Chapter 8. Enabling FIPS mode with RHEL image builder


You can create a customized image and boot a FIPS-enabled RHEL image. Before you compose the image, you must change the value of the fips directive in your blueprint.

Prerequisites

  • You are logged in as the root user or a user who is a member of the weldr group.

Procedure

  1. Create a plain text file in the Tom’s Obvious, Minimal Language (TOML) format with the following content:

    name = "system-fips-mode-enabled"
    description = "blueprint with FIPS enabled "
    version = "0.0.1"
    
    [customizations]
    fips = true
    
    [[customizations.user]]
    name = "admin"
    password = "admin"
    groups = ["users", "wheel"]
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  2. Import the blueprint to the RHEL image builder server:

    # composer-cli blueprints push <blueprint-name>.toml
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  3. List the existing blueprints to check whether the created blueprint is successfully imported and exists:

    # composer-cli blueprints show <blueprint-name>
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  4. Check whether the components and versions listed in the blueprint and their dependencies are valid:

    # composer-cli blueprints depsolve <blueprint-name>
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  5. Build the customized RHEL image:

    # composer-cli compose start \ <blueprint-name> \ <image-type> \
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  6. Review the image status:

    # composer-cli compose status
    …
    $ <UUID> FINISHED <date> <blueprint-name> <blueprint-version> <image-type>
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  7. Download the image:

    # composer-cli compose image <UUID>
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    RHEL image builder downloads the image to the current directory path. The UUID number and the image size are displayed alongside:

    $ <UUID-image-name.type>: <size> MB
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Verification

  1. Log in to the system image with the username and password that you configured in your blueprint.
  2. Check if FIPS mode is enabled:

    $ fips-mode-setup --check
    FIPS mode is enabled.
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