Let's try to understand image mode.
Image mode is a new feature in RHEL 10, and it allows you to deploy RHEL from a bootable
container image.
That's a boot C image.
Boot C is the technology used behind it.
Boot C images are available for Intel as well as ARM architecture.
By using a container file, additional applications can easily be added to the boot C containers.
Now why do we use image mode?
Well, it brings a couple of benefits, like, for instance, that infrastructure drift is
limited and systems automatically update to the latest image version.
Because you know what the cool thing is about container images?
They are read-only, so nobody is going to change anything within the image.
You can manage centrally that everybody has the same version.
So the base operating system is immutable, but slash VAR and slash ETC are designated
to store local data.
You need to put it somewhere, after all.
The container file contains all information about the system.
And because of the layered architecture, container images are more scalable.
And also troubleshooting is easier.
You don't need to troubleshoot your system anymore if anything doesn't work out all right.
You can easily troubleshoot by rolling back to a previous version.
And this is why image mode is particularly interesting if you have lots of servers to manage.