How to install Hyperledger Fabric on Red Hat-family Linux

Installing Hyperledger Fabric on a Red Hat-family Linux host prepares the local Fabric samples, CLI binaries, and container images needed to run the Fabric test network. The same package-manager path fits RHEL, CentOS Stream, Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux, and Fedora systems where DNF manages packages and Docker Engine runs the sample network.

The upstream install-fabric.sh script clones fabric-samples, downloads the Fabric CLI tools into fabric-samples/bin, and pulls the Fabric peer, orderer, chaincode, base OS, and Fabric CA container images. The script defaults to the stable Fabric line used by the current sample network unless a version is supplied with --fabric-version or --ca-version.

Red Hat-family hosts need a few distro-specific checks before the sample network runs. Minimal systems often already provide curl through curl-minimal, network.sh expects the which command, and SELinux-enforcing hosts need relabeled sample-network bind mounts before peer and orderer containers can read generated material.

Steps to install Hyperledger Fabric on Red Hat-family Linux:

Open a terminal with sudo privileges.
Install the required Red Hat-family packages.
```
$ sudo dnf install dnf-plugins-core git jq ca-certificates tar gzip shadow-utils which libselinux-utils
Installed:
  dnf-plugins-core
  git
  jq
  libselinux-utils
  shadow-utils
  which
##### snipped #####
Complete!
```
Do not force-install the full curl package on minimal RHEL or Rocky Linux systems unless replacing curl-minimal is intentional. The Fabric installer only needs a working curl command.

Confirm that curl is available.

$ curl --version
curl 7.76.1 (x86_64-redhat-linux-gnu) libcurl/7.76.1 OpenSSL/3.2.2 zlib/1.2.11
##### snipped #####

Add the Docker RPM repository for RHEL-compatible hosts.
```
$ sudo dnf config-manager --add-repo https://download.docker.com/linux/rhel/docker-ce.repo
Adding repo from: https://download.docker.com/linux/rhel/docker-ce.repo
```
Use https://download.docker.com/linux/centos/docker-ce.repo on CentOS Stream. On Fedora, use sudo dnf config-manager addrepo --from-repofile https://download.docker.com/linux/fedora/docker-ce.repo.

Install Docker Engine and the Docker Compose plugin.

$ sudo dnf install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin
Installed:
  containerd.io
  docker-buildx-plugin
  docker-ce
  docker-ce-cli
  docker-compose-plugin
##### snipped #####
Complete!

Enable and start the Docker service.
```
$ sudo systemctl enable --now docker
```
Add your user to the docker group.
```
$ sudo usermod -aG docker "$USER"
```
Start a new login session before continuing so the shell receives the new group membership. Without that session refresh, the Fabric scripts may need sudo for Docker access.

Confirm that the active shell can reach Docker.

$ docker --version
Docker version 29.6.0, build fb59821

Confirm that Docker Compose is available.

$ docker compose version
Docker Compose version v5.1.4

Create a working directory for the Fabric samples.
```
$ mkdir -p "$HOME/fabric-work"
```
Change to the Fabric working directory.
```
$ cd "$HOME/fabric-work"
```

Download the official Fabric install script.

$ curl -sSLO https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hyperledger/fabric/main/scripts/install-fabric.sh

Make the install script executable.
```
$ chmod +x install-fabric.sh
```

Review the install script options.

$ ./install-fabric.sh -h
Usage: ./install-fabric.sh [-f|--fabric-version <arg>] [-c|--ca-version <arg>] <comp-1> [<comp-2>] ... [<comp-n>] ...
        <comp> Component to install, one or more of  docker | binary | samples | podman  First letter of component also accepted; If none specified docker | binary | samples is assumed
        -f, --fabric-version: FabricVersion (default: '2.5.16')
        -c, --ca-version: Fabric CA Version (default: '1.5.17')

Download the Fabric samples, CLI binaries, and container images.

$ ./install-fabric.sh docker samples binary
Clone hyperledger/fabric-samples repo
===> Cloning hyperledger/fabric-samples repo

Pull Hyperledger Fabric binaries
===> Downloading version 2.5.16 platform specific fabric binaries
==> Done.
===> Downloading version 1.5.17 platform specific fabric-ca-client binary
==> Done.

Pull Hyperledger Fabric docker images
====>  ghcr.io/hyperledger/fabric-peer:2.5.16
====>  ghcr.io/hyperledger/fabric-orderer:2.5.16
====>  ghcr.io/hyperledger/fabric-ccenv:2.5.16
====>  ghcr.io/hyperledger/fabric-baseos:2.5.16
====>  ghcr.io/hyperledger/fabric-ca:1.5.17
===> List out hyperledger images
hyperledger/fabric-peer:2.5.16
hyperledger/fabric-orderer:2.5.16
hyperledger/fabric-ca:1.5.17
##### snipped #####

Use ./install-fabric.sh --fabric-version <version> --ca-version <version> docker samples binary only when a project must match a specific Fabric release.

Add the downloaded Fabric binaries to the current shell path.
```
$ export PATH="$PWD/fabric-samples/bin:$PATH"
```

Verify the Fabric peer binary.

$ peer version
peer:
 Version: v2.5.16
 Commit SHA: f871cf9
 Go version: go1.26.4
 OS/Arch: linux/amd64
 Chaincode:
  Base Docker Label: org.hyperledger.fabric
  Docker Namespace: hyperledger

The exact Fabric version, commit, Go version, and architecture reflect the release and host architecture selected by the installer.

Verify that the Fabric peer image exists locally.

$ docker image ls hyperledger/fabric-peer
REPOSITORY                    TAG       IMAGE ID       CREATED        SIZE
hyperledger/fabric-peer       2.5       58979b65744b   2 weeks ago    215MB
hyperledger/fabric-peer       2.5.16    58979b65744b   2 weeks ago    215MB
hyperledger/fabric-peer       latest    58979b65744b   2 weeks ago    215MB

Check whether SELinux is enforcing.
```
$ getenforce
Enforcing
```
If the result is Disabled or Permissive, no SELinux relabeling is needed for the local test network.
On SELinux-enforcing hosts, relabel the sample-network bind mounts before the first test-network run.
```
# Apply the same pattern to the Fabric test-network compose files.
volumes:
  - ../organizations/peerOrganizations/org1.example.com/peers/peer0.org1.example.com:/etc/hyperledger/fabric:z
  - ${DOCKER_SOCK}:/host/var/run/docker.sock:z
security_opt:
  - label:disable
```
Add the :z suffix to the bind mounts in fabric-samples/test-network/compose/compose-ca.yaml, compose-test-net.yaml, and the active Docker or Podman compose file. Use security_opt: label:disable only on the peer services that mount the Docker socket.
Change to the Fabric test network directory.
```
$ cd fabric-samples/test-network
```

Start the test network and create the sample channel.

$ ./network.sh up createChannel
Using docker and docker compose
Creating channel 'mychannel'.
Bringing up network
LOCAL_VERSION=v2.5.16
DOCKER_IMAGE_VERSION=v2.5.16
##### snipped #####
Status: 201
{
        "name": "mychannel",
        "url": "/participation/v1/channels/mychannel",
        "consensusRelation": "consenter",
        "status": "active",
        "height": 1
}
Channel 'mychannel' joined

The sample network is for local learning and chaincode testing, not for production topology design.
Related: How to run the Hyperledger Fabric test network

Stop the test network after the smoke test.

$ ./network.sh down
Using docker and docker compose
Stopping network
Container peer0.org1.example.com Removed
Container peer0.org2.example.com Removed
Container orderer.example.com Removed
Network fabric_test Removed
Volume compose_orderer.example.com Removed
Volume compose_peer0.org1.example.com Removed
Volume compose_peer0.org2.example.com Removed

Run ./network.sh up createChannel again when the local Fabric lab is needed.

Author: Mohd Shakir Zakaria
Mohd Shakir Zakaria is a cloud architect with deep roots in software development and open-source advocacy. Certified in AWS, Red Hat, VMware, ITIL, and Linux, he specializes in designing and managing robust cloud and on-premises infrastructures.