Chapter 3. Downloading a RHEL installation ISO image

You can download Red Hat Enterprise Linux by visiting the Red Hat customer portal or you can choose to download it using the curl command.

3.1. Types of installation ISO images

Two types of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 installation ISO images are available from the Red Hat Customer Portal.

DVD ISO image file

It is a full installation program that contains the BaseOS and AppStream repositories. With a DVD ISO file, you can complete the installation without access to additional repositories.

Important

You can use a Binary DVD for 64-bit IBM Z to boot the installation program using a SCSI DVD drive, or as an installation source.

Boot ISO image file

The Boot ISO image is a minimal installation that can be used to install RHEL in two different ways:

  1. When registering and installing RHEL from the Content Delivery Network (CDN).
  2. As a minimal image that requires access to the BaseOS and AppStream repositories to install software packages. The repositories are part of the DVD ISO image that is available for download from the Red Hat Customer Portal. Download and unpack the DVD ISO image to access the repositories.

The following table contains information about the images that are available for the supported architectures.

Table 3.1. Boot and installation images

ArchitectureInstallation DVDBoot DVD

AMD64 and Intel 64

x86_64 DVD ISO image file

x86_64 Boot ISO image file

ARM 64

AArch64 DVD ISO image file

AArch64 Boot ISO image file

IBM POWER

ppc64le DVD ISO image file

ppc64le Boot ISO image file

64-bit IBM Z

s390x DVD ISO image file

s390x Boot ISO image file

Additional resources

3.2. Downloading an ISO image from the Customer Portal

The Boot ISO image is a minimal image file that supports registering your system, attaching subscriptions, and installing RHEL from the Content Delivery Network (CDN). The DVD ISO image file contains all repositories and software packages and does not require any additional configuration.

See Preparing an installation source for more information.

Prerequisites

  • You have an active Red Hat subscription.
  • You are logged in to the Product Downloads section of the Red Hat Customer Portal at Product Downloads.

Procedure

  1. Open the browser and access https://access.redhat.com/downloads/content/rhel.

    This page lists popular downloads for Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

  2. Click Download Now beside the ISO image that you require.

  3. If the desired version of RHEL is not listed, click All Red Hat Enterprise Linux Downloads.

    1. From the Product Variant drop-down menu, select the variant and architecture that you require.

      • Optional: Select the Packages tab to view the packages contained in the selected variant. For information about the packages available in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, see the Package Manifest document.

    2. From the Version drop-down menu, select the RHEL version you want to download. By default, the latest version for the selected variant and architecture is selected.

      The Product Software tab displays the image files, which include:

      • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Binary DVD image.
      • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Boot ISO image.

      Additional images may be available, for example, preconfigured virtual machine images.

    3. Click Download Now beside the ISO image that you require.

3.3. Downloading an ISO image using curl

With the curl tool, you can fetch the required file from the web using the command line to save locally or pipe it into another program as required. This section explains how to download installation images using the curl command.

Prerequisites

  • The curl and jq packages are installed.

    If your Linux distribution does not use yum or apt, or if you do not use Linux, download the most appropriate software package from the curl website.

  • You have an offline token generated from Red Hat API Tokens.
  • You have a checksum of the file you want to download from Product Downloads.

Procedure

  1. Create a bash file with the following content: 

    #!/bin/bash
# set the offline token and checksum parameters
offline_token="<offline_token>"
checksum=<checksum>

# get an access token
access_token=$(curl https://sso.redhat.com/auth/realms/redhat-external/protocol/openid-connect/token -d grant_type=refresh_token -d client_id=rhsm-api -d refresh_token=$offline_token | jq -r '.access_token')

# get the filename and download url
image=$(curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $access_token" "https://api.access.redhat.com/management/v1/images/$checksum/download")
filename=$(echo $image | jq -r .body.filename)
url=$(echo $image | jq -r .body.href)

# download the file
curl $url -o $filename

    In the text above, replace <offline_token> with the token collected from the Red Hat API portal and <checksum> with the checksum value taken from the Product Downloads page.

  2. Make this file executable. 

    $ chmod u+x FILEPATH/FILENAME.sh

  3. Open a terminal window and execute the bash file. 

    $ ./FILEPATH/FILENAME.sh
Warning

Use password management that is consistent with networking best practices.

  • Do not store passwords or credentials in a plain text.
  • Keep the token safe against unauthorized use.

Additional resources