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Getting Started with RLC Pro AI

Getting Started with RLC Pro AI

As covered in the RLC Pro AI Overview, RLC Pro AI is an AI-optimized edition of Rocky Linux from CIQ that ships with the CIQ Linux Kernel and a pre-validated GPU and PyTorch stack. This guide walks you through obtaining the product and picking a deployment path.

How to deploy RLC Pro AI

RLC Pro AI can be deployed through several methods:

  • Standard installation from ISO.
  • Virtual machine image deployment (QCOW2).
  • OCI container images pulled from the CIQ Depot registry.
  • Cloud marketplace deployments on AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud.
  • Automated deployment through provisioning tools (Ansible, Kickstart, etc.).

The CIQ Portal

RLC Pro AI installation media and VM images can be downloaded from CIQ Portal.

Note
If you need access to CIQ Portal, please contact csm-help@ciq.com.

  1. Navigate to CIQ Portal and log in using the provided credentials.

  2. Select My Products from the left-hand navigation.

  3. On the My Products page, select RLC Pro AI.

  4. Select the version you want, then choose an installation method or download an image directly from the product page.

  5. To download an image from the browser, select the installation ISO or VM image you need. Each image has a corresponding SHA256 checksum you can use to verify the download.

    Note

    To download from the command line, use the Copy Download Link button on the product page. Enable the Show Credentials toggle so the link includes your org name and token. The link has the format:

    https://<org-name>:<token>@depot.ciq.com/dlv2/rlc-9.7-ai-images/<path-to-image>

    • The link embeds your org name and token, separated by a colon, in the URL for basic auth.
    • Live installation ISOs (RLC-Pro-AI-9-Live-<date>-<arch>.iso) sit at the top of the repository. Cloud and VM images are organized in subdirectories by category and architecture, for example genericcloud/x86_64/RLC-PRO-AI-<date>-GenericCloud-x86_64.qcow2, with aws/, azure/, gcp/, and bootc/ alongside.
    • Each image has a corresponding .sha256sum checksum file and a Software Bill of Materials (SBOM_<image-name>.spdx.json) published next to it.
    • The repository root also carries image-catalog.json, a machine-readable index of every published image with sizes, checksums, and canonical URLs.

Using the Command Line Interface (CLI)

Once you have identified the RLC Pro AI artifact that you want, download the file using curl or wget by selecting the Action: Copy Download Link and running the following commands:

  1. Use the curl command with the -O option, followed by the link you copied from the Portal:

    curl -O https://<org-name>:<token>@depot.ciq.com/dlv2/rlc-9.7-ai-images/genericcloud/x86_64/RLC-PRO-AI-<release-date>-GenericCloud-x86_64.qcow2

  2. Similarly, download the corresponding SHA256 checksum file:

    curl -O https://<org-name>:<token>@depot.ciq.com/dlv2/rlc-9.7-ai-images/genericcloud/x86_64/RLC-PRO-AI-<release-date>-GenericCloud-x86_64.qcow2.sha256sum

  3. Verify the downloaded files:

    sha256sum -c RLC-PRO-AI-<release-date>-GenericCloud-x86_64.qcow2.sha256sum

    Expected Output:

    RLC-PRO-AI-<release-date>-GenericCloud-x86_64.qcow2: OK

Container images

RLC Pro AI is also distributed as an OCI container image through the CIQ Depot registry. First authenticate to depot.ciq.com with your Portal user string and token, then pull the image.

Authenticate with Docker:

echo <TOKEN> | docker login depot.ciq.com -u <DEPOT_USERNAME> --password-stdin

Or with Podman:

podman login depot.ciq.com -u <DEPOT_USERNAME> -p <TOKEN>

Then pull the image:

docker pull depot.ciq.com/rlc-ai-9/rlc-9-ai-oci-images/rlc-pro-ai:9

podman pull depot.ciq.com/rlc-ai-9/rlc-9-ai-oci-images/rlc-pro-ai:9

Apptainer users can pull the same image directly from the registry:

apptainer pull docker://depot.ciq.com/rlc-ai-9/rlc-9-ai-oci-images/rlc-pro-ai:9

See the Container Deployment section for full Podman, Docker, and Apptainer guides, and Working with Container Images in the CIQ Depot documentation for registry authentication details.

Next Steps

Once you have decided on your preferred deployment method, proceed with the following guides:

Support

For technical support and additional documentation, please refer to:

  • CIQ Support - Contact CIQ support for expert guidance.
RLC Pro AIOverview