There are many distributions in the Linux world, each focusing on a different niche market. For servers, Ubuntu is the most used distribution with 37% market share, followed by Debian with 23% and CentOS with 18%.
In the case of Ubuntu and Debian, although they occupy a good share of the market, most of their installations are dedicated to small projects, personal blogs and small applications, while in the business world and web hosting CentOS is undoubtedly the most used. because of its advantages.
What is CentOS Linux?
The name CentOS comes from the initials of Community Enterprise Operating Systema Linux distribution aimed at the business market that wants to be a free and compatible alternative Red Hat Enterprise Linuxthe commercial distribution on which it is based Gnu/Linux and the free software includes a number of additional services, technical support and training for which a subscription is charged.
In the case of CentOS, it is a free distribution that is 100% binary compatible with RHEL, but without the integration of services that RHEL charges for and offers for free.
characteristics
Linux has many distributions, most aimed at the desktop and very few at the server market, including Ubuntu, Debian and of course RHEL, the latter being the best known in the commercial market, succeeding CentOS as the best. offer the same quality for free.
It is a stable distribution with specially selected packages to achieve stability by reducing crashes, bugs and performance loss due to highly unstable or poorly tested software.
It supports a wide range of hardware, including the hardware of a typical data center, which differs greatly from the hardware of a typical PC, from processors to network cards to motherboards.
With VPS Cloud, the type of operating system that can be used is limited to the options offered by the cloud service provider, not just any Linux can be used, but the popular CentOS is definitely supported.
It’s a distribution made by the community and for it, there have been big distributions that eventually died because there wasn’t a big enough community to keep them alive. With CentOS, we can be sure that it has one of the largest Linux communities behind it, which guarantees its continuity.
As for stability, bad configuration can affect the stability of any system, but if the distribution is already unstable, uses untested packages, without patches, the system will constantly have bugs and crash no matter how well you try to configure it.
On the other hand, CentOS is a very stable system by nature, it is a great system for mounting any platform, and when you add careful security configuration and performance hardening, you get a stable, reliable, secure and high performance system. without errors and crashes. .
It is an ideal server not only for the web but also for virtualization to support a cloud infrastructure so modern that CentOS supports the main virtualization methods VMwareXEN, KVM, containers like Docker or orchestrators like Kubernetes, Mesos and Swarm.
Advantages and disadvantages of CentOS Linux
Now let’s look at the pros and cons of CentOS Linux.
stability
CentOS is one of the most stable Linux systems, which makes it ideal for servers, it is also based on RHEL, one of the best Linux distributions for servers. CentOS, unlike other more general systems, has a careful selection of packages installed by default to ensure stability, only packages with stable versions of them are in the default repositories.
speed up
By removing unnecessary packages and installing only the most essential, the result is a lighter system, again the kernel, its modules and the most frequently used services are configured to get the most out of the server hardware.
reliability
It is an extremely robust system, by using fewer packages updates are less frequent than in other systems, which simplifies management, moreover its life cycle is approximately 5 years for full support and 10 years for critical updates, a reasonable time compared to other distros that do this they may last as little as 18 months or even less.
software
Another big advantage you have with CentOS is the availability of specialized software, especially in the hosting world, for example it is compatible with cPanel, Plesk and CloudLinux, moreover most of the licensed security software is focused on RHEL/CentOS and not others like Debian /Ubuntu which, although very popular and good for servers, does not support cPanel for example.
Data backup and support
Although it doesn’t have the support of RHEL or Ubuntu, it has a large community, extensive documentation, and most of the RHEL documentation is compatible with CentOS because it’s based on it.
Hardware requirements
CentOS can be installed with and without a graphical environment with windows. If the system is intended for a workstation, there is a possibility of installation with a graphical environment. However, if it is a server, the desktop environment option is not necessary, for this reason it is best to install the system without a graphical environment.
Without desktop environment:
- RAM memory: 64 MB (minimum).
- Hard disk: 1 GB minimum – 2 GB recommended.
With desktop environment:
- RAM memory: 1 GB (minimum)
- Hard disk: 20 GB minimum – 40 GB recommended.
Download and install
To get the image, you can download it directly from the site CentOS downloadsFor security reasons, it is always better to download from the official website.
An important detail in the installer screenshots is that the installer doesn’t scale correctly to some screen widths and part of it doesn’t show up on the screen.
The first screen that appears offers options for Install directly or Check the CD/DVD and install it
By default, the installation media is verified, which may take a few minutes depending on the speed of your CD/DVD drive.
On the next screen you have to select a language, English is shown by default, although we can ask for Spanish
On the next screen, you can review several options:
- Keyboard: Choice of keyboard layout
- Language support: If we want to change the language selected in the previous window
- Software selection: By default it is installed with the graphics environment, this option allows you to change the base environment to remove the graphics environment or add another package
One option to check is the installation target, from which the hard drive should be selected local default drives where it should be marked as in the recording
Partitioning can be automatic or customized, it depends on your preferences and the current organization of the disk and partitions, when finished press Yes I am on top.
If there are no more options, red marks, you can continue with the button Start the installation
The next screen will ask for root password after you click Yes I am top left
Installation may vary depending on machine speed and number of packages selected
Once it’s done, there will be an option Start over
Continue
The installation is extremely simple, in just a few screens it is possible to install the system, it is ideal for users who are looking for business quality without the license and support costs of RHEL, without losing the quality and qualities that make CentOS the best option for servers in the Linux world
