Bug 2212389

Summary:	Minimal RAM required/supported to run RHEL
Product:	Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9	Reporter:	Nicolas Bourgeois <nbourgeo>
Component:	Documentation	Assignee:	Sagar Dubewar <sdubewar>
Documentation sub component:	default	QA Contact:	RHEL DPM <rhel-docs>
Status:	CLOSED NOTABUG	Docs Contact:
Severity:	low
Priority:	medium	CC:	jstodola, jwboyer, rhel-docs
Version:	unspecified	Keywords:	Documentation
Target Milestone:	rc
Target Release:	---
Hardware:	All
OS:	Unspecified
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version:		Doc Type:	If docs needed, set a value
Doc Text:		Story Points:	---
Clone Of:		Environment:
Last Closed:	2023-06-22 05:27:32 UTC	Type:	Bug
Regression:	---	Mount Type:	---
Documentation:	---	CRM:
Verified Versions:		Category:	---
oVirt Team:	---	RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team:	---	Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description Nicolas Bourgeois 2023-06-05 13:55:28 UTC

Document URL: 
https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/9/html-single/performing_a_standard_rhel_9_installation/index#system-requirements-reference_installing-RHEL

Section Number and Name: 
Section A.2, table A.1

Describe the issue: 
The documentation explains the minimal RAM requirement *to install* RHEL, but there is no minimum requirement to use RHEL once installed.

Suggestions for improvement: 
Explain which minimal RAM size is required/supported to run RHEL (install via a qcow image, a golden image VMware, or via an image created with imagebuilder)

Additional information: 
Same question for RHEL 8

Comment 3 Josh Boyer 2023-06-06 14:11:36 UTC

Can someone help me understand why the minimum amount of RAM to run RHEL is helpful?  The minimum documented for installation would be what we would recommend overall.  It is certainly possible to boot a stock RHEL qcow2 file with less memory, but ultimately it depends on the workload.  Two different images built with Image Builder will have different memory requirements depending on what is actually started at runtime, etc.

The installation limits are at least quasi-representative of some kind of workload (a rather common one that includes installing and updating packages).  Documenting anything less runs the risk of misleading customers.

Comment 12 Sagar Dubewar 2023-06-22 05:27:32 UTC

Hello +nbourgeo, please see the response above from Josh. 
----
Not necessarily. We should not publish a value as a minimum when we don't actually know that will be the case. For example, a local media installation may only take 1.5GB, but if that installed a desktop environment or a large number of packages and services that run the minimum required may be higher. Deployment type matters as well. For example, we recommend a minimum of 2GB per VM:

https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/9/html-single/configuring_and_managing_virtualization/index#proc_enabling-virtualization-in-rhel-9_assembly_enabling-virtualization-in-rhel-9
----

As no more updates are pending on this issue, I am closing this issue without making any updates to the documentation. 

thank you :)