This article will show you how to install Centos 7 Linux using your Supermicro IPMI/KVM.
Assuming you have logged in and accessed your Supermicro PMI/KVM Management.
Connect to the server via IPMI (Remote Console). Go to Remote Control > Console Redirection and click on the Launch Console button.
Note: JAVA is required to be installed as IPMI will be using JAVA Viewer Applet for you to manage the server console.
A small file named “Launch.jnlp” will be downloaded, execute the file and you will then be prompted to run the application “Java viewer”. Just click on Run.
Note: you may need to add the KVM IP address into the Java security exceptions. To do this, go to the Java control panel and go to the Security tab, and then Edit Site List. Here you can add the KVM IP address as a security exception.
Once this is done, the remote window will be opened as shown below and press on F11 to choose the device to boot.
From here, you may now go to “Virtual Media” on the upper left corner and select “Virtual Storage”.
Click on “CDROM&ISO” tab, then select “ISO File” from the Logical Drive Type drop down menu. Browse the ISO file to get the full path of the file from your local device and click on Plug in to attach it to the IPMI then click OK to finish.
Once you have attached the ISO, you may now go to the Remote Window and restart the server via Power Reset under Power Control from the menu. After the system has rebooted just press F11 to select boot device and choose “IPMI Virtual CDROM”.
After booting up, you will be given the options to Install CentOS 7, Test this media & install CentOS 7 and the Troubleshooting. Just highlight the option using your arrow keys and hit enter.
Wait until the system loads ups the media installer for CentOS 7 then it will show the installation process language which is the first page for the procedure.
After choosing the preferred language, you will be forwarded to the next screen which is the Installation Summary. On this page, you will see:
Localization:
1. Date & Time
2. Language Support
3. Keyboard
Software:
1. Installation Source
2. Software Selection
System:
1. Installation Selection
2. KDUMP
3. Network & Hostname
4. Security Policy
From this, you may start to configure the settings you need to use for the CentOS 7 you are installing.
Date & Time – you may choose which region you are located
Keyboard – you may choose or add the keyboard format you wish to use
Language Support – on this part, you may choose or add the languages that the system will support
Installation Source – on this part, you may choose on which installation source to be used. In this case, it would be auto-detect as you are using IPMI.
Software Selection – on this part, you need to select which base environment and add-ons you require
Installation Destination – this would be the disk where you install the operating system.
In this case, system is showing 2 disks installed and we will be using both disks for data dedundancy using RAID from CentOS.
Check the disks to select and click on “I will configure partitioning” then click Done on the upper left corner of the screen.
On the next screen, choose LVM as the partition layout and then click on “Click here to create them automatically”.
This will automatically create three system partition using XFS Filesystem, automatically redistributing your hard disk space and gathering all LVS in to one big Volume Group named “centos”.
1. /boot – Standard Partition/Non LVM
2. / (root) – LVM
3. Swap – LVM
Once you are on the New CentOS Installation manual partitioning, we will be removing the “/home” as we will only be using the partitions left. Just highlight “/home” and click on the “minus” symbol on the bottom part.
Next, is to highlight the “/” or the root to allocate all the disk space left on the drive and type in “all” under “Desired Capacity” then click “Update Settings” for it to change and set the space allocated.
Now, for the Data Redundancy we are using RAID 1 from our CentOS Installer. This will be increasing your data failure by writing the same data on 2 drives. It is also called as “mirroring”. So, if one drive fails, the data can still be accessed from the second drive. To know more about RAID, clink on this LINK.
On the “Manual Partitioning” screen, make sure that on the “Device(s)” you have selected the 2 disks you are using to install CentOS 7. Select each partition and change the “Device Type” to RAID and the RAID Level should be “RAID 1 (Redundancy)”. Then change the “File System” to EXT4 and click on “Update Settings” to save the configurations you have done. See below images for your reference:
Once done, click “Done” button and you will see the summary of changes you have made on the partitioning. Just click on “Accept Changes” to complete and it will go back to the main installation screen.
Network & Host Name – here, you may configure the network settings for your CentOS 7 installation
In this case, you see 2 ethernet ports showing and only one is plugged to the network. You will be choosing the ethernet that is connected to the network. Update the hostname to your preferred Host name to use then click on Apply. You will see the hostname once updated on the lower right corner of the screen. Then click on “Configure” to configure the Network Settings manually.
Once you are on the network configurations screen, always be reminded that you need to check the “Automatically connect to this network when it is available” for the network to be connected once it has booted up and when it is available.
If your system will be used as a server, it’s recommended to set static network configuration on the Ethernet by clicking “IPv4 Settings” then choose “Manual” from the Method and just add all the static interface settings. Once done, click on “Save” Button and the new configurations should show up on the screen then you may enable or disable the ethernet by switching it “ON” or “OFF” using the toggle switch then click “Done”. (Some of the information from the image was hidden for security reasons.)
After these configurations has been done, you may proceed to click on “Begin Installation”. Once the installation begins, it will show you the User Settings where you can create a password for the root and create user for your system. You may do this while waiting for the installation to be completed.
Congratulations! You have now installed a CentOS 7 Operating System on a new machine. You may proceed to remove the virtual media and reboot your machine.
