Chapter 6. Building simplified installer images to provision a RHEL for Edge image

1. Install and register a RHEL system
2. Install image builder
3. Using image builder, create a blueprint with customizations for RHEL for Edge Container image
4. Import the RHEL for Edge blueprint in image builder
5. Create a RHEL for Edge image embed in an OCI container with a webserver ready to deploy the commit as an OSTree repository
6. Create a blueprint for edge-simplified-installer
7. Build a simplified RHEL for Edge image
8. Download the RHEL for Edge simplified image
9. Install the raw image with virt-install

Procedure

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

   name = "simplified-installer-blueprint"
   description = "blueprint for the simplified installer image"
   version = "0.0.1"
   packages = []
   modules = []
   groups = []
   distro = ""
   
   [customizations]
   installation_device = "/dev/vda"
   
   [customizations.fdo]
   manufacturing_server_url = "http://10.0.0.2:8080"
   diun_pub_key_insecure = "true"

   Where,

   • 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". Notice that 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.
   • installation-device is the customization to enable an unattended installation to your device.
   • manufacturing_server_url is the URL to perform the initial device credential exchange.

2. Push (import) the blueprint to the image builder server:

   # composer-cli blueprints push blueprint-name.toml

3. List the existing blueprints to check whether the created blueprint is successfully pushed and exists.

   # composer-cli blueprints show blueprint-name

4. Check whether the components and versions listed in the blueprint and their dependencies are valid:

   # composer-cli blueprints depsolve blueprint-name

Procedure

1. Create the bootable ISO image.

   # composer-cli compose start-ostree \
   blueprint-name \
   edge-simplified-installer \
   --ref rhel/8/x86_64/edge \
   --url URL-OSTree-repository \

   Where,

   • blueprint-name is the RHEL for Edge blueprint name.
   • edge-simplified-installer is the image type .
   • --ref is the reference for where your commit is going to be created.

   • --url is the URL to the OSTree repository of the commit to embed in the image. For example, http://10.0.2.2:8080/repository/. You can either start a RHEL for Edge Container or set up a web server. See Creating a RHEL for Edge Container image for non-network-based deployments and Setting up a web server to install RHEL for Edge image.

     A confirmation that the composer process has been added to the queue appears. It also shows a Universally Unique Identifier (UUID) number for the image created. Use the UUID number to track your build. Also keep the UUID number handy for further tasks.

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 image-type

   Note

   The image creation processes can take up to ten minutes to complete.

   To interrupt the image creation process, run:

   # composer-cli compose cancel <UUID>

   To delete an existing image, run:

   # composer-cli compose delete <UUID>

Procedure

1. Review the RHEL for Edge image status.

   # composer-cli compose status

   The output must display the following:

   $ <UUID> FINISHED date blueprint-name blueprint-version image-type

2. Download the image.

   # composer-cli compose image <UUID>

   Image builder downloads the image as an .iso file at the current directory path where you run the command.

   The UUID number and the image size is displayed alongside.

   $ <UUID>-simplified-installer.iso: size MB

Procedure

1. Mount the ISO image to the directory your your choice:

   # mkdir /mnt/rhel8-install/
   # mount -o loop,ro -t iso9660 /path_directory/installer.iso /mnt/rhel8-install/

   Replace /path_directory/installer.iso with the path to the RHEL for Edge bootable ISO image.

2. Copy the files from the mounted image to the HTTP server root. This command creates the /var/www/html/rhel8-install/ directory with the contents of the image.

   # cp -R /mnt/rhel8-install/* /var/www/html/
   # chmod -R +r /var/www/html/httpboot/*

   Note

   Some copying methods can skip the .treeinfo file which is required for a valid installation source. Running the cp command for whole directories as shown in this procedure will copy .treeinfo correctly.

3. Update the /var/www/html/EFI/BOOT/grub.cfg file, by replacing:

   1. coreos.inst.install_dev=/dev/sda with coreos.inst.install_dev=/dev/vda
   2. linux /images/pxeboot/vmlinuz with linuxefi /images/pxeboot/vmlinuz
   3. initrd /images/pxeboot/initrd.img with initrdefi /images/pxeboot/initrd.img

   4. coreos.inst.image_file=/run/media/iso/disk.img.xz with coreos.inst.image_url=http://{IP-ADDRESS}/disk.img.xz

      The IP-ADDRESS is the ip address of this machine, which will serve as a http boot server.

4. Start the httpd service:

   # systemctl start httpd.service

   As a result, after you set up an UEFI HTTP Boot server, you can install your RHEL for Edge devices by using UEFI HTTP boot.

Procedure

1. Set up a network configuration to support UEFI HTTP boot. See Setting up UEFI HTTP boot with libvirt.

2. Use the virt-install command to create a RHEL for Edge Virtual Machine from the UEFI HTTP Boot.

   # virt-install \
       --name edge-install-image \
       --disk path=”  “, ,format=qcow2
       --ram 3072 \
       --memory 4096 \
       --vcpus 2 \
       --network network=integration,mac=mac_address \
       --os-type linux
       --os-variant rhel8 \
       --cdrom "/var/lib/libvirt/images/”ISO_FILENAME"
       --boot uefi,loader_ro=yes,loader_type=pflash,nvram_template=/usr/share/edk2/ovmf/OVMF_VARS.fd,loader_secure=no
       --virt-type kvm \
       --graphics none \
        --wait=-1
        --noreboot

Procedure

1. Copy the ISO image file to a USB flash drive.
2. Connect the USB flash drive to the port of the computer you want to boot.

3. Boot the ISO image from the USB flash drive.The boot menu shows you the following options:

   Install Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
   Test this media & install Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8

4. Choose Install Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8. This starts the system installation.