Chapter 4. Deploying the RHEL bootable images

Procedure

1. In a browser, access Service→EC2 and log in.
2. On the AWS console dashboard menu, choose the correct region. The image must have the Available status, to indicate that it was correctly uploaded.
3. On the AWS dashboard, select your image and click Launch.
4. In the new window that opens, choose an instance type according to the resources you need to start your image. Click Review and Launch.
5. Review your instance details. You can edit each section if you need to make any changes. Click Launch.
6. Before you start the instance, select a public key to access it. You can either use the key pair you already have or you can create a new key pair.

7. Click Launch Instance to start your instance. You can check the status of the instance, which displays as Initializing.

   After the instance status is Running, the Connect button becomes available.

8. Click Connect. A window appears with instructions on how to connect by using SSH.

9. Run the following command to set the permissions of your private key file so that only you can read it. See Connect to your Linux instance.

   $ chmod 400 <your-instance-name.pem>

10. Connect to your instance by using its Public DNS:

    $ ssh -i <your-instance-name.pem>ec2-user@<your-instance-IP-address>

Procedure

1. Create an ostreecontainer Kickstart file. For example:

   # Basic setup
   text
   network --bootproto=dhcp --device=link --activate
   # Basic partitioning
   clearpart --all --initlabel --disklabel=gpt
   reqpart --add-boot
   part / --grow --fstype xfs
   
   # Reference the container image to install - The kickstart
   # has no %packages section. A container image is being installed.
   ostreecontainer --url registry.redhat.io/rhel9/bootc-image-builder:latest
   
   firewall --disabled
   services --enabled=sshd
   
   # Only inject a SSH key for root
   rootpw --iscrypted locked
   sshkey --username root "<your key here>"
   reboot

2. Boot a system by using the 9.4 Boot ISO installation media.

   1. Append the Kickstart file with the following to the kernel argument:

      inst.ks=http://<path_to_your_kickstart>

3. Press CTRL+X to boot the system.

Procedure

1. Create a custom installer ISO disk image with bootc-image-builder. See Creating ISO images by using bootc-image-builder.
2. Copy the ISO disk image to a USB flash drive.
3. Perform a bare metal installation by using the content in the USB stick into a disconnected environment.

Procedure

1. Export the RHEL installation ISO image to the HTTP server. The PXE boot server is now ready to serve PXE clients.
2. Boot the client and start the installation.
3. Select PXE Boot when prompted to specify a boot source. If the boot options are not displayed, press the Enter key on your keyboard or wait until the boot window opens.
4. From the Red Hat Enterprise Linux boot window, select the boot option that you want, and press Enter.
5. Start the network installation.

Procedure

1. Create a disk image. The following example shows how to add a user to the disk image.

   [[blueprint.customizations.user]]
   name = "user"
   password = "pass"
   key = "ssh-rsa AAA ... user@email.com"
   groups = ["wheel"]

   • name - User name. Mandatory
   • password - Nonencrypted password. Not mandatory
   • key - Public SSH key contents. Not mandatory
   • groups - An array of groups to add the user into. Not mandatory

2. Run bootc-image-builder and pass the following arguments:

   $ sudo podman run \
       --rm \
       -it \
       --privileged \
       --pull=newer \
       --security-opt label=type:unconfined_t \
       -v $(pwd)/config.toml:/config.toml \
       -v $(pwd)/output:/output \
       registry.redhat.io/rhel9/bootc-image-builder:latest \
       --type qcow2 \
       --config config.toml \
       quay.io/<namespace>/<image>:<tag>

3. Launch a VM, for example, by using virt-install:

   $ sudo virt-install \
     --name bootc \
     --memory 4096 \
     --vcpus 2 \
     --disk qcow2/disk.qcow2 \
     --import \
     --os-variant rhel9