5.3. Creating an installation source by using FTP

Procedure

1. Install the vsftpd package.

   # dnf install vsftpd

2. Open and edit the /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf configuration file in a text editor.

   1. Change the line anonymous_enable=NO to anonymous_enable=YES
   2. Change the line write_enable=YES to write_enable=NO.

   3. Add lines pasv_min_port=<min_port> and pasv_max_port=<max_port>. Replace <min_port> and <max_port> with the port number range used by the FTP server in passive mode, for example, 10000 and 11000.

      This step might be necessary in network environments featuring various firewall/NAT setups.

   4. Optional: Add custom changes to your configuration. For available options, see the vsftpd.conf(5) man page. This procedure assumes that default options are used.

   5. Configure the firewall to allow the FTP port and port range from the previous step:

      # firewall-cmd --add-port min_port-max_port/tcp --permanent

      Replace <min_port> and <max_port> with the port numbers you entered into the /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf configuration file.

   6. Configure the firewall to allow FTP service

      # firewall-cmd --add-service ftp --permanent

   7. Reload the firewall to apply the new rules:

      # firewall-cmd --reload

3. Copy the DVD ISO image to the FTP server.

4. Create a suitable directory for mounting the DVD ISO image, for example:

   # mkdir /mnt/rhel10-install

5. Mount the DVD ISO image to the directory:

   # mount -o loop,ro -t iso9660 /image-directory/image.iso /mnt/rhel10-install

   Replace /image-directory/image.iso with the path to the DVD ISO image.

6. Copy the files from the mounted image to the FTP server root:

   # cp -r /mnt/rhel10-install/ /var/ftp/

   This command creates the /var/ftp/rhel10-install/ directory with the content of the image. Some copying methods can skip the .treeinfo file which is required for a valid installation source. Entering the cp command for whole directories as shown in this procedure will copy .treeinfo correctly.

7. Start the vsftpd service:

   # systemctl enable --now vsftpd.service

   If the service was running before you changed the /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf file, restart the service to load the edited file:

   # systemctl restart vsftpd.service

   The installation tree is now accessible and ready to be used as the installation source.

   When configuring the installation source, use ftp:// as the protocol, the server host name or IP address, and the directory in which you have stored the files from the ISO image, relative to the FTP server root. For example, if the server host name is myserver.example.com and you have copied the files from the image to /var/ftp/rhel10-install/, specify ftp://myserver.example.com/rhel10-install/ as the installation source.