RH133

Redhat Enterprise Linux System Administration Unit 1

 Installation Hardware Overview

 Kernel Support  Core support: CPU, Memory, Process  Management , Interrupt/Exception Handling etc.  Dynamically Loadable Kernel Modules

 Device Drivers

 Additional Functionality  User Mode Access to kernel facilities  System Calls and Signals  Filesystem Device Nodes  Network Interfaces

 Are not accessed through a device node but instead are accessed through a “network interface” abstraction. CPU and Memory

 Seven Supported Architectures: x86, Itanium2, AMD64/EM64T, S/390, zSeries, iSeries, pSeries.  CPU Support on x86  Technical support for more than 2 physical CPUs only on AS variant (may use Hyper-Threading)  Up to 32 Physical CPUs with SMP or hugemem kernel.  Memory support on x86  Technical support for more than 16 GB on AS or WS  Standard i686/athlon kernel: 4GB  SMP i686/athlon kernel: 16GB  Hugemem SMP kernel: 64GB Preparing to Install

 Read the RELEASE-NOTES file on the first CD or at http://www.redhat.com  Check Hardware Compatibility  Redhat Supported Hardware List  Hardware compatible with Redhat Linux  http://hardware.redhat.com/hcl  XFree86 supported video cards.  http://xorg.freedesktop.org

 http://www.x.org/wiki Multiboot systems

 Redhat Enterprise Linux and the GRUB boot loader can co-exist with other operating systems, including the following:  Windows NT/2000/XP/2003  DOS, Windows 3.x/9x/ME  NetBSD, FreeBSD and other open systems.  Two major issues arise when implementing multiboot systems:  Partitioning and the boot process.  A boot loader such as System Commander or NTLDR is already on the system and will launch GRUB as a secondary boot loader. Device Node Examples

 Block devices:  hd[a-t] IDE devices  sd[a-z]+ SCSI devices  fd[0-7] Standard floppy drives  md[0-31] RAID metadisks  loop[0-15] loopback devices  ram[0-9] ramdisks  Character Devices:  tty[0-31] virtual consoles  ttyS[0-9]+ Serial ports  lp[0-3] Parallel Ports  null infinite sink ( the bit bucket)  zero infinite source of zeros  [u]random sources of random information  fb[0-31] framebuffer devices  Symbolic Links:  /dev/cdrom - - > /dev/hd[a-t], /dev/sd[a-z]+  /dev/modem - - > /dev/ttyS[0-9]+  /dev/pilot - - > /dec/ttyS[0-9]+ The RHEL Installer

 First Stage Installer Images  diskboot.img – VFAT filesystem image for bootable media larger than a floppy  You will need to use the dd command to move this image to you media. For instance: dd /dev/sda  Floppy installation is no longer supported  boot.iso -- ISO9660 bootable CD image  Booting form boot.iso is the same as passing the askmethod argument to the installer when booting from CD 1.  You can create a bootable CD using the cdrecord command. For instance cdrecord dev=/dec/hdc boot.iso  pxeboot Directory  Pre-boot Execution Environment (PXE) provides for a diskless installation.  Read /usr/share/doc/syslinux-2.11/prelinux.doc  Second Stage Installer  Graphical or textual  Can be invoked in noprobe or Kickstart mode  Once located and loaded by the first stage, drives the remainder of the installation process. Installer Features

 noprobe and Kickstart modes available  mediacheck tests media integrity  Multiple Interfaces:  Graphical  Starts X server and a GUI installer  Can be started in lowers mode.  Works with hard drive, CDROM, NFS Installation  Graphical is the default  Text  Menu-based terminal interface  Works with all installation methods (ftp and http) RHEL Installation Overview

 Language, Keyboard and mouse selection  Media selection if applicable   Bootloader configuration  Network and firewall configuration  Authentication Setup  Package Selection  X server configuration