Hello everyone, today we’ll be installing VMware and Red Hat Enterprise Linux on our windows machine. This article will be free of bunkum and will only show the steps to do what you are here for.
this article is divided in four sections
- Downloading VMware.
- Installing VMware (duh!).
- Downloading Virtual ISO of Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
- Yes you guessed it right, setting it up on VMware.
Downloading VMware:
Google “vmware workstation player download” and open the first link, scroll down and press GO TO DOWNLOADS
from the next page, download VMware workstation player for windows (don’t download the version that says VMware for Linux, because our host is windows). Your download should start and you are done!
Installing VMware:
Alright, after you have downloaded the executable for VMware installation, double click on it to begin your installation.
Just keep clicking on next until you finish the installation (believe me its really simple). Once you have finished installation you shall have VMware icon on your desktop (if you didn’t intentionally uncheck the box when prompted).
Downloading Red Hat Enterprise Linux:
This is surely the most confusing/frustrating part of this process if not followed correctly so make sure to do every step as instructed.
First, search for “red hat download” and open the first link, scroll down and download the x86_64, DVD ISO file for your preferred version.
It’ll either redirect you to login page (if so, just click on register for Red Hat account) or a registration form. Fill the registration form, once you submit the registration form you will receive an email confirmation, click the link you receive in email, select the x86_64, DVD ISO download button of your preferred version again and your download will start.
Installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux:
After the download is completed, open your VMware by double clicking its icon on your desktop, it will look something like this
- click Create a New Virtual Machine.
- select Installer disc or image file (iso): and browse for the Linux file you downloaded earlier, its usually in downloads’ folder. Press Next > when done.
- select Linux and choose Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 64-bit since its the closet to ours. Press Next > when done. I chose this version because my Linux’s version is 9 and it wasn’t listed here, if your version is listed select it, otherwise choose the closest.
now choose a name for your virtual machine, I chose RHEL because Red Hat Enterprise Linux is a whole mouthful. In Location you can choose where the virtual machine will be stored on your pc, when finished press Next >.
Press Finish if you are fine with the specs listed for you or customize Hardware… if you’d like to tweak. I usually set the RAM to 4 and give at least 2 cores to the virtual machine for smooth performance .
When done, your virtual machine will show up on VMware with the nickname you set earlier.
Press Play virtual machine or the green play button on menu bar.
Ctrl + G → to direct input to your virtual machine.
Ctrl + Alt → to get back to you host desktop.
select Install Red Hat Enterprise Linux <version> and press enter.
this step may take a few moments, when finished it will ask you for language preference.
choose your preferred language and click Continue, you’ll see a window like this
as you can see, we have two issues. Lets fix Installation Destination first, click on it!
click the disk you see and press Done button on the top left. You’ll see that one issue is fixed, now select Root Password. Set a strong password and press Done again.
you will see that Begin Installation button is Blue and clickable now. proceed to install!
This step may take several minutes and when done, system will ask you to reboot. Press the Reboot System button.
Press enter, now you will enter setup. Press Start setup, disable the location (or don’t, your call!), connect your accounts if you want to, set a name, username and a strong password. Finally press Start Using Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
Congratulations 🥳 you have successfully installed RHEL, have fun!