[stextbox id=’alert’]Red Hat discontinued CentOS 8 in December of 2020. On December 31, 2021, CentOS 8 will officially be EOL. Avoid new installations of CentOS 8. Instead, go for CentOS 7 which will be supported through 2024 or install CentOS 8 but convert to AlmaLinux.[/stextbox]

CentOS 8 is the latest version of CentOS which is based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8. If you’re new to Linux, I recommend CentOS just because a lot of major organizations use Red Hat Enterprise Linux and CentOS. It’s a very stable OS and is easy to learn. Let’s go install it!

Things you need

CentOS 8 ISO image
A spare machine or hypervisor

Load CentOS Installer

This part depends on what you’re using. I’m using Proxmox in my virtual lab, so I just setup a new VM with the following settings: 16 CPU cores, 8 GB RAM, 250 GB HDD, and network connection. You can setup the same thing in Hyper-V, VMware, or VirtualBox.

First, start the installer. You don’t need to check the disk image.

Select your language settings

Now we just have a few settings to tweak.

Adjust the Time & Date if it is not automatically adjusted to your correct timezone.
Select Software Selection. By default, we’re installing “Server with GUI” but I recommend setting this to “Server” or “Minimal install”.
Under Installation Destination, this is where you can adjust the partitions and disks. Just select “Done” because, at this point, we’re not worried about partitioning.
Under Network & Host Name, set a hostname and your network settings. If you’re using DHCP, just select connect. If you’re using static, you can set your IP information here.
Once everything is set, select “Begin Installation”

Now, the system will begin installing. Select the root user account to supply a root password. At a minimum, you do need to supply a root user password.

You can also create a standard user account. Right now, we’re only going to create a root password. Allow the system to install. This will take a few minutes.