Chapter 5

Installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux

This chapter provides information about installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 for x86 (64-bit) on the server.

This chapter includes the following topics:

• Installing RHEL 5 Using Local or Remote Media

• Installing RHEL 5 Using a PXE Network Environment

• Post RHEL Installation Tasks

Installing RHEL 5 Using Local or Remote Media

The following procedure describes how to boot the Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 5.5 operating system installation from local or remote media. The procedure assumes that you are booting the RHEL installation media from one of the following sources:

• RHEL 5.5 (or subsequent release) CD or DVD set (internal or external CD/DVD)

• RHEL 5.5 (or subsequent release) ISO DVD image (network repository)

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  Note - If you are booting the installation media from a PXE environment, refer to Installing RHEL 5 Using a PXE Network Environment for instructions.

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For further details about installing RHEL, see the RHEL documentation collection at:http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/

Before You Begin

Prior to performing the installation, the following requirements must be met:

• All applicable installation prerequisites for installing an operating system should have been met. For further information about these prerequisites, see Chapter 2, Getting Started With Linux Operating System Installations.

• An installation method (for example: console, boot media, and install target) should have been chosen and established prior to performing the installation. For more information about these setup requirements, see Appendix A, Supported Installation Methods.

After completing this procedure, you should review and perform the required post installation tasks described later in this chapter. For more details, see Post RHEL Installation Tasks.

Install RHEL 5 Using Local or Remote Media

1. Ensure that the install media is available to boot.
   • For Distribution CD/DVD. Insert the Red Hat 5.5 Distribution media boot disc (CD labeled number 1 or the single DVD) into the local or remote USB CD/DVD-ROM drive.
   • For ISO images. Ensure that the ISO images are available and that the boot disc image (CD labeled number 1 or DVD) has been selected in the ILOM Remote Console application (Devices menu --> CD-ROM Image).
   • For additional information about how to set up the install media, see Appendix A, Supported Installation Methods.
2. Reset the power on the server.

   For example:

   • From the ILOM web interface, select the Remote Control --> Remote Power Control, then select Reset from the Select Action list box.
   • From the local server, press the Power button (approximately 1 second) on the front panel of the server to power off the server, then press the Power button again to power on the server.
   • From the ILOM CLI on the server SP, type: reset /SYS
   • From the ILOM CLI on a CMM, type: reset /CH/BLn/SYS

     Where n is the number of server module in chassis.

   The BIOS screen appears.

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   Note - The next events occur very quickly; therefore, focused attention is needed for the following steps. Watch carefully for these messages as they appear on the screen for a brief time. You might want to enlarge the size of your screen to eliminate scroll bars.

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3. In the BIOS power-on self-test screen, press F8 to specify a temporary boot device for the RHEL installation.

   The Please Select Boot Device menu appears.

4. In the Boot Device menu, select either the external or virtual CD/DVD device as the first boot device, then press Enter.

   The device strings listed on Boot menu are in the format of: device type, slot indicator, and product ID string.

   After a few seconds, the splash screen for the RHEL 5 installation appears. The bottom half of the splash screen lists instructions, function keys, and the boot prompt.

5. In the Red Hat Enterprise Linux splash screen, click Next to continue the normal user interactive installation.

   Alternately, for text mode, enter the following command:

   boot: linux text
6. In the Language screen, select the appropriate language, then click OK.

   The Keyboard Type screen appears.

7. In the Keyboard Type screen, select the appropriate keyboard configuration, then click OK.

   The Installation Method screen appears.

8. In the Installation Method screen, select the appropriate installation method (Local CDROM or NFS Image), then click OK.

   The CD Found screen appears.

9. In the CD Found screen, click Skip.

   The Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 screen appears.

10. In the Red Hat Enterprise 5 screen, click Next.

    The Installation Number dialog appears.

11. In the Installation Number dialog, enter the “Installation number” or click Skip entering installation number, then click OK.

    The Disk Partition Setup screen appears.

12. In the Disk Partition Setup screen, do the following:
    1. Select the option for Remove Linux partitions on selected drives and create default layout or manually partition the disk using the Create custom layout option of Disk Druid, then click Next.
       
    2. Partition the disk as appropriate by referring to the instructions presented on the Red Hat disk partitioning screen.

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       Note - If the Oracle Solaris OS or Oracle VM is preinstalled on the disk, you can choose to partition the disk to remove the preinstalled OS; or, you can choose to keep the preinstalled OS and partition the disk to support dual-boot operating systems.

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13. Continue the basic Red Hat installation setup by following the on-screen instructions and Red Hat documentation.
14. After completing the basic Red Hat installation setup, perform the following post-installation tasks:
    1. Configure your system for automatic updates.

       Refer to Red Hat documentation for more information.

    2. If required, download and install the latest errata and bug fixes for RHEL 5.5.

       Refer to Red Hat documentation for more information.

    3. Review and, if necessary, perform the post installation tasks described later in this chapter.

       Refer to Post RHEL Installation Tasks.

Installing RHEL 5 Using a PXE Network Environment

This section describes how to boot the RHEL 5 from a PXE network environment. It assumes that you are booting the install media from one of the following sources:

• RHEL 5.5 (or subsequent release) CD or DVD set (internal or external CD/DVD)

• RHEL 5.5 (or subsequent release) ISO DVD image or KickStart image (network repository)

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  Note - KickStart is Red Hat’s automated installation method. It enables a system administrator to create a single image containing the settings for some or all installation and configuration parameters that are normally provided during a typical Red Hat Linux installation. Typically, a KickStart image is placed on a single network server and read by multiple systems for installation.

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Before You Begin

The following requirements must be met prior to performing the RHEL PXE installation:

• If you are using a KickStart image to perform the installation, you must:

  • Create a KickStart file.

  • Create a boot media with the KickStart file or make the KickStart file available on the network.

  Follow the KickStart installation instructions in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5: Administration Guide (http://www.redhat.com/docs).

• To use PXE to boot the installation media over the network, you must:

  • Configure the network (NFS, FTP, HTTP) server to export the installation tree.

  • Configure the files on the TFTP server necessary for PXE booting.

  • Configure the Sun Blade X6720 M2 Server Module MAC network port address to boot from the PXE configuration.

  • Configure the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP).

  Follow the PXE network installation instructions in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4: Administration Guide http://ww.redhat.com/docs.

Install RHEL 5 Using PXE Network Boot

1. Ensure that the PXE network environment is properly set up and the RHEL installation media is available for PXE boot.
2. Reset the power on the server.

   For example:

   • From the ILOM web interface, select the Remote Control --> Remote Power Control, then select Reset from the Select Action list box.
   • From the local server, press the Power button (approximately 1 second) on the front panel of the server to power off the server, then press the Power button again to power on the server.
   • From the ILOM CLI on the server SP, type: reset /SYS
   • From the ILOM CLI on a CMM, type: reset /CH/BLn/SYS

     Where n is the number of server module in chassis.

   The BIOS screen appears.

   ---

   Note - The next events occur very quickly; therefore, focused attention is needed for the following steps. Watch carefully for these messages as they appear on the screen for a brief time. You might want to enlarge the size of your screen to eliminate scroll bars.

   ---

3. Press F8 to specify a temporary boot device.

   The Please Select Boot Device menu appears listing the available boot device.

4. In the Boot Device menu, select the network port that is configured to communicate with your PXE network install server.

   The network bootloader loads and a boot prompt appears. After a few seconds the installation kernel will begin to load.

5. To complete the installation, refer to Step 5 in the procedure Install RHEL 5 Using Local or Remote Media.

Post RHEL Installation Tasks

After completing the RHEL installation, you should review the following post installation tasks and, if necessary, perform the tasks that are applicable to your system.

• Register RHEL and Activate Automatic Updates

• Configuring TPM Support

Register RHEL and Activate Automatic Updates

After installing RHEL, you should activate your RHEL subscription to receive automatic updates to the software. For more details, see Red Hat Linux Support at:

http://www.redhat.com/apps/support/

Configuring TPM Support

If you intend to use the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) feature set that is provided in RHEL, you must configure the Sun Blade X6720 M2 Server Module to support this feature. For instructions, see configuration support for TPM information in the Sun Blade X6720 M2 Server Module Service Manual (821-0499).

Installing the Oracle Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel for Linux

After you have installed RHEL 5 Update 5, you can install and use the Oracle Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel for Linux. For installation instructions, see Installing Oracle Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel for Linux Using Local or Remote Console.