Chapter 5. Creating system images by using RHEL image builder web console interface

Procedure

1. On the host, open https://<_localhost_>:9090/ in a web browser.
2. Log in to the web console as the root user.

3. To display the RHEL image builder controls, click the Image Builder button, in the upper-left corner of the window.

   The RHEL image builder dashboard opens, listing existing blueprints, if any.

Procedure

1. Click Create Blueprint in the upper-right corner.

   The Images dialog box opens.

2. On the Image output page, complete the following steps:

   1. Choose the Release version and the Architecture.
   2. Select the target environment or target environments.
   3. Click Next.

3. Optional: On the File system configuration page, select Use automatic partitioning or Manually configure partitions for your image file system. To manually configure the partitions, complete the following steps:

   1. Click the Manually configure partitions button.

   2. From the dropdown menu, provide details to configure the partitions:

      • For the Mount point field, select one of the following mount point type options:

        • /app
        • /boot
        • /data
        • /home
        • /opt
        • /srv
        • /tmp
        • /usr

        • /var

          You can also add an additional path to the Mount point. For example, if you select /var as the mount point and add /tmp as an additional path, the result is /var/tmp. Depending on the mount point type you choose, the file system type changes to xfs.

      • For the Minimum size partition field of the file system, enter the needed minimum partition size. In the Minimum size dropdown menu, you can use common size units such as GB, MB, or KB. The default unit is GB.

        Minimum size means that RHEL image builder can still increase the partition sizes if they are too small to create a working image.

   3. To add more partitions, click the Add partition button. If you see the "Duplicate partitions: Only one partition at each mount point can be created." error message, you can fix it by performing one of the following actions:

      • Click the Remove button to remove the duplicated partition.
      • Choose a new mount point for the partition you want to create.
   4. After you finish the partitioning configuration, click Next.

4. Optional: On the Additional packages page, complete the following steps:

   1. In the Available packages search, enter the package name.
   2. Click the button to move it to the Chosen packages field.
   3. Repeat the previous steps to search and include as many packages as you want.
   4. Click Next.

5. Optional: On the Users page, add users:

   1. Click Add user.
   2. Enter a Username, a Password, and an SSH key. You can also mark the user as a privileged user by clicking the Administrator checkbox.
   3. Click Next

6. Optional: On the Timezone page, set the time zone:

   1. On the Timezone field, enter the time zone you want to add to your system image. For example, add the following time zone format: "US/Eastern".

      If you do not set a time zone, the system uses Universal Time Coordinated (UTC) as the default.

   2. Enter the NTP servers.
   3. Click Next.

7. Optional: On the Locale page, complete the following steps:

   1. In the Languages search field, enter the locale identifier you want to add to your system image. For example: "us".
   2. In the Keyboard search field, enter the locale identifier you want to add to your system image. For example: ["en_US.UTF-8"].
   3. Click Next.
8. Optional: On the Hostname page, add a hostname, then click Next:

9. Optional: On the Kernel page, complete the following steps:

   1. Enter the kernel name.
   2. Add the kernel command-line arguments.
   3. Click Next.

10. Optional: On the Firewall page, complete the following steps:

    1. Enter the port numbers.
    2. Add the firewall services you want to enable or disable.
    3. Click Next.

11. Optional: On the Systemd services page, add the services that you want to enable or disable:

    1. Enter the service names you want to enable or disable, separating them with a comma, a space, or by pressing Enter.
    2. Click Next.

12. On the Details page, complete the following steps:

    1. Enter the name of the blueprint and, optionally, its description.
    2. Click Next.

13. On the Review page, review the blueprint details and choose one of the options from the dropdown menu:

    • Click Create blueprint.

    • Click Create blueprint and build image(s).

      The RHEL image builder view opens, listing the existing blueprints.

Procedure

1. On the RHEL image builder dashboard, click Import blueprint. The Import blueprint wizard opens.
2. From the Upload field, either drag or upload an existing blueprint. This blueprint can be in either TOML or JSON format.
3. Click Import. The dashboard lists the blueprint you imported.

Procedure

1. On the image builder dashboard, select the blueprint you want to export.
2. Click Export blueprint. The Export blueprint wizard opens.

3. Click the Export button to download the blueprint as a file or click the Copy button to copy the blueprint to the clipboard.

   1. Optional: Click the Copy button to copy the blueprint.

Procedure

1. In the RHEL image builder dashboard, click the blueprint tab.
2. On the blueprint table, find the blueprint you want to build an image.
3. On the right side of the chosen blueprint, click Create Image. The Create image dialog wizard opens.

4. On the Image output page, complete the following steps:

   1. From the Select a blueprint list, select the image type you want.

   2. From the Image output type list, select the image output type you want.

      Depending on the image type you select, you need to add further details.

5. Click Next.

6. On the Review page, review the details about the image creation and click Create image.

   The image build starts and takes up to 20 minutes to complete.