install-rhel7-vmware.adoc

VMware Installation Guide for inclusion in combined install guide.

Include this in VMware tab of combined install guide as Steps 2 and Steps 3.

Bare Metal step 2 is included in this document, any changes made to the bare metal step 2, need to be made here as well!

Step2 content

This step provides an overview of the key steps for installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server in a VMware Virtual Machine (VM) so you can get started with software development. The VM you create will give you a Red Hat Enterprise Linux development environment that you can use on your system running Microsoft Windows or Mac OS X.

Overview of steps

1. Download and install VMware

2. Configure a VM to run Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

3. Boot the VM using the ISO file you downloaded in step 1 as a virtual DVD.

4. Install Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

Note: This tutorial does not replace the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Installation Guide or VMware documentation. Instead, this tutorial provides an overview of the key steps for software developers. For detailed instructions, see the respective manual.

A few things to keep in mind:

• You will be using the Server edition of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. This provides you with the widest range of software to develop and test with.

• The VM will have a full graphical desktop. You will select Server with a GUI during installation.

• After installation, you will configure additional software repositories that will provide you access to optional development software such as RHSCL and DTS.

System Requirements

The requirements for your physical system that will host the Red Hat Enterprise Linux VM are:

• a 64-bit x86 machine with hardware virtualization assistance (Intel VT-X or AMD-V).

• 4 GB RAM (8 GB preferred).

• 24 GB of available disk space for the VM, the installation ISO file, and VMware.

• A processor with hardware virtualization assistance (Intel VT-x or AMD-V).

If you encounter difficulties at any point in this tutorial, see Troubleshooting and FAQ.

Download and install VMware.

You will need to download a VMware desktop virtualization product for your system:

• Microsoft Windows: VMware Workstation Pro or VMware Workstation Player.

• Apple Mac OS X: VMware Fusion or VMware Fusion Pro.

After the download completes, click on the downloaded .exe or .dmg file to start the installation. During the installation you will need to agree to using administrative privileges for a number of the steps.

The Windows enhanced virtual keyboard driver is not required. You may install it if needed for improved support of international keyboards.

Note: This guide uses VMware Workstation 12 and VMware Fusion 8. Older versions may work but the steps might be slightly different.

Enable Intel VT-x or AMD-V Virtualization in BIOS/UEFI

Intel and AMD processors have hardware extensions for accelerating virtualization. On some systems this support may be disabled by default in the system’s BIOS/UEFI. To enable the extensions, you might have to go into the system’s BIOS/UEFI setup configuration at boot time. Consult your system’s hardware documentation for more information.

Disable Microsoft Hyper-V to avoid conflicts with VMware

On some Microsoft Windows systems it may be necessary to disable Microsoft Hyper-V virtualization in order to use VMware. Only one virtualization platform, or hypervisor, can be active on a host system at a time. While hypervisors like VMware only take control of the host system’s hardware virtualization capabilities when they are actually running a VM, Microsoft Hyper-V takes control at boot time. In order to use VMware, Hyper-V must either be disabled or uninstalled. Consult Microsoft’s documentation for more information. Note: if you are interested in using Microsoft Hyper-V instead of VMware, check the Red Hat Developers site for a Hyper-V edition of this guide.

Create and configure a VM in VMware

In this step you will create and configure the VM that will run Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The system you are running VMware on is called the host system. The operating system running inside the VM is referred to as the guest.

First, launch VMware from your system’s menu. The follow the steps for your operating system.

VMware Workstation Pro or Player on Microsoft Windows

Click Create a New Virtual Machine to bring up the New Virtual Machine Wizard dialog:

1. On the Welcome to the New Virtual Machine Wizard dialog:

   1. Select Installer disc image file (.iso)

   2. Click Browse, then locate the ISO file you downloaded in step 1.

   3. Click Next.

      

2. On the Select a Guest Operating System dialog

   1. Select Linux under _Guest Operating _system

   2. Select Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 64-bit from the list of choices under Version.

      

   3. Click Next.

3. On the Name the Virtual Machine dialog:

   1. Enter rhel or your preferred name in the Virtual machine name box.

   2. Change the location of the VMs files, including the virtual hard disk if necessary. By default it will be placed in your Documents folder. You will need 20 GB of space in the chosen location.

      

4. On the Specify Disk Capacity dialog you will set the size of the VM’s virtual hard disk. The size of the virtual hard disk, should be a minimum of 20 GB. While this setting can be changed later, it is a multi-step process not covered by this guide. Therefore it is recommended that you size the virtual hard disk to be large enough for your software development activities. Note: The space on your host system’s physical disk will not be allocated until it is used by the VM. Complete the next set of dialogs to configure the virtual hard disk

   1. Change the Maximum disk size (GB) if needed. The default is 20 GB.

   2. Click Next.

      

5. Click Finish to create the VM.

   

   At this point the basic VM configuration has been completed. You may optionally change the configuration:

6. Select the newly created VM from the Home list on the left side. Then click Edit virtual machine settings on the lower right to bring up the Virtual Machine Settings dialog. On the Hardware tab:

   1. Adjust the amount of Memory (RAM) if desired. A 2 GB or more is suggested for development.

   2. By default, the VM will have a single virtual processor. If your system has multiple processors or cores, you can add more to the VM.

   3. Under Network Adapter, you can set the VM’s networking configuration. The default is Network Address Translation (NAT) which is the easiest to manage. You may want to choose Bridged to attach the VM directly to the physical network. See VMware Networking below for more information.

7. Click OK to close the Virtual Machine Settings dialog.

VMware Fusion or VMware Fusion Pro on Mac OS X

When you launch VMware Fusion without having any VM’s it will automatically open dialog to begin creating a VM. If you already have a VM created, select New from the File menu. At the select

1. Click Create a custom virtual machine on the Select the Installation Method dialog. Then, click Continue.

   

2. Select Linux on the left side of the Choose Operating System dialog.

   1. Select Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 64-bit from the list on the right.

   2. Click Continue.

      

3. Click Continue on the Choose a Virtual Disk dialog. The option Create a new virtual disk should be selected by default. The default virtual disk size is 20 GB.

   

4. Click Finish.

   

5. Choose the name and location to start the VM files. Note: By default it will be placed in your Documents folder. You will need at least 20 GB of space in the chosen location.

   1. Set the VM name to rhel in the Save As box.

   2. Change the location for the files in the Where box if needed.

   3. Click Save.

6. At this point the basic VM configuration has been completed, but some additional configuration is needed. Click the Settings button (wrench icon), or select Settings from the Virtual Machine menu.

   

7. Click the CD/DVD icon in the VM Settings dialog.

   1. Select Choose a disk or disk image…​ from the CD/DVD dialog. By default it is set to Autodetect.

   2. In the file dialog, Navigate to the location of the .iso file you downloaded in step 1. Then click Open.

   3. Click the Connect CD/DVD Drive check box.

   4. Click Show All to return to VM Settings.

8. Optionally, you can tailor the configuration of the VM to suit your needs.

   1. You can adjust the amount of memory and number of CPUs available to the VM by clicking the Processors & Memory icon.

      

   2. You can change the size of the virtual hard disk by clicking the Hard Disk icon. The size of the virtual hard disk, should be a minimum of 20 GB. While this setting can be changed later, it is a multi-step process not covered by this guide. Therefore it is recommended that you size the virtual hard disk to be large enough for your software development activities. Note: The space on your host system’s physical disk will not be allocated until it is used by the VM.

   3. Under Network Adapter, you can set the VM’s networking configuration. The default is Network Address Translation (NAT) which is the easiest to manage. You may want to choose Bridged to attach the VM directly to the physical network. See VMware Networking below for more information.

      

9. Close the VM settings dialog.

Boot the VM and install Red Hat Enterprise Linux

To start the VM and begin installation, start VMware if it isn’t already running, then select your VM and click the Play button. The VM should now boot up from the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server DVD .iso file.

Note: When you click inside the VM window, the keyboard and mouse will be captured by the VM until you hit Ctrl and Alt on Windows or the left option key on the Mac. When the system is fully installed this will no longer be necessary. See Open VM Tools replaces VMware Tools for Linux.

This section provides a brief overview of the steps for installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Detailed instructions can be found in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Installation Guide.

There are a few key steps to remember during the installation process:

1. The Installation destination will be the virtual hard disk you created for the VM.

2. You should configure networking under Network and host name before starting the installation. You will need access to the Internet to complete registration and download additional software. The network can be configured after the system is installed. However, the steps are more straightforward during installation.

3. Select Server with a GUI under Software Selection so the system will boot into the full graphical environment after installation. By default, Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server will not install a graphical desktop.

4. Create your primary user account during installation: After the installation begins, you will be instructed to set a password for the root account and be given the opportunity to create a regular user account. You should create a user before the installation process completes. The regular user will be your primary login for development. The root account should only be used for system administration tasks. If you don’t create a user before the installation completes, you will need to reboot and then log in as root to create user accounts.

Installation instructions

1. Start the system from the bootable disk and select Install Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

   

2. Select your preferred language and keyboard layout to use during installation.

3. Under Localization review the settings and make any necessary changes for date and time, language, and keyboard layout. Note: The Done button to return to the Installation summary screen is located in the upper left corner of the screen.

   

4. Perform the follow steps to make your software selection:

   1. Click Software selection.

   2. On the next screen, under Software selection, in the Base environment list on the left, select Server with GUI.

   3. In the list Add-ons for selected environment on the right, select Development tools.

   4. Click the Done button. Note: After returning to the Installation summary screen it will take several seconds to validate your choices.

      

5. Click Installation destination to specify which disk or partition(s) to install the software on. Note: It is important that you understand the choices that you are making in this section to avoid accidental data loss. It is strongly recommended that you read the Installation Destination section of the the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Installation Guide. The installation destination should be at least 20 GB or larger to accommodate the OS, graphical desktop, and development tools.

6. Click Network & host name to configure the network. If the system has more than one network adapter, select it from the list on the left. Then click the On/Off button on the right to enable the network adapter. Click Configure to review and/or change the default settings for the network adapter. Optionally, set a Host name for the system. Before leaving this screen, make sure there is at least one network adapter enabled with the switch in the On position. A network connection will be required to register the system and download system updates.

   

7. Click KDump to disable KDump and free up memory. Click the box next to Enable kdump so that it is no longer checked. Then click Done.

8. Click the Begin installation button when you are ready to start the actual installation.

9. On the next screen, while the installation is running, click User creation to create the user ID you will use to log in for normal work.

   

10. Click Root password to set the password for the root user. Note: If you choose a password that the system considers to be weak, you will need to click Done twice.

11. After the installation process completes, click the Reboot button.

    

If you need help, see Troubleshooting and FAQ.

Step3 Content

This section has a number of post-installation steps that complete the installation of Red Hat Enterprise Linux and prepare it for software development. The steps are:

1. Accept the license agreements and register the system with the Red Hat Subscription Management..

2. Add additional software repositories containing development software.

Complete installation and register the system

After installation, during the first boot of the system, you will be asked to accept the license agreement and register the system with Red Hat Subscription Management. Completing these steps are required for your system to download software from Red Hat.

1. Click License information to go the license acceptance screen.

   1. Click the check box to accept the license.

   2. Click Done in the upper left corner to return to the configuration screen.

2. If you didn’t configure a network during installation, click Network and host name to configure your network connection.

3. Click to On the Subscription Management Registration screen

   1. if you need to configure an HTTP proxy server, click Configure Proxy

   2. Click Next to move the next screen.

4. Register your system with Red Hat. Use the same username and password that you created for the Red Hat Customer Portal. Note: For this step to succeed, you must have configured your network connection.

   1. If you have more than one subscription available, select which subscription to attach this installation to

   2. Click Done.

5. Click Finish configuration when you are done.

6. Log in to the system with the username and password you created during installation.

   If you didn’t create a regular user, you will need to log in as root and create a user. See Troubleshooting and FAQ.

   If you get a text-based login screen instead of a graphical one, see Troubleshooting and FAQ.

7. Select your preferred language.

Disable lock screen and screen power saving

For security and to save energy, the default configuration of Red Hat Enterprise Linux is to lock the screen and turn the screen off when idle. On a VM, it is best to disable these features since the host system will control screen locking and power saving.

To disable these features, from the desktop Application menu, select the System Tools group, then select Settings. Follow these steps in the Settings application.

1. Click the Privacy icon to bring up the Privacy dialog.

2. Click on Screen Lock to bring up the Screen Lock dialog.

3. Click on the On/Off switch to the right of Automatic Screen Lock.

4. Click the X in the upper right hand corner to dismiss the Screen Lock dialog.

5. Click the < button in the upper left corner of the Privacy dialog to go back to the main Settings screen.

6. Click on the Power icon to open the Power settings dialog.

7. Click the menu button to the right of Blank screen. Select Never from the list of choices.

8. Finally, Click the ‘X’ in the upper right hand corner to close the Settings application.

Install the latest updates

In this step, you will download and install the latest updates for your system from Red Hat. In the process, you will verify that your system has a current Red Hat subscription and is able to receive updates.

First, start a Terminal window from the Application menu. Then, after using su to change to the root user ID, use subscription-manager to verify that you have access to Red Hat software repositories.

$ su -
# subscription-manager repos --list-enabled

If you don’t see any enabled repositories, your system might not be registered with Red Hat or might not have a valid subscription. See Troubleshooting and FAQ for more information.

Now download and install any available updates by running yum update. If updates are available, yum will list them and ask if it is OK to proceed.

# yum update

Enable additional software repositories

In this step you will configure your system to obtain software from the Optional RPMs and RHSCL software repositories. The Optional RPMs repository includes a number of development packages. The RHSCL repository includes the both the RHSCL software collections as well as DTS (the Red Hat Developer Toolset).

# subscription-manager repos --enable rhel-server-rhscl-7-rpms
# subscription-manager repos --enable rhel-7-server-optional-rpms

VMware Networking

The default VMware network configuration is for the VM to share the host system’s network connection(s) and IP address using network address translation (NAT). This is the easiest to manage and will be fine for many uses. Using NAT, the VM will be able to access resources on your network or the Internet. However services, such as a web server, running inside the VM won’t be directly accessible from outside of the VM.

Alternatively, you can attach the VM to directly network by sharing the network adapter from the host system as a bridged network adapter. In this configuration, the VM gets its own IP address, usually using your network’s DHCP server. The VM appears on the network the same way a physical computer would with its own hardware MAC address. The host’s network adapter is shared by a device driver that is installed by VMware. The VM’s virtual network adapter can only be bridged to one physical network adapter at a time. If your system has more than one network adapter you need to choose which one to attach to. If your system switches between wired and wireless connections, you will need to switch bridged adapters for the VM.

Networking, both physical and virtual, is a large topic beyond the scope of this guide. For more information see Networking options in VMware Workstation and Fusion or the networking section of the VMware Workstation User’s Guide.

Open VM Tools replaces VMware Tools for Linux

Red Hat Enterprise Linux includes Open VM Tools which replaces the VMware’s Operating System Specific Tools (OST), also known as VMware Tools for Linux_. You do not need to install VMware Tools as the functionality is implemented in the open source packages that are included with Red Hat Enterprise Linux. These tools are services and drivers that are installed in the guest operating system under the VM to: * improve performance. * provide better desktop integration. * allow shared folders between the host and the VM.

Step4 Content

LocalWords: VMware hypervisor hypervisors