Chapter 17. Customizing the system in the installer

Procedure

1. From the Installation Summary window, click Installation Destination. Perform the following operations in the Installation Destination window opens:

   1. From the Local Standard Disks section, select the storage device that you require; a white check mark indicates your selection. Disks without a white check mark are not used during the installation process; they are ignored if you choose automatic partitioning, and they are not available in manual partitioning.

      The Local Standard Disks shows all locally available storage devices, for example, SATA, IDE and SCSI disks, USB flash and external disks. Any storage devices connected after the installation program has started are not detected. If you use a removable drive to install Red Hat Enterprise Linux, your system is unusable if you remove the device.

   2. Optional: Click the Refresh link in the lower right-hand side of the window if you want to configure additional local storage devices to connect new disks. The Rescan Disks dialog box opens.

      1. Click Rescan Disks and wait until the scanning process completes.

         All storage changes that you make during the installation are lost when you click Rescan Disks.

      2. Click OK to return to the Installation Destination window. All detected disks including any new ones are displayed under the Local Standard Disks section.

2. Optional: Click Add a disk…​ to add a specialized storage device.

   The Storage Device Selection window opens and lists all storage devices that the installation program has access to.

3. Optional: Under Storage Configuration, select the Automatic radio button for automatic partitioning.

   You can also configure custom partitioning. For more details, see Configuring manual partitioning.

4. Optional: Select I would like to make additional space available to reclaim space from an existing partitioning layout. For example, if a disk you want to use already has a different operating system and you want to make this system’s partitions smaller to allow more room for Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

5. Optional: Select Encrypt my data to encrypt all partitions except the ones needed to boot the system (such as /boot) using Linux Unified Key Setup (LUKS). Encrypting your disk to add an extra layer of security.

   1. Click Done. The Disk Encryption Passphrase dialog box opens.

      1. Type your passphrase in the Passphrase and Confirm fields.

      2. Click Save Passphrase to complete disk encryption.

         Warning

         If you lose the LUKS passphrase, any encrypted partitions and their data is completely inaccessible. There is no way to recover a lost passphrase. However, if you perform a Kickstart installation, you can save encryption passphrases and create backup encryption passphrases during the installation. For more information, see the Automatically installing RHEL document.

6. Optional: Click the Full disk summary and bootloader link in the lower left-hand side of the window to select which storage device contains the boot loader. For more information, see Configuring boot loader.

   In most cases it is sufficient to leave the boot loader in the default location. Some configurations, for example, systems that require chain loading from another boot loader require the boot drive to be specified manually.

7. Click Done.

8. Optional: The Reclaim Disk Space dialog box appears if you selected automatic partitioning and the I would like to make additional space available option, or if there is not enough free space on the selected disks to install Red Hat Enterprise Linux. It lists all configured disk devices and all partitions on those devices. The dialog box displays information about the minimal disk space the system needs for an installation with the currently selected package set and how much space you have reclaimed. To start the reclaiming process:

   1. Review the displayed list of available storage devices. The Reclaimable Space column shows how much space can be reclaimed from each entry.
   2. Select a disk or partition to reclaim space.
   3. Use the Shrink button to use free space on a partition while preserving the existing data.
   4. Use the Delete button to delete that partition or all partitions on a selected disk including existing data.
   5. Use the Delete all button to delete all existing partitions on all disks including existing data and make this space available to install Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

   6. Click Reclaim space to apply the changes and return to graphical installations.

      No disk changes are made until you click Begin Installation on the Installation Summary window. The Reclaim Space dialog only marks partitions for resizing or deletion; no action is performed.

Procedure

1. From the Installation Destination window, click the Full disk summary and bootloader link. The Selected Disks dialog box opens.

   The boot loader is installed on the device of your choice, or on a UEFI system; the EFI system partition is created on the target device during guided partitioning.

2. To change the boot device, select a device from the list and click Set as Boot Device. You can set only one device as the boot device.
3. To disable a new boot loader installation, select the device currently marked for boot and click Do not install boot loader. This ensures GRUB2 is not installed on any device.

Procedure

1. From the Installation Summary window, click Installation Destination. The Installation Destination window opens, listing all available drives.
2. Under the Specialized & Network Disks section, click Add a disk…. The storage devices selection window opens.

3. Click the Search by tab to search by port, target, LUN, or WWID.

   Searching by WWID or LUN requires additional values in the corresponding input text fields.

4. Select the option that you require from the Search drop-down menu.
5. Click Find to start the search. Each device is presented on a separate row with a corresponding check box.

6. Select the check box to enable the device that you require during the installation process.

   Later in the installation process you can choose to install Red Hat Enterprise Linux on any of the selected devices, and you can choose to mount any of the other selected devices as part of the installed system automatically. Selected devices are not automatically erased by the installation process and selecting a device does not put the data stored on the device at risk.

   Note

   You can add devices to the system after installation by modifying the /etc/fstab file.

7. Click Done to return to the Installation Destination window.

Procedure

1. From the Installation Summary window, select User Settings > Root Password. The Root Password window opens.

2. Type your password in the Root Password field.

   The requirements for creating a strong root password are:

   • Must be at least eight characters long
   • May contain numbers, letters (upper and lower case) and symbols
   • Is case-sensitive
3. Type the same password in the Confirm field.

4. Click Done to confirm your root password and return to the Installation Summary window.

   If you proceed with a weak password, you must click Done twice.

Procedure

1. On the Installation Summary window, select User Settings > User Creation. The Create User window opens.
2. Type the user account name in to the Full name field, for example: John Smith.

3. Type the username in to the User name field, for example: jsmith.

   The User name is used to log in from a command line; if you install a graphical environment, then your graphical login manager uses the Full name.

4. Select the Make this user administrator check box if the user requires administrative rights (the installation program adds the user to the wheel group ).

   An administrator user can use the sudo command to perform tasks that are only available to root using the user password, instead of the root password. This may be more convenient, but it can also cause a security risk.

5. Select the Require a password to use this account check box.

   If you give administrator privileges to a user, ensure the account is password protected. Never give a user administrator privileges without assigning a password to the account.

6. Type a password into the Password field.
7. Type the same password into the Confirm password field.
8. Click Done to apply the changes and return to the Installation Summary window.

Procedure

1. On the Create User window, click Advanced.
2. Edit the details in the Home directory field, if required. The field is populated by default with /home/username .

3. In the User and Groups IDs section you can:

   1. Select the Specify a user ID manually check box and use + or - to enter the required value.

      The default value is 1000. User IDs (UIDs) 0-999 are reserved by the system so they cannot be assigned to a user.

   2. Select the Specify a group ID manually check box and use + or - to enter the required value.

      The default group name is the same as the user name, and the default Group ID (GID) is 1000. GIDs 0-999 are reserved by the system so they can not be assigned to a user group.

4. Specify additional groups as a comma-separated list in the Group Membership field. Groups that do not already exist are created; you can specify custom GIDs for additional groups in parentheses. If you do not specify a custom GID for a new group, the new group receives a GID automatically.

   The user account created always has one default group membership (the user’s default group with an ID set in the Specify a group ID manually field).

5. Click Save Changes to apply the updates and return to the Create User window.

Procedure

1. Select disks for installation:

   1. Click Installation Destination to open the Installation Destination window.
   2. Select the disks that you require for installation by clicking the corresponding icon. A selected disk has a check-mark displayed on it.
   3. Under Storage Configuration, select the Custom radio-button.
   4. Optional: To enable storage encryption with LUKS, select the Encrypt my data check box.
   5. Click Done.

2. If you selected to encrypt the storage, a dialog box for entering a disk encryption passphrase opens. Type in the LUKS passphrase:

   1. Enter the passphrase in the two text fields. To switch keyboard layout, use the keyboard icon.

      Warning

      In the dialog box for entering the passphrase, you cannot change the keyboard layout. Select the English keyboard layout to enter the passphrase in the installation program.

   2. Click Save Passphrase. The Manual Partitioning window opens.

3. Detected mount points are listed in the left-hand pane. The mount points are organized by detected operating system installations. As a result, some file systems may be displayed multiple times if a partition is shared among several installations.

   1. Select the mount points in the left pane; the options that can be customized are displayed in the right pane.
   2. Optional: If your system contains existing file systems, ensure that enough space is available for the installation. To remove any partitions, select them in the list and click the - button. The dialog has a check box that you can use to remove all other partitions used by the system to which the deleted partition belongs.

   3. Optional: If there are no existing partitions and you want to create a set of partitions as a starting point, select your preferred partitioning scheme from the left pane (default for Red Hat Enterprise Linux is LVM) and click the Click here to create them automatically link.

      Note

      A /boot partition, a / (root) volume, and a swap volume proportional to the size of the available storage are created and listed in the left pane. These are the file systems for a typical installation, but you can add additional file systems and mount points.

   4. Click Done to confirm any changes and return to the Installation Summary window.

Procedure

1. Click + to create a new mount point file system. The Add a New Mount Point dialog opens.
2. Select one of the preset paths from the Mount Point drop-down menu or type your own; for example, select / for the root partition or /boot for the boot partition.

3. Enter the size of the file system in to the Desired Capacity field; for example, 2GiB.

   If you do not specify a value in Desired Capacity, or if you specify a size bigger than available space, then all remaining free space is used.

4. Click Add mount point to create the partition and return to the Manual Partitioning window.

Procedure

1. To change the devices that a single non-LVM mount point should be located on, select the required mount point from the left-hand pane.
2. Under the Device(s) heading, click Modify…​. The Configure Mount Point dialog opens.
3. Select one or more devices and click Select to confirm your selection and return to the Manual Partitioning window.
4. Click Update Settings to apply the changes.
5. In the lower left-hand side of the Manual Partitioning window, click the storage device selected link to open the Selected Disks dialog and review disk information.
6. Optional: Click the Rescan button (circular arrow button) to refresh all local disks and partitions; this is only required after performing advanced partition configuration outside the installation program. Clicking the Rescan Disks button resets all configuration changes made in the installation program.

Procedure

1. From the left pane, select the mount point.

   Figure 17.1. Customizing Partitions

   

2. From the right-hand pane, you can customize the following options:

   1. Enter the file system mount point into the Mount Point field. For example, if a file system is the root file system, enter /; enter /boot for the /boot file system, and so on. For a swap file system, do not set the mount point as setting the file system type to swap is sufficient.
   2. Enter the size of the file system in the Desired Capacity field. You can use common size units such as KiB or GiB. The default is MiB if you do not set any other unit.

   3. Select the device type that you require from the drop-down Device Type menu: Standard Partition, LVM, or LVM Thin Provisioning.

      Note

      RAID is available only if two or more disks are selected for partitioning. If you choose RAID, you can also set the RAID Level. Similarly, if you select LVM, you can specify the Volume Group.

   4. Select the Encrypt check box to encrypt the partition or volume. You must set a password later in the installation program. The LUKS Version drop-down menu is displayed.
   5. Select the LUKS version that you require from the drop-down menu.

   6. Select the appropriate file system type for this partition or volume from the File system drop-down menu.

      Note

      Support for the VFAT file system is not available for Linux system partitions. For example, /, /var, /usr, and so on.

   7. Select the Reformat check box to format an existing partition, or clear the Reformat check box to retain your data. The newly-created partitions and volumes must be reformatted, and the check box cannot be cleared.
   8. Type a label for the partition in the Label field. Use labels to easily recognize and address individual partitions.
   9. Type a name in the Name field. The standard partitions are named automatically when they are created and you cannot edit the names of standard partitions. For example, you cannot edit the /boot name sda1.
3. Click Update Settings to apply your changes and if required, select another partition to customize. Changes are not applied until you click Begin Installation from the Installation Summary window.
4. Optional: Click Reset All to discard your partition changes.

5. Click Done when you have created and customized all file systems and mount points. If you choose to encrypt a file system, you are prompted to create a passphrase.

   A Summary of Changes dialog box opens, displaying a summary of all storage actions for the installation program.

6. Click Accept Changes to apply the changes and return to the Installation Summary window.

Procedure

1. Click Installation Destination to open the Installation Destination window.
2. Under Storage Configuration, select the Custom radio button. Click Done.
3. Click Done, the Manual Partitioning window opens.

4. Choose the /home partition, fill in /home under Mount Point: and clear the Reformat check box.

   Figure 17.2. Ensuring that /home is not formatted

   
5. Optional: You can also customize various aspects of the /home partition required for your Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 system as described in Customizing a mount point file system. However, to preserve /home from your RHEL 7 system, it is necessary to clear the Reformat check box.
6. After you customized all partitions according to your requirements, click Done. The Summary of changes dialog box opens.
7. Verify that the Summary of changes dialog box does not show any change for /home. This means that the /home partition is preserved.
8. Click Accept Changes to apply the changes, and return to the Installation Summary window.

Procedure

1. From the left pane of the Manual Partitioning window, select the required partition.
2. Under the Device(s) section, click Modify. The Configure Mount Point dialog box opens.
3. Select the disks that you want to include in the RAID device and click Select.
4. Click the Device Type drop-down menu and select RAID.
5. Click the File System drop-down menu and select your preferred file system type.
6. Click the RAID Level drop-down menu and select your preferred level of RAID.
7. Click Update Settings to save your changes.
8. Click Done to apply the settings to return to the Installation Summary window.

Procedure

1. From the Manual Partitioning window, create a new mount point by using any of the following options:

   • Use the Click here to create them automatically option or click the + button.
   • Select Mount Point from the drop-down list or enter manually.

   • Enter the size of the file system in to the Desired Capacity field; for example, 70 GiB for /, 1 GiB for /boot.

     Note: Skip this step to use the existing mount point.

2. Select the mount point.

3. Select LVM in the drop-down menu. The Volume Group drop-down menu is displayed with the newly-created volume group name.

   Note

   You cannot specify the size of the volume group’s physical extents in the configuration dialog. The size is always set to the default value of 4 MiB. If you want to create a volume group with different physical extents, you must create it manually by switching to an interactive shell and using the vgcreate command, or use a Kickstart file with the volgroup --pesize=size command. For more information about Kickstart, see the Automatically installing RHEL.

4. Click Done to return to the Installation Summary window.

Procedure

1. From the Manual Partitioning window, create a mount point by using any of the following options:

   • Use the Click here to create them automatically option or click the + button.
   • Select Mount Point from the drop-down list or enter manually.

   • Enter the size of the file system in to the Desired Capacity field; for example, 70 GiB for /, 1 GiB for /boot.

     Note: Skip this step to use the existing mount point.

2. Select the mount point.
3. Click the Device Type drop-down menu and select LVM. The Volume Group drop-down menu is displayed with the newly-created volume group name.

4. Click Modify to configure the newly-created volume group. The Configure Volume Group dialog box opens.

   Note

   You cannot specify the size of the volume group’s physical extents in the configuration dialog. The size is always set to the default value of 4 MiB. If you want to create a volume group with different physical extents, you must create it manually by switching to an interactive shell and using the vgcreate command, or use a Kickstart file with the volgroup --pesize=size command. For more information, see the Automatically installing RHEL document.

5. Optional: From the RAID Level drop-down menu, select the RAID level that you require.

   The available RAID levels are the same as with actual RAID devices.

6. Select the Encrypt check box to mark the volume group for encryption.

7. From the Size policy drop-down menu, select any of the following size policies for the volume group:

   The available policy options are:

   Automatic

   The size of the volume group is set automatically so that it is 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

   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 need the volume group to be.

8. Click Save to apply the settings and return to the Manual Partitioning window.
9. Click Update Settings to save your changes.
10. Click Done to return to the Installation Summary window.

Procedure

1. From the Network & Host name window, click the + button to add a virtual network interface. The Add a device dialog opens.

2. Select one of the four available types of virtual interfaces:

   • Bond: NIC (Network Interface Controller) Bonding, a method to bind multiple physical network interfaces together into a single bonded channel.
   • Bridge: Represents NIC Bridging, a method to connect multiple separate networks into one aggregate network.
   • Team: 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 (Virtual LAN): A method to create multiple distinct broadcast domains which are mutually isolated.

3. Select the interface type and click Add. An editing interface dialog box opens, allowing you to edit any available settings for your chosen interface type.

   For more information, see Editing network interface.

4. Click Save to confirm the virtual interface settings and return to the Network & Host name window.
5. Optional: To change the settings of a virtual interface, select the interface and click Configure.

Procedure

1. Click the General tab.
2. Select the Connect automatically with priority check box to enable connection by default. Keep the default priority setting at 0.

3. Optional: Enable or disable all users on the system from connecting to this network by using the All users may connect to this network option. If you disable this option, only root will be able to connect to this network.

   Important

   When enabled on a wired connection, the system automatically connects during startup or reboot. On a wireless connection, the interface attempts to connect to any known wireless networks in range. For further information about NetworkManager, including the nm-connection-editor tool, see the Configuring and managing networking document.

4. Click Save to apply the changes and return to the Network and Host name window.

   It is not possible to only allow a specific user other than root to use this interface, as no other users are created at this point during the installation. If you need a connection for a different user, you must configure it after the installation.

Procedure

1. To set static network configuration, navigate to one of the IPv Settings tabs and from the Method drop-down menu, select a method other than Automatic, for example, Manual. The Addresses pane is enabled.
2. Optional: In the IPv6 Settings tab, you can also set the method to Ignore to disable IPv6 on this interface.
3. Click Add and enter your address settings.
4. Type the IP addresses in the Additional DNS servers field; it accepts one or more IP addresses of DNS servers, for example, 10.0.0.1,10.0.0.8.

5. Select the Require IPvX addressing for this connection to complete check box.

   Selecting this option in the IPv4 Settings or IPv6 Settings tabs allow this connection only if IPv4 or IPv6 was successful. If this option remains disabled for both IPv4 and IPv6, the interface is able to connect if configuration succeeds on either IP protocol.

6. Click Save to apply the changes and return to the Network & Host name window.

Procedure

1. In the IPv4 Settings and IPv6 Settings tabs, click Routes to configure routing settings for a specific IP protocol on an interface. An editing routes dialog specific to the interface opens.
2. Click Add to add a route.
3. Select the Ignore automatically obtained routes check box to configure at least one static route and to disable all routes not specifically configured.

4. Select the Use this connection only for resources on its network check box to prevent the connection from becoming the default route.

   This option can be selected even if you did not configure any static routes. This route is used only to access certain resources, such as intranet pages that require a local or VPN connection. Another (default) route is used for publicly available resources. Unlike the additional routes configured, this setting is transferred to the installed system. This option is useful only when you configure more than one interface.

5. Click OK to save your settings and return to the editing routes dialog that is specific to the interface.
6. Click Save to apply the settings and return to the Network and Host Name window.

Procedure

1. From the Installation Summary window, click Security Profile. The Security Profile window opens.
2. To enable security policies on the system, toggle the Apply security policy switch to ON.
3. Select one of the profiles listed in the top pane.

4. Click Select profile.

   Profile changes that you must apply before installation appear in the bottom pane.

5. Click Change content to use a custom profile.

   A separate window opens allowing you to enter a URL for valid security content.

   1. Click Fetch to retrieve the URL.

      You can load custom profiles from an HTTP, HTTPS, or FTP server. Use the full address of the content including the protocol, such as http://. A network connection must be active before you can load a custom profile. The installation program detects the content type automatically.

   2. Click Use SCAP Security Guide to return to the Security Profile window.
6. Click Done to apply the settings and return to the Installation Summary window.

Procedure

1. Open the /usr/share/scap-security-guide/kickstart/ssg-rhel8-ospp-ks.cfg Kickstart file in an editor of your choice.
2. Update the partitioning scheme to fit your configuration requirements. For OSPP compliance, the separate partitions for /boot, /home, /var, /tmp, /var/log, /var/tmp, and /var/log/audit must be preserved, and you can only change the size of the partitions.
3. Start a Kickstart installation as described in Performing an automated installation using Kickstart.