Chapter 23. Edge

This chapter lists the most notable changes to RHEL Edge between RHEL 8 and RHEL 9.

23.1. RHEL for Edge

Support for automatic provisioning and onboarding RHEL for Edge images using FDO

You have support for automatic provisioning and onboarding RHEL for Edge images using the FDO (FIDO device onboarding) process With this, you can build a RHEL for Edge Simplified Installer image, provision it to a RHEL for Edge image. Then, you can use the FDO process to automatically provision and onboard your Edge devices, exchange data with other devices and systems connected on the networks.

Support to rpm-ostree upgrades from RHEL 8 to RHEL 9

You can upgrade RHEL 8 systems to RHEL 9 using rpm-ostree rebase.

Support to auto-rollbacks

The health checks run during the boot process and can determine if the nodes are functioning properly. If the health checks fail, a counter tracks the number of attempts and the node uses rpm-ostree to rollback the update. Podman automatically rollbacks the container if a new application version exits when the update fails.

Support to build a RHEL for Edge Simplified Installer image

You can use Image Builder to build a RHEL for Edge Simplified Installer image. It enables an unattended installation to a device, and provisioning the image to a RHEL for Edge image.

Support to build a RHEL for Edge Raw image

You can also build RHEL for RHEL for Edge Raw image. These are compressed raw images, which consist of a file that contains a partition layout with an existing deployed OSTree commit in it. The RHEL for Edge Raw Images can be used to flash on a hard drive or boot on a virtual machine.

The RHEL 9 for Edge minimal installation is much smaller

The RHEL 9 for Edge minimal installation is much smaller, when compared with RHEL 8:

Minimal RHEL 8 installMinimal RHEL 9 installMinimal RHEL 9 install (with firmware & podman)

302 rpms

244 rpms

292 rpms

1.1G of disk

652M of disk

863M of disk

Supported RHEL for Edge image types

With RHEL for Edge, you can compose customized RHEL (rpm-ostree) images using Image Builder, and then remotely install and manage the images on Edge servers.

The following image types are supported in RHEL 9:

  • RHEL for Edge Commit (.tar)
  • RHEL for Edge Container (.tar)
  • RHEL for Edge Installer (.iso)
  • RHEL for Edge Raw Image (.raw.xz)
  • RHEL for Edge Simplified Installer (.iso)

Supported RHEL for Edge image names

Previously, the image types were prefixed by rhel-. This prefix was removed, but the previous image names, such as rhel-edge-container and rhel-edge-installer still work as aliases to the new names. These names are considered deprecated and may be removed completely in future versions. The following RHEL for Edge image names are supported in RHEL 9:

  • edge-commit
  • edge-container
  • edge-installer