Linux Installation - Physical Servers

Insert the RHEL 6 installation disc in the optical drive of your computer, and boot from the installation disc. If the DVD drive is not in the default boot order on your computer, you’ll have to go into the setup ( Press F2 )  and instruct your computer to boot from the optical drive. After booting from the installation DVD successfully, you’ll see the Welcome to Red Hat Enterprise Linux screen.

Select Install or upgrade existing system options

Move the cursor to Install or upgrade an existing system and press Enter

To test the media select OK, to skip the testing move cursor to Skip and press enter

 Click on Next button to move forward

Select your desired language, usually English. Click Next to continue

 Select the keyboard type as required usually U.S English, click Next to continue

To install on a local hard drive in your computer, select Basic Storage Devices. If you’re installing RHEL in an enterprise environment and want to write all files to a SAN device, you should select the Specialized Storage Devices option.

Select the type of storage for the Computer. Click Next to continue

 After you have selected the storage device to be used, the installation program may issue a warning that the selected device may contain data. This warning is displayed to prevent you from deleting all the data on the selected disk by accident. If you’re sure that the installer can use the entire selected hard disk,click Re-initialize all  and  Next to continue

Assign a hostname to the system, if wish to give ip address click on Configure Network, else Click Next to continue

Select the nearest city in your Time Zone and Click on Next to continue

 Assign some password for root, then click on Next to continue

Select the type of partitioning you want, to create your own partitions with custom sizes, select Create Custom Layout and click on Next to continue

Click on the Free space, then click on Create to create your own partitions

Check the box beside Standard Partition, Click on Create to continue

• Select / from Mount Point Box, give the size you wish for it and click on OK to create it.
• Select the Free space again and click on Create to create another partition. Also Check the box beside Standard Partition, Click on Create to continue
• Select /boot from Mount Point Box, give the size 250 MB for it and click on OK to create it.
• Repeat the same steps and create swap space
• Select swap from File System Type, give the size required and click on OK.
• Make  sure swap & boot  partitions  are created  as  Standard partitions.

Click on Write changes to disk to continue, if wish make changes click on Go back.

• To change the name of boot loader select Edit and assign new name to it.
• To assign password to boot loader check the box beside Use boot loader password and assign a password to it.
• To keep all as default, just click on Next button to continue.

•  Select Desktop  to have a graphical environment in RHEL6, or  Select  Basic Server  to  get  server  version  without  GUI
• Check Customize later to install additional software later. Click on Next to continue

• When above prompt is displayed, remove the CD/DVD from the drive and click on Reboot to reboot the system.
• Once  server  is  rebooted  it  shows  “setup  Wizard”  like  below

Click  on Forward

 Accept  License  Agreement and  click  Forward

If you don’t connect your server to RHN, you cannot update it. This means it’s not a good idea to use this server as a production system and provide services to external users; you’ll be vulnerable if you do. If you need to configure a Red Hat system that does provide public services, you have to purchase a subscription to Red Hat Enterprise Linux. If you don’t want to do that, use Scientific Linux or CentOS instead.

• You can enable the Kdump settings. Kdump refers to crash dump. It allows a dedicated kernel to activate on the rare occasion that your server crashes. To use this feature, you need at least 2GB of available RAM. If you’re using less, you’ll see an error message indicating that you have insufficient memory to configure Kdump. You can safely ignore this message.
• Kdump is  kernel crash dumping mechanism, in the  event of a system crash, kdump will capture information from your system that can be invaluable determining the  cause of the crash.

This completes the installation procedure and starts your system. You’ll now see a login window where you can select the user account you’ll use to log in to get  GNOME graphical desktop.