Minimal net install is useful when a dedicated server is installed from a IPMI KVM or Dell iDRAC, HP iLO, IBM IMM or where the initial client side download of files need to be minimal.
For amd64 CentOS 7 the net install bootable media is located here (now the current latest release is 7.4.1708, but you can check the last directory with 7.
http://mirror.leaseweb.com/centos/7.4.1708/isos/x86_64/CentOS-7-x86_64-NetInstall-1708.iso
Now this version is deprecated and you could have problems downloading it, so you could try the CentOS vault – http://vault.centos.org/7.4.1708/isos/x86_64/ Just follow the instructions for downloading.
Download it and put it on a cd or usb, the boot from it and follow the steps bellow:
STEP 1) Select “Install CentOS 7” and press “Enter”
STEP 2) Wait for the installation to boot
STEP 3) This is the first step, you could choose your Country and language, English is the default.
STEP 4) Setup the right time and time zone of your server, this step is important, the clock of the server is really important for your software to work properly!
STEP 5) Often servers are set with UTC time, which is never changed (no summer saving time!). UTC is Coordinated Universal Time and first you must select “Etc” from the first dropdown menu.
STEP 6) Next let’s configure the network, because we are doing a network installation you need Internet connection to install the CentOS 7.
STEP 7) Click to configure the selected network adapter on the right.
STEP 8) Click on the menu “IPv4 Settings”, then choose from the dropdown menu “Manual” (technically you can leave it Automattically as the default is, but this is a server howto it is not very clever your IP to be assigned by a DHCP server, but your setup could vary). Then click on “Add” and write your IP address, network mask and gateway, then in the DNS Servers write your local (and fast!) DNS server, if you have more than one separate them with comas.
STEP 9) Click “General” menu and then check the “Automatically connect to this network when it is available” – this is very important, because if you do not check, when you reboot the server, it won’t start the network! Click Save.
STEP 10) You can see the network is up and connected. Set a host name to your server and click on “Apply” and that’s all for the network configuration, click on “Done”.
STEP 11) Click on “Installation Source” to setup the source of your installation files, because this is network installation this step is mandatory.
STEP 12) Set the URL from where the setup will download packages and installation files. Set the nearest source to your server, you can check mirrors here:
https://www.centos.org/download/mirrors/
At present the latest version of CentOS 7 is 7.4.1708, but after a while it could be other, so browse the latest version directory, then you must choose directory “/os/” (there are probably many others, but we need especially “os”) and then “/x86_64/”. And then click on “Done”. That’s all you’ve configured the installation source, so now the setup knows where to look for packages and metadata for the installation process.
One thought on “Howto do a netinstall of CentOS 7 (7.4.1708) – minimal server installation”