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Chapter 3. Deploying a Red Hat Enterprise Linux image as a virtual machine on Microsoft Azure
To deploy a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 (RHEL 9) image on Microsoft Azure, follow the information below. This chapter:
- Discusses your options for choosing an image
- Lists or refers to system requirements for your host system and virtual machine (VM)
- Provides procedures for creating a custom VM from an ISO image, uploading it to Azure, and launching an Azure VM instance
You can create a custom VM from an ISO image, but Red Hat recommends that you use the Red Hat Image Builder product to create customized images for use on specific cloud providers. With Image Builder, you can create and upload an Azure Disk Image (VHD format). See Composing a Customized RHEL System Image for more information.
For a list of Red Hat products that you can use securely on Azure, refer to Red Hat on Microsoft Azure.
Prerequisites
- Sign up for a Red Hat Customer Portal account.
- Sign up for a Microsoft Azure account.
3.1. Red Hat Enterprise Linux image options on Azure
The following table lists image choices for RHEL 9 on Microsoft Azure, and notes the differences in the image options.
Image option | Subscriptions | Sample scenario | Considerations |
---|---|---|---|
Deploy a Red Hat Gold Image. | Use your existing Red Hat subscriptions. | Select a Red Hat Gold Image on Azure. For details on Gold Images and how to access them on Azure, see the Red Hat Cloud Access Reference Guide. | The subscription includes the Red Hat product cost; you pay Microsoft for all other instance costs. |
Deploy a custom image that you move to Azure. | Use your existing Red Hat subscriptions. | Upload your custom image and attach your subscriptions. | The subscription includes the Red Hat product cost; you pay Microsoft for all other instance costs. |
Deploy an existing Azure image that includes RHEL. | The Azure images include a Red Hat product. | Choose a RHEL image when you create a VM by using the Azure console, or choose a VM from the Azure Marketplace. | You pay Microsoft hourly on a pay-as-you-go model. Such images are called "on-demand." Azure provides support for on-demand images through a support agreement. Red Hat provides updates to the images. Azure makes the updates available through the Red Hat Update Infrastructure (RHUI). |
3.2. Understanding base images
This section includes information about using preconfigured base images and their configuration settings.
3.2.1. Using a custom base image
To manually configure a virtual machine (VM), first create a base (starter) VM image. Then, you can modify configuration settings and add the packages the VM requires to operate on the cloud. You can make additional configuration changes for your specific application after you upload the image.
To prepare a cloud image of RHEL, follow the instructions in the sections below. To prepare a Hyper-V cloud image of RHEL, see the Prepare a Red Hat-based virtual machine from Hyper-V Manager.
3.2.2. Required system packages
To create and configure a base image of RHEL, your host system must have the following packages installed.
Package | Repository | Description |
---|---|---|
libvirt | rhel-9-for-x86_64-appstream-rpms | Open source API, daemon, and management tool for managing platform virtualization |
virt-install | rhel-9-for-x86_64-appstream-rpms | A command-line utility for building VMs |
libguestfs | rhel-9-for-x86_64-appstream-rpms | A library for accessing and modifying VM file systems |
guestfs-tools | rhel-9-for-x86_64-appstream-rpms |
System administration tools for VMs; includes the |
3.2.3. Azure VM configuration settings
Azure VMs must have the following configuration settings. Some of these settings are enabled during the initial VM creation. Other settings are set when provisioning the VM image for Azure. Keep these settings in mind as you move through the procedures. Refer to them as necessary.
Setting | Recommendation |
---|---|
ssh | ssh must be enabled to provide remote access to your Azure VMs. |
dhcp | The primary virtual adapter should be configured for dhcp (IPv4 only). |
Swap Space | Do not create a dedicated swap file or swap partition. You can configure swap space with the Windows Azure Linux Agent (WALinuxAgent). |
NIC | Choose virtio for the primary virtual network adapter. |
encryption | For custom images, use Network Bound Disk Encryption (NBDE) for full disk encryption on Azure. |
3.2.4. Creating a base image from an ISO image
The following procedure lists the steps and initial configuration requirements for creating a custom ISO image. Once you have configured the image, you can use the image as a template for creating additional VM instances.
Prerequisites
- Ensure that you have enabled your host machine for virtualization. See Enabling virtualization in RHEL 9 for information and procedures.
Procedure
- Download the latest Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 DVD ISO image from the Red Hat Customer Portal.
Create and start a basic Red Hat Enterprise Linux VM. For instructions, see Creating virtual machines.
If you use the command line to create your VM, ensure that you set the default memory and CPUs to the capacity you want for the VM. Set your virtual network interface to virtio.
For example, the following command creates a
kvmtest
VM by using therhel-9.0-x86_64-kvm.qcow2
image:# virt-install \ --name kvmtest --memory 2048 --vcpus 2 \ --disk rhel-9.0-x86_64-kvm.qcow2,bus=virtio \ --import --os-variant=rhel9.0
If you use the web console to create your VM, follow the procedure in Creating virtual machines using the web console, with these caveats:
- Do not check Immediately Start VM.
- Change your Memory size to your preferred settings.
- Before you start the installation, ensure that you have changed Model under Virtual Network Interface Settings to virtio and change your vCPUs to the capacity settings you want for the VM.
Review the following additional installation selection and modifications.
- Select Minimal Install with the standard RHEL option.
For Installation Destination, select Custom Storage Configuration. Use the following configuration information to make your selections.
- Verify at least 500 MB for /boot.
- For file system, use xfs, ext4, or ext3 for both boot and root partitions.
- Remove swap space. Swap space is configured on the physical blade server in Azure by the WALinuxAgent.
- On the Installation Summary screen, select Network and Host Name. Switch Ethernet to On.
When the install starts:
-
Create a
root
password. - Create an administrative user account.
-
Create a
- When installation is complete, reboot the VM and log in to the root account.
-
Once you are logged in as
root
, you can configure the image.
3.3. Configuring a custom base image for Microsoft Azure
To deploy a RHEL 9 virtual machine (VM) with specific settings in Azure, you can create a custom base image for the VM. The following sections describe additional configuration changes that Azure requires.
3.3.1. Installing Hyper-V device drivers
Microsoft provides network and storage device drivers as part of their Linux Integration Services (LIS) for Hyper-V package. You may need to install Hyper-V device drivers on the VM image prior to provisioning it as an Azure virtual machine (VM). Use the lsinitrd | grep hv
command to verify that the drivers are installed.
Procedure
Enter the following
grep
command to determine if the required Hyper-V device drivers are installed.# lsinitrd | grep hv
In the example below, all required drivers are installed.
# lsinitrd | grep hv drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 0 Aug 12 14:21 usr/lib/modules/3.10.0-932.el9.x86_64/kernel/drivers/hv -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 31272 Aug 11 08:45 usr/lib/modules/3.10.0-932.el9.x86_64/kernel/drivers/hv/hv_vmbus.ko.xz -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 25132 Aug 11 08:46 usr/lib/modules/3.10.0-932.el9.x86_64/kernel/drivers/net/hyperv/hv_netvsc.ko.xz -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 9796 Aug 11 08:45 usr/lib/modules/3.10.0-932.el9.x86_64/kernel/drivers/scsi/hv_storvsc.ko.xz
If all the drivers are not installed, complete the remaining steps.
NoteAn
hv_vmbus
driver may exist in the environment. Even if this driver is present, complete the following steps.-
Create a file named
hv.conf
in/etc/dracut.conf.d
. Add the following driver parameters to the
hv.conf
file.add_drivers+=" hv_vmbus " add_drivers+=" hv_netvsc " add_drivers+=" hv_storvsc " add_drivers+=" nvme "
NoteNote the spaces before and after the quotes, for example,
add_drivers+=" hv_vmbus "
. This ensures that unique drivers are loaded in the event that other Hyper-V drivers already exist in the environment.Regenerate the
initramfs
image.# dracut -f -v --regenerate-all
Verification
- Reboot the machine.
-
Run the
lsinitrd | grep hv
command to verify that the drivers are installed.
3.3.2. Making configuration changes required for a Microsoft Azure deployment
Before you deploy your custom base image to Azure, you must perform additional configuration changes to ensure that the virtual machine (VM) can properly operate in Azure.
Procedure
- Log in to the VM.
Register the VM, and enable the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 repository.
# subscription-manager register --auto-attach Installed Product Current Status: Product Name: Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 Status: Subscribed
Ensure that the
cloud-init
andhyperv-daemons
packages are installed.# dnf install cloud-init hyperv-daemons -y
Create
cloud-init
configuration files that are needed for integration with Azure services:To enable logging to the Hyper-V Data Exchange Service (KVP), create the
/etc/cloud/cloud.cfg.d/10-azure-kvp.cfg
configuration file and add the following lines to that file.reporting: logging: type: log telemetry: type: hyperv
To add Azure as a datasource, create the
/etc/cloud/cloud.cfg.d/91-azure_datasource.cfg
configuration file, and add the following lines to that file.datasource_list: [ Azure ] datasource: Azure: apply_network_config: False
To ensure that specific kernel modules are blocked from loading automatically, edit or create the
/etc/modprobe.d/blocklist.conf
file and add the following lines to that file.blacklist nouveau blacklist lbm-nouveau blacklist floppy blacklist amdgpu blacklist skx_edac blacklist intel_cstate
Modify
udev
network device rules:Remove the following persistent network device rules if present.
# rm -f /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules # rm -f /etc/udev/rules.d/75-persistent-net-generator.rules # rm -f /etc/udev/rules.d/80-net-name-slot-rules
To ensure that Accelerated Networking on Azure works as intended, create a new network device rule
/etc/udev/rules.d/68-azure-sriov-nm-unmanaged.rules
and add the following line to it.SUBSYSTEM=="net", DRIVERS=="hv_pci", ACTION=="add", ENV{NM_UNMANAGED}="1"
Set the
sshd
service to start automatically.# systemctl enable sshd # systemctl is-enabled sshd
Modify kernel boot parameters:
Open the
/etc/default/grub
file, and ensure theGRUB_TIMEOUT
line has the following value.GRUB_TIMEOUT=10
Remove the following options from the end of the
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX
line if present.rhgb quiet
Ensure the
/etc/default/grub
file contains the following lines with all the specified options.GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="loglevel=3 crashkernel=auto console=tty1 console=ttyS0 earlyprintk=ttyS0 rootdelay=300" GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=countdown GRUB_TERMINAL="serial console" GRUB_SERIAL_COMMAND="serial --speed=115200 --unit=0 --word=8 --parity=no --stop=1"
NoteIf you do not plan to run your workloads on HDDs, add
elevator=none
to the end of theGRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX
line.This sets the I/O scheduler to
none
, which improves I/O performance when running workloads on SSDs.Regenerate the
grub.cfg
file.On a BIOS-based machine:
In RHEL 9.2 and earlier:
# grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg
In RHEL 9.3 and later:
# grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg --update-bls-cmdline
On a UEFI-based machine:
In RHEL 9.2 and earlier:
# grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/efi/EFI/redhat/grub.cfg
In RHEL 9.3 and later:
# grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/efi/EFI/redhat/grub.cfg --update-bls-cmdline
If your system uses a non-default location for
grub.cfg
, adjust the command accordingly.
Configure the Windows Azure Linux Agent (
WALinuxAgent
):Install and enable the
WALinuxAgent
package.# dnf install WALinuxAgent -y # systemctl enable waagent
To ensure that a swap partition is not used in provisioned VMs, edit the following lines in the
/etc/waagent.conf
file.Provisioning.DeleteRootPassword=y ResourceDisk.Format=n ResourceDisk.EnableSwap=n
Prepare the VM for Azure provisioning:
Unregister the VM from Red Hat Subscription Manager.
# subscription-manager unregister
Clean up the existing provisioning details.
# waagent -force -deprovision
NoteThis command generates warnings, which are expected because Azure handles the provisioning of VMs automatically.
Clean the shell history and shut down the VM.
# export HISTSIZE=0 # poweroff
3.4. Converting the image to a fixed VHD format
All Microsoft Azure VM images must be in a fixed VHD
format. The image must be aligned on a 1 MB boundary before it is converted to VHD. To convert the image from qcow2
to a fixed VHD
format and align the image, see the following procedure. Once you have converted the image, you can upload it to Azure.
Procedure
Convert the image from
qcow2
toraw
format.$ qemu-img convert -f qcow2 -O raw <image-name>.qcow2 <image-name>.raw
Create a shell script with the following content.
#!/bin/bash MB=$((1024 * 1024)) size=$(qemu-img info -f raw --output json "$1" | gawk 'match($0, /"virtual-size": ([0-9]+),/, val) {print val[1]}') rounded_size=$((($size/$MB + 1) * $MB)) if [ $(($size % $MB)) -eq 0 ] then echo "Your image is already aligned. You do not need to resize." exit 1 fi echo "rounded size = $rounded_size" export rounded_size
Run the script. This example uses the name
align.sh
.$ sh align.sh <image-xxx>.raw
- If the message "Your image is already aligned. You do not need to resize." displays, proceed to the following step.
- If a value displays, your image is not aligned.
Use the following command to convert the file to a fixed
VHD
format.The sample uses qemu-img version 2.12.0.
$ qemu-img convert -f raw -o subformat=fixed,force_size -O vpc <image-xxx>.raw <image.xxx>.vhd
Once converted, the
VHD
file is ready to upload to Azure.If the
raw
image is not aligned, complete the following steps to align it.Resize the
raw
file by using the rounded value displayed when you ran the verification script.$ qemu-img resize -f raw <image-xxx>.raw <rounded-value>
Convert the
raw
image file to aVHD
format.The sample uses qemu-img version 2.12.0.
$ qemu-img convert -f raw -o subformat=fixed,force_size -O vpc <image-xxx>.raw <image.xxx>.vhd
Once converted, the
VHD
file is ready to upload to Azure.
3.5. Installing the Azure CLI
Complete the following steps to install the Azure command line interface (Azure CLI 2.1). Azure CLI 2.1 is a Python-based utility that creates and manages VMs in Azure.
Prerequisites
- You need to have an account with Microsoft Azure before you can use the Azure CLI.
- The Azure CLI installation requires Python 3.x.
Procedure
Import the Microsoft repository key.
$ sudo rpm --import https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc
Create a local Azure CLI repository entry.
$ sudo sh -c 'echo -e "[azure-cli]\nname=Azure CLI\nbaseurl=https://packages.microsoft.com/yumrepos/azure-cli\nenabled=1\ngpgcheck=1\ngpgkey=https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc" > /etc/yum.repos.d/azure-cli.repo'
Update the
dnf
package index.$ dnf check-update
Check your Python version (
python --version
) and install Python 3.x, if necessary.$ sudo dnf install python3
Install the Azure CLI.
$ sudo dnf install -y azure-cli
Run the Azure CLI.
$ az
Additional resources
3.6. Creating resources in Azure
Complete the following procedure to create the Azure resources that you need before you can upload the VHD
file and create the Azure image.
Procedure
Authenticate your system with Azure and log in.
$ az login
NoteIf a browser is available in your environment, the CLI opens your browser to the Azure sign-in page. See Sign in with Azure CLI for more information and options.
Create a resource group in an Azure region.
$ az group create --name <resource-group> --location <azure-region>
Example:
[clouduser@localhost]$ az group create --name azrhelclirsgrp --location southcentralus { "id": "/subscriptions//resourceGroups/azrhelclirsgrp", "location": "southcentralus", "managedBy": null, "name": "azrhelclirsgrp", "properties": { "provisioningState": "Succeeded" }, "tags": null }
Create a storage account. See SKU Types for more information about valid SKU values.
$ az storage account create -l <azure-region> -n <storage-account-name> -g <resource-group> --sku <sku_type>
Example:
[clouduser@localhost]$ az storage account create -l southcentralus -n azrhelclistact -g azrhelclirsgrp --sku Standard_LRS { "accessTier": null, "creationTime": "2017-04-05T19:10:29.855470+00:00", "customDomain": null, "encryption": null, "id": "/subscriptions//resourceGroups/azrhelclirsgrp/providers/Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts/azrhelclistact", "kind": "StorageV2", "lastGeoFailoverTime": null, "location": "southcentralus", "name": "azrhelclistact", "primaryEndpoints": { "blob": "https://azrhelclistact.blob.core.windows.net/", "file": "https://azrhelclistact.file.core.windows.net/", "queue": "https://azrhelclistact.queue.core.windows.net/", "table": "https://azrhelclistact.table.core.windows.net/" }, "primaryLocation": "southcentralus", "provisioningState": "Succeeded", "resourceGroup": "azrhelclirsgrp", "secondaryEndpoints": null, "secondaryLocation": null, "sku": { "name": "Standard_LRS", "tier": "Standard" }, "statusOfPrimary": "available", "statusOfSecondary": null, "tags": {}, "type": "Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts" }
Get the storage account connection string.
$ az storage account show-connection-string -n <storage-account-name> -g <resource-group>
Example:
[clouduser@localhost]$ az storage account show-connection-string -n azrhelclistact -g azrhelclirsgrp { "connectionString": "DefaultEndpointsProtocol=https;EndpointSuffix=core.windows.net;AccountName=azrhelclistact;AccountKey=NreGk...==" }
Export the connection string by copying the connection string and pasting it into the following command. This string connects your system to the storage account.
$ export AZURE_STORAGE_CONNECTION_STRING="<storage-connection-string>"
Example:
[clouduser@localhost]$ export AZURE_STORAGE_CONNECTION_STRING="DefaultEndpointsProtocol=https;EndpointSuffix=core.windows.net;AccountName=azrhelclistact;AccountKey=NreGk...=="
Create the storage container.
$ az storage container create -n <container-name>
Example:
[clouduser@localhost]$ az storage container create -n azrhelclistcont { "created": true }
Create a virtual network.
$ az network vnet create -g <resource group> --name <vnet-name> --subnet-name <subnet-name>
Example:
[clouduser@localhost]$ az network vnet create --resource-group azrhelclirsgrp --name azrhelclivnet1 --subnet-name azrhelclisubnet1 { "newVNet": { "addressSpace": { "addressPrefixes": [ "10.0.0.0/16" ] }, "dhcpOptions": { "dnsServers": [] }, "etag": "W/\"\"", "id": "/subscriptions//resourceGroups/azrhelclirsgrp/providers/Microsoft.Network/virtualNetworks/azrhelclivnet1", "location": "southcentralus", "name": "azrhelclivnet1", "provisioningState": "Succeeded", "resourceGroup": "azrhelclirsgrp", "resourceGuid": "0f25efee-e2a6-4abe-a4e9-817061ee1e79", "subnets": [ { "addressPrefix": "10.0.0.0/24", "etag": "W/\"\"", "id": "/subscriptions//resourceGroups/azrhelclirsgrp/providers/Microsoft.Network/virtualNetworks/azrhelclivnet1/subnets/azrhelclisubnet1", "ipConfigurations": null, "name": "azrhelclisubnet1", "networkSecurityGroup": null, "provisioningState": "Succeeded", "resourceGroup": "azrhelclirsgrp", "resourceNavigationLinks": null, "routeTable": null } ], "tags": {}, "type": "Microsoft.Network/virtualNetworks", "virtualNetworkPeerings": null } }
Additional resources
3.7. Uploading and creating an Azure image
Complete the following steps to upload the VHD
file to your container and create an Azure custom image.
The exported storage connection string does not persist after a system reboot. If any of the commands in the following steps fail, export the connection string again.
Procedure
Upload the
VHD
file to the storage container. It may take several minutes. To get a list of storage containers, enter theaz storage container list
command.$ az storage blob upload \ --account-name <storage-account-name> --container-name <container-name> \ --type page --file <path-to-vhd> --name <image-name>.vhd
Example:
[clouduser@localhost]$ az storage blob upload \ --account-name azrhelclistact --container-name azrhelclistcont \ --type page --file rhel-image-{ProductNumber}.vhd --name rhel-image-{ProductNumber}.vhd Percent complete: %100.0
Get the URL for the uploaded
VHD
file to use in the following step.$ az storage blob url -c <container-name> -n <image-name>.vhd
Example:
$ az storage blob url -c azrhelclistcont -n rhel-image-9.vhd "https://azrhelclistact.blob.core.windows.net/azrhelclistcont/rhel-image-9.vhd"
Create the Azure custom image.
$ az image create -n <image-name> -g <resource-group> -l <azure-region> --source <URL> --os-type linux
NoteThe default hypervisor generation of the VM is V1. You can optionally specify a V2 hypervisor generation by including the option
--hyper-v-generation V2
. Generation 2 VMs use a UEFI-based boot architecture. See Support for generation 2 VMs on Azure for information about generation 2 VMs.The command may return the error "Only blobs formatted as VHDs can be imported." This error may mean that the image was not aligned to the nearest 1 MB boundary before it was converted to
VHD
.Example:
$ az image create -n rhel9 -g azrhelclirsgrp2 -l southcentralus --source https://azrhelclistact.blob.core.windows.net/azrhelclistcont/rhel-image-9.vhd --os-type linux
3.8. Creating and starting the VM in Azure
The following steps provide the minimum command options to create a managed-disk Azure VM from the image. See az vm create for additional options.
Procedure
Enter the following command to create the VM.
$ az vm create \ -g <resource-group> -l <azure-region> -n <vm-name> \ --vnet-name <vnet-name> --subnet <subnet-name> --size Standard_A2 \ --os-disk-name <simple-name> --admin-username <administrator-name> \ --generate-ssh-keys --image <path-to-image>
NoteThe option
--generate-ssh-keys
creates a private/public key pair. Private and public key files are created in~/.ssh
on your system. The public key is added to theauthorized_keys
file on the VM for the user specified by the--admin-username
option. See Other authentication methods for additional information.Example:
[clouduser@localhost]$ az vm create \ -g azrhelclirsgrp2 -l southcentralus -n rhel-azure-vm-1 \ --vnet-name azrhelclivnet1 --subnet azrhelclisubnet1 --size Standard_A2 \ --os-disk-name vm-1-osdisk --admin-username clouduser \ --generate-ssh-keys --image rhel9 { "fqdns": "", "id": "/subscriptions//resourceGroups/azrhelclirsgrp/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/rhel-azure-vm-1", "location": "southcentralus", "macAddress": "", "powerState": "VM running", "privateIpAddress": "10.0.0.4", "publicIpAddress": "<public-IP-address>", "resourceGroup": "azrhelclirsgrp2"
Note the
publicIpAddress
. You need this address to log in to the VM in the following step.Start an SSH session and log in to the VM.
[clouduser@localhost]$ ssh -i /home/clouduser/.ssh/id_rsa clouduser@<public-IP-address>. The authenticity of host ',<public-IP-address>' can't be established. Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes Warning: Permanently added '<public-IP-address>' (ECDSA) to the list of known hosts. [clouduser@rhel-azure-vm-1 ~]$
If you see a user prompt, you have successfully deployed your Azure VM.
You can now go to the Microsoft Azure portal and check the audit logs and properties of your resources. You can manage your VMs directly in this portal. If you are managing multiple VMs, you should use the Azure CLI. The Azure CLI provides a powerful interface to your resources in Azure. Enter az --help
in the CLI or see the Azure CLI command reference to learn more about the commands you use to manage your VMs in Microsoft Azure.
3.9. Other authentication methods
While recommended for increased security, using the Azure-generated key pair is not required. The following examples show two methods for SSH authentication.
Example 1: These command options provision a new VM without generating a public key file. They allow SSH authentication by using a password.
$ az vm create \ -g <resource-group> -l <azure-region> -n <vm-name> \ --vnet-name <vnet-name> --subnet <subnet-name> --size Standard_A2 \ --os-disk-name <simple-name> --authentication-type password \ --admin-username <administrator-name> --admin-password <ssh-password> --image <path-to-image>
$ ssh <admin-username>@<public-ip-address>
Example 2: These command options provision a new Azure VM and allow SSH authentication by using an existing public key file.
$ az vm create \ -g <resource-group> -l <azure-region> -n <vm-name> \ --vnet-name <vnet-name> --subnet <subnet-name> --size Standard_A2 \ --os-disk-name <simple-name> --admin-username <administrator-name> \ --ssh-key-value <path-to-existing-ssh-key> --image <path-to-image>
$ ssh -i <path-to-existing-ssh-key> <admin-username>@<public-ip-address>
3.10. Attaching Red Hat subscriptions
Using the subscription-manager
command, you can register and attach your Red Hat subscription to a RHEL instance.
Prerequisites
- You must have enabled your subscriptions.
Procedure
Register your system.
# subscription-manager register --auto-attach
Attach your subscriptions.
- You can use an activation key to attach subscriptions. See Creating Red Hat Customer Portal Activation Keys for more information.
- Alternatively, you can manually attach a subscription by using the ID of the subscription pool (Pool ID). See Attaching and Removing Subscriptions Through the Command Line.
Optional: To collect various system metrics about the instance in the Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console, you can register the instance with Red Hat Insights.
# insights-client register --display-name <display-name-value>
For information on further configuration of Red Hat Insights, see Client Configuration Guide for Red Hat Insights.
3.11. Setting up automatic registration on Azure Gold Images
To make deploying RHEL 9 virtual machines (VM) on Micorsoft Azure faster and more comfortable, you can set up Gold Images of RHEL 9 to be automatically registered to the Red Hat Subscription Manager (RHSM).
Prerequisites
RHEL 9 Gold Images are available to you in Microsoft Azure. For instructions, see Using Gold Images on Azure.
NoteA Microsoft Azure account can only be attached to a single Red Hat account at a time. Therefore, ensure no other users require access to the Azure account before attaching it to your Red Hat one.
Procedure
- Use the Gold Image to create a RHEL 9 VM in your Azure instance. For instructions, see Creating and starting the VM in Azure.
- Start the created VM.
In the RHEL 9 VM, enable automatic registration.
# subscription-manager config --rhsmcertd.auto_registration=1
Enable the
rhsmcertd
service.# systemctl enable rhsmcertd.service
Disable the
redhat.repo
repository.# subscription-manager config --rhsm.manage_repos=0
- Power off the VM, and save it as a managed image on Azure. For instructions, see How to create a managed image of a virtual machine or VHD.
- Create VMs by using the managed image. They will be automatically subscribed to RHSM.
Verification
In a RHEL 9 VM created using the above instructions, verify the system is registered to RHSM by executing the
subscription-manager identity
command. On a successfully registered system, this displays the UUID of the system. For example:# subscription-manager identity system identity: fdc46662-c536-43fb-a18a-bbcb283102b7 name: 192.168.122.222 org name: 6340056 org ID: 6340056
3.12. Configuring kdump for Microsoft Azure instances
If a kernel crash occurs in a RHEL instance, you can use the kdump
service to determine the cause of the crash. If kdump
is configured correctly when your instance kernel terminates unexpectedly, kdump
generates a dump file, known as crash dump or a vmcore
file. You can then analyze the file to find why the crash occurred and to debug your system.
For kdump
to work on Microsoft Azure instances, you might need to adjust the kdump
reserved memory and the vmcore
target to fit VM sizes and RHEL versions.
Prerequisites
You are using a Microsoft Azure environment that supports
kdump
:- Standard_DS2_v2 VM
- Standard NV16as v4
- Standard M416-208s v2
- Standard M416ms v2
-
You have
root
permissions on the system. -
Your system meets the requirements for
kdump
configurations and targets. For details, see Supported kdump configurations and targets.
Procedure
Ensure that
kdump
and other necessary packages are installed on your system.# dnf install kexec-tools
Verify that the default location for crash dump files is set in the
kdump
configuration file and that the/var/crash
file is available.# grep -v "#" /etc/kdump.conf path /var/crash core_collector makedumpfile -l --message-level 7 -d 31
Based on the size and version of your RHEL virtual machine (VM) instance, decide whether you need a
vmcore
target with more free space, such as/mnt/crash
. To do so, use the following table.Table 3.4. Virtual machine sizes that have been tested with GEN2 VM on Azure RHEL Version Standard DS1 v2 (1 vCPU, 3.5GiB) Standard NV16as v4 (16 vCPUs, 56 GiB) Standard M416-208s v2 (208 vCPUs, 5700 GiB) Standard M416ms v2 (416 vCPUs, 11400 GiB) RHEL 9.0 - RHEL 9.3
Default
Default
Target
Target
-
Default indicates that
kdump
works as expected with the default memory and the defaultkdump
target. The defaultkdump
target is/var/crash
. -
Target indicates that
kdump
works as expected with the default memory. However, you might need to assign a target with more free space.
-
Default indicates that
If your instance requires it, assign a target with more free space, such as
/mnt/crash
. To do so, edit the/etc/kdump.conf
file and replace the default path.$ sed s/"path /var/crash"/"path /mnt/crash"
The option path
/mnt/crash
represents the path to the file system in whichkdump
saves the crash dump file.For more options, such as writing the crash dump file to a different partition, directly to a device or storing it to a remote machine, see Configuring the kdump target.
If your instance requires it, increase the crash kernel size to the sufficient size for
kdump
to capture thevmcore
by adding the respective boot parameter.For example, for a Standard M416-208s v2 VM, the sufficient size is 512 MB, so the boot parameter would be
crashkernel=512M
.Open the GRUB configuration file and add
crashkernel=512M
to the boot parameter line.# vi /etc/default/grub GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="console=tty1 console=ttyS0 earlyprintk=ttyS0 rootdelay=300 crashkernel=512M"
Update the GRUB configuration file.
In RHEL 9.2 and earlier:
# grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg
In RHEL 9.3 and later:
# grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg --update-bls-cmdline
- Reboot the VM to allocate separate kernel crash memory to the VM.
Verification
Ensure that
kdump
is active and running.# systemctl status kdump ● kdump.service - Crash recovery kernel arming Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/kdump.service; enabled; vendor prese> Active: active (exited) since Fri 2024-02-09 10:50:18 CET; 1h 20min ago Process: 1252 ExecStart=/usr/bin/kdumpctl start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCES> Main PID: 1252 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS) Tasks: 0 (limit: 16975) Memory: 512B CGroup: /system.slice/kdump.service