Chapter 14. Starting a remote installation by using the Remote Desktop Protocol

Procedure

1. From the RHEL boot menu on the target system, press the e key on your keyboard to edit the boot options.

2. Append the inst.rdp option to the end of the command line.

   You can also use the inst.rdp.username and inst.rdp.password boot options to set the RDP credentials. For example,

   inst.rdp inst.rdp.username=my_username inst.rdp.password=my_password

3. Press CTRL+X or F10 to start the installation. The target system initializes the installation program and starts the necessary services. When the system is ready, a message is displayed providing the IP address of the system.
4. Provide username and password details, if not provided earlier by using the boot options.
5. Open the RDP viewer on the remote system.
6. Enter the IP address into the RDP server field.
7. Click Connect.

8. Enter the RDP username and password and click OK.

   A new window opens with the RDP connection established, displaying the RHEL installation menu. From this window, you can install RHEL on the target system by using the graphical user interface.

1. On the command prompt, run the following command:

   $ssh install@_my-z-system-domain-name_

   or

   $ssh install@_my-z-system-IP-address_

2. Depending on whether or not have you configured the inst.rdp parameter, the ssh session displays the following output:

   1. When just the inst.rdp parameter is configured:

      Starting installer, one moment...
      RDP Username and Password
      Please provide RDP user name & password.
      You will have to type the password twice.

      After entering the username and password, the network address for RDP client access will be shown:

   2. When just the inst.rdp, inst.rdp.username and inst.rdp.password parameters are configured:

      The network address is shown:

      GNOME remote desktop RDP IP: _system-ip-address_
      GNOME remote desktop RDP host name: _system-host-name_

   3. When inst.rdp parameter is not configured:

      Starting installer, one moment...
      Graphical installation is not available. Starting text mode.
      =============
      Text mode provides a limited set of installation options.
      It does not offer custom partitioning for full control
      over the disk layout. Would you like to use remote graphical access via the RDP protocol instead?
      1) Use graphical mode via Remote Desktop Protocol
      2) Use text mode
      Please make your choice from above ['q' to quit | 'c' to continue | 'r' to refresh]:

      If you have configured the inst.rdp parameter, proceed to step 4.

3. Enter 1 to start RDP.
4. Enter RDP username and password, if you have not set these values previously via inst.rdp.username and inst.rdp.password boot options.
5. Use an RDP client to connect to the provided network address.