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How to activate your no-cost Red Hat Enterprise Linux subscription

February 10, 2021
Miroslav Suchý
Related topics:
Linux
Related products:
Red Hat Enterprise Linux

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    Note: For the most up-to-date information on the Developer for Individual Subscription, check out our FAQ and refer to our article How to renew your Red Hat Developer Subscription for Individuals.

    A few weeks ago, we announced the new, no-cost Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) subscription. Here's a quick guide for developers who want to set up a subscription and start using it right away.

    Step 1: Make sure you have a Red Hat account

    Do you already have a Red Hat account? If not, you'll need to set one up. Navigate to the Red Hat Customer Portal and click on the account (person) icon in the upper-right corner, as shown in Figure 1.

    The account icon is shown in the upper-right corner of the Red Hat Customer Portal.
    Figure 1: Click the account icon in the upper-right corner.

    You will get the options to log in or register, as shown in Figure 2.

    Users may log in or register for access to the Red Hat Customer Portal.
    Figure 2: Log in or register for a new account.

    If you don't already have an account, click Register and follow the instructions. You will be done with the registration within one minute.

    Step 2: Download no-cost RHEL

    Navigate to Red Hat Developer and log in to your Red Hat account. Click the Linux link at the top of the page, then Download RHEL. Once you are on the RHEL download page, you will see options to download an ISO image of RHEL, currently in version 8.3.0.

    You can now use RHEL at no cost. Alternatively, you could set up an Amazon Web Services Elastic Compute Cloud (AWS EC2) RHEL instance or use it another way.

    Step 3: Register your RHEL subscription

    On your system with Red Hat Enterprise Linux installed, run

    subscription-manager register --username=admin --password=secret
    

    Your system can now consume all the content from Red Hat, including the latest security errata.

    About your no-cost RHEL subscription

    You can check the details of your no-cost RHEL subscription on the Red Hat Subscription Management page, which is shown in Figure 3.

    Screenshot of the Red Hat Subscription Management page.
    Figure 3: Subscription details on the Red Hat Subscription Management page.

    Click Active Subscriptions followed by Subscription Name and Red Hat Developer Subscription. You will see the page in Figure 4, which describes your Red Hat Developer subscription.

    Screenshot of the Red Hat Developer subscription details page.
    Figure 4: Red Hat Developer subscription details.

    Conclusion

    Registering for your no-cost RHEL subscription is a simple, three-step process. Once your subscription is active, you can use your Red Hat Enterprise Linux instance in various ways, including running it as an AWS EC2 RHEL instance.

    Last updated: October 9, 2023

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