Chapter 3. Deploying a Red Hat Enterprise Linux image as an EC2 instance on Amazon Web Services

Procedure

1. Ensure that you have enabled your host machine for virtualization. See Enabling virtualization in RHEL 9 for information and procedures.

2. Create and start a basic Red Hat Enterprise Linux VM. For instructions, see Creating virtual machines.

   1. If you use the command line to create your VM, ensure that you set the default memory and CPUs to the capacity you want for the VM. Set your virtual network interface to virtio.

      A basic command-line sample follows.

      virt-install --name kvmtest --memory 2048 --vcpus 2 --disk rhel-9.0-x86_64-kvm.qcow2,bus=virtio --import --os-variant=rhel9.0

   2. If you use the web console to create your VM, follow the procedure in Creating virtual machines using the web console, with these caveats:

      • Do not check Immediately Start VM.
      • Change your Memory size to your preferred settings.
      • Before you start the installation, ensure that you have changed Model under Virtual Network Interface Settings to virtio and change your vCPUs to the capacity settings you want for the VM.

Procedure

1. Choose the language you want to use during the installation process.

2. On the Installation Summary view:

   1. Click Software Selection and check Minimal Install.
   2. Click Done.

   3. Click Installation Destination and check Custom under Storage Configuration.

      • Verify at least 500 MB for /boot. You can use the remaining space for root /.
      • Standard partitions are recommended, but you can use Logical Volume Management (LVM).
      • You can use xfs, ext4, or ext3 for the file system.
      • Click Done when you are finished with changes.
3. Click Begin Installation.
4. Set a Root Password. Create other users as applicable.
5. Reboot the VM and log in as root once the installation completes.

6. Configure the image.

   Note

   Ensure that the cloud-init package is installed and enabled.

7. Important: This step is only for VMs you intend to upload to AWS.

   1. For AMD64 or Intel 64 (x86_64)VMs, install the nvme, xen-netfront, and xen-blkfront drivers.

      # dracut -f --add-drivers "nvme xen-netfront xen-blkfront"

   2. For ARM 64 (aarch64) VMs, install the nvme driver.

      # dracut -f --add-drivers "nvme"

      Including these drivers removes the possibility of a dracut time-out.

      Alternatively, you can add the drivers to /etc/dracut.conf.d/ and then enter dracut -f to overwrite the existing initramfs file.

8. Power down the VM.

Procedure

1. Install Python 3 and the pip tool.

   # dnf install python3
   # dnf install python3-pip

2. Install the AWS command line tools with the pip command.

   # pip3 install awscli

3. Run the aws --version command to verify that you installed the AWS CLI.

   $ aws --version
   aws-cli/1.19.77 Python/3.6.15 Linux/5.14.16-201.fc34.x86_64 botocore/1.20.77

4. Configure the AWS command line client according to your AWS access details.

   $ aws configure
   AWS Access Key ID [None]:
   AWS Secret Access Key [None]:
   Default region name [None]:
   Default output format [None]:

Procedure

1. Launch the Amazon S3 Console.
2. Click Create Bucket. The Create Bucket dialog appears.

3. In the Name and region view:

   1. Enter a Bucket name.
   2. Enter a Region.
   3. Click Next.
4. In the Configure options view, select the desired options and click Next.
5. In the Set permissions view, change or accept the default options and click Next.
6. Review your bucket configuration.

7. Click Create bucket.

   Note

   Alternatively, you can use the AWS CLI to create a bucket. For example, the aws s3 mb s3://my-new-bucket command creates an S3 bucket named my-new-bucket. See the AWS CLI Command Reference for more information on the mb command.

Procedure

1. Create a file named trust-policy.json and include the following policy. Save the file on your system and note its location.

   {
      "Version": "2012-10-17",
      "Statement": [
         {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Principal": { "Service": "vmie.amazonaws.com" },
            "Action": "sts:AssumeRole",
            "Condition": {
               "StringEquals":{
                  "sts:Externalid": "vmimport"
               }
            }
         }
      ]
   }

2. Use the create role command to create the vmimport role. Specify the full path to the location of the trust-policy.json file. Prefix file:// to the path. For example:

   aws iam create-role --role-name vmimport --assume-role-policy-document file:///home/sample/ImportService/trust-policy.json

3. Create a file named role-policy.json and include the following policy. Replace s3-bucket-name with the name of your S3 bucket.

   {
      "Version":"2012-10-17",
      "Statement":[
         {
            "Effect":"Allow",
            "Action":[
               "s3:GetBucketLocation",
               "s3:GetObject",
               "s3:ListBucket"
            ],
            "Resource":[
               "arn:aws:s3:::s3-bucket-name",
               "arn:aws:s3:::s3-bucket-name/*"
            ]
         },
         {
            "Effect":"Allow",
            "Action":[
               "ec2:ModifySnapshotAttribute",
               "ec2:CopySnapshot",
               "ec2:RegisterImage",
               "ec2:Describe*"
            ],
            "Resource":"*"
         }
      ]
   }

4. Use the put-role-policy command to attach the policy to the role you created. Specify the full path of the role-policy.json file. For example:

   aws iam put-role-policy --role-name vmimport --policy-name vmimport --policy-document file:///home/sample/ImportService/role-policy.json

Procedure

1. Run the qemu-img command to convert your image. For example:

   qemu-img convert -f qcow2 -O raw rhel-9.0-sample.qcow2 rhel-9.0-sample.raw

2. Push the image to S3.

   aws s3 cp rhel-9.0-sample.raw s3://s3-bucket-name

   Note

   This procedure could take a few minutes. After completion, you can check that your image uploaded successfully to your S3 bucket using the AWS S3 Console.

Procedure

1. Create a file to specify a bucket and path for your image. Name the file containers.json. In the sample that follows, replace s3-bucket-name with your bucket name and s3-key with your key. You can get the key for the image using the Amazon S3 Console.

   {
       "Description": "rhel-9.0-sample.raw",
       "Format": "raw",
       "UserBucket": {
           "S3Bucket": "s3-bucket-name",
           "S3Key": "s3-key"
       }
   }

2. Import the image as a snapshot. This example uses a public Amazon S3 file; you can use the Amazon S3 Console to change permissions settings on your bucket.

   aws ec2 import-snapshot --disk-container file://containers.json

   The terminal displays a message such as the following. Note the ImportTaskID within the message.

   {
       "SnapshotTaskDetail": {
           "Status": "active",
           "Format": "RAW",
           "DiskImageSize": 0.0,
           "UserBucket": {
               "S3Bucket": "s3-bucket-name",
               "S3Key": "rhel-9.0-sample.raw"
           },
           "Progress": "3",
           "StatusMessage": "pending"
       },
       "ImportTaskId": "import-snap-06cea01fa0f1166a8"
   }

3. Track the progress of the import using the describe-import-snapshot-tasks command. Include the ImportTaskID.

   aws ec2 describe-import-snapshot-tasks --import-task-ids import-snap-06cea01fa0f1166a8

   The returned message shows the current status of the task. When complete, Status shows completed. Within the status, note the snapshot ID.

Procedure

1. Go to the AWS EC2 Dashboard.
2. Under Elastic Block Store, select Snapshots.
3. Search for your snapshot ID (for example, snap-0e718930bd72bcda0).
4. Right-click on the snapshot and select Create image.
5. Name your image.
6. Under Virtualization type, choose Hardware-assisted virtualization.
7. Click Create. In the note regarding image creation, there is a link to your image.

8. Click on the image link. Your image shows up under Images>AMIs.

   Note

   Alternatively, you can use the AWS CLI register-image command to create an AMI from a snapshot. See register-image for more information. An example follows.

   $ aws ec2 register-image --name "myimagename" --description "myimagedescription" --architecture x86_64  --virtualization-type hvm --root-device-name "/dev/sda1" --block-device-mappings "{\"DeviceName\": \"/dev/sda1\",\"Ebs\": {\"SnapshotId\": \"snap-0ce7f009b69ab274d\"}}" --ena-support

   You must specify the root device volume /dev/sda1 as your root-device-name. For conceptual information on device mapping for AWS, see Example block device mapping.

Procedure

1. From the AWS EC2 Dashboard, select Images and then AMIs.
2. Right-click on your image and select Launch.

3. Choose an Instance Type that meets or exceeds the requirements of your workload.

   See Amazon EC2 Instance Types for information on instance types.

4. Click Next: Configure Instance Details.

   1. Enter the Number of instances you want to create.
   2. For Network, select the VPC you created when setting up your AWS environment. Select a subnet for the instance or create a new subnet.

   3. Select Enable for Auto-assign Public IP.

      Note

      These are the minimum configuration options necessary to create a basic instance. Review additional options based on your application requirements.

5. Click Next: Add Storage. Verify that the default storage is sufficient.

6. Click Next: Add Tags.

   Note

   Tags can help you manage your AWS resources. See Tagging Your Amazon EC2 Resources for information on tagging.

7. Click Next: Configure Security Group. Select the security group you created when setting up your AWS environment.
8. Click Review and Launch. Verify your selections.

9. Click Launch. You are prompted to select an existing key pair or create a new key pair. Select the key pair you created when setting up your AWS environment.

   Note

   Verify that the permissions for your private key are correct. Use the command options chmod 400 <keyname>.pem to change the permissions, if necessary.

10. Click Launch Instances.

11. Click View Instances. You can name the instance(s).

    You can now launch an SSH session to your instance(s) by selecting an instance and clicking Connect. Use the example provided for A standalone SSH client.

    Note

    Alternatively, you can launch an instance using the AWS CLI. See Launching, Listing, and Terminating Amazon EC2 Instances in the Amazon documentation for more information.

Procedure

1. Register your system.

   # subscription-manager register --auto-attach

2. Attach your subscriptions.

   • You can use an activation key to attach subscriptions. See Creating Red Hat Customer Portal Activation Keys for more information.
   • Alternatively, you can manually attach a subscription using the ID of the subscription pool (Pool ID). See Attaching and Removing Subscriptions Through the Command Line.

Procedure

1. Upload the the Gold Image to AWS. For instructions, see Uploading the Red Hat Enterprise Linux image to AWS.
2. Create VMs using the uploaded image. They will be automatically subscribed to RHSM.