Prepare RHEL - Poolside

Complete these steps on a Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) host before you run the on-premises installation. For requirements that apply to every host, see On-premises installation prerequisites.

Supported versions and architectures

Item	Supported values
Operating system	Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 9.6
CPU architecture	`amd64` (`x86_64`), `arm64` (`aarch64`)

Step 1: Lock the RHEL release

RHEL can upgrade the host to a newer minor release when new updates become available through dnf update or yum update. Before you install packages, lock the release to RHEL 9.6 to prevent automatic minor version upgrades.

# List available versions
sudo subscription-manager release --list

# Lock the release to version 9.6
sudo subscription-manager release --set=9.6

sudo yum clean all

Step 2: Install required tools

Install iptables-nft using yum (version 1.8.10-11.el9)
Install container-selinux using yum
Install jq using yum (version 1.6 or later)
Install yq (version v4.49.2 or later) from the yq releases page
- Download yq_linux_amd64.tar.gz or yq_linux_arm64.tar.gz and install it to /usr/local/bin/yq
Install unzip using yum (version 6.00 or later)
Install skopeo using yum (package version 1.18.1-2.el9_6 or later for your host architecture)
Install terraform (version 1.8.5) from the Terraform 1.8.5 releases page
- Download terraform_1.8.5_linux_amd64.zip or terraform_1.8.5_linux_arm64.zip and install the binary to /usr/local/bin/terraform
- unzip is required to extract the Terraform binary

To install kubectl, add the Kubernetes repository. Ensure that the kubectl version is the same as or newer than the RKE2 Kubernetes version.

cat <<EOF | sudo tee /etc/yum.repos.d/kubernetes.repo
[kubernetes]
name=Kubernetes
baseurl=https://pkgs.k8s.io/core:/stable:/v1.35/rpm/
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=https://pkgs.k8s.io/core:/stable:/v1.35/rpm/repodata/repomd.xml.key
EOF

Then run:

sudo yum install -y kubectl

Step 3: Configure the Terraform command path

In RHEL 9.x, /usr/local/bin is not included in the secure_path setting in /etc/sudoers by default. As a result, sudo terraform can return a command not found error.Run Terraform with the absolute path: /usr/local/bin/terraform.

Step 4: Disable the `nouveau` driver

Confirm that the nouveau graphics driver is not loaded. For instructions, see Disable the nouveau driver in the NVIDIA documentation. Run the following command to check whether the nouveau driver is loaded. If the command returns output, follow the next steps to turn off the driver and reboot.

lsmod | grep nouveau

If the nouveau driver is loaded:

# Check for nouveau in the GRUB configuration.
grep GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX /etc/default/grub

# If this command does not show that nouveau is blocked, ensure that the
# GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX line in /etc/default/grub contains "modprobe.blacklist=nouveau",
# for example, at the end of the line.

cat <<EOF | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-nouveau.conf
blacklist nouveau
options nouveau modeset=0
EOF

# Regenerate the kernel initramfs.
sudo dracut --force

# Regenerate the GRUB configuration.
sudo grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg

# Reboot the system.
sudo systemctl reboot

# After reboot, confirm that the nouveau driver is not loaded.
lsmod | grep nouveau

Step 5: Choose a GPU driver installation method

When no NVIDIA driver is installed on the host, the GPU Operator compiles and installs one from its driver container.

Let the GPU Operator install the driver

If the host can reach the RHEL package repositories and Secure Boot is disabled, do not preinstall an NVIDIA driver. The driver container uses the repositories to identify the running kernel and obtain the required tools and kernel modules during Step 2 of the on-premises installation. The driver compiled by the GPU Operator is not compatible with Secure Boot.

Preinstall the NVIDIA driver

Preinstall the driver on an air-gapped host or when you require Secure Boot. Follow the NVIDIA driver installation instructions for RHEL. For details about obtaining Red Hat-signed NVIDIA GPU drivers as a technical preview, see NVIDIA’s Red Hat-signed driver overview. Install NVIDIA driver version , which is the version fully validated with this installation bundle. Earlier driver versions are not supported. Later versions might work, but can cause compatibility issues because they have not been validated against this bundle. After you install the driver, run nvidia-smi and confirm that it reports the host GPUs. During installation, the GPU Operator detects the host driver and skips driver compilation.

Step 6: Verify prerequisites

Your host is ready when the following checks pass:

Confirm that the release is locked to 9.6:

sudo subscription-manager release --show

Confirm that the required tools are installed and on the path:

kubectl version --client
jq --version
/usr/local/bin/yq --version
/usr/local/bin/terraform version
skopeo --version

Confirm that the nouveau driver is not loaded. This command returns no output:
lsmod | grep nouveau

Next steps

Install on-premises

​Supported versions and architectures

​Step 1: Lock the RHEL release

​Step 2: Install required tools

​Step 3: Configure the Terraform command path

​Step 4: Disable the nouveau driver

​Step 5: Choose a GPU driver installation method

​Let the GPU Operator install the driver

​Preinstall the NVIDIA driver

​Step 6: Verify prerequisites

​Next steps

​Related resources

Supported versions and architectures

Step 1: Lock the RHEL release

Step 2: Install required tools

Step 3: Configure the Terraform command path

Step 4: Disable the `nouveau` driver

Step 5: Choose a GPU driver installation method

Let the GPU Operator install the driver

Preinstall the NVIDIA driver

Step 6: Verify prerequisites

Next steps

Related resources