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Operating systems

AlmaLinux

The RHEL-compatible default here: dnf, firewalld running out of the box, SELinux enforcing, and a decade of support per major release.

AlmaLinux is a free rebuild of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, binary compatible with it, run by a non-profit foundation. Pick it when the software you deploy publishes RPMs for RHEL, or when you want the long, boring support window that the enterprise family is built around.

Install it from the panel ​

In the client area, open your server, then Reinstall the server. Pick the AlmaLinux tile, open its version list and choose the one you want, then fill in the partitioning, the software RAID, the hostname and the password below the grid. The form itself is described in reinstalling your OS.

Careful

A reinstall erases every drive in the machine. There is no undo and we keep no copy: take your backups off the server first.

First steps ​

bash
dnf upgrade --refresh
dnf install -y curl

Then your own user and no password logins, per first connection.

The firewall is already on ​

Unlike the Debian family, the RHEL family ships firewalld running. SSH is allowed, nothing else is. Opening a port is explicit and needs --permanent to survive a reboot:

bash
firewall-cmd --add-service=http --permanent
firewall-cmd --reload
firewall-cmd --list-all

A service that answers locally but not from outside is, nine times out of ten, this firewall rather than a broken configuration.

SELinux is enforcing ​

getenforce returns Enforcing on a fresh install. It will block a daemon reading files from a path it is not labelled for, which surprises people porting a Debian setup across. Read what it refused before turning it off:

bash
ausearch -m avc -ts recent

Relabelling a directory is usually a one-line fix, and keeping SELinux on is worth the ten minutes.

Networking ​

Interfaces are driven by NetworkManager, so nmcli is the tool, not netplan. The additional addresses go in with the nmcli commands.

Good to know

AlmaLinux and Rocky Linux rebuild the same upstream and behave the same. The choice between them is about who governs the project, not about what you type.

Where to go next ​

  • First connection: your own user, SSH keys, password logins off.
  • IP addresses: configuring the additional addresses on the fresh system.
  • The console: watching the install, and getting in when the network does not answer.

Reviewed on September 15, 2026