I am writing this as a series. This particular article will discuss just the operating system installation. I will follow with some add-on articles that deals with setting up a centralized log host.
The server used in this project is a Dell 1650 with (2) PIII 1.2 Processors and 2G of Ram. Disk configuration is (3) 18G scsi drives attached to a RAID controller in a RAID 0 configuration – which give me approx 50G of formatted space. I expect not to have enough space for my purposes – so I’m not sure how I will address that yet…
I am doing installation via booting from the CentOS Server Installation CD. Here are the steps I followed:
First, I went with the graphical install mode. To do this, just hit enter at the CentOS screen that appears at boot.
Next, I skipped the CD media test. Just press tab to highlight the Skip button and hit enter.
After the hardware discovery that takes place, the machine will boot into a graphical X environment where you will configure the installation.
First screen will be a Welcome Message – Click on Next
Next screen will ask you to pick a Language to use during the install process. Select appropriately (English is the default) and click on Next.
The following screen will ask for the appropriate keyboard layout. Select appropriately (U.S. English is the default) and click on Next.
The next window will ask you about Disk Partitioning. I usually like to take the default (Automatically partition) and click on Next. This will allow the partitions to be setup automatically for you – however, it gives you the opportunity to adjust these values on the next screen.
Automatic partitioning will want to know on the next screen if you want to keep any existing partitions. For servers, I always select ‘Remove all partitions on this system’ and make sure the drive is checked that you want to install to. Click on Next.
By default, Automatic partitioning will create three partitions with the space available on your drive. You will have a 100Mb partition that is mounted as /boot. This space has your kernel and other system related files required to boot the system. Next partition will be a swap partition. By default, it will be the same size as the amount of RAM installed in the system. Lastly, the remaining space will be allocated in a single partition mounted as /.
There are reasons why you would want to tune this – but I won’t cover them here. Generally speaking this partitioning setup will do, just keep in mind for optimization and speed – there are additional partitions that would be beneficial.
Click on Next at the Disk setup window
For the Boot Loader Configuration, you will want a boot loader installed to manage booting into your operating system. The default is to use GRUB and to install it in your Master Boot Record. So, just press Next.
Next will be setting up the Network Configuration. Under Network Devices, you must check which adapters you want active when Linux comes up. Most likely, you will want to define a static IP address for servers. You can do this by making sure the appropriate adapter is highlighted and click on Edit. After setting the IP and subnet mask, click on OK. The hostname will be set manually in a static IP configuration – so go ahead and type in the fully Qualified Domain Name in this box. Obviously, the Gateway and preferably two DNS servers must also be defined in this window. When finished with the network configuration – click on Next.
The next window will allow you to adjust firewall settings. I usually leave the firewall enabled and then allow access to just the services I need access to on the machine. There are 4 out of the box services that can be allowed during the installation. After the install is finished, you may go in and modify the rules to allow additional ports. Click on next after configuring your firewall preference.
Next screen will ask about additional language support. If your not adding any additional languages, then just click on Next.
Setup you timezone on the next screen by selecting your area or one close by that has the same time zone – then click on Next.
Set the root password on the next screen. This is the grandaddy of all users defined on the system, which has full access to everything in the OS. Set this password to something very challenging (It’s not necessarily meant to be easy for you to remember) and click on Next.
The default installation environment for the Server Install CD is the base CentOS system along with Mail, Ftp, Web, DNS, and Windows File services. This is basically to cater to your all purpose boxes in a small office environment where only 1 server does everything. This will provide a good start that can be customized after the install or if you choose, you may customize by selecting the Customize radio button and click on Next.
After selecting Custom on my installation, I got a package Group Selection screen. I scrolled down to the very bottom and selected ‘Minimal’ which grayed out all other options. This brings the total install size to 686M. I will install my required server services after the installation. However, you may select particular services on this screen that you want to run and just un-check everything else. Click on Next
One more screen before the install begins telling you that it is about to install: Click on Next.
11 Minutes later I get a screen telling me the installation is finished and to click the reboot button.
At this point, I prefer to do the rest of the configuration from a remote session via ssh. There are a couple of popular free ssh programs out there. First one is putty and is downloadable as a single executable. The other is Tera Term Pro with ssh support (Search for Tera Term Web – you will be directed to TuCows for downloading)
Using TeraTerm,
Start a new connection and select ssh as the protocol
When you connect to the machine for the first time, you will receive a warning from your client telling you that it is basically a new ssh host and do you want to accept it’s fingerprint as a trusted host.
Log in as root with the password used during the installation
Installing CentOS 4
I am writing this as a series. This particular article will discuss just the operating system installation. I will follow with some add-on articles that deals with setting up a centralized log host.
The server used in this project is a Dell 1650 with (2) PIII 1.2 Processors and 2G of Ram. Disk configuration is (3) 18G scsi drives attached to a RAID controller in a RAID 0 configuration – which give me approx 50G of formatted space. I expect not to have enough space for my purposes – so I’m not sure how I will address that yet…
I am doing installation via booting from the CentOS Server Installation CD. Here are the steps I followed:
First, I went with the graphical install mode. To do this, just hit enter at the CentOS screen that appears at boot.
Next, I skipped the CD media test. Just press tab to highlight the Skip button and hit enter.
After the hardware discovery that takes place, the machine will boot into a graphical X environment where you will configure the installation.
First screen will be a Welcome Message – Click on Next
Next screen will ask you to pick a Language to use during the install process. Select appropriately (English is the default) and click on Next.
The following screen will ask for the appropriate keyboard layout. Select appropriately (U.S. English is the default) and click on Next.
The next window will ask you about Disk Partitioning. I usually like to take the default (Automatically partition) and click on Next. This will allow the partitions to be setup automatically for you – however, it gives you the opportunity to adjust these values on the next screen.
Automatic partitioning will want to know on the next screen if you want to keep any existing partitions. For servers, I always select ‘Remove all partitions on this system’ and make sure the drive is checked that you want to install to. Click on Next.
By default, Automatic partitioning will create three partitions with the space available on your drive. You will have a 100Mb partition that is mounted as /boot. This space has your kernel and other system related files required to boot the system. Next partition will be a swap partition. By default, it will be the same size as the amount of RAM installed in the system. Lastly, the remaining space will be allocated in a single partition mounted as /.
There are reasons why you would want to tune this – but I won’t cover them here. Generally speaking this partitioning setup will do, just keep in mind for optimization and speed – there are additional partitions that would be beneficial.
Click on Next at the Disk setup window
For the Boot Loader Configuration, you will want a boot loader installed to manage booting into your operating system. The default is to use GRUB and to install it in your Master Boot Record. So, just press Next.
Next will be setting up the Network Configuration. Under Network Devices, you must check which adapters you want active when Linux comes up. Most likely, you will want to define a static IP address for servers. You can do this by making sure the appropriate adapter is highlighted and click on Edit. After setting the IP and subnet mask, click on OK. The hostname will be set manually in a static IP configuration – so go ahead and type in the fully Qualified Domain Name in this box. Obviously, the Gateway and preferably two DNS servers must also be defined in this window. When finished with the network configuration – click on Next.
The next window will allow you to adjust firewall settings. I usually leave the firewall enabled and then allow access to just the services I need access to on the machine. There are 4 out of the box services that can be allowed during the installation. After the install is finished, you may go in and modify the rules to allow additional ports. Click on next after configuring your firewall preference.
Next screen will ask about additional language support. If your not adding any additional languages, then just click on Next.
Setup you timezone on the next screen by selecting your area or one close by that has the same time zone – then click on Next.
Set the root password on the next screen. This is the grandaddy of all users defined on the system, which has full access to everything in the OS. Set this password to something very challenging (It’s not necessarily meant to be easy for you to remember) and click on Next.
The default installation environment for the Server Install CD is the base CentOS system along with Mail, Ftp, Web, DNS, and Windows File services. This is basically to cater to your all purpose boxes in a small office environment where only 1 server does everything. This will provide a good start that can be customized after the install or if you choose, you may customize by selecting the Customize radio button and click on Next.
After selecting Custom on my installation, I got a package Group Selection screen. I scrolled down to the very bottom and selected ‘Minimal’ which grayed out all other options. This brings the total install size to 686M. I will install my required server services after the installation. However, you may select particular services on this screen that you want to run and just un-check everything else. Click on Next
One more screen before the install begins telling you that it is about to install: Click on Next.
11 Minutes later I get a screen telling me the installation is finished and to click the reboot button.
At this point, I prefer to do the rest of the configuration from a remote session via ssh. There are a couple of popular free ssh programs out there. First one is putty and is downloadable as a single executable. The other is Tera Term Pro with ssh support (Search for Tera Term Web – you will be directed to TuCows for downloading)
Using TeraTerm,
Start a new connection and select ssh as the protocol
When you connect to the machine for the first time, you will receive a warning from your client telling you that it is basically a new ssh host and do you want to accept it’s fingerprint as a trusted host.
Log in as root with the password used during the installation
Have fun!