In the context of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) installation, Anaconda is the official installer used to install RHEL (as well as other Red Hat–based distributions like CentOS, Rocky Linux, and Fedora).
What Anaconda Does:
Anaconda is a modular, flexible, and user-friendly installation program that handles all stages of the OS installation process, including:
- Hardware detection (storage, network, CPU, memory, etc.)
- User interface (graphical or text-based)
- Disk partitioning (manual or automatic with LVM, encryption, etc.)
- Package selection (via software environments and add-ons)
- Network and hostname configuration
- User and root account setup
- Bootloader installation (GRUB2)
- Post-installation setup (subscription registration, time zone, etc.)
Key Features:
- Graphical & Text Modes:
- Runs in GUI by default on systems with sufficient RAM and video support.
- Falls back to text mode (
inst.text) on servers or low-resource systems.
- Kickstart Automation:
Anaconda supports unattended installations using Kickstart files (*.ks), which define all installation choices in advance—ideal for large-scale deployments. - Modular Design:
Built with Python and uses D-Bus for communication between components (e.g., storage, payload, user interface). - Rescue Mode:
Includes a “Rescue a Red Hat system” option to troubleshoot or repair existing installations.
How to Recognize It:
When you boot from a RHEL ISO, the first interactive screen you see (where you choose “Install RHEL” or “Test this media”) leads into the Anaconda installer. The blue (or branded) interface with sections like Installation Destination, Network & Host Name, and Root Password is Anaconda.
Example: Boot Options to Control Anaconda
You can pass kernel parameters at boot to influence Anaconda behavior:
inst.text→ Force text-mode installationinst.ks=http://server/ks.cfg→ Use a remote Kickstart fileinst.nokill→ Prevent automatic reboot on failure (for debugging)nomodeset→ Fix graphical issues on unsupported GPUs
Note:
Despite sharing a name, Anaconda, the RHEL installer is completely unrelated to the Anaconda Python distribution (used for data science). The name is coincidental.