{"id":7276,"date":"2022-10-10T16:14:02","date_gmt":"2022-10-10T16:14:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sitekickr.com\/blog\/?p=7276"},"modified":"2022-10-10T16:30:17","modified_gmt":"2022-10-10T16:30:17","slug":"provisioning-a-new-linux-server-centos-stream-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sitekickr.com\/blog\/provisioning-a-new-linux-server-centos-stream-edition\/","title":{"rendered":"Provisioning a New Linux Server (CentOS Stream Edition)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Time: 25 minutes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I created this post about provisioning a new CentOS server<\/a> years ago before CentOS 7 was depreceted. Well, time to update things a bit!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One difference that you’ll come to notice is that we’re now using a tool called dnf <\/strong><\/em>to install packages, where we had used yum<\/em> in previous distros. Don’t let this overwhelm you, dnf <\/em>is just a glorified version of yum<\/em> with a few more options.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Choosing a Server Template<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If you’re provisioning a VPS or Cloud instance, you might be given the option to apply a “template” to the server. This template indicates which distribution to install, but also can offer installation of other software, such as the LAMP stack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’d encourage you to avoid installing anything except for the bare-bones distribution itself. I’ve struggled to “clean up” after these templates have installed packages far too many times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Creating a non-root superuser account.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The very first thing you should do is say goodbye to that root login. Don’t ever use it again. It’s not worth ever putting the root password at risk. Okay, but how will I gain admin privileges to the server?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

useradd myusername<\/em>
passwd myusername<\/em>      (then choose a password)<\/code><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Great, you have a new user account. Now let’s give it superpowers:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

visudo<\/code><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Locate the line that looks like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

root    ALL=(ALL)       ALL<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, create another similar looking line directly under it:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

myusername<\/em>    ALL=(ALL)       ALL<\/code><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is this program, I can’t type anything! You’re using an age-old tool called vi<\/strong><\/em>, it’s not user-friendly at all, but there are die-hard linux fans that would dive in front of a bullet for it (yes, I have tried to physically harm the software program vi<\/em><\/strong> from time to time).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Press the i<\/kbd> key on your keyboard to allow editing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you’re done, press the Esc <\/kbd>key, then colon<\/kbd>, then the letters w<\/kbd>, then q.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let’s update the OS itself first<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
sudo dnf upgrade --refresh -y<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Indexing the filesystem search database<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
While you’re provisioning the server, you’ll probably find yourself using the locate<\/em> command to find utilities. Depending on your host, they may or may not have setup a cron job to auto-index the search database daily. If not, you’ll need to do this before issuing your first locate command.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
updatedb
<\/code><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yup, that’s it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Well, unless you don’t have the mlocate tool installed. Not to worry:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
dnf install mlocate<\/kbd>

Get the latest repositories<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Before you start installing software, let’s make sure you’re using the most up-to-date repositories of the software.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
sudo dnf config-manager --set-enabled crb<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
sudo dnf install https:\/\/dl.fedoraproject.org\/pub\/epel\/epel-release-latest-9.noarch.rpm https:\/\/dl.fedoraproject.org\/pub\/epel\/epel-next-release-latest-9.noarch.rpm<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
sudo dnf install dnf-utils http:\/\/rpms.remirepo.net\/enterprise\/remi-release-9.rpm -y<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
sudo dnf update --refresh -y<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Installing your web server, development tools and database<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Otherwise known as the LAMP stack, Apache, MySQL and PHP (or Python\/Perl) are your most common installs for a web server. Being so common, it’s not a real heavy lift to get these installed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are a few ways to install packages, the two most common are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n