After installing CentOS 7 minimal edition (Core only), there are many things we can do to the new core system. Since we don’t have any GUI, the only way to configure it is via command line or Terminal console.
- Configure the network
After installing CentOS 7 Core, the network is not enabled by default. We can check the status of the network interface using nmcli command as follow:
nmcli d
Output
For beginner users, it is advisable to use nmtui command to edit or activate a connection.
nmtui
Select Edit a connection and press Enter. Next, select the eth0 and highlight Edit and then press Enter
On the next page, we can set the eth0 properties. We may use the automatic configuration or manual configuration for eth0. If you need guide on how to configure static IP address on CentOS 7 Core, you should go to this page.
OK, now the network configuration task has been completed.
- Enable ssh service
It is important to have ssh server enabled on our CentOS 7 core. ssh is required to manage the server remotely via ssh protocol. By default, ssh service is not enabled. We can enable it using command
systemctl start sshd.service
Its also good to have sshd start automatically on boot
systemctl enable sshd.service
- Update system
After we configure the network, updating the system to the most recent packages from the official repository is a good practice.
yum update
This task is to ensure that we are running the updated packages and software.