Chapter 2. Preparing for your RHEL installation

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 9, 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.

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

Procedure

1. Connect the USB flash drive to the system.

2. Open a terminal window and display a log of recent events.

   $ dmesg|tail

   Messages resulting from the attached USB flash drive are displayed at the bottom of the log. Record the name of the connected device.

3. Log in as a root user:

   $ su -

   Enter your root password when prompted.

4. Find the device node assigned to the drive. In this example, the drive name is sdd.

   # dmesg|tail
   [288954.686557] usb 2-1.8: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=1, SerialNumber=2
   [288954.686559] usb 2-1.8: Product: USB Storage
   [288954.686562] usb 2-1.8: SerialNumber: 000000009225
   [288954.712590] usb-storage 2-1.8:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
   [288954.712687] scsi host6: usb-storage 2-1.8:1.0
   [288954.712809] usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
   [288954.716682] usbcore: registered new interface driver uas
   [288955.717140] scsi 6:0:0:0: Direct-Access     Generic  STORAGE DEVICE   9228 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0
   [288955.717745] sd 6:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg4 type 0
   [288961.876382] sd 6:0:0:0: sdd Attached SCSI removable disk

5. If the inserted USB device mounts automatically, unmount it before continuing with the next steps. For unmounting, use the umount command. For more information, see Unmounting a file system with umount.

6. Write the ISO image directly to the USB device:

   # dd if=/image_directory/image.iso of=/dev/device

   • Replace /image_directory/image.iso with the full path to the ISO image file that you downloaded,

   • Replace device with the device name that you retrieved with the dmesg command.

     In this example, the full path to the ISO image is /home/testuser/Downloads/rhel-9-x86_64-boot.iso, and the device name is sdd:

     # dd if=/home/testuser/Downloads/rhel-9-x86_64-boot.iso of=/dev/sdd

     Note

     Ensure that you use the correct device name, and not the name of a partition on the device. Partition names are usually device names with a numerical suffix. For example, sdd is a device name, and sdd1 is the name of a partition on the device sdd.

7. Wait for the dd command to finish writing the image to the device. Run the sync command to synchronize cached writes to the device. The data transfer is complete when the # prompt appears. When you see the prompt, log out of the root account and unplug the USB drive. The USB drive is now ready to use as a boot device.

Procedure

1. Download and install Fedora Media Writer from https://github.com/FedoraQt/MediaWriter/releases.
2. Connect the USB flash drive to the system.
3. Open Fedora Media Writer.
4. From the main window, click Custom Image and select the previously downloaded Red Hat Enterprise Linux ISO image.
5. From the Write Custom Image window, select the drive that you want to use.
6. Click Write to disk. The boot media creation process starts. Do not unplug the drive until the operation completes. The operation may take several minutes, depending on the size of the ISO image, and the write speed of the USB drive.
7. When the operation completes, unmount the USB drive. The USB drive is now ready to be used as a boot device.

Procedure

1. Connect the USB flash drive to the system.

2. Identify the device path with the diskutil list command. The device path has the format of /dev/disknumber, where number is the number of the disk. The disks are numbered starting at zero (0). Typically, disk0 is the OS X recovery disk, and disk1 is the main OS X installation. In the following example, the USB device is disk2:

   $ diskutil list
   /dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *500.3 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage                         400.0 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
   4:          Apple_CoreStorage                         98.8 GB    disk0s4
   5:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s5
   /dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                  Apple_HFS YosemiteHD             *399.6 GB   disk1
   Logical Volume on disk0s1
   8A142795-8036-48DF-9FC5-84506DFBB7B2
   Unlocked Encrypted
   /dev/disk2
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     FDisk_partition_scheme                        *8.1 GB     disk2
   1:               Windows_NTFS SanDisk USB             8.1 GB     disk2s1

3. Identify your USB flash drive by comparing the NAME, TYPE and SIZE columns to your flash drive. For example, the NAME should be the title of the flash drive icon in the Finder tool. You can also compare these values to those in the information panel of the flash drive.

4. Unmount the flash drive’s filesystem volumes:

   $ diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disknumber
   					Unmount of all volumes on disknumber was successful

   When the command completes, the icon for the flash drive disappears from your desktop. If the icon does not disappear, you may have selected the wrong disk. Attempting to unmount the system disk accidentally returns a failed to unmount error.

5. Write the ISO image to the flash drive:

   # sudo dd if=/path/to/image.iso of=/dev/rdisknumber

   Note

   macOS provides both a block (/dev/disk*) and character device (/dev/rdisk*) file for each storage device. Writing an image to the /dev/rdisknumber character device is faster than writing to the /dev/disknumber block device.

   For example, to write the /Users/user_name/Downloads/rhel-9-x86_64-boot.iso file to the /dev/rdisk2 device, enter the following command:

   # sudo dd if=/Users/user_name/Downloads/rhel-9-x86_64-boot.iso of=/dev/rdisk2

6. Wait for the dd command to finish writing the image to the device. The data transfer is complete when the # prompt appears. When the prompt is displayed, log out of the root account and unplug the USB drive. The USB drive is now ready to be used as a boot device.

Procedure

1. Install the nfs-utils package:

   # dnf install nfs-utils

2. Copy the DVD ISO image to a directory on the NFS server.

3. Open the /etc/exports file using a text editor and add a line with the following syntax:

   /exported_directory/ clients

   • Replace /exported_directory/ with the full path to the directory with the ISO image.

   • Replace clients with one of the following:

     • The host name or IP address of the target system
     • The subnetwork that all target systems can use to access the ISO image
     • To allow any system with network access to the NFS server to use the ISO image, the asterisk sign (*)

     See the exports(5) man page for detailed information about the format of this field.

     For example, a basic configuration that makes the /rhel9-install/ directory available as read-only to all clients is:

     /rhel9-install *

4. Save the /etc/exports file and exit the text editor.

5. Start the nfs service:

   # systemctl start nfs-server.service

   If the service was running before you changed the /etc/exports file, reload the NFS server configuration:

   # systemctl reload nfs-server.service

   The ISO image is now accessible over NFS and ready to be used as an installation source.

Procedure

1. Copy the DVD ISO image to the HTTP(S) server.

2. Create a suitable directory for mounting the DVD ISO image, for example:

   # mkdir /mnt/rhel9-install/

3. Mount the DVD ISO image to the directory:

   # mount -o loop,ro -t iso9660 /image_directory/image.iso /mnt/rhel9-install/

   Replace /image_directory/image.iso with the path to the DVD ISO image.

4. Copy the files from the mounted image to the HTTP(S) server root.

   # cp -r /mnt/rhel9-install/ /var/www/html/

   This command creates the /var/www/html/rhel9-install/ directory with the content of the image. Note that some other copying methods might skip the .treeinfo file which is required for a valid installation source. Entering the cp command for entire directories as shown in this procedure copies .treeinfo correctly.

5. Start the httpd service:

   # systemctl start httpd.service

   The installation tree is now accessible and ready to be used as the installation source.

   Note

   When configuring the installation source, use http:// or https:// as the protocol, the server host name or IP address, and the directory that contains the files from the ISO image, relative to the HTTP server root. For example, if you use HTTP, the server host name is myserver.example.com, and you have copied the files from the image to /var/www/html/rhel9-install/, specify http://myserver.example.com/rhel9-install/ as the installation source.

Procedure

1. Open and edit the /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf configuration file in a text editor.

   1. Change the line anonymous_enable=NO to anonymous_enable=YES
   2. Change the line write_enable=YES to write_enable=NO.

   3. Add lines pasv_min_port=<min_port> and pasv_max_port=<max_port>. Replace <min_port> and <max_port> with the port number range used by FTP server in passive mode, for example, 10021 and 10031.

      This step might be necessary in network environments featuring various firewall/NAT setups.

   4. Optional: Add custom changes to your configuration. For available options, see the vsftpd.conf(5) man page. This procedure assumes that default options are used.

      Warning

      If you configured SSL/TLS security in your vsftpd.conf file, ensure that you enable only the TLSv1 protocol, and disable SSLv2 and SSLv3. This is due to the POODLE SSL vulnerability (CVE-2014-3566). See https://access.redhat.com/solutions/1234773 for details.

2. Configure the server firewall.

   1. Enable the firewall:

      # systemctl enable firewalld

   2. Start the firewall:

      # systemctl start firewalld

   3. Configure the firewall to allow the FTP port and port range from the previous step:

      # firewall-cmd --add-port min_port-max_port/tcp --permanent
      # firewall-cmd --add-service ftp --permanent

      Replace <min_port> and <max_port> with the port numbers you entered into the /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf configuration file.

   4. Reload the firewall to apply the new rules:

      # firewall-cmd --reload

3. Copy the DVD ISO image to the FTP server.

4. Create a suitable directory for mounting the DVD ISO image, for example:

   # mkdir /mnt/rhel9-install

5. Mount the DVD ISO image to the directory:

   # mount -o loop,ro -t iso9660 /image-directory/image.iso /mnt/rhel9-install

   Replace /image-directory/image.iso with the path to the DVD ISO image.

6. Copy the files from the mounted image to the FTP server root:

   # mkdir /var/ftp/rhel9-install
   # cp -r /mnt/rhel9-install/ /var/ftp/

   This command creates the /var/ftp/rhel9-install/ directory with the content of the image. Note that some copying methods can skip the .treeinfo file which is required for a valid installation source. Entering the cp command for whole directories as shown in this procedure will copy .treeinfo correctly.

7. Make sure that the correct SELinux context and access mode is set on the copied content:

   # restorecon -r /var/ftp/rhel9-install
   # find /var/ftp/rhel9-install -type f -exec chmod 444 {} \;
   # find /var/ftp/rhel9-install -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;

8. Start the vsftpd service:

   # systemctl start vsftpd.service

   If the service was running before you changed the /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf file, restart the service to load the edited file:

   # systemctl restart vsftpd.service

   Enable the vsftpd service to start during the boot process:

   # systemctl enable vsftpd

   The installation tree is now accessible and ready to be used as the installation source.

   Note

   When configuring the installation source, use ftp:// as the protocol, the server host name or IP address, and the directory in which you have stored the files from the ISO image, relative to the FTP server root. For example, if the server host name is myserver.example.com and you have copied the files from the image to /var/ftp/rhel9-install/, specify ftp://myserver.example.com/rhel9-install/ as the installation source.

Procedure

1. Download an ISO image of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux installation DVD. Alternatively, if you have the DVD on physical media, you can create an image of an ISO with the following command on a Linux system:

   dd if=/dev/dvd of=/path_to_image/name_of_image.iso

   where dvd is your DVD drive device name, name_of_image is the name you give to the resulting ISO image file, and path_to_image is the path to the location on your system where you want to store the image.

2. Copy and paste the ISO image onto the system disk or a USB drive.

3. Use a SHA256 checksum program to verify that the ISO image that you copied is intact. Many SHA256 checksum programs are available for various operating systems. On a Linux system, run:

   $ sha256sum /path_to_image/name_of_image.iso

   where name_of_image is the name of the ISO image file. The SHA256 checksum program displays a string of 64 characters called a hash. Compare this hash to the hash displayed for this particular image on the Downloads page in the Red Hat Customer Portal. The two hashes should be identical.

4. Specify the HDD installation source on the kernel command line before starting the installation:

   inst.repo=hd:<device>:/path_to_image/name_of_image.iso

Steps

1. Export the installation ISO image or the installation tree to an NFS, HTTPS, HTTP, or FTP server.
2. Configure the HTTP or TFTP server and DHCP server, and start the HTTP or TFTP service on the server.
3. Boot the client and start the installation.

Procedure

1. Install the DHCP server:

   dnf install dhcp-server

2. Set up a DHCPv4 server. Enter the following configuration in the /etc/dhcp/dhcpd.conf file. Replace the addresses to match your network card.

   option architecture-type code 93 = unsigned integer 16;
   
   subnet 192.168.124.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
     option routers 192.168.124.1;
     option domain-name-servers 192.168.124.1;
     range 192.168.124.100 192.168.124.200;
     class "pxeclients" {
       match if substring (option vendor-class-identifier, 0, 9) = "PXEClient";
       next-server 192.168.124.2;
             if option architecture-type = 00:07 {
               filename "redhat/EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI";
             }
             else {
               filename "pxelinux/pxelinux.0";
             }
     }
     class "httpclients" {
       match if substring (option vendor-class-identifier, 0, 10) = "HTTPClient";
       option vendor-class-identifier "HTTPClient";
       filename "http://192.168.124.2/redhat/EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI";
     }
   }

3. Start the DHCPv4 service:

   # systemctl enable --now dhcpd

Procedure

1. Install the DHCP server:

   dnf install dhcp-server

2. Set up a DHCPv6 server. Enter the following configuration in the /etc/dhcp/dhcpd6.conf file. Replace the addresses to match your network card.

   option dhcp6.bootfile-url code 59 = string;
   option dhcp6.vendor-class code 16 = {integer 32, integer 16, string};
   
   subnet6 fd33:eb1b:9b36::/64 {
           range6 fd33:eb1b:9b36::64 fd33:eb1b:9b36::c8;
   
           class "PXEClient" {
                   match substring (option dhcp6.vendor-class, 6, 9);
           }
   
           subclass "PXEClient" "PXEClient" {
                   option dhcp6.bootfile-url "tftp://[fd33:eb1b:9b36::2]/redhat/EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI";
           }
   
           class "HTTPClient" {
                   match substring (option dhcp6.vendor-class, 6, 10);
           }
   
           subclass "HTTPClient" "HTTPClient" {
                   option dhcp6.bootfile-url "http://[fd33:eb1b:9b36::2]/redhat/EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI";
                   option dhcp6.vendor-class 0 10 "HTTPClient";
           }
   }

3. Start the DHCPv6 service:

   # systemctl enable --now dhcpd6

4. If DHCPv6 packets are dropped by the RP filter in the firewall, check its log. If the log contains the rpfilter_DROP entry, disable the filter using the following configuration in the /etc/firewalld/firewalld.conf file:

   IPv6_rpfilter=no

Procedure

1. Install the HTTP server:

   # dnf install httpd

2. Create the /var/www/html/redhat/ directory:

   # mkdir -p /var/www/html/redhat/

3. Download the RHEL DVD ISO file. See All Red Hat Enterprise Linux Downloads.

4. Create a mount point for the ISO file:

   # mkdir -p /var/www/html/redhat/iso/

5. Mount the ISO file:

   # mount -o loop,ro -t iso9660 path-to-RHEL-DVD.iso /var/www/html/redhat/iso

6. Copy the boot loader, kernel, and initramfs from the mounted ISO file into your HTML directory:

   # cp -r /var/www/html/redhat/iso/images /var/www/html/redhat/
   # cp -r /var/www/html/redhat/iso/EFI /var/www/html/redhat/

7. Make the boot loader configuration editable:

   # chmod 644 /var/www/html/redhat/EFI/BOOT/grub.cfg

8. Edit the /var/www/html/redhat/EFI/BOOT/grub.cfg file and replace its content with the following:

   set default="1"
   
   function load_video {
     insmod efi_gop
     insmod efi_uga
     insmod video_bochs
     insmod video_cirrus
     insmod all_video
   }
   
   load_video
   set gfxpayload=keep
   insmod gzio
   insmod part_gpt
   insmod ext2
   
   set timeout=60
   # END /etc/grub.d/00_header #
   
   search --no-floppy --set=root -l 'RHEL-9-3-0-BaseOS-x86_64'
   
   # BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux #
   menuentry 'Install Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.3' --class fedora --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
       linuxefi ../../images/pxeboot/vmlinuz inst.repo=http://192.168.124.2/redhat/iso quiet
       initrdefi ../../images/pxeboot/initrd.img
   }
   menuentry 'Test this media & install Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.3' --class fedora --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
       linuxefi ../../images/pxeboot/vmlinuz inst.repo=http://192.168.124.2/redhat/iso quiet
       initrdefi ../../images/pxeboot/initrd.img
   }
   submenu 'Troubleshooting -->' {
       menuentry 'Install Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.3 in text mode' --class fedora --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
      	 linuxefi ../../images/pxeboot/vmlinuz inst.repo=http://192.168.124.2/redhat/iso inst.text quiet
      	 initrdefi ../../images/pxeboot/initrd.img
       }
       menuentry 'Rescue a Red Hat Enterprise Linux system' --class fedora --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
      	 linuxefi ../../images/pxeboot/vmlinuz inst.repo=http://192.168.124.2/redhat/iso inst.rescue quiet
      	 initrdefi ../../images/pxeboot/initrd.img
       }
   }

   In this file, replace the following strings:

   RHEL-9-3-0-BaseOS-x86_64 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.3

   Edit the version number to match the version of RHEL that you downloaded.

   192.168.124.2

   Replace with the IP address to your server.

9. Make the EFI boot file executable:

   # chmod 755 /var/www/html/redhat/EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI

10. Open ports in the firewall to allow HTTP (80), DHCP (67, 68) and DHCPv6 (546, 547) traffic:

    # firewall-cmd --zone public \
                   --add-port={80/tcp,67/udp,68/udp,546/udp,547/udp}

    Note

    This command enables temporary access until the next server reboot. To enable permanent access, add the --permanent option to the command.

11. Reload firewall rules:

    # firewall-cmd --reload

12. Start the HTTP server:

    # systemctl enable --now httpd

13. Make the html directory and its content readable and executable:

    # chmod -cR u=rwX,g=rX,o=rX /var/www/html

14. Restore the SELinux context of the html directory:

    # restorecon -FvvR /var/www/html

Steps

1. Export the installation ISO image or the installation tree to an NFS, HTTPS, HTTP, or FTP server.
2. Configure the HTTP or TFTP server and DHCP server, and start the HTTP or TFTP service on the server.
3. Boot the client and start the installation.

Procedure

1. Install the DHCP server:

   dnf install dhcp-server

2. Set up a DHCPv4 server. Enter the following configuration in the /etc/dhcp/dhcpd.conf file. Replace the addresses to match your network card.

   option architecture-type code 93 = unsigned integer 16;
   
   subnet 192.168.124.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
     option routers 192.168.124.1;
     option domain-name-servers 192.168.124.1;
     range 192.168.124.100 192.168.124.200;
     class "pxeclients" {
       match if substring (option vendor-class-identifier, 0, 9) = "PXEClient";
       next-server 192.168.124.2;
             if option architecture-type = 00:07 {
               filename "redhat/EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI";
             }
             else {
               filename "pxelinux/pxelinux.0";
             }
     }
     class "httpclients" {
       match if substring (option vendor-class-identifier, 0, 10) = "HTTPClient";
       option vendor-class-identifier "HTTPClient";
       filename "http://192.168.124.2/redhat/EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI";
     }
   }

3. Start the DHCPv4 service:

   # systemctl enable --now dhcpd

Procedure

1. Install the DHCP server:

   dnf install dhcp-server

2. Set up a DHCPv6 server. Enter the following configuration in the /etc/dhcp/dhcpd6.conf file. Replace the addresses to match your network card.

   option dhcp6.bootfile-url code 59 = string;
   option dhcp6.vendor-class code 16 = {integer 32, integer 16, string};
   
   subnet6 fd33:eb1b:9b36::/64 {
           range6 fd33:eb1b:9b36::64 fd33:eb1b:9b36::c8;
   
           class "PXEClient" {
                   match substring (option dhcp6.vendor-class, 6, 9);
           }
   
           subclass "PXEClient" "PXEClient" {
                   option dhcp6.bootfile-url "tftp://[fd33:eb1b:9b36::2]/redhat/EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI";
           }
   
           class "HTTPClient" {
                   match substring (option dhcp6.vendor-class, 6, 10);
           }
   
           subclass "HTTPClient" "HTTPClient" {
                   option dhcp6.bootfile-url "http://[fd33:eb1b:9b36::2]/redhat/EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI";
                   option dhcp6.vendor-class 0 10 "HTTPClient";
           }
   }

3. Start the DHCPv6 service:

   # systemctl enable --now dhcpd6

4. If DHCPv6 packets are dropped by the RP filter in the firewall, check its log. If the log contains the rpfilter_DROP entry, disable the filter using the following configuration in the /etc/firewalld/firewalld.conf file:

   IPv6_rpfilter=no

Procedure

1. As root, install the following package.

   # dnf install tftp-server

2. Allow incoming connections to the tftp service in the firewall:

   # firewall-cmd --add-service=tftp

   Note

   • This command enables temporary access until the next server reboot. To enable permanent access, add the --permanent option to the command.
   • Depending on the location of the installation ISO file, you might have to allow incoming connections for HTTP or other services.

3. Access the pxelinux.0 file from the SYSLINUX package in the DVD ISO image file, where my_local_directory is the name of the directory that you create:

   # mount -t iso9660 /path_to_image/name_of_image.iso /mount_point -o loop,ro

   # cp -pr /mount_point/AppStream/Packages/syslinux-tftpboot-version-architecture.rpm /my_local_directory

   # umount /mount_point

4. Extract the package:

   # rpm2cpio syslinux-tftpboot-version-architecture.rpm | cpio -dimv

5. Create a pxelinux/ directory in tftpboot/ and copy all the files from the directory into the pxelinux/ directory:

   # mkdir /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux

   # cp /my_local_directory/tftpboot/* /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux

6. Create the directory pxelinux.cfg/ in the pxelinux/ directory:

   # mkdir /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux/pxelinux.cfg

7. Create a configuration file named default and add it to the pxelinux.cfg/ directory as shown in the following example:

   default vesamenu.c32
   prompt 1
   timeout 600
   
   display boot.msg
   
   label linux
     menu label ^Install system
     menu default
     kernel images/RHEL-9/vmlinuz
     append initrd=images/RHEL-9/initrd.img ip=dhcp inst.repo=http://192.168.124.2/RHEL-9/x86_64/iso-contents-root/
   label vesa
     menu label Install system with ^basic video driver
     kernel images/RHEL-9/vmlinuz
     append initrd=images/RHEL-9/initrd.img ip=dhcp inst.xdriver=vesa nomodeset inst.repo=http://192.168.124.2/RHEL-9/x86_64/iso-contents-root/
   label rescue
     menu label ^Rescue installed system
     kernel images/RHEL-9/vmlinuz
     append initrd=images/RHEL-9/initrd.img inst.rescue
     inst.repo=http:///192.168.124.2/RHEL-8/x86_64/iso-contents-root/
   label local
     menu label Boot from ^local drive
     localboot 0xffff

   Note

   • The installation program cannot boot without its runtime image. Use the inst.stage2 boot option to specify location of the image. Alternatively, you can use the inst.repo= option to specify the image as well as the installation source.
   • The installation source location used with inst.repo must contain a valid .treeinfo file.
   • When you select the RHEL9 installation DVD as the installation source, the .treeinfo file points to the BaseOS and the AppStream repositories. You can use a single inst.repo option to load both repositories.

8. Create a subdirectory to store the boot image files in the /var/lib/tftpboot/ directory, and copy the boot image files to the directory. In this example, the directory is /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux/images/RHEL-9/:

   # mkdir -p /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux/images/RHEL-9/
   # cp /path_to_x86_64_images/pxeboot/{vmlinuz,initrd.img} /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux/images/RHEL-9/

9. Start and enable the tftp.socket service:

   # systemctl enable --now tftp.socket

   The PXE boot server is now ready to serve PXE clients. You can start the client, which is the system to which you are installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux, select PXE Boot when prompted to specify a boot source, and start the network installation.

Procedure

1. As root, install the following package.

   # dnf install tftp-server

2. Allow incoming connections to the tftp service in the firewall:

   # firewall-cmd --add-service=tftp

   Note

   • This command enables temporary access until the next server reboot. To enable permanent access, add the --permanent option to the command.
   • Depending on the location of the installation ISO file, you might have to allow incoming connections for HTTP or other services.

3. Access the EFI boot image files from the DVD ISO image:

   # mount -t iso9660 /path_to_image/name_of_image.iso /mount_point -o loop,ro

4. Copy the EFI boot images from the DVD ISO image:

   # mkdir /var/lib/tftpboot/redhat
   # cp -r /mount_point/EFI /var/lib/tftpboot/redhat/
   # umount /mount_point

5. Fix the permissions of the copied files:

   # chmod -R 755 /var/lib/tftpboot/redhat/

6. Replace the content of /var/lib/tftpboot/redhat/EFI/BOOT/grub.cfg with the following example:

   set timeout=60
   menuentry 'RHEL 9' {
     linuxefi images/RHEL-9/vmlinuz ip=dhcp inst.repo=http://192.168.124.2/RHEL-9/x86_64/iso-contents-root/
     initrdefi images/RHEL-9/initrd.img
   }

   Note

   • The installation program cannot boot without its runtime image. Use the inst.stage2 boot option to specify location of the image. Alternatively, you can use the inst.repo= option to specify the image as well as the installation source.
   • The installation source location used with inst.repo must contain a valid .treeinfo file.
   • When you select the RHEL9 installation DVD as the installation source, the .treeinfo file points to the BaseOS and the AppStream repositories. You can use a single inst.repo option to load both repositories.

7. Create a subdirectory to store the boot image files in the /var/lib/tftpboot/ directory, and copy the boot image files to the directory. In this example, the directory is /var/lib/tftpboot/images/RHEL-9/:

   # mkdir -p /var/lib/tftpboot/images/RHEL-9/
   # cp /path_to_x86_64_images/pxeboot/{vmlinuz,initrd.img} /var/lib/tftpboot/images/RHEL-9/

8. Start and enable the tftp.socket service:

   # systemctl enable --now tftp.socket

   The PXE boot server is now ready to serve PXE clients. You can start the client, which is the system to which you are installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux, select PXE Boot when prompted to specify a boot source, and start the network installation.

Procedure

1. As root, install the following packages:

   # dnf install tftp-server dhcp-server

2. Allow incoming connections to the tftp service in the firewall:

   # firewall-cmd --add-service=tftp

   Note

   • This command enables temporary access until the next server reboot. To enable permanent access, add the --permanent option to the command.
   • Depending on the location of the installation ISO file, you might have to allow incoming connections for HTTP or other services.

3. Create a GRUB2 network boot directory inside the TFTP root:

   # grub2-mknetdir --net-directory=/var/lib/tftpboot
   Netboot directory for powerpc-ieee1275 created. Configure your DHCP server to point to /boot/grub2/powerpc-ieee1275/core.elf

   Note

   The command output informs you of the file name that needs to be configured in your DHCP configuration, described in this procedure.

   1. If the PXE server runs on an x86 machine, the grub2-ppc64-modules must be installed before creating a GRUB2 network boot directory inside the tftp root:

      # dnf install grub2-ppc64-modules

4. Create a GRUB2 configuration file: /var/lib/tftpboot/boot/grub2/grub.cfg as shown in the following example:

   set default=0
   set timeout=5
   
   echo -e "\nWelcome to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 installer!\n\n"
   
   menuentry 'Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9' {
     linux grub2-ppc64/vmlinuz ro ip=dhcp inst.repo=http://192.168.124.2/RHEL-9/x86_64/iso-contents-root/
     initrd grub2-ppc64/initrd.img
   }

   Note

   • The installation program cannot boot without its runtime image. Use the inst.stage2 boot option to specify location of the image. Alternatively, you can use the inst.repo= option to specify the image as well as the installation source.
   • The installation source location used with inst.repo must contain a valid .treeinfo file.
   • When you select the RHEL8 installation DVD as the installation source, the .treeinfo file points to the BaseOS and the AppStream repositories. You can use a single inst.repo option to load both repositories.

5. Mount the DVD ISO image using the command:

   # mount -t iso9660 /path_to_image/name_of_iso/ /mount_point -o loop,ro

6. Create a directory and copy the initrd.img and vmlinuz files from DVD ISO image into it, for example:

   # cp /mount_point/ppc/ppc64/{initrd.img,vmlinuz} /var/lib/tftpboot/grub2-ppc64/

7. Configure your DHCP server to use the boot images packaged with GRUB2 as shown in the following example. Note that if you already have a DHCP server configured, then perform this step on the DHCP server.

   subnet 192.168.0.1 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
     allow bootp;
     option routers 192.168.0.5;
     group { #BOOTP POWER clients
       filename "boot/grub2/powerpc-ieee1275/core.elf";
       host client1 {
       hardware ethernet 01:23:45:67:89:ab;
       fixed-address 192.168.0.112;
       }
     }
   }

8. Adjust the sample parameters subnet, netmask, routers, fixed-address and hardware ethernet to fit your network configuration. Note the file name parameter; this is the file name that was outputted by the grub2-mknetdir command earlier in this procedure.

9. On the DHCP server, start and enable the dhcpd service. If you have configured a DHCP server on the localhost, then start and enable the dhcpd service on the localhost.

   # systemctl enable --now dhcpd

10. Start and enable the tftp.socket service:

    # systemctl enable --now tftp.socket

    The PXE boot server is now ready to serve PXE clients. You can start the client, which is the system to which you are installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux, select PXE Boot when prompted to specify a boot source, and start the network installation.

Procedure

1. Install the httpd package

   # dnf install httpd

2. Run, then enable the Apache webserver. These commands will also start the webserver after reboot.

   # systemctl enable httpd
   # systemctl start httpd

3. Insert any website files you may have.

   # echo Apache on RHEL {ProductNumber} > /var/www/html/index.html

4. Update the firewall.

   # firewall-cmd --add-service=http --permanent
   # firewall-cmd --add-service=http

5. Access the website.

   http://<the-apache-ip-address>
   
   http://<the-apache-hostname>

Procedure

1. Mount and copy the content of downloaded DVD.

   mkdir /mnt/rhel{ProductNumber}
   mount -o loop,ro rhel-{ProductNumber}-x86_64-dvd.iso /mnt/rhel{ProductNumber}/
   cp -r /mnt/rhel{ProductNumber}/ /var/www/html/
   umount  /mnt/rhel{ProductNumber}

   The next step is performed on the client side, not on the server where Apache is installed.

2. Create a repo file for both BaseOS and AppStream repositories.

   vi /etc/yum.repos.d/rhel_http_repo.repo
   
   [BaseOS_repo_http]
   name=RHEL_9_x86_64_HTTP BaseOS
   baseurl="http://myhost/rhel9/BaseOS"
   gpgcheck=1
   gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-redhat-release
   
   [AppStream_repo_http]
   name=RHEL_9_x86_64_HTTP AppStream
   baseurl="http://myhost/rhel9/AppStream"
   gpgcheck=1
   gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-redhat-release
   
   [root@localhost ~]# dnf repolist
   Updating Subscription Management repositories.
   Unable to read consumer identity
   This system is not registered to Red Hat Subscription Management. You can use subscription-manager to register.
   Last metadata expiration check: 0:08:33 ago on Út 23. července 2019, 16:48:09 CEST.
   repo id                                                              repo name                                                                        status
   AppStream_repo_http                                                  RHEL_9_x86_64_HTTP AppStream                                                   4,672
   BaseOS_repo_http                                                     RHEL_9_x86_64_HTTP BaseOS                                                      1,658
   [root@localhost ~]#