I’m working on a project that is deploying on CentOS 5.1, and I found it not entirely obvious how to install a really stripped down server, as a starting point for a lean and mean, hardened production server. Since I’m doing work on this at home on VMWare, and it’s being deployed on a VPS initially (and probably will remain virtualized for ease of management as it scales up), this guide is specifically aimed at this kind of configuration.<\/p>\n
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Assumptions:<\/b><\/p>\n Basic Installation:<\/b><\/p>\n Start with the Centos 5.1 x86_64 install DVD. More Minimizing:<\/b> You can also run this command to count how many packages have been installed already: Next, run “ Run this command to remove a 9.7MB standalone documentation package that you almost certainly won’t be reading from the server: If you wish, run this command to update your installed packages to the latest stable version. Useful Things You May Want To Install:<\/b><\/p>\n These packages are very useful for administering servers, deploying software and data to them, and performing backups: If your server has more than 1 CPU you may wish to install irqbalance, to distribute interrupt servicing duty across CPUs: This package makes the system boot slightly faster using a very simple, safe technique: If you aren’t familiar with the vim text editor, you can install nano, which is less powerful but very easy to use: Have fun! Hope this helps.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’m working on a project that is deploying on CentOS 5.1, and I found it not entirely obvious how to install a really stripped down server, as a starting point for a lean and mean, hardened production server. Since I’m doing work on this at home on VMWare, and it’s being deployed on a VPS … Continue reading “CentOS 5.1 Minimal VPS Install Guide”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,2,15,42,39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-centos","category-linux","category-servers","category-vmware","category-xen"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.pervasivecode.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.pervasivecode.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.pervasivecode.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.pervasivecode.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.pervasivecode.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.pervasivecode.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.pervasivecode.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.pervasivecode.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.pervasivecode.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nBoot the DVD.
\nSelect English language and U.S. English keyboard layout.
\nChoose to Install the OS (not upgrade).
\nChoose “Remove linux partitions on selected drives and create default layout.”
\nSelect DHCP network configuration, or the static IP address for this server.
\n (I choose DHCP, and tell the DHCP server to use a specific IP for this host based on its Ethernet MAC address.)
\nChoose the time zone the server is in (for me this is America\/Los Angeles), and enable the “System clock uses UTC” option.
\nPick a complex root password (https:\/\/grc.com\/passwords can generate one for you) and enter it.
\nWhen given a chance to install additional tasks, uncheck everything (no additional tasks) and choose the “Customize now” radio button.
\nIn the next screen, go into every group and uncheck everything. (*Nothing* should be checked when you’re done. Be careful not to miss anything!)
\nConfirm that you want the installer to begin the installation process. (For me this process took about 6 minutes.)
\nConfirm that you want to reboot, and make sure that the server will boot from the hard disk instead of the installation media.
\nWhen the server boots, log in as root. (You can disconnect from the console and use SSH instead at this point if it’s more convenient.)<\/p>\n
\nRun this command to tell yum to go grab the latest package info from out on the internet.
\n yum grouplist<\/code>
\nRun this command to make sure you didn’t install anything other than the bare minimum:
\n yum -C grouplist<\/code>
\nYou shouldn’t see a section called “Installed Groups:”. If you do see it, it means you missed something you were supposed to disable in the previous section.
\nIn that case, run this to remove it and all the packages in it:
\n yum -C groupremove SomeGroupName<\/code><\/p>\n
\n yum -C list installed | wc -l<\/code>
\nThe resulting count of packages installed should be 154.<\/p>\nchkconfig --list | grep 3:on<\/code>” to see what services are enabled.
\nSeveral of them can safely be disabled (provided that the assumptions at the top of this guide are true), so run this:
\n for i in haldaemon lvm2-monitor messagebus netfs; do chkconfig $i off; done<\/code>
\nThese are useful and should stay enabled:
\n ip6tables
\n iptables
\n kudzu
\n mcstrans
\n network
\n restorecond
\n sshd
\n syslog
\nIf for some reason there are others that are still enabled that aren’t on that list, you’ll have to decide for yourself.<\/p>\n
\n yum -C remove Deployment_Guide-en-US<\/code><\/p>\n
\n yum update<\/code>
\n As of 3\/27\/2008 this installed a new kernel, updated 19 other packages, and required a 54MB download.
\n Accept the CentOS package-signing GPG key when asked.
\n If a kernel update is installed, it would be a good idea to reboot soon to make sure it works.
\n You can also remove your old kernel (use “rpm -qa | grep kern” to find old ones) to save ~75MB.
\n yum remove kernel-2.6.18-53.el5<\/code> NOTE! ONLY do this if you updated your kernel and have 2 installed now.<\/p>\n
\n yum install bzip2 lsof man man-pages mlocate quota rsync sysstat vixie-cron wget which<\/code><\/p>\n
\n yum install irqbalance<\/code><\/p>\n
\n yum install readahead<\/code><\/p>\n
\n yum install nano<\/code><\/p>\n