Chapter 9. Building and provisioning a minimal raw image

1. Install and register a RHEL system
2. Install RHEL image builder
3. Using RHEL image builder, create a blueprint with your customizations for RHEL for Edge Minimal Raw image
4. Import the RHEL for Edge blueprint in RHEL image builder
5. Create a RHEL for Edge Minimal Raw image
6. Download and decompress the RHEL for Edge Minimal Raw image
7. Create a bootable USB drive from the decompressed Raw image
8. Deploy the RHEL for Edge Minimal Raw image

Procedure

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

   name = "minimal-raw-blueprint"
   description = "blueprint for the Minimal Raw image"
   version = "0.0.1"
   packages = []
   modules = []
   groups = []
   distro = ""
   
   [[customizations.user]]
   name = "admin"
   password = "admin"
   groups = ["users", "wheel"]

   • name is the name and description is the description for your blueprint.
   • 0.0.1 is the version number according to the Semantic Versioning scheme.
   • Modules describe the package name and matching version glob to be installed into the image, for example, the package name = "tmux" and the matching version glob is version = "2.9a". Currently there are no differences between packages and modules.
   • Groups are packages groups to be installed into the image, for example the anaconda-tools group package. If you do not know the modules and groups, leave them empty.

   • Under customizations.user:

     • name is the username to login to the image
     • password is a password of your choice
     • groups are any user groups, such as "widget"

2. Import the blueprint to the RHEL image builder server:

   # composer-cli blueprints push <blueprint_name>.toml

3. Check if the blueprint is available on the system:

   # composer-cli blueprints list

4. Check the validity of components, versions, and their dependencies in the blueprint:

   # composer-cli blueprints depsolve <blueprint_name>

Procedure

1. Build the image.

   # composer-cli compose start <blueprint_name> minimal-raw

   • <blueprint_name> is the RHEL for Edge blueprint name
   • minimal-raw is the image type

2. Check the image compose status.

   # composer-cli compose status

   The output displays the status in the following format:

   # <UUID> RUNNING date <blueprint_name> blueprint-version minimal-raw

Procedure

1. Review the RHEL for Edge Minimal Raw image compose status.

   # composer-cli compose status

   The output must display the following details:

   $ <UUID> FINISHED date <blueprint_name> <blueprint_version> minimal-raw

2. Download the image:

   # composer-cli compose image <UUID>

   Image builder downloads the image into your working directory. The following output is an example:

   3f9223c1-6ddb-4915-92fe-9e0869b8e209-raw.img.xz

3. Decompress the image:

   $ xz -d <UUID>-raw.img.xz

Procedure

1. Connect the USB flash drive to the computer where you want to boot your customized image.
2. Power on the system.

3. Boot the RHEL for Edge Minimal Raw image from the USB flash drive. The boot menu shows you the following options:

   Install Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9
   Test this media & install Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9

4. Choose Install Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9. This starts the system installation.

Verification

1. Boot into the image by using the username and password you configured in the blueprint.

   1. Check the release:

      $ cat /etc/os-release

   2. List the block devices in the system:

      $ lsblk

Procedure

1. Create a blueprint for the rhel-edge-container image type, for example:

   name = "rhel-edge-container-no-users"
   description = ""
   version = "0.0.1"

2. Build a rhel-edge-container image:

   # composer-cli compose start-ostree <rhel-edge-container-no-users> rhel-edge-container

3. Check if the image is ready:

   # composer-cli compose status

4. Download the rhel-edge-container image as a .tar file:

   # composer-cli compose image <UUID>

5. Import the RHEL for Edge Container into Podman:

   $ skopeo copy oci-archive:_<UUID>_-container.tar \
   containers-storage:localhost/rfe-93-mirror:latest

6. Start the container and make it available by using the port 8080:

   $ podman run -d --rm --name <rfe-93-mirror> -p 8080:8080 localhost/<rfe-93-mirror>

7. Create a blueprint for the edge-raw-image image type, for example:

   name = "<edge-raw>"
   description = ""
   version = "0.0.1"
   [[customizations.user]]
   name = "admin"
   password = "admin"
   groups = ["wheel"]

8. Build a RHEL for Edge Raw image by serving the RHEL Edge Container to it:

   # composer-cli compose start-ostree edge-raw edge-raw-image \
   --url http://10.88.0.1:8080/repo

9. Download the RHEL for Edge Raw image as a .raw file:

   # composer-cli compose image <UUID>

10. Decompress the RHEL for Edge Raw image:

    # xz --decompress <UUID>>-image.raw.xz