How to install Red Hat 8 step by step

If you want to install Red Hat 8, the dis­tri­b­u­tion will guide you through the in­di­vid­ual steps. We will show you here how the process works and also explain what should be taken into con­sid­er­a­tion be­fore­hand.

What is Red Hat En­ter­prise Linux 8?

Red Hat En­ter­prise Linux (RHEL for short) is an extremely popular Linux dis­tri­b­u­tion that was specif­i­cal­ly designed for the needs of companies. The platform has been available since 2002 and is com­pat­i­ble with numerous programs. The eighth version was launched on May 7, 2019. RHEL 8 is con­sid­ered to be par­tic­u­lar­ly user-friendly, stable and secure and offers very good support for cloud-based services. For the first time, the dis­tri­b­u­tion includes AppStream, which can be used to dis­trib­ute packages, and Software Con­nec­tions, which are used to dis­trib­ute ap­pli­ca­tions. The platform also offers standard support for OpenSSL and TLS 1.3.

In the following sections we will guide you step by step through the Red Hat 8 in­stal­la­tion.

The pre­req­ui­sites and measures for in­stalling RHEL 8

Before you start with the RHEL 8 in­stal­la­tion, there are a few things to bear in mind and some pre­req­ui­sites that need to be fulfilled:

• two vCPUs for suf­fi­cient computing power
• 2 gigabyte working memory/RAM
• 20 gigabyte hard drive space

This hardware con­fig­u­ra­tion ensures not only smooth in­stal­la­tion but also optimal dis­tri­b­u­tion per­for­mance. Before beginning the process, insert an iDRAC boot disk or mount the Red Hat 8 ISO file on a virtual console. The drivers for the graphics card and network card will be installed au­to­mat­i­cal­ly, but you may need to manually install ad­di­tion­al drivers afterward. Once these pre­req­ui­sites are fulfilled, you can proceed with in­stalling RHEL 8.

The steps for in­stalling Red Hat En­ter­prise Linux 8

Choose the in­stal­la­tion option you prefer. In this guide, we’ve opted for an ISO file, which you can download directly from the official Red Hat website. Start your server and mount the in­stal­la­tion medium in the usual way. Then, follow these in­struc­tions:

1. Reboot your server or device. The boot media will au­to­mat­i­cal­ly display the menu for the RHEL in­stal­la­tion. To begin the in­stal­la­tion, choose the option Install Red Hat En­ter­prise Linux 8.x.x and press [Enter] to confirm.

2. The next step takes you to the user interface for the first time. Here you will be asked to select your preferred language. Find the ap­pro­pri­ate option and click on “Continue”.

3. You will now proceed to the In­stal­la­tion Summary section. In this section, you can adjust settings for lo­cal­iza­tion, software, the system, and user accounts. Required fields are indicated by a small ex­cla­ma­tion mark.

4. In each case, the desired in­stal­la­tion en­vi­ron­ment (in­stal­la­tion target) must be specified. It is also necessary to select the desired in­stal­la­tion package such as “Server with GUI” under Software Selection. You can also add ad­di­tion­al software such as an FTP server to the in­stal­la­tion at this point. Confirm the re­spec­tive settings by clicking on “Done”.

5. If you click on Network & Host Name, you can configure more than just the desired internet con­nec­tion. In the “Host Name” field, you have the option of spec­i­fy­ing the name of the system. Confirm this with “Apply” and exit the menu by clicking “Done”.

6. Select the desired In­stal­la­tion target by clicking on the button and spec­i­fy­ing the desired storage location in the sub­se­quent menu. Then confirm with “Done”.

7. Another mandatory field is your root password. First enter your new password here and then once more to confirm it. As this password is used for all ad­min­is­tra­tive tasks, it should be secure and yet easy to remember. It must contain at least six char­ac­ters and should consist of a com­bi­na­tion of numbers and letters in upper and lower case. Special char­ac­ters are also possible and rec­om­mend­ed. You can find out how to change the RHEL root password later in a separate article.

8. Once you have cus­tomized all the options to your liking, click on Begin In­stal­la­tion.

9. The in­stal­la­tion process will now begin. After it is finished, the server will restart, allowing you to use Red Hat En­ter­prise Linux 8. To do this, switch the boot medium back to the hard drive.