Developing a prized snapshot of an operating system (OS) is a well-liked and suggested method for rolling out a new system to any setting, whether it’s a data hub or public cloud. This allows for quick deployment of systems that are simple to uphold and adhere to your distinct Standard Operating Environment (SOE) criteria. Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) offers two choices to aid you in constructing tailored RHEL OS images: RHEL image maker and Red Hat Insights image maker. For an outline of both options, and a compilation of the most recent blog entries about them, visit redhat.com/image-builder.

Insights image maker has freshly included draughts, which enable you to craft, retain, and modify versions over time. A draft provides a definitive description of how to bring together RHEL, encompassing software package contents and setup choices. This is similar to the traditional kickstart files employed by the RHEL installer image. Enabling Preview mode at the peak of the screen also activates supplementary import and export capabilities.

Formulate drafts with Insights image maker

Accessing Insights image maker on the Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console is possible. If you have had experience with Insights image maker before, you might observe that the main page exhibits some recent adjustments.

The primary contrast you’ll note is the Brand-new in Images: Drafts! banner. It provides a fundamental explanation, with an option to click on the Get started with drafts link for a brief introductory guide.

In the Images section, there is a novel Drafts column that shows No drafts yet. To initiate your initial draft, hit the Initiate draft button on the top right.

After selecting Initiate draft, you are steered through a structured draft formation process to effortlessly construct and tailor RHEL. If no particular modifications or package picks are made, this will produce the equal of a RHEL Minimal setup but will incorporate environment-specific bundles necessary for the context, such as cloud-init, open-vm-tools, and parallel packages. The numerous other choices are elaborated in the documentation and other blog entries, hence this piece concentrates on creating, conserving, and rectifying a draft.

Towards the conclusion of the process, you are prompted to assign your draft a designation, along with an optional explanation.

The conclusive Review stage presents you with a roster of choices to Initiate draft or Initiate draft and construct image(s). If you are modifying an existing draft, the process is identical, except the button changes to Save alterations to draft instead of Initiate draft.

All drafts you produce are displayed in the Drafts column, and the status of any image constructions are shown in the primary panel.

Exchange drafts through import and export

After creating your initial drafts and enabling Preview mode, you will see more options to import and export them. This permits you to distribute your draft samples with others. An exported draft is kept in the .json file configuration, and can be imported by other users into Insights image maker.

The RHEL image maker for on-premises creation saves drafts in the .toml file framework. Presently, these two draft file layouts are incompatible because the building systems provide distinct capabilities. In the future, it is anticipated to combine this compatibility to enable sharing between both versions of image maker.

Form your individual drafts today!

The Insights image maker drafts feature establishes the groundwork for numerous other abilities and customizations yet to materialize. Explore the summary and compilation of the most recent blog entries at redhat.com/image-builder, and then proceed to Insights image maker to craft your custom Blueprints and RHEL images.