Knowledgebase

How to enable/disable SELinux on a server

Connect to a server via SSH.
Open the /etc/selinux/config file in any text editor. In this example, we are using the vi utility:

# vi /etc/selinux/config
Change the SELINUX value to:
- disabled to completely turn off SELinux on the server:
  
  SELINUX=disabled
- permissive to make SELinux print warnings instead of enforce security policy:
  
  SELINUX=permissive
- enforcing to make SELinux security policy enforced:
  
  SELINUX=enforcing
Save the changes and close the file.

Note: A server restart is required to apply these changes.
Check the permanent status of SELinux:

# sestatus | grep "Mode from config file"
Mode from config file: permissive