July 15 2026
6:30–8:30 PM
StarV Learning Center, Room 1, 7020 A C Skinner Pkwy Unit 180, Jacksonville, FL 32256
Where We're Going, We Don't Need Roads: A New Way to Image and Deploy Linux VMs Using bootc
How do you install Linux on a VM? You might use an ISO file to install the VM or use a PXE server to boot into a live image. Automation tools like Kickstart or cloud-init help sysadmins install packages and configurations while tools like Ansible help maintain a configuration state for updates. Today’s environments are demanding more from systems admins. VMs are ephemeral, environments need to scale. What worked before still works, but today we have options that make more sense for large-scale enterprise environments.
“Image-mode” is a new way of designing Linux systems deployments. System images (golden images) are instead rolled out as versioned artifacts; build, ship, deploy atomically, and roll back transactionally. This method of deployment is not new but historically has been locked behind a single specific distro. Today, bootc (a tool developed by Red Hat) works exclusively on RPM-based, OSTree-compatible Linux distributions including Fedora, CentOS, RHEL, AlmaLinux, RockyLinux, and more.
We will cover the methodology of “image-mode” deployments, discuss use cases, showcase configuration and installation, and demo a live CI/CD environment where these configurations are pushed to a simulated production environment. Your homelab will never be the same when all of your Linux VMs are provisioned from preconfigured images. Click, deploy and enjoy!