How To Install CentOS 7 on Fresh System

After waiting long finally CentOS 7 is out. CentOS ( Community Enterprise Operating System ) is forked from RedHat Linux, Linux distro fine tuned for servers.

In this article I will show you how to install CentOS 7 in a few steps.

Step #1: Download ISO Image

First you will need to download CentOS 7 iso image from its source mirror. CentOS 7 is only available in 64 Bit platforms and currently there is no 32 Bit iso image. Because most of the production servers comes in 64 Bit.

Follow this below link to download CentOS 7 DVD ISO Images.

• CentOS 7 Released – Download DVD ISO Images

Step #2: Make A Bootable Drive

After downloaded the ISO image, you will need to make bootable USB drive. You can create usb drive bootable by simply transferring iso file to usb using dd command since CentOS 6.5 or alternative you can use Win32DiskImager, Unetbootin no longer works for CentOS 7.

# dd if=/iso/CentOS-7-x86_64-DVD-1602-99.iso of=/dev/sdb

* /dev/sdb is the usb device and make sure you have atleast 4.3 GB space.

Step #3: Start Installation

To start installation, click on the “Install to Hard Drive” icon on the Desktop.

Step #4: Language and Keyboard Selection

Here you can select your preferred language as well as the Keyboard type you have.

Step #5: Select The Installation Destination

You can click on the Install Destination icon to change this into custom partition. By default the Anaconda installer will choose automatic partition for your hard drive.

Now click on the hard drive you want to install and under the Other Storage Option choose I will configure partitioning then click Done.

Step #6: Partitioning Scheme Selection

Now select the partitioning scheme to use for the mount points. You can choose Standard Partition.

Step #7: Swap Creation

You can create a swap space from one of the partitions and set the desired capacity. Select the file system for swap space as swap and click on Reformat.

Step #8: Mount Point Creation

Now create a mount point where the root partition will be installed. Depending on your requirements you might need to put the boot, home and root partition on different mount points. For this case we shall have only one mount point /.

Next choose the file system as ext4 and click on reformat.

Step #9: Accept Changes

Now after finishing step 7 and step 8 successfully click on Done button.A prompt window will appear with a summary of changes that will take place. If you are satisfied with them click Accept changes.

Step #10: Date and Time Setting

Now click on the clock icon under the localization menu and select the time zone from map of the world, then click done.

Step #11: Start Installation

After configuring the System and Localization setting you can click on the Begin Installation button.

Installation will begin immediately and then it will ask to set up User account with the root password.

Setep #12: Set Up Root Password

Click on the root password option and enter a password and confirmation of the same then click Done.

Step #13: User Account Creation

Now create a user account. Enter the correct details and if this is the administrator account, tick Make this user administrator and Require a password to use this account for security purposes.

Step #14: Complete Installation

The installer should complete installing the software and the bootloader. Once its complete you will get a success message. Logout from the Live system and login to your new installation.

Once you login to your CentOS 7 accept the EULA agreement.

Enjoy!