Chapter 1. Introducing RHEL for Edge images
A RHEL for Edge image is an rpm-ostree image that includes system packages to remotely install RHEL on Edge servers.
The system packages include:
- Base OS package
- Podman as the container engine
- Additional RPM content
You can customize the image to configure the OS content as per your requirements, and can deploy them on physical and virtual machines, in an on-premise, cloud, or container environment.
You can deploy a RHEL for Edge image on Bare Metal, Appliance, and Edge servers.
With a RHEL for Edge image, you can achieve the following:
1.1. RHEL for Edge—supported architecture
Currently, you can deploy RHEL for Edge images on AMD and Intel 64-bit systems.
1.2. How to compose and deploy a RHEL for Edge image
Use Image Builder to create flexible RHEL rpm-ostree images to suit your requirements, and then use Anaconda to deploy them in your environment. Image Builder automatically identifies the details of your deployment setup and generates the image output as a rhel-edge-commit as a .tar file.
You can access Image Builder through a command-line interface in the composer-cli tool, or use a graphical user interface in the RHEL 8 Web Console.
You can compose and deploy the RHEL for Edge image by performing the following high-level steps:
- Install and register a RHEL system
- Install Image Builder
- Using Image Builder, create a blueprint for RHEL for Edge image
- Import the RHEL for Edge blueprint in Image Builder
- Create a RHEL for Edge image
- Download the RHEL for Edge image file
- Set up a web server
- Download a RHEL boot.iso image
- Using the web server, install the RHEL for Edge image on Edge devices
The following diagram represents the RHEL for Edge image deployment workflow:
Additional resources
For more information about installing and registering a RHEL system, see Performing a Standard RHEL Installation.
1.3. Difference between RHEL RPM images and RHEL for Edge images
You can create RHEL system images in traditional package-based RPM format and also as RHEL for Edge (rpm-ostree) images.
You can use the traditional package-based RPMs to deploy RHEL on traditional data centers. However, with RHEL for Edge images you can deploy RHEL on servers other than traditional datacenter. These servers include systems where processing of large amounts of data is done closest to the source where data is generated—Edge servers.
Refer to the following table to know how RHEL for Edge images differ from the package-based RHEL RPM images.
Table 1.1. Difference between RHEL RPM images and RHEL for Edge images
| Key attributes | RHEL RPM image | RHEL for Edge image |
| OS assembly | You can assemble the packages locally to form an image. | The packages are assembled in an ostree which you can install on a system. |
| OS updates |
You can use |
You can use |
| Repository | The package contains Yum repositories | The package contains Ostree remote repository |
| User access permissions | Read write | Read-only (/usr) |
| Data persistence | You can mount the image to any non tmpfs mount point |
|