This is a basic installation tutorial for the CentOS operating system for dedicated server duties !
CentOS is a free whitelabel distro of RedHat Enterprise with all the bells and wistles, and is the OS of choice for many web hosting companies
Installing the OS using ‘Text Mode’ :
1 – Insert the first Linux installation CD-ROM (disc 1) in the CD-ROM drive of your server and restart the server.
2 – At the boot: prompt, type text and press the Enter key. This starts the installation process.
3 – On the Language Selection screen, select English as the language that you want to run the installation program in, then click OK.
4 – On the Keyboard Selection screen, select the keyboard attached to your server, then click OK.
5 – On the Mouse Selection screen, select the mouse attached to your server, then click OK.
6 – On the Welcome screen, review the installation information, then click OK.
7 – On the Installation Type screen, select Custom, then click OK.
8 – On the Disk Partitioning Setup screen, select Disk Druid.
If your disk has existing partitions, select each partition and click Delete.
9 – Create the following disk partitions:
The following partitions are recommended prior to installing cPanel:
**1 GB /
*100 MB /boot (No seperate /boot for FreeBSD)
**1 GB /tmp
*10 GB /usr
*10 GB /var
**2 GB swap (swap should be 2x RAM)
Remaining space to /home
Note: The above partitioning scheme is assuming a 80 GB hard drive. If you have a larger hard drive, you should increment /usr /var accordingly.
To create the / partition ‘root’:
* On the Partitioning screen (see step 8 ) , click New.
* In the Mount Point field, type / .
* For the Filesystem type select ext3.
* In the Size (MB) field, type 1024, then click OK.
To create the /boot partition:
* On the Partitioning screen (see step 8 ) , click New.
* In the Mount Point field, type /boot.
* For the Filesystem type select ext3.
* In the Size (MB) field, type 100, then click OK.
To create the /tmp partition :
* On the Partitioning screen (see step 8 ) , click New.
* In the Mount Point field, type /tmp .
* For the Filesystem type select ext3.
* In the Size (MB) field, type 1024, then click OK.
To create the /usr partition :
* On the Partitioning screen (see step 8 ) , click New.
* In the Mount Point field, type /usr .
* For the Filesystem type select ext3.
* In the Size (MB) field, type 10240, then click OK.
To create the /var partition :
* On the Partitioning screen (see step 8 ) , click New.
* In the Mount Point field, type /var .
* For the Filesystem type select ext3.
* In the Size (MB) field, type 10240, then click OK.
To create the swap partition:
* On the Partitioning screen (see step , click New.
* For the Filesystem type field, select swap.
* In the Size (MB) field, enter a number that is twice the current RAM (2048 If you are using 1024 MB Ram), then click OK.
To create the /home partition:
* On the Partitioning screen (see step , click New.
* In the Mount Point field, type /home.
* For the Filesystem type select ext3.
* In the Size (MB) field, select Fill all available space, then click OK.
10 – When finished, Click OK.
11 – On the Boot Loader Configuration screen, select LILO Boot Loader, then click OK.
12 – On each of the following three screens, click OK.
13 – On the Network Configuration screen, clear Use bootp/dhcp, enter your server network configuration, then click OK.
14 – On the Hostname Configuration screen, enter the fully qualified host name of your server, then click OK.
15 – On the Firewall Configuration screen, select No firewall, then click OK.
16 – On the Language Support screen, select English (USA), then click OK.
17 – On the Time Zone Selection screen, select the location, then click OK.
18 – On the Root Password screen, enter in the root password for your server, re-enter the password to confirm it, then click OK.
19 – If you want to create an account that you can use to remotely log on to your server using SSH or FTP, click Add.
*** Provide the login name and password, then click OK.
20 – Review the information on the User Account Setup screen, then click OK.
21 – Review the information on the Authentication Configuration screen, then click OK.
22 – On the Package Group Selection screen, verify that only the following packages are selected. Clear all other check boxes.
. Network Support
. Messaging and Web Tools
. DNS Name Server
. Network Managed Workstation
. Software Development
23 – Click OK.
24 – Review the Installation to begin screen, then click OK.
25 – Insert the second/third installation CD-ROM when notified to, then click OK.
26 – To create a boot disk, click Yes. Otherwise, click No.
27 – When done, the installation complete screen displays.
28 – Click OK, then press Enter to restart.
[2] Checking the host name and network settings :
After your first boot, you must check your system’s host name and network configuration to ensure that they are correct. To check your system’s host name and network configuration:
– Log on to the system as the root user.
– Type vi /etc/hosts to open the host file and modify the contents.
– Verify that the file is in the following format:
– Verify that the loopback entry (127.0.0.1) appears in the file. A correctly configured file should look like this:
Note : The IP addresses used here are for illustration purposes only; they are not valid values.
# Do not remove the following line, or various programs
# that require network functionality will fail.
127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost
10.1.1.1 myhost.mydomain.com myhost – Modify the file as needed.
– Type :wq to close the file.
– Type vi /etc/sysconfig/network to open the network sysconfig file and modify the contents.
– Verify the host name. A correctly configured file should look like this:
Note : The IP addresses used here are for illustration purposes only; they are not valid values.
NETWORKING=yes
HOSTNAME=myserver.mydomain.com
GATEWAY=10.100.0.1
– Modify the file as needed.
– Type :wq to close the file.
– Type vi /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 to open the network scripts file and modify the contents.
– Verify that network information. A correctly configured file should look like this:
Note : The IP addresses used here are for illustration purposes only; they are not valid values.
DEVICE=eth0
BOOTPROTO=static
BROADCAST=10.1.1.1
IPADDR=10.1.1.1
NETMASK=255.255.0.0
NETWORK=10.1.0.0
ONBOOT=yes
– Modify the file as needed.
– To make these changes active, restart the system by typing:
shutdown -r now
[3] cPanel Installation Instructions:
Important : You must have a valid cPanel license. If you do not have a valid cPanel license, please contact one of cPanel distributors listed at http://www.cpanel.net/dist.htm or buy a license directly from cPanel at http://www.cpanel.net/store/. cPanel now uses a universal install script which can be found at http://layer1.cpanel.net/. You can use the following commands in the root shell to download and start the installation script:
mkdir /home/cpins
cd /home/cpins
wget http://layer1.cpanel.net/latest
sh latest
At this point the installation has started and may take anywhere from 30 – 60 minutes to complete. At no point during the installation should you be prompted for user input. You will know the cPanel installation has been completed by the screen output coming to a stop & the statement “Done.” is printed on your screen. You should then hit “ctrl c”† to continue.
Note: You must be on a stable connection to install cPanel. If your shell session disconnects during a cPanel install the cPanel installation will be aborted. You can restart the cPanel installation by completing “sh cpanel-*”† again, however it is recommended that you reformat your machine & start over to ensure a clean slate before placing the machine into production.
[4] cPanel/WHM Configuration:
Following a successful install you should setup cPanel/WHM as soon as possible. In order to complete this process you will need to log into your machine using its main (eth0/fxp0) IP address; you should input something similar to this into your browser:
https://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:2087
Note: you should replace xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx with your actual IP address.
Further to that, you will be prompted about a self signed SSL certificate; ignore this by clicking on “Yes”. A self signed certificate is generated by cPanel/WHM to ensure a secure/encrypted communication with your server. You will now be prompted with a few questions related to how you would like your installation of cPanel/WHM customized. You can walk through the wizard by clicking on “Next Step” or if you are an experienced user feel free to click on “Finish” to skip to the end.
For a complete user guide on how to access cPanel/WHM and/or use any of the functions within cPanel/WHM, please visit cPanel documents section at http://www.cpanel.net/docs.htm That’s all for now .. Just keep in mind, this is not the all-in-one package for server installation, you’ll have to secure the server, update your kernel, install a firewall, configure SSH, apply patches …. etc,etc,etc,etc.
This was just to illustrate the BASIC steps to get you online.
Source: http://paragonhost.wordpress.com/2006/11/14/howto-centos-install-for-a-cpanel-web-server/
