Chapter 11. Creating a customized RHEL bare metal image using Red Hat Image Builder

You can create customized RHEL ISO system images using the Red Hat Image Builder. You can then download these images and install them on a bare metal system as per your requirements.

11.1. Creating a customized RHEL ISO system image using Image Builder

Follow the steps to create custom RHEL .iso images using the Red Hat Image Builder.

Procedure

  1. Access Red Hat Image Builder on the browser.

    The Red Hat Image Builder dashboard opens.

  2. Click Create image.

    The Create image dialog wizard opens.

  3. On the Image output page, complete the following steps:

    1. From the Release list, select the Release that you want to use: for example, choose Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).

    2. From the Select target environments option, select Bare metal - Installer.

      Click Next.

  4. On the Registration page, select the type of registration that you want to use. You can select from these options:

  5. Optional: On the Packages page, add packages to your image. See Chapter 4, Adding packages during image creation by Using Red Hat Image Builder.
  6. On the Name image page, enter a name for your image and click Next. If you do not enter a name, you can find the image you created by its UUID.
  7. On the Review page, review the details about the image creation and click Create image. Your image is created as a .iso image.

  8. When the new image displays a Ready status in the Status column, click Download .iso image.

    The .iso image is saved to your system and is ready for deployment.

    Note

    The .iso images are available for 6 hours and expire after that. Ensure to download the image to avoid losing it.

11.2. Installing the customized RHEL ISO system image to a bare metal system

You can create a virtual machine (VM) from the .iso image that you created using the Red Hat Image Builder.

Prerequisites

  • You created and downloaded a .iso image using the Image Builder.
  • A 8 GB USB flash drive.

Procedure

  1. Access the directory where you downloaded your .iso image.
  2. Place the bootable ISO image file on a USB flash drive.
  3. Connect the USB flash drive to the port of the computer you want to boot.
  4. Boot the ISO image from the USB flash drive.

  5. Perform the steps to install the customized bootable ISO image.

    The boot screen shows you the following options:

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

Additional resources