Installing RHEL on your system

You can install the Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® (RHEL) operating system in FIPS mode on your system to use if IBM QRadar FIPS is enabled.

1. Map the ISO to a device for your appliance by using the Integrated Management Module (IMM) or the Integrated Dell Remote Access controller (iDRAC), or insert a bootable USB drive with the ISO.
   For information about creating a bootable USB flash drive, choose the option that matches your system.

   • Installing RHEL on your system
   • Creating a bootable USB drive on a Apple Mac OS X system
   • Creating a bootable USB drive with Red Hat Linux
2. Insert the portable storage device into your appliance and restart your appliance.
3. FIPS installation only From the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.9 installer start menu, click Tab.
4. FIPS installation only Add qradar.fips=1 to the vmlinuz line and press Enter.
   The result might look similar to this example:

   vmlinuz initrd=initrd.img inst.stage2=RHEL-7.9\x20Server.x86_64 live.check quiet qradar.fips=1

5. From the starting menu, do one of the following options:
   • Select the device that you mapped the ISO to, or the USB drive, as the start option.
   • To install on a system that supports the Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI), you must start the system in legacy mode.
6. When prompted, log in to the system as the root user.
7. Follow the instructions in the installation wizard to complete the installation:
   1. Set the language to English (US).
   2. Click Date & Time and set the time for your deployment.
   3. Click Software selection and select Minimal Install.
   4. Click Installation Destination and select the I will configure partitioning option.
   5. Select LVM from the list.
   6. Click Add to add the mount points and capacities for your partitions, and then click Done. For more information about RHEL7 partitions, see Linux operating system partition properties for QRadar installations on your own system.
      Important: Upgrading to RHEL V8.8 or later on systems with LUKS encrypted partitions is not supported. To successfully upgrade to RHEL V8.8 or later with an SFS file, skip the LUKS encryption step. If you choose to enable LUKS encryption, you must rebuild and restore your system without LUKS encryption before the upgrade process. For more information, see Upgrading QRadar SIEM to 7.5.0 UP8.

      To encrypt your data, complete the following steps:

      1. Select the LVM partition that you want to encrypt.
      2. Select the Encrypt checkbox next to the Device Type field.
      3. Save the changes.
   7. Click Network & Host Name.
   8. Enter a fully qualified domain name for your appliance hostname.
      Important: The Console and managed host (MH) cannot have the same hostname.
   9. Select the interface in the list, move the switch to the ON position, and click Configure.
   10. On the General tab, select the Automatically connect to this network when it is available option.
   11. On the IPv4 Settings or IPv6 Settings tab, select Manual in the Method list.
   12. Click Add.
       • For an IPv4 deployment, enter the IP address, Netmask, and Gateway for the appliance in the Addresses field.
       • For an IPv6 deployment, enter the IP address, Prefix, and Gateway in the Addresses field.
   13. Add two DNS servers.
   14. Click Save > Done > Begin Installation.
8. Set the root password, and then click Finish configuration.
9. After the installation finishes, disable SELinux by modifying the /etc/selinux/config file, and restart the appliance.