It seems I am not alone on this annoying RHEL 7 missing feature, so I thought I would share the solution.

• Note: Installing Python 3 on Ubuntu 16 or Ubuntu 18 takes about 3 seconds to install.
• Note: Only historic applications use Python 2.7 and around the web, you find lots of comments about ONLY writing Python version 3 from 2019 onwards.

So I need Python 3 on RHEL - I thought this install would take only a few seconds by using yum on Red Hat as I have the repositories already setup. But installing Python 3 on RHEL 7.6 - it took me about 2 hours of frustration.  Python 2.7 was there in the  initial installation.  But I need to run and write Python 3.

Admittedly, I am using an unlicensed version of RHEL 7.6 on Power ppc64le:

• At IBM, we have a great agreement with Red Hat that for skills, education, and demonstrations then this is allowed.
• If IBM uses RHEL for production use, internally for running services or running it on behalf of a client, then the licenses and support are purchased.
• This is strictly enforced.

I am using RHEL 7.6 on a Power LPAR (VM) to test InfluxDB and Grafana handling njmon data - this is for demonstrations and encouraging clients to do the same on licensed RHEL.  I really must have Python 3 for my project and we are not talking rocket-science or like this is unusual.

But I could not work out:

1. Where the code is held? - which DVD image or repository
2. How to install it?  What the package is even called.

Eventually, I used the following found on two websites that reputable:

As root:

yum install https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-7.noarch.rpm

yum list "python3*"

yum install python36-rpm.ppc64le

python36 -m pip install --upgrade pip

python36 -m pip install influxdb

Questions:

1. Why is Python 3 not on the basic installation media / DVD /.iso?  It is a common requirement.  
2. Why do I have to use Fedora's repository?  This just does not feel right.
3. Why is this package called Python36?  When I start Python 3 it says it is Python 3.6 (as expected).
4. What are the Red Hat guys thinking when they make this installation so hard - a painful experience?

Note: The last two lines are to install the InfluxDB Python 3 client library, so I can inject njmon data into InfluxDB.

I really, don't understand why it is is so difficult. If you know why? Please comment.

I do note that:

• yum on RHEL7 is written in Python 2.7 (hence the default install) and
• yum on RHEL 8 is written in Python 3.6 (which is default installed).

So this problem disappears as we all use RHEL 8 in the future but RHEL 7 will be used for many years.

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