Table of Contents

1. If you have downloaded the os iso(s) for CentOS you may relaise that the boot.iso is no longer included. Have a look at this page for information.
   1. i386 torrent here. You want CentOS-6.0-i386-bin-DVD.torrent.
   2. i386 boot iso here. You want CentOS-6.0-i386-netinstall.iso.
   3. x86_64 torrent here. You want CentOS-6.0-x86_64-bin-DVD.torrent.
   4. x86_64 boot.iso here. You want CentOS-6.0-x86_64-netinstall.iso.
2. From the netinstall.iso create eith a bootable CD or USB (for usb I use this: LiveUSB)
3. Boot your clean server from the desired netinstall ISO.
   1. If you have access to an online repository, then do a http install.
   2. If you do not have access to an online repository then you will want to have burnt the DVDs from the torrent download and install the server from these.
4. Generally I choose the following during an installation.
   1. Custom Hard Disk setup which would generally be raid based. Commonly I have been doing 3 x 500GB hds.
      
      1. \boot 200 meg (md0) (Raid 1 with one spare)
      2. swap 2x the amount of ram, generall across the three HDs
      3. rest of the 3 500s as a single raid 5 formatted as LVM, About 950 GB split:
      4. /usr 25,000 GB
      5. /tmp 500 MB
      6. /var 45,000 GB
      7. /home 850,000 GB
      8. / gets the rest
   2. Setup Time, Server root password, and other screens as needed.
   3. Packages: Server and KDE (not gnome). Don't install Office, Games or other non server features. I do install graphical internet.
5. Once all the packages have been installed you will need to reboot.
   1. I am currently finding that a reboot does not give me a GUI, I have then had to install:
   2. yum groupinstall "KDE Desktop"
   3. yum groupinstall "X Window System"
   4. Then run startx.
   5. This gives me a GUI
   6. Now nano /etc/inittab
   7. And change id:3:initdefault: to id:5:initdefault:
6. Reboot and make sure the server restarts as expected.
7. After the reboot you will need to set up a few areas:
   1. This may not be in order.
   2. Firewall: I totally disable and set this up manually from my firewall script.
   3. selinux: I totally disable.
   4. Sound card: I ignore
   5. Users: I set up my first user, which is generally the same for all my servers.
   6. This will become your main administrational user, as root is not commonially used, for security reasons.
   7. REBOOT