A CentOS Basic Install

Today we're going to talk about the basic install of CentOS 7.

When it comes to enterprise operating systems where you are not paying a company for support, there's nothing quite like CentOS. The Community ENTerprise Operating System does a phenomenal job of following the Red Hat cycle and providing an Enterprise class OS without having to fork out a lot of money for it. It is perfect for small and medium businesses, or for a great platform to start learning on.

So here we go with our install.

1. First things first, we need to download the CentOS iso.  The one to pick comes from personal choice, but if unsure, download the dvd iso.
1. If you are installing to a phsyical machine, you will need to burn this iso to a dvd, or make a bootable usb out of it.
2. If you are installing to a virutal machine (i.e. vmware, virtualbox, or some other virtualization software) then you can boot directly form the iso.
2. Once you have booted to the dvd/iso you are asked if you want to install CentOS or test the media.  If this is your first time installing with this iso, I'd recommend doing a quick test, otherwise, just continue with the install.

3. You will see a lot of text come across the screen shortly followed by a graphical screen asking you for your install language.
   
4. Next set your time zone, for myself, I will be choosing America, Boise.
   
   
   
   
5. Next we will select the Software that we want to Install.  For our Install today, we are going to Use the GNOME Desktop for our choice.  I would also recommend the following add-ons for the environment:
1. GNOME Applications
2. Internet Applications
3. Office Suite and Productivity
4. Development Tools
5. Security Tools



6. Next we need to select our Installation Destination
1. On our system, we have 2 hard drives.  1 100 Gb Hard Drive, and 1 20 Gb Hard Drive.  We will be installing our system on our 100 Gb Hard Drive.  Also, we will be doing a custom partitioning scheme.
   
2. For our partition scheme we will use the following partition setup:

Mount Point	Device Name	Device Size	Partition Type
/boot	/dev/sda1	1 GB	ext4
/var	/dev/mapper/rootlv-var	10 GB	ext4
/tmp	/dev/mapper/rootlv-tmp	10 GB	ext4
/opt	/dev/mapper/rootlv-opt	30 GB	ext4
/	/dev/mapper/rootlv-root	30 GB	ext4
/home	/dev/mapper/rootlv-home	19 GB	ext4

3. The reason for this setup is several fold, and I won't go into deep detail here, but to suffice it to say, the following setup gives us maximum flexibility and better expansion in case space is needed in the future.
1. In order to create these mount points follow the screenshots below:

2. You will see the following screen, go ahead and accept the changes
   















3. The past few steps with setting up the partitioning may seem a little confusing to begin with, but I will go into the use of LVM and the pros and cons of LVM vs. Posix Partitioning in another post.
7. Now we begin our install
   

















8. While the Install goes, we will set a root (administrator) password, and we will create our user account.
9. Now sit back and enjoy the rest of the install