Chapter 2. Initializing InstructLab You must initialize the InstructLab environments to begin working with the Red Hat Enterprise Linux AI models. 2.1. Creating your RHEL AI environment You can start interacting with LLMs and the RHEL AI tooling by initializing the InstructLab environment. Important System profiles for AMD and Intel machines is a Technology Preview feature only. Technology Preview features are not supported with Red Hat production service level agreements (SLAs) and might not be functionally complete. Red Hat does not recommend using them in production. These features provide early access to upcoming product features, enabling customers to test functionality and provide feedback during the development process. For more information about the support scope of Red Hat Technology Preview features, see Technology Preview Features Support Scope . Prerequisites You installed RHEL AI with the bootable container image. You have root user access on your machine. Procedure Optional: You can view your machine's information by running the following command: USD ilab system info Initialize InstructLab by running the following command: USD ilab config init The RHEL AI CLI starts setting up your environment and config.yaml file. The CLI automatically detects your machine's hardware and selects a system profile based on the GPU types. System profiles populate the config.yaml file with the proper parameter values based on your detected hardware. Example output of profile auto-detection Generating config file and profiles: /home/user/.config/instructlab/config.yaml /home/user/.local/share/instructlab/internal/system_profiles/ We have detected the NVIDIA H100 X4 profile as an exact match for your system. -------------------------------------------- Initialization completed successfully! You're ready to start using `ilab`. Enjoy! -------------------------------------------- If the CLI does not detect an exact match for your system, you can manually select a system profile when prompted. Select your hardware vendor and configuration that matches your system. Example output of selecting system profiles Please choose a system profile to use. System profiles apply to all parts of the config file and set hardware specific defaults for each command. First, please select the hardware vendor your system falls into [0] NO SYSTEM PROFILE [1] NVIDIA Enter the number of your choice [0]: 4 You selected: NVIDIA , please select the specific hardware configuration that most closely matches your system. [0] No system profile [1] NVIDIA H100 X2 [2] NVIDIA H100 X8 [3] NVIDIA H100 X4 [4] NVIDIA L4 X8 [5] NVIDIA A100 X2 [6] NVIDIA A100 X8 [7] NVIDIA A100 X4 [8] NVIDIA L40S X4 [9] NVIDIA L40S X8 Enter the number of your choice [hit enter for hardware defaults] [0]: 3 Example output of a completed ilab config init run. You selected: /Users/<user>/.local/share/instructlab/internal/system_profiles/nvidia/H100/h100_x4.yaml -------------------------------------------- Initialization completed successfully! You're ready to start using `ilab`. Enjoy! -------------------------------------------- If you want to use the skeleton taxonomy tree, which includes two skills and one knowledge qna.yaml file, you can clone the skeleton repository and place it in the taxonomy directory by running the following command: rm -rf ~/.local/share/instructlab/taxonomy/ ; git clone https://github.com/RedHatOfficial/rhelai-sample-taxonomy.git ~/.local/share/instructlab/taxonomy/ If the incorrect system profile is auto-detected, you can run the following command: USD ilab config init --profile <path-to-system-profile> where <path-to-system-profile> Specify the path to the correct system profile. You can find the system profiles in the ~/.local/share/instructlab/internal/system_profiles path. Example profile selection command USD ilab config init --profile ~/.local/share/instructlab/internal/system_profiles/amd/mi300x/mi300x_x8.yaml Directory structure of the InstructLab environment 1 ~/.config/instructlab/config.yaml : Contains the config.yaml file. 2 ~/.cache/instructlab/models/ : Contains all downloaded large language models, including the saved output of ones you generate with RHEL AI. 3 ~/.local/share/instructlab/datasets/ : Contains data output from the SDG phase, built on modifications to the taxonomy repository. 4 ~/.local/share/instructlab/taxonomy/ : Contains the skill and knowledge data. 5 ~/.local/share/instructlab/phased/<phase1-or-phase2>/checkpoints/ : Contains the output of the multi-phase training process Verification You can view the full config.yaml file by running the following command USD ilab config show You can also manually edit the config.yaml file by running the following command: USD ilab config edit

Commands:
ilab system info
ilab config init
Generating config file and profiles: /home/user/.config/instructlab/config.yaml /home/user/.local/share/instructlab/internal/system_profiles/ We have detected the NVIDIA H100 X4 profile as an exact match for your system. -------------------------------------------- Initialization completed successfully! You're ready to start using `ilab`. Enjoy! --------------------------------------------
Please choose a system profile to use. System profiles apply to all parts of the config file and set hardware specific defaults for each command. First, please select the hardware vendor your system falls into [0] NO SYSTEM PROFILE [1] NVIDIA Enter the number of your choice [0]: 4 You selected: NVIDIA Next, please select the specific hardware configuration that most closely matches your system. [0] No system profile [1] NVIDIA H100 X2 [2] NVIDIA H100 X8 [3] NVIDIA H100 X4 [4] NVIDIA L4 X8 [5] NVIDIA A100 X2 [6] NVIDIA A100 X8 [7] NVIDIA A100 X4 [8] NVIDIA L40S X4 [9] NVIDIA L40S X8 Enter the number of your choice [hit enter for hardware defaults] [0]: 3
You selected: /Users/<user>/.local/share/instructlab/internal/system_profiles/nvidia/H100/h100_x4.yaml -------------------------------------------- Initialization completed successfully! You're ready to start using `ilab`. Enjoy! --------------------------------------------
rm -rf ~/.local/share/instructlab/taxonomy/ ; git clone https://github.com/RedHatOfficial/rhelai-sample-taxonomy.git ~/.local/share/instructlab/taxonomy/
ilab config init --profile <path-to-system-profile>
ilab config init --profile ~/.local/share/instructlab/internal/system_profiles/amd/mi300x/mi300x_x8.yaml
├─ ~/.config/instructlab/config.yaml 1 ├─ ~/.cache/instructlab/models/ 2 ├─ ~/.local/share/instructlab/datasets 3 ├─ ~/.local/share/instructlab/taxonomy 4 ├─ ~/.local/share/instructlab/phased/<phase1-or-phase2>/checkpoints/ 5
ilab config show
ilab config edit