index.md 1.7 KB
title: Booting from ISO
layout: os-default
Boot from ISO
The RancherOS ISO file can be used to create a fresh RancherOS install on KVM, VMware, VirtualBox, or bare metal servers. You can download the rancheros.iso file from our releases page.
You must boot with at least 512MB of memory. If you boot with the ISO, you will automatically be logged in as the rancher user. Only the ISO is set to use autologin by default. If you run from a cloud or install to disk, SSH keys or a password of your choice is expected to be used.
Note: If you are planning on installing to disk, you will need at least 1.5GB of RAM.
Install to Disk
After you boot RancherOS from ISO, you can follow the instructions here to install RancherOS to a hard disk.
Persisting State
If you are running from the ISO, RancherOS will be running from memory. All downloaded Docker images, for example, will be stored in a ramdisk and will be lost after the server is rebooted. You can
create a file system with the label RANCHER_STATE to instruct RancherOS to use that partition to store state. Suppose you have a disk partition on the server called /dev/sda, the following command formats that partition and labels it RANCHER_STATE
$ sudo mkfs.ext4 -L RANCHER_STATE /dev/sda
# Reboot afterwards in order for the changes to start being saved.
$ sudo reboot
After you reboot, the server RancherOS will use /dev/sda as the state partition.
Note: If you are installing RancherOS to disk, you do not need to run this command.