![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.zoyinc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/CentOS7BaseVM27.jpg\")
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I have two primary servers I use all the time, the first is the WordPress VM which run the Zoyinc website and secondly a VM that runs MythTV. Both are currently running Fedora – WordPress is on F18 and MythTV is on F16. These were installed in July 2012 and February 2011 respectively. So pretty old in the tooth.<\/p>\n
The plan is to create a base image that would be used for the next version of both servers and potentially anything else that comes along.<\/p>\n
This post is not a lesson on using VMware nor is it a lesson in Linux.<\/p>\n
NOTE<\/strong>: During the setup of this VM the name of the host changed from “centos7_template” to “centos7-template” and finally to “centos7-base” due to things like netbios only allowing 15 characters. So some screenshots may have different names<\/p>\n I am doing this on ESXi 6.0 Update 3 due to my physical hardware not being supported on ESX 6.5. So I am slightly limited by 6.0.<\/p>\n With the advent of ESX 6 use of the \u201cvSphere Client\u201d was deprecated and no longer worked very well. The replacement is the “VMware Host Client”, a web interface. This is what I have been using.<\/p>\n My hardware is a Lenovo M58 (7479CTO) small form factor. Which has a Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E8400 @ 3.00GHz.<\/p>\n For this VM the setup when creating the VM was<\/p>\n VM Name: centos7-base Start the VM and select “Install CentOS 7” and press <Enter> when prompted.<\/p>\n From the “Welcome to CentOS 7” screen select the appropriate language and select “Continue”. This will take you to the “Installation Summary”. You will likely see a couple of brown triangles, “setting up installation source…”\/”downloading group metadata…” as below, just give it a minute or so to complete these tasks before continuing.<\/p>\n Click on “Software Selection” screen select “Server with GUI” as the base environment and then also select the add-ons of:<\/p>\n Then click on “Done”<\/p>\n Now it will once again go off and “Checking software dependencies”.<\/p>\n At this point I want to partition as I want so select “Installation Destination”: Ensure that the device, VMware Virtual disk, has been selected with a white tick showing:<\/p>\n Then click on Done.Because you selected the disk and you want to configure partitioning you will then get to the manual partitioning screen.<\/p>\n If you had a previous install of CentOS you will see an entry like “CentoOS Linux Linux 7.6 …”.<\/p>\n Select the “\/boot” mount and click on the “-” button to remove it. You will get a dialog:<\/p>\n From here select “Delete all file systems which are used by CentOS Linux…” and then click on “Delete It”. This should remove the line “CentOS Linux Linux 7.6.1810 for x86_64”.<\/p>\n On the same screen in the “New CentOS 7 Installation” section click on the “partitioning scheme” dropdown, which currently says “LVM”:<\/p>\n This will bring up the “Add a new mount point”. To begin with create a “\/boot” mount with 300 MB and click “Add mount point”:<\/p>\n Moving forward I would suggest you set the boot to 500 MB to allow for backup kernels that can accumulate<\/p>\n This will show below. At this point I changed the “File System” to “ext4” because it suits my purposes better:<\/p>\n Using the same process create mount points for “swap” of “4 GB” and “\/” with no capacity, because “\/” will use all remaining space. I did not add “\/var” or “biosboot”. Note that as with “\/boot” I have set “\/” to be “ext4”. This should now look like:<\/p>\n Click on “Done” to move back to the “Installation Summary”, you will get prompted with a “Summary of changes”, click on “Accept Changes” to continue.<\/p>\n Back on the summary screen click on “Network & Hostname”:<\/p>\n On the “Network & Hostname” screen set your desired hostname – I set mine to “centos7-base.cantabrian”, because our workgroup is “cantabrian” – don’t forget to click on apply..<\/p>\n Next click on the “Configure…” button then from the configuration screen:<\/p>\nMy Setup<\/h2>\n
VM Creation<\/h2>\n
\nCompatibility: ESXi 6.0 virtual machine
\nGuest OS: Linux
\nGuest OS Version: CentOS 4\/5\/6\/7 (64-bit)
\nCPU: 2
\nCores per Socket: 1
\nHard Disk: 40 GB (Always find I run out of space in later years so lots of room to grow)
\nType: Thick Provisioned, lazy zeroed
\nRAM: 4096
\nSCSI Controller 0: LSI Logic Parallel
\nNetwork Adapter 1: VMXNET 3
\nBoot Options
\n– Firmware: BIOS
\n– Boot Delay: 5000 milliseconds<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.zoyinc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/CentOS7BaseVM01.jpg\")
<\/a>I hooked up the CentOS 7 ISO, CentOS-7-x86_64-DVD-1810.iso<\/p>\n<\/p>\n\n
<\/a><\/p>\nUnder “Other Storage Options” select “I will configure partitioning” and click on the VMware Virtual disk:<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/a>If you have a previous install of CentOS expand\u00a0 the partitioning by clicking on it as above. This will expand to show<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n\n