Day 0 — Design

Design and planning decisions made before anything is installed.

Mistakes made on Day 0 are the most expensive to fix — a wrong IP scheme or an undersized network segment can require rebuilding from scratch. Take the time here.

Day 0 Checklist

• Choose your environment (Community, Carbide, or Enclave)
• Acquire hardware — see Hardware
• Plan your network — see Network Planning
• Understand environment differences — see Environments
• Verify prerequisites — see Prerequisites

Key Decisions

Which environment?

Environment	When to use
Community	First-time setup, exploring SUSE upstream tooling, no RGS license
Carbide	Demonstrating RGS hardened images, internet-connected lab
Enclave	Air-gapped scenarios, FIPS requirements, supply-chain security focus

Physical or virtual?

This documentation assumes Intel NUC hardware. The approach works on any x86-64 bare metal that supports PXE boot. Virtual deployment on a single large host is possible but not covered here.

What You'll Have After Day 0

• Hardware procured and physically racked
• Network switch configured and cabled
• IP scheme documented
• DNS/DHCP plan finalized
• All software prerequisites downloaded or noted
• Environment chosen and ENVIRONMENT variable ready to set