Chapter 3. Install host physical machine
Your physical machine needs an operating system and access to the appropriate software repositories in order to be used as a hyperconverged host.
3.1. Installing a Red Hat Enterprise Linux host
Red Hat Enterprise Linux hosts add virtualization capabilities to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system. This allows the host to be used as a hyperconverged host in Red Hat Hyperconverged Infrastructure for Virtualization.
Prerequisites
- Ensure that your physical machine meets the requirements outlined in Physical machines.
Procedure
Download the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 ISO image from the Customer Portal:
- Log in to the Customer Portal at https://access.redhat.com.
- Click Downloads in the menu bar.
- Beside Red Hat Enterprise Linux click Versions 7 and below.
-
In the Version drop-down menu, select version
7.6
. - Go to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.6 Binary DVD and and click Download Now.
- Create a bootable media device. See Making Media in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Installation Guide for more information.
- Start the machine you are installing as a Red Hat Enterprise Linux host, and boot from the prepared installation media.
From the boot menu, select Install Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.6 and press Enter.
NoteYou can also press the Tab key to edit the kernel parameters. Kernel parameters must be separated by a space, and you can boot the system using the specified kernel parameters by pressing the Enter key. Press the Esc key to clear any changes to the kernel parameters and return to the boot menu.
- Select a language, and click Continue.
Select a time zone from the Date & Time screen and click Done.
ImportantRed Hat recommends using Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) on all hosts. This helps ensure that data collection and connectivity are not impacted by variation in local time, such as during daylight savings time.
- Select a keyboard layout from the Keyboard screen and click Done.
Specify the installation location from the Installation Destination screen.
Important- Red Hat strongly recommends using the Automatically configure partitioning option.
- All disks are selected by default, so deselect disks that you do not want to use as installation locations.
- At-rest encryption is not supported. Do not enable encryption.
Red Hat recommends increasing the size of
/var/log
to at least 15GB to provide sufficient space for the additional logging requirements of Red Hat Gluster Storage.Follow the instructions in Growing a logical volume using the Web Console to increase the size of this partition after installing the operating system.
Click Done.
Select the Ethernet network from the Network & Host Name screen.
- Click Configure… → General and select the Automatically connect to this network when it is available check box.
- Optionally configure Language Support, Security Policy, and Kdump. See Installing Using Anaconda in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Installation Guide for more information on each of the sections in the Installation Summary screen.
- Click Begin Installation.
Set a root password and, optionally, create an additional user while Red Hat Enterprise Linux installs.
WarningRed Hat strongly recommends not creating untrusted users on the hyperconverged host, as this can lead to exploitation of local security vulnerabilities.
- Click Reboot to complete the installation.
3.2. Enabling software repositories
Register your machine to Red Hat Network.
# subscription-manager register --username=<username> --password=<password>
Attach the pool.
# subscription-manager attach --pool=Pool ID number
Disable the repositories.
# subscription-manager repos --disable="*"
Enable the additional channels required for Red Hat Enterprise Linux hosts.
# subscription-manager repos --enable=rhel-7-server-rpms --enable=rh-gluster-3-for-rhel-7-server-rpms --enable=rhel-7-server-rhv-4-mgmt-agent-rpms --enable=rhel-7-server-ansible-2.9-rpms
3.3. Install and configure RHHI for Virtualization requirements
Install the packages required for RHHI for Virtualization.
# yum install glusterfs-server vdsm-gluster ovirt-hosted-engine-setup cockpit-ovirt-dashboard gluster-ansible-roles
Start and enable the Web Console.
# systemctl start cockpit # systemctl enable cockpit
Configure the firewall for the Web Console traffic
Open ports for the
cockpit
service.# firewall-cmd --add-service=cockpit # firewall-cmd --add-service=cockpit --permanent
Verify that the
cockpit
service is allowed by the firewall.Ensure that
cockpit
appears in the output of the following command.# firewall-cmd --list-services | grep cockpit