Nearly every modern-day operating system (OS) uses disk
partitions, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux is no exception. When you install
Red Hat Enterprise Linux, you may have to work with disk partitions. If you have not worked
with disk partitions before (or need a quick review of the basic
concepts), refer to Appendix D An Introduction to Disk Partitions before proceeding.
The disk space used by Red Hat Enterprise Linux must be separate from the disk space used
by other OSes you may have installed on your system, such as
Windows, OS/2, or even a different version of Linux. For x86,
AMD64, and Intel® Extended Memory 64 Technology (Intel® EM64T) systems, at least two partitions (/
and swap) must be dedicated to Red Hat Enterprise Linux. For Itanium systems, at least three partitions (/,
/boot/efi/, and swap) must be
dedicated to Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
Before you start the installation process, you must
have enough unpartitioned disk space for
the installation of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, or
have one or more partitions that may be deleted, thereby
freeing up enough disk space to install Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
To gain a better sense of how much space you really need, refer to the
recommended partitioning sizes discussed in Section 4.16.4 Recommended Partitioning Scheme.
If you are not sure that you meet these conditions, or if you
want to know how to create free disk space for your Red Hat Enterprise Linux installation,
refer to Appendix D An Introduction to Disk Partitions.
