Rocky Linux is a new variant of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. In this article, you will learn how to minimal install it with screenshots.
Table of Contents:
- What is Rocky Linux?
- What is Minimal Installation?
- Recommended Book for Linux System Admins
- Environment Specification
- Download Rocky Linux 8
- Installing Rocky Linux 8
- Conclusion
What is Rocky Linux?:
Rocky Linux is a new downstream variant of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8. Since after the demise of CentOS 8, there are many alternatives has been launched by many software development companies.
Rocky Linux may be the best alternative of CentOS 8, as it is led by Gregory Kurtzer, founder of the CentOS project. It is a community enterprise operating system designed to be 100% bug-for-bug compatible with America's top enterprise Linux distribution i.e Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
What is Minimal Installation?:
Minimal Installation includes only the basic components of the Linux operating system. It reduces the attack service of improve security and performance.
It is the most suitable installation option while configuring Linux based servers, because only the minimal packages has been installed at the time of operating system installation and the required packages will be installed later on-demand.
Recommended Book for Linux System Admins:
Environment Specification:
We are using a KVM based virtual machine with following specifications.
- CPU - 3.4 Ghz (2 cores)
- Memory - 2 GB
- Storage - 20 GB
Download Rocky Linux 8:
Just like CentOS, Rocky Linux is also freely available over the Internet. You can download it from their official website.
Download the Minimal ISO Rocky-8.4-x86_64-minimal.iso for your preferred architecture.
Installing Rocky Linux 8:
Attach the downloaded ISO file in the CDROM of your virtual machine and start it.
Select the 'Install Rocky Linux' option and press <ENTER>.
Select the language to be used during installation process and press <Continue>.
You are now at the 'Installation Summary' screen. You can configure installation of the operating system from here.
Click on 'Installation Destination' under 'System' section.
You can configure from simple to advance storage options here. You can create partitions, LVMs and software RAIDS.
But for a minimal installation, you need to click on <Done>, and the setup will configure the default storage option i.e. LVMs for your enterprise operating system.
Click on 'Software Selection' under 'Software' section.
Choose the 'Minimal Install' under 'Base Environment' and click on <Done>.
Click on 'Time & Date' to set the relevant settings for your server machine.
Choose your timezone and adjust time and date settings as per your requirement.
Press <Done> to save settings and go back to installation summary.
Click on 'Network & Host Name' to go to network configuration screen.
Turn on the Ethernet (ens33) connection. Connection name may vary on operating system.
Also set the preferred 'Host Name' for your Rocky Linux server.
Press <Done> to go back to main screen.
Click on 'Root Password' and set a strong password for the Linux superuser.
Click on 'Create User' to create your required operating system users.
Press <Done> button to save changes and go back to main screen.
After configuring all installation settings, click on <Begin Installation> to start minimal installation.
The installation process started, take sometime and completed eventually.
Click on <Reboot System> to restart the machine.
After reboot, the system will show the GRUB boot menu.
Choose the highlighted option or wait for 5 seconds to start Rocky Linux with the same.
After operating system startup, you will reach at the CommandLine (CLI) based Linux login prompt.
Login as root user.
Execute the uname command to verify the Linux Kernel version.
Conclusion:
You have successfully installed Rocky Linux with minimal packages. Now, you can experiment with this operating system to find out is it a good alternative to CentOS Linux 8?
