selecting an NFS-based installation source, you must specify the address with a colon (:
) character separating the host name from the path. For example:server.example.com:/path/to/directory
To configure a proxy for an HTTP or HTTPS source, click the Enable HTTP proxy and type the URL into the Proxy URL box. If your proxy requires authentication, check Use Authentication and enter a user name and password. Click .button. CheckIf your HTTP or HTTPS URL refers to a repository mirror list, mark the check box under the input field.
13.13. Network & Hostname
Important
Note
em1
or wl3sp0
. For information about these standards, see the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Networking Guide.
Figure 13.10. Network & Hostname Configuration Screen
localhost.localdomain
means that no specific static host name for target system is configured, and the actual host name of installed system will be configured during process of network configuration (for example, by NetworkManager using DHCP or DNS).
Important
Note
13.13.1. Edit Network Connections
- Mark the Automatically connect to this network when it is available check box if you want to use the connection every time the system boots. You can use more than one connection that will connect automatically. This setting will carry over to the installed system.
Figure 13.11. Network Auto-Connection Feature
- By default, IPv4 parameters are configured automatically by the DHCP service on the network. At the same time, the IPv6 configuration is set to the
Automatic
method. This combination is suitable for most installation scenarios and usually does not require any changes.Figure 13.12. IP Protocol Settings
13.13.2. Advanced Network Interfaces
Figure 13.13. Network & Hostname Configuration Screen
Bond
- represents NIC (Network Interface Controller) Bonding, a method to bind multiple network interfaces together into a single, bonded, channel.Bridge
- represents NIC Bridging, a method to connect multiple separate network into one aggregate network.Team
- represents NIC Teaming, a new implementation to aggregate links, designed to provide a small kernel driver to implement the fast handling of packet flows, and various applications to do everything else in user space.VLAN
- represents a method to create multiple distinct broadcast domains, which are mutually isolated.
Figure 13.14. Advanced Network Interface Dialog
Note
13.14. Software Selection
- Add-ons listed above the horizontal line are specific to the environment you selected. If you select any add-ons in this part of the list and then select a different environment, your selection will be lost.
- Add-ons listed below the horizontal line are available for all environments. Selecting a different environment will not impact the selections made in this part of the list.
Figure 13.15. Example of a Software Selection for a Server Installation
server
variant provides environments designed for servers, while the workstation
variant has several choices for deployment as a developer workstation, and so on.
repodata/*-comps-variant.architecture.xml
file on the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Installation DVD which you are using as the installation source. This file contains a structure describing available environments (marked by the <environment>
tag) and add-ons (the <group>
tag).
Important
%packages
section of the Kickstart file. See Section 27.3.2, “Package Selection” for instructions on selecting packages to install in a Kickstart file, and Chapter 27, Kickstart Installations for general information about automating the installation with Kickstart.
13.14.1. Core Network Services
- centralized logging through the
rsyslog
service - email through SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol)
- network file sharing through NFS (Network File System)
- remote access through SSH (Secure SHell)
- resource advertising through mDNS (multicast DNS)
13.15. Installation Destination
Warning
Important
Important
Special cases
- If you have a RAID card, be aware that some BIOS types do not support booting from the RAID card. In such a case, the
/boot
partition must be created on a partition outside of the RAID array, such as on a separate hard drive. It is necessary to use an internal hard drive for partition creation with problematic RAID cards. A/boot
partition is also necessary for software RAID setups. If you have chosen to automatically partition your system, you should manually edit your/boot
partition; see Section 13.15.4, “Manual Partitioning” for more details. - When you install Red Hat Enterprise Linux on a system with both multipath and non-multipath storage devices, the automatic partitioning layout in the installation program might create volume groups that contain a mix of multipath and non-multipath devices. This defeats the purpose of multipath storage. We advise that you select only multipath or only non-multipath devices on the Installation Destination screen. Alternatively, proceed to manual partitioning.
Figure 13.16. Storage Space Overview
- In the Partitioning section, you can select how storage devices are partitioned and how volumes are created. You can configure the partitions, manually or allow the installation program to do it automatically.Automatic partitioning is recommended if you are doing a clean installation on previously unused storage or do not need to keep any data that might be present on the storage. To proceed this way, leave the default selection of the Automatically configure partitioning radio button, and the installation program will create the necessary partitions and volumes on the storage space for you.For automatic partitioning, you can also select the I would like to make additional space available check box to choose how to reassign space from other file systems to this installation. After you click , there are two dialogs that can appear. If you selected automatic partitioning but there is not enough storage space to complete the installation using the recommended partitioning configuration, a dialog will appear:
Figure 13.17. Installation Options Dialog with Option to Reclaim Space
You can click to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux software selection link. The link will navigate you to the Software selection section, where you can change what software you want to install, and free some aditional storage space.Alternatively, you can click Installation Destination screen, where it is possible to add more storage devices or choose to configure partitioning manually. Click to free some storage space from existing file systems. See Section 13.15.3, “Reclaim Disk Space” for details.to return to theThe second dialog appears if you cannot create enough free space. In this case, you have to add more disks on the initial storage screen or quit the installation.If you select the I will configure partitioning radio button for manual setup, you will be brought to the Manual Partitioning screen after clicking . See Section 13.15.4, “Manual Partitioning” for details. - In the Encryption section, you can select the Encrypt my data check box to encrypt all partitions except for the
/boot
partition. See the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Security Guide for information on encryption.
13.15.1. Boot Loader Installation
Warning
Figure 13.18. Summary of Selected Disks
Warning
13.15.2. Encrypt Partitions
Figure 13.19. Enter Passphrase for an Encrypted Partition
Warning
13.15.3. Reclaim Disk Space
Warning
Figure 13.20. Reclaim Disk Space from Existing File Systems
13.15.4. Manual Partitioning
Warning
Figure 13.21. The Manual Partitioning Screen
Note
13.15.4.1. Adding File Systems and Configuring Partitions
PReP
, /
, /home
, /boot
, and swap
. You can also create additional partitions you require. See Section 13.15.4.4, “Recommended Partitioning Scheme” for further details.
Note
/boot
partition, a /
(root) volume, and a swap volume proportionate to the size of the available storage. These are the recommended file systems for a typical installation, but you can add additional file systems and mount points if you need to.
/
for the root partition or /boot
for the boot partition. Then enter the size of the file system in the Desired Capacity text field; for example, 2GiB
. If you leave the field empty or if you specify a size bigger than available space, all remaining free space is used instead. After entering these details, click the button to create the partition.
Note
/boot
, and then create the rest of the partitions, letting the installation program allocate the remaining capacity to them.
Standard Partition
, BTRFS
, LVM
, and LVM Thin Provisioning
. Note that the /boot
partition will always be located on a standard partition, regardless of the value selected in this menu.
Figure 13.22. Configuring Mount Points
Figure 13.23. Rescanning Disks
Figure 13.24. Customizing Partitions
- Mount Point - enter the file system's mount point. For example, if a file system should be the root file system, enter
/
; enter/boot
for the/boot
file system, and so on. For a swap file system, the mount point should not be set - setting the file system type toswap
is sufficient. - Desired Capacity - enter the desired size of the file system. You can use common size units such as KiB or GiB. The default is MiB if no other unit is specified.
- Device type - choose one of these types: Standard Partition, LVM, RAID, LVM Thin Provisioning, or BTRFS. Check the adjacent Encrypt box to encrypt the partition or volume. You will be prompted to set a password later. RAID is only available if two or more disks are selected for partitioning, and if you choose this type, you can also set the RAID Level. Similarly, if you select LVM, you can specify the Volume Group.
- File system - in the drop-down menu, select the appropriate file system type for this partition or volume. Check the adjacent Reformat box to format an existing partition, or leave it unchecked to retain your data. Note that newly created partitions and volumes must be reformatted, and the check box cannot be unchecked in this case.
- Label - assign a label to the partition. Labels are used for you to easily recognize and address individual partitions.
- Name - assign a name to an LVM or Btrfs volume. Note that standard partitions are named automatically when they are created and their name cannot be edited, such as
/home
being assigned the namesda1
.
Important
/usr
or /var
is partitioned separately from the rest of the root volume, the boot process becomes much more complex because these directories contain components critical to it. In some situations, such as when these directories are placed on an iSCSI drive or an FCoE location, the system can either be unable to boot, or hang with a Device is busy
error when powering off or rebooting.
/usr
or /var
, not to directories below them. For example, a separate partition for /var/www
will work without issues.
13.15.4.1.1. File System Types
Device Types
- standard partition - A standard partition can contain a file system or swap space, or it can provide a container for software RAID or an LVM physical volume.
- logical volume (LVM) - Creating an LVM partition automatically generates an LVM logical volume. LVM can improve performance when using physical disks. For information on how to create a logical volume, see Section 13.15.4.3, “Create LVM Logical Volume”. For more information regarding LVM, see the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Logical Volume Manager Administration guide.
- LVM thin provisioning - Using thin provisioning, you can manage a storage pool of free space, known as a thin pool, which can be allocated to an arbitrary number of devices when needed by applications. The thin pool can be expanded dynamically when needed for cost-effective allocation of storage space. For more information regarding LVM, see the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Logical Volume Manager Administration guide.
Note
The installer will automatically reserve 20% of any requested space for an LVM thin pool logical volume in the volume group containing it. This is a safety measure to ensure that you can extend either the metadata volume or the data volume of your thinly provisioned logical volume. - software RAID - Creating two or more software RAID partitions allows you to create a RAID device. One RAID partition is assigned to each disk on the system. To create a RAID device, see Section 13.15.4.2, “Create Software RAID”. For more information regarding RAID, see the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Storage Administration Guide.
File Systems
- xfs - XFS is a highly scalable, high-performance file system that supports file systems up to 16 EiB (approximately 16 billion GiB), files up to 8 EiB (approximately 8 billion GiB), and directory structures containing tens of millions of entries. XFS supports metadata journaling, which facilitates quicker crash recovery. The XFS file system can also be defragmented and resized while mounted and active. This file system is selected by default and is highly recommended. For information on how to translate common commands from previously used ext4 file system to XFS, see Appendix F, Reference Table for ext4 and XFS Commands.The maximum supported size of an XFS file system in Red Hat Enterprise Linux is currently 500 TiB.
- ext4 - The ext4 file system is based on the ext3 file system and features a number of improvements. These include support for larger file systems and larger files, faster and more efficient allocation of disk space, no limit on the number of subdirectories within a directory, faster file system checking, and more robust journaling.The maximum supported size of an ext4 file system in Red Hat Enterprise Linux is currently 50 TiB.
- ext3 - The ext3 file system is based on the ext2 file system and has one main advantage - journaling. Using a journaling file system reduces time spent recovering a file system after a crash as there is no need to check the file system for metadata consistency by running the
fsck
utility every time a crash occurs. - ext2 - An ext2 file system supports standard Unix file types, including regular files, directories, or symbolic links. It provides the ability to assign long file names, up to 255 characters.
- vfat - The VFAT file system is a Linux file system that is compatible with Microsoft Windows long file names on the FAT file system.
- swap - Swap partitions are used to support virtual memory. In other words, data is written to a swap partition when there is not enough RAM to store the data your system is processing.
- PReP - this small boot partition is located on the first partition of the hard drive. The PReP boot partition contains the GRUB2 boot loader, which allows other IBM Power Systems servers to boot Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
13.15.4.2. Create Software RAID
Figure 13.25. Creating a Software RAID Partition - the Device Type Menu Expanded
- Create a mount point as described in Section 13.15.4.1, “Adding File Systems and Configuring Partitions”. By configuring this mount point, you configure the RAID device.
- Keeping the partition selected in the left pane, select the configuration button below the pane to open the Configure Mount Point dialog. Select which disks will be included in the RAID device and click .
- Click the Device Type drop-down menu and select RAID.
- Click the File System drop-down menu and select your preferred file system type (see Section 8.14.4.1.1, “File System Types”.
- Click the RAID Level drop-down menu and select your preferred level of RAID.The available RAID levels are:
- RAID0 - Optimized performance (stripe)
- Distributes data across multiple disks. Level 0 RAIDs offer increased performance over standard partitions, and can be used to pool the storage of multiple disks into one large virtual device. Note that Level 0 RAIDs offer no redundancy, and that the failure of one device in the array destroys data in the entire array. RAID 0 requires at least two RAID partitions.
- RAID1 - Redundancy (mirror)
- Mirrors all data on one disk onto one or more other disks. Additional devices in the array provide increasing levels of redundancy. RAID 1 requires at least two RAID partitions.
- RAID4 - Error detection (parity)
- Distributes data across multiple disks, and uses one disk in the array to store parity information that safeguards the array in case any disk within the array fails. Because all parity information is stored on one disk, access to this disk creates a bottleneck in the performance of the array. RAID 4 requires at least three RAID partitions.
- RAID5 - Distributed error detection
- Distributes data and parity information across multiple disks. Level 5 RAIDs therefore offer the performance advantages of distributing data across multiple disks, but do not share the performance bottleneck of level 4 RAIDs because the parity information is also distributed through the array. RAID 5 requires at least three RAID partitions.
- RAID6 - Redundant
- Level 6 RAIDs are similar to level 5 RAIDs, but instead of storing only one set of parity data, they store two sets. RAID 6 requires at least four RAID partitions.
- RAID10 - Redundancy (mirror) and Optimized performance (stripe)
- Level 10 RAIDs are nested RAIDs or hybrid RAIDs. They are constructed by distributing data over mirrored sets of disks. For example, a level 10 RAID array constructed from four RAID partitions consists of two mirrored pairs of striped partitions. RAID 10 requires at least four RAID partitions.
- Click Installation Summary screen.to save your changes, and either continue with another partition or click to return to the
13.15.4.3. Create LVM Logical Volume
Important
lvm
command. To return to the text-mode installation, press Ctrl+Alt+F1.
Figure 13.26. Configuring a Logical Volume
- Create a mount point for the LVM volume as described in Section 13.15.4.1, “Adding File Systems and Configuring Partitions”.
- Click the Device Type drop-down menu and select LVM. The Volume Group drop-down menu appears and displays the newly-created volume group name.
- Optionally, either click the menu and select Create a new volume group or click to configure the newly-created volume group, if you need to. Both the Create a new volume group option and the button lead to the Configure Volume Group dialog, where you can rename the logical volume group and select which disks will be included.
Note
The configuration dialog does not allow you to specify the size of the volume group's physical extents. The size will always be set to the default value of 4 MiB. If you want to create a volume group with different physical extents, create it manually by switching to an interactive shell and using thevgcreate
command, or use a Kickstart file with thevolgroup --pesize=size
command.Figure 13.27. Customizing an LVM Volume Group
The available RAID levels are the same as with actual RAID devices. See Section 13.15.4.2, “Create Software RAID” for more information. You can also mark the volume group for encryption and set the size policy for it. The available policy options are:- Automatic - the size of the volume group is set automatically so that it is just large enough to contain the configured logical volumes. This is optimal if you do not need free space within the volume group.
- As large as possible - the volume group is created with maximum size, regardless of the size of the configured logical volumes it contains. This is optimal if you plan to keep most of your data on LVM and later need to increase the size of some existing logical volumes, or if you need to create additional logical volumes within this group.
- Fixed - with this option, you can set an exact size of the volume group. Any configured logical volumes must then fit within this fixed size. This is useful if you know exactly how large you would like the volume group to be.
Clickwhen the group is configured. - Click Installation Summary screen.to save your changes, and either continue with another partition or click to return to the
Warning
/boot
partition on an LVM volume is not supported.
13.15.4.4. Recommended Partitioning Scheme
- A PReP boot partition - recommended size of 4 to 8 MiB
- The first partition of the hard drive should include a PReP boot partition. This contains the GRUB2 boot loader, which allows other IBM Power Systems servers to boot Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
-
/boot
partition - recommended size at least 1 GiB - The partition mounted on
/boot
contains the operating system kernel, which allows your system to boot Red Hat Enterprise Linux, along with files used during the bootstrap process. Due to the limitations of most firmwares, creating a small partition to hold these is recommended. In most scenarios, a 1 GiB boot partition is adequate. Unlike other mount points, using an LVM volume for/boot
is not possible -/boot
must be located on a separate disk partition.Note
If you have a RAID card, be aware that some BIOS types do not support booting from the RAID card. In such a case, the/boot
partition must be created on a partition outside of the RAID array, such as on a separate hard drive.Warning
If you have a RAID card, be aware that Red Hat Enterprise Linux does not support setting up hardware RAID on an IPR card. You can boot the standalone diagnostics CD prior to installation to create a RAID array and then install to that RAID array. root
- recommended size of 10 GiB- This is where "
/
", or the root directory, is located. The root directory is the top-level of the directory structure. By default, all files are written to this file system unless a different file system is mounted in the path being written to (for example,/boot
or/home
).While a 5 GiB root file system allows you to install a minimal installation, it is recommended to allocate at least 10 GiB so that you can install as many package groups as you want.Important
Do not confuse the/
directory with the/root
directory. The/root
directory is the home directory of the root user. The/root
directory is sometimes referred to as slash root to distinguish it from the root directory. /home
- recommended size at least 1 GiB- To store user data separately from system data, create a dedicated file system for the
/home
directory. This file system should be sized based on the amount of data that will be stored locally, number of users, and so on. This will enable you to upgrade or reinstall Red Hat Enterprise Linux without erasing user data files. If you select automatic partitioning, it is recommended to have at least 55GiB of disk space available for the installation, to ensure that the/home
file system is created. swap
partition - recommended size at least 1 GB- Swap file systems support virtual memory; data is written to a swap file system when there is not enough RAM to store the data your system is processing. Swap size is a function of system memory workload, not total system memory and therefore is not equal to the total system memory size. Therefore, it is important to analyze what applications a system will be running and the load those applications will serve in order to determine the system memory workload. Application providers and developers should be able to provide some guidance.When the system runs out of swap space, the kernel terminates processes as the system RAM memory is exhausted. Configuring too much swap space results in storage devices being allocated but idle and is a poor use of resources. Too much swap space can also hide memory leaks. The maximum size for a swap partition and other additional information can be found in the
mkswap(8)
manual page.The following table provides the recommended size of a swap partition depending on the amount of RAM in your system. If you let the installation program partition your system automatically, the swap partition size will be established using these guidelines. Automatic partitioning setup assumes that the maximum size of the swap partition is limited to 10% of the total size of the hard drive, and the installer cannot create swap partitions more than 128GB in size. If you want to set the swap partition size to more than 10% of the system's storage space, or more than 128GB, you must edit the partitioning layout manually.Table 13.3. Recommended System Swap Space Amount of RAM in the system Recommended swap space Recommended swap space if allowing for hibernation less than 2 GB 2 times the amount of RAM 3 times the amount of RAM 2 GB - 8 GB Equal to the amount of RAM 2 times the amount of RAM 8 GB - 64 GB 4GB to 0.5 times the amount of RAM 1.5 times the amount of RAM more than 64 GB workload dependent (at least 4GB) hibernation not recommended At the border between each range listed above (for example, a system with 2 GB, 8 GB, or 64 GB of system RAM), discretion can be exercised with regard to chosen swap space. If your system resources allow for it, increasing the swap space can lead to better performance.Distributing swap space over multiple storage devices - particularly on systems with fast drives, controllers and interfaces - also improves swap space performance.
Warning
/var/cache/yum/
by default. If you create a separate partition or volume for /var
, ensure that it is at least 3GB in size to accommodate downloaded package updates.
13.16. Storage Devices
Figure 13.28. Storage Space Overview
13.16.1. The Storage Devices Selection Screen
- Multipath Devices
- Storage devices accessible through more than one path, such as through multiple SCSI controllers or Fiber Channel ports on the same system.The installation program only detects multipath storage devices with serial numbers that are 16 or 32 characters long.
- Other SAN Devices
- Devices available on a Storage Area Network (SAN).
- Firmware RAID
- Storage devices attached to a firmware RAID controller.
Figure 13.29. Tabbed Overview of Specialized Storage Devices
- - use to attach iSCSI devices; continue with
- - use to configure a Fibre Channel Over Internet storage device; continue with
Figure 13.30. The Storage Devices Search Tab
/etc/fstab
file.
Important
13.16.1.1. Advanced Storage Options
Figure 13.31. Advanced Storage Options
13.16.1.1.1. Configure iSCSI Parameters
Figure 13.32. The iSCSI Discovery Details Dialog
Note
Procedure 13.1. iSCSI Discovery and Starting an iSCSI Session
- Enter the IP address of the iSCSI target in the Target IP Address field.
- Provide a name in the iSCSI Initiator Name field for the iSCSI initiator in iSCSI qualified name (IQN) format. A valid IQN entry contains:
- the string
iqn.
(note the period) - a date code that specifies the year and month in which your organization's Internet domain or subdomain name was registered, represented as four digits for the year, a dash, and two digits for the month, followed by a period. For example, represent September 2010 as
2010-09.
- your organization's Internet domain or subdomain name, presented in reverse order with the top-level domain first. For example, represent the subdomain
storage.example.com
ascom.example.storage
- a colon followed by a string that uniquely identifies this particular iSCSI initiator within your domain or subdomain. For example,
:diskarrays-sn-a8675309
A complete IQN can therefore look as follows:iqn.2010-09.storage.example.com:diskarrays-sn-a8675309
. Anaconda prepopulates the iSCSI Initiator Name field with a name in this format to help you with the structure.For more information on IQNs , see 3.2.6. iSCSI Names in RFC 3720 - Internet Small Computer Systems Interface (iSCSI) available from http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3720#section-3.2.6 and 1. iSCSI Names and Addresses in RFC 3721 - Internet Small Computer Systems Interface (iSCSI) Naming and Discovery available from http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3721#section-1. - Use the Discovery Authentication Type drop-down menu to specify the type of authentication to use for iSCSI discovery. The following options are available:
- no credentials
- CHAP pair
- CHAP pair and a reverse pair
- If you selected CHAP Username and CHAP Password fields.as the authentication type, provide the user name and password for the iSCSI target in the
- If you selected CHAP Username and CHAP Password field and the user name and password for the iSCSI initiator in the Reverse CHAP Username and Reverse CHAP Password fields.as the authentication type, provide the user name and password for the iSCSI target in the
- Optionally check the box labeled Bind targets to network interfaces.
- Click the Anaconda attempts to discover an iSCSI target based on the information that you provided. If discovery succeeds, the dialog displays a list of all iSCSI nodes discovered on the target.button.
- Each node is presented with a check box beside it. Click the check boxes to select the nodes to use for installation.
Figure 13.33. The Dialog of Discovered iSCSI Nodes
- The Node login authentication type menu provides the same options as the Discovery Authentication Type menu described in step 3. However, if you needed credentials for discovery authentication, it is typical to use the same credentials to log into a discovered node. To do that, use the additional option from the menu. When the proper credentials have been provided, the button becomes available.
- Clickto initiate an iSCSI session.
13.16.1.1.2. Configure FCoE Parameters
Figure 13.34. Configure FCoE Parameters
- Use DCB
- Data Center Bridging (DCB) is a set of enhancements to the Ethernet protocols designed to increase the efficiency of Ethernet connections in storage networks and clusters. Enable or disable the installation program's awareness of DCB with the check box in this dialog. This option should only be enabled for network interfaces that require a host-based DCBX client. Configurations on interfaces that implement a hardware DCBX client should leave this check box empty.
- Use auto vlan
- Auto VLAN indicates whether VLAN discovery should be performed. If this box is checked, then the FIP (FCoE Initiation Protocol) VLAN discovery protocol will run on the Ethernet interface once the link configuration has been validated. If they are not already configured, network interfaces for any discovered FCoE VLANs will be automatically created and FCoE instances will be created on the VLAN interfaces. This option is enabled by default.
13.17. Kdump
Figure 13.35. Kdump Enablement and Configuration
13.18. Begin Installation
Figure 13.36. Ready to Install
Warning
13.20. Installation Complete
login:
prompt) appears.
Chapter 14. Troubleshooting Installation on IBM Power Systems
/tmp
directory. These files are listed in the following table.
Log file | Contents |
---|---|
/tmp/anaconda.log | general Anaconda messages |
/tmp/program.log | all external programs run during the installation |
/tmp/storage.log | extensive storage module information |
/tmp/packaging.log | yum and rpm package installation messages |
/tmp/syslog | hardware-related system messages |
/tmp/anaconda-tb-identifier
, where identifier is a random string.
/var/log/anaconda/
. However, if installation is unsuccessful, or if the inst.nosave=all
or inst.nosave=logs
options are used when booting the installation system, these logs will only exist in the installation program's RAM disk. This means they are not saved permanently and will be lost once the system is powered down. To store them permanently, copy those files to another system on the network by using scp
on the system running the installation program, or copy them to a mounted storage device (such as an USB flash drive). Details on how to transfer the log files over the network are below.
Note
ssh
protocol.
Procedure 14.1. Transferring Log Files Over the Network
- On the system you are installing, press Ctrl+Alt+F2 to access a shell prompt. You will be logged into a root account and you will have access to the installation program's temporary file system.
- Switch to the
/tmp
directory where the log files are located:#
cd /tmp
- Copy the log files onto another system on the network using the
scp
command:#
scp *log user@address:path
Replace user with a valid user name on the target system, address with the target system's address or host name, and path with the path to the directory you want to save the log files into. For example, if you want to log in asjohn
to a system with an IP address of192.168.0.122
and place the log files into the/home/john/logs/
directory on that system, the command will have the following form:#
scp *log john@192.168.0.122:/home/john/logs/
When connecting to the target system for the first time, the SSH client asks you to confirm that the fingerprint of the remote system is correct and that you want to continue:The authenticity of host '192.168.0.122 (192.168.0.122)' can't be established.
ECDSA key fingerprint is a4:60:76:eb:b2:d0:aa:23:af:3d:59:5c:de:bb:c4:42.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)?
Typeyes
and press Enter to continue. Then, provide a valid password when prompted. The files will start transferring to the specified directory on the target system.
14.1. Trouble Beginning the Installation
14.1.1. Problems with Booting into the Graphical Installation
- Use the basic graphics mode
- You can attempt to perform the installation using the basic graphics driver. To do this, edit the installation program's options at the
boot:
prompt and appendinst.xdriver=vesa
at the end of the command line. - Specify the display resolution manually
- If the installation program fails to detect your screen resolution, you can override the automatic detection and specify it manually. To do this, append the
inst.resolution=x
option at the boot menu, where x is your display's resolution (for example,1024x768
).
14.1.2. Serial Console Not Detected
inst.text
and console=
boot options. See Chapter 23, Boot Options for more details.
14.2. Trouble During the Installation
14.2.1. No Disks Detected
14.2.2. Reporting Traceback Messages
Figure 14.1. The Crash Reporting Dialog Box
tty1
, where you can request more precise information that will enhance the bug report. To return to the graphical interface from tty1
, use the continue
command.
Figure 14.2. The Expanded Crash Reporting Dialog Box
Procedure 14.2. Reporting Errors to Red Hat Customer Support
- In the menu that appears, select Report a bug to Red Hat Customer Portal.
- To report the bug to Red Hat, you first need to provide your Customer Portal credentials. Click.
Figure 14.3. Customer Portal Credentials
- A new window is now open, prompting you to enter your Customer Portal user name and password. Enter your Red Hat Customer Portal credentials.
Figure 14.4. Configure Red Hat Customer Support
If your network settings require you to use aHTTP
orHTTPS
proxy, you can configure it by expanding the Advanced menu and entering the address of the proxy server.When you put in all required credentials, click OK to proceed. - A new window appears, containing a text field. Write down any useful information and comments here. Describe how the error can be reproduced by explaining each step you took before the crash reporting dialog appeared. Provide as much relevant detail as possible, including any information you acquired when debugging. Be aware that the information you provide here can become publicly visible on the Customer Portal.If you do not know what caused the error, check the box labeled I don't know what caused this problem at the bottom of the dialog.Then, click.
Figure 14.5. Describe the Problem
- Next, review the information that will be sent to the Customer Portal. The explanation you provided is in the comment tab. Other tabs include such information as your system's host name and other details about the installation environment. You can remove any items you do not want sent to Red Hat, but be aware that providing less detail can affect the investigation of the issue.Clickwhen you finish reviewing the information to be sent.
Figure 14.6. Review the Data to Be Sent
- Review the list of files that will be sent and included in the bug report as individual attachments. These files provide system information that will assist the investigation. If you do not want to send certain files, uncheck the box next to each one. To provide additional files that can help find the problem, click.Once you have reviewed the files to be sent, check the box labeled I have reviewed the data and agree with submitting it. Then, click to send the report and attachments to the Customer Portal.
Figure 14.7. Review the Files to Be Sent
- When the dialog reports that processing has finished, you can click Show log to view details of the reporting process or Close to return to the initial crash reporting dialog box. There, click Quit to exit the installation.
14.2.3. Creating Pre-installation Log Files
inst.debug
option to create log files from the environment before the installation starts. These log files contain, for example, the current storage configuration.
- Select theentry.
- Press the Tab key to edit the boot options.
- Append
inst.debug
to the options. For example:> vmlinuz ...
inst.debug
For further details, see Chapter 23, Boot Options. - Press Enter to start the setup.
/tmp/pre-anaconda-logs/
directory before Anaconda starts. To access the log files:
- Switch to the console. See Section 8.2.1, “Accessing Consoles”.
- Change into the
/tmp/pre-anaconda-logs/
directory:# cd /tmp/pre-anaconda-logs/
14.2.4. Other Partitioning Problems for IBM Power Systems Users
- A
/
(root) partition - A
PReP Boot
partition - A
/boot
partition (only if the root partition is a LVM logical volume or Btrfs subvolume)
14.3. Problems After Installation
14.3.1. Trouble With the Graphical Boot Sequence
Procedure 14.3. Disabling Graphical Boot Temporarily
- Start your computer and wait until the boot loader menu appears. If you set your boot loader timeout period to 0, hold down the Esc key to access it.
- When the boot loader menu appears, use your cursor keys to highlight the entry you want to boot and press the e key to edit this entry's options.
- In the list of options, find the kernel line - that is, the line beginning with the keyword
linux
. On this line, locate therhgb
option and delete it. The option might not be immediately visible; use the cursor keys to scroll up and down. - Press F10 or Ctrl+X to boot your system with the edited options.
Procedure 14.4. Disabling Graphical Boot Permanently
- Log in to the
root
account using thesu -
command:$
su -
- Use the grubby tool to find the default GRUB2 kernel:
#
grubby --default-kernel
/boot/vmlinuz-3.10.0-229.4.2.el7.ppc64 - Use the grubby tool to remove the
rhgb
boot option from the default kernel, identified in the last step, in your GRUB2 configuration. For example:#
grubby --remove-args="rhgb" --update-kernel /boot/vmlinuz-3.10.0-229.4.2.el7.ppc64
--remove-args="rhgb"
parameter with the --args="rhgb"
paramter. This will restore the rhgb
boot option to the default kernel in your GRUB2 configuration.
14.3.2. Booting into a Graphical Environment
startx
command. Note, however, that this is just a one-time fix and does not change the log in process for future log ins.
graphical.target
. When you are finished, reboot the computer. You will presented with a graphical login prompt after the system restarts.
Procedure 14.5. Setting Graphical Login as Default
- Open a shell prompt. If you are in your user account, become root by typing the
su -
command. - Change the default target to
graphical.target
. To do this, execute the following command:#
systemctl set-default graphical.target
root
:
#
systemctl set-default multi-user.target
14.3.3. No Graphical User Interface Present
14.3.4. X Server Crashing After User Logs In
$
df -h
/home
partition. The following is a sample output of the df
command:
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on /dev/mapper/vg_rhel-root 20G 6.0G 13G 32% / devtmpfs 1.8G 0 1.8G 0% /dev tmpfs 1.8G 2.7M 1.8G 1% /dev/shm tmpfs 1.8G 1012K 1.8G 1% /run tmpfs 1.8G 0 1.8G 0% /sys/fs/cgroup tmpfs 1.8G 2.6M 1.8G 1% /tmp /dev/sda1 976M 150M 760M 17% /boot /dev/dm-4 90G 90G 0 100% /home
/home
partition is full, which causes the crash. You can make some room on the partition by removing unneeded files. After you free up some disk space, start X using the startx
command.
df
and an explanation of the options available (such as the -h
option used in this example), see the df(1)
man page.
14.3.5. Is Your System Displaying Signal 11 Errors?
rd.live.check
boot option at the boot menu. See Section 23.2.2, “Verifying Boot Media” for details.
14.3.6. Unable to IPL from Network Storage Space (*NWSSTG)
PReP
partition. In this case, you must reinstall the system and make sure to create this partition during the partitioning phase or in the Kickstart file.
14.3.7. The GRUB2 next_entry
variable can behave unexpectedly in a virtualized environment
next_entry
grub environment variable after a system reboot. The SLOF firmware does not support block writes at boot time by design thus the bootloader is unable to clear this variable at boot time.
Part III. IBM Z Architecture - Installation and Booting
Chapter 15. Planning for Installation on IBM Z
15.1. Pre-installation
- Decide whether you want to run the operating system on an LPAR or as a z/VM guest operating system.
- Decide if you need swap space and if so, how much. Although it is possible (and recommended) to assign enough memory to a z/VM guest virtual machine and let z/VM do the necessary swapping, there are cases where the amount of required RAM is hard to predict. Such instances should be examined on a case-by-case basis. See Section 18.15.3.4, “Recommended Partitioning Scheme”.
- Decide on a network configuration. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 for IBM Z supports the following network devices:
- Real and virtual Open Systems Adapter (OSA)
- Real and virtual HiperSockets
- LAN channel station (LCS) for real OSA
- Disk space. Calculate how much disk space you need and allocate sufficient disk space on DASDs[2] or SCSI[3] disks. You require at least 10 GB for a server installation, and 20 GB if you want to install all packages. You also require disk space for any application data. After the installation, you can add or delete more DASD or SCSI disk partitions.The disk space used by the newly installed Red Hat Enterprise Linux system (the Linux instance) must be separate from the disk space used by other operating systems you have installed on your system.For more information about disks and partition configuration, see Section 18.15.3.4, “Recommended Partitioning Scheme”.
- RAM. Acquire 1 GB (recommended) for the Linux instance. With some tuning, an instance might run with as little as 512 MB RAM.
Note
FBAPART
option must be used.
15.2. Overview of the IBM Z Installation Procedure
Booting the Installation
Connect with the mainframe, then perform an initial program load (IPL), or boot, from the medium containing the installation program. See Chapter 16, Booting the Installation on IBM Z for details.Connecting to the installation system
From a local machine, connect to the remote IBM Z system to continue with the installation process. See Chapter 17, Connecting to the installation system for details.Anaconda
Use the Anaconda installation program to configure network, specify language support, installation source, software packages to be installed, and to perform the rest of the installation. See Chapter 18, Installing Using Anaconda for more information.