Archives August 2019

In this and subsequent part series some basic tasks a system administrator might need to perform which are optionally performed during installation.

RHEL 8 Web Console

Common task list a system admin performs via web console include 

• Monitoring basic system features 
• Inspect log files 
• Managing docker files 
• User management 
• Service management 
• Creating reports 
• Package / Software management 
• Network management 
• SElinux / Security management 
• Advance configuration task with the help of virtual terminal.

If your system does not have a RHEL 8 web console install follow the link to install before reading further. 

Restarting a system from web console

Step 1 : Click System

Step 2 : Power Option (dropdown)

Step 3 : Restart

Step 4 : write reason for restart (optional) -> 

Step 5 : select time interval before restart will take place (optional) or no delay in case of immediate restart

Step 6 : click Restart

Shutdown the system from web console

Step 1 : Click System

Step 2 : Power Option (dropdown)

Step 3 : Shutdown 

Step 4 : write reason for shutdown (optional) -> 

Step 5 : select time interval 

Step 6 : click Shutdown

Naming / Renaming Server from web console

Host name consist of two parts host + domain name. By default hostname is localhost.localdomain but you can change it during installation or from the web console.
For example:
rhel8server.testdom.it
You can configure also a pretty host name in the RHEL web console. This is specific to web console and is not considered a real hostname of the server. Capital letters , spaces are accepted characters for a pretty hostname.

Step 1 : Click System

Step 2 : Click Current Hostname

Step 3 : Enter Pretty Hostname

Step 4 : Enter Real Hostname

Step 5 : Click Change

Configuring NTP setting from web console

Step 1 : Click System

Step 2 : Click Current System Time

Step 3 : In the change time dialog box select correct timezone

Step 4 : In the change time dialog box Select "Set Time" drop down.

From the drop down you can select

Manual : for setting time manually

Automatic Using NTP : This is recommended option

Automatically Using specific NTP server : In case your company has there own NTP server select this option.

Step 5 : Click Change

Using web console for selecting performance profile

Performance profile are created and managed by the Tuned service.

Tuned is a service that monitors your system and optimizes the performance under certain workloads.

The core of Tuned are profiles, which tune your system for different use cases.
Tuned is distributed with a number of predefined profiles for use cases such as:
High throughput
Low latency
Saving power

Click the link to get full details about Configuring System Performance with Tuned in RHEL8

Steps to Change a profile with Web Console

Step 1 : Click System

Step 2 : Click current Performance Profile 

Step 3 : In the change current profile dialog box select the new profile

Step 4 : Click Change 

In part two of Configuring Basic System Settings RHEL 8 web console we will discuss about User account management with Web Console in RHEL8

RHEL 8 Cockpit Web Console is a web based management tool that allows you to complete many common RHEL tasks from a web browser , it is designed as per cloud OS. As a feature of any web based application it is accessible from remote machines by default.

Enabling Cockpit Web Console

By default cockpit gets installed on all RHEL 8 installations with exception to minimal installs, however it is not enabled by default, use below command to enable the web interface.

systemctl enable --now cockpit.socket

Notice that cockpit is a self contained application and does not require a web server to be installed to run this web application.

If you want to run cockpit dashboard locally from the desktop you can use below command to install the graphical interface.

 yum install virt-viewer

The next step is to open a web browser (either from a remote host, or from the RHEL 8 system console), and go to the RHEL 8 systems hostname or IP address, followed by :9090 to specify port 9090, for example: https://localhost.localdomain:9090

Log in to the Web Console with the root account, or with another RHEL account.

This is a common error found when booting after installing Ubuntu 18.04 or later on M2 PCIe SSD. In this article i have added configuration for UEFI / BIOS settings before installing Ubuntu from installation medium.

Graphics are not good quality but explanation is provided for each screen. Please make sure your settings are set accordingly

Desclaimer: This task is very risky and author / company does not take any responsibility for any loss or damage , please make sure you have appropriate backup before performing this task.

Below Images and setting are from DELL Inspiron 14 5000 BIOS / UEFI setup.

M2 PCIe SSD-0 1024 GB , was used for this installation and the problem was no boot device found after installation. To fix it you need to set the below settings in your bios before performing the installation. Please note your bios might show different words but all bios / uefi setup have almost same settings

In boot list option select UEFI selecting Legacy option does provide old setup and drivers might get issue.

For UEFI boot path security set to Never  , this will allow the disk to be added in UEFI list.

Keep this default “Deployed Mode”

Keep Secure boot disabled , Please note Secure boot and UEFI boot path security are separate options

Keep Legacy Option ROM enabled as it allows to install from USB , CDROM etc.

Once settings are done boot from your USB or DVD and perform the installation as normal.

Happy Installing 🙂

Requirements

• Hardware : Linux in general and Red Hat kernel supports lots of different hardware variants as well as virtual environment . A complete list of redhat supported hardware you can verify  https://access.redhat.com/ecosystem/search/#/category/Server.
•  Memory : 1.5GB minimum, 1.5GB per logical CPU recommended
•  10GB minimum, 20GB recommended

Once requirements are out of the way make sure the boot is set in the physical / virtual environment before performing the boot. Below is the first screen on successful boot of RHEL8 CD. Pressing TAB key will display the actual command that will be executed upon install.

There are multiple ways to install RHEL 8 but the most common for the first installation is using an ISO , others will be discussed during installation below.

The very first installation screen is the installation language , note this is not necessary the language to be used by the users. Select the required language by default US English is selected , press Continue

After selecting the installation language a very clean installation summary is given to select all the required option for the installation , most of these have the default already set such as Language Support and KDUMP , but few of these need to be set such as “Time & Date” , a new window will open for the time and date settings.

from the above you can

• set the time in 24 hour / 12 hours
• select the date
• Select region and city
• Keyboard Layout
• NTP Server Settings

Click Ok to return to Main Option Menu Screen.

Next is the installation source , you can select different sources for your installation media as below.

Auto-Detect installation media is the ISO image used for booting RHEL 8 setup , there is option to choose a custom ISO , add multiple repositories in your environment (if available) , perform Network Install. Click Done to get back to Main Options.

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Next is Software Selection , Pre Packaged bundles and custom packages , select the one that best suites your requirement.

There are few pre-packaged bundles

• Virtualization Host environment contains a set of software packages needed for running virtual machines on the system
• Minimal install only installs a basic version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux with only a minimal amount of additional software
• Server installs infrastructure and networking packages
• Server with GUI installs infrastructure and networking + GUI
• Workstation is the user friendly desktop , laptop packages
• Custom Operating System installs all the packages that admin selects to install.

Once desired packages are selected click Done.  Next is the selection of Storage type.

Select installation destination asks for the location to install the OS , it provide the option to select the new disk , select Automatic or Custom partitioning.

Full disk summary and boot loader link shows the options selected for the installation of the new operating system.

To understand Storage Configuration and how to setup storage kindly refer to Storage Configuration in RHEL 8 

Click Done , once configured.

Next select Network and Host Name as below, by default in RHEL 8 networking is disabled.

In the above screen you can select Static or Dynamic IP addressing , configure Host Name settings. By clicking on Configure you can set the static settings for route , DNS as well as static ip address.

Security Policy and System Purpose are optional settings.

After all the options are configured click “Begin Installation” and installation will commence. On the next screen there are two option to set the first user and the root password these are required before installation completes.

Once installation has completed you will see the option to reboot the system. Please make sure that the installation media is removed prior to reboot.

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