NVMe-TCP on RHEL/Rocky/AlmaLinux - RHEL-Specific Considerations

Subscription Management

Red Hat Enterprise Linux:

# Register system
sudo subscription-manager register --username <username>

# Attach subscription
sudo subscription-manager attach --auto

# Enable required repositories
sudo subscription-manager repos --enable=rhel-9-for-x86_64-baseos-rpms
sudo subscription-manager repos --enable=rhel-9-for-x86_64-appstream-rpms

# Update system
sudo dnf update -y

Rocky Linux / AlmaLinux:

# No subscription required
# Update system
sudo dnf update -y

# Enable EPEL if needed for additional tools
sudo dnf install -y epel-release

Kernel Requirements

Minimum kernel versions:

• RHEL 8: Kernel 4.18.0-193 or later (NVMe-TCP support)
• RHEL 9: Kernel 5.14.0 or later (recommended)

Check kernel version:

uname -r

# Verify NVMe-TCP module is available
modinfo nvme-tcp

Update kernel if needed:

sudo dnf update kernel
sudo reboot

Package Management

Essential packages:

# Core NVMe and multipath tools
sudo dnf install -y \
    nvme-cli \
    device-mapper-multipath \
    lvm2 \
    sg3_utils

# Performance monitoring tools
sudo dnf install -y \
    sysstat \
    iotop \
    iftop \
    htop \
    perf

# Network tools
sudo dnf install -y \
    NetworkManager \
    NetworkManager-tui \
    ethtool \
    iproute \
    iputils \
    bind-utils

# Optional: Tuned for performance profiles
sudo dnf install -y tuned tuned-utils