Install RHEL or CentOS 7: Archived Manual Installation Guide
Archived OEM installation guide. Most source screens are RHEL 7.1; driver/media and the separate CentOS UEFI example come from different setups. Original English screens are retained. Edited Chinese bitmap labels are English instructional illustrations, not captures of an official English installer; official English replacement figures identify their own differing version, settings and hardware in captions. No OS or disk operation was performed to prepare this guide.
RedHat/CentOS 7.x System Installation Steps
1. Optical Disc Booting and RAID Controller Driver Loading
1) Boot the intended installation medium in a firmware mode supported by the actual server, OS and boot layout. The source’s BIOS/DVD sequence demonstrates Legacy boot, while a later separate CentOS example demonstrates UEFI. Do not treat the no-UEFI-prefix instruction as universal or change an existing OS boot mode blindly.
After successfully booting the system, the following interface will appear:
2) Load a matching trusted RAID driver only if required after checking actual controller/logical-drive visibility and OS support. The source mixes RHEL 7.1 screens with an RHEL 7.0 hpvsa driver example; it does not certify every combination. At an applicable boot: prompt the historical linux dd command requests a driver disk. When editing an existing RHEL 7 kernel command line, use the documented inst.dd option rather than appending a second linux command. Match the procedure to the actual installer/firmware mode.
Identify the actual numbered driver-medium device and matching driver entry in the installer list, then select the corresponding menu number. These are menu indices, not hardware serial numbers. Do not copy the illustrated device number or driver filename without verification.
After loading the driver, press the 'C' key to continue:
After loading the driver, press the 'C' key to continue:
2. Basic Settings
3) Select Language: Chinese (Simplified) or English, then click the Continue button.
4) Click 'Continue' to enter the Installation Summary page.
Official RHEL 7.3 Installation Summary: English/US, New York, Minimal Install, automatic partitioning not yet ready and network disconnected; the OEM RHEL 7.1 source uses Simplified Chinese. Configure the actual requirements.
5) Time Zone selection. After setting is complete, click 
button
6) Keyboard selection, click
button to add a new keyboard layout, select the language to be added, then click
to finish. After adding is complete, click button
Official RHEL 7.3 Keyboard Layout example uses English (US) and German with qwerty test text. The OEM example has Chinese. Use the actual intended layout; list order sets the default.
7) Select Installation Source
The Verify button below can check if the optical disc or image is intact (note that this may take a long time and can be skipped).
Official RHEL 7.0 Installation Source example uses a network repository and has no additional repositories enabled. The OEM RHEL 7.1 example selects local sr0, RHEL-7.1_Server.x86_64. These are alternative source configurations; the historical URL is not a current repository recommendation.
Additional repositories are optional and must match the actual release, architecture and entitlement. Adding a repository does not guarantee an updated installation. The OEM source selects its local Server-HighAvailability and Server-ResilientStorage repositories; that is a specific medium’s example, not a requirement for all servers.
3. Package Selection
8) Select the base environment and add-ons required for the workload. The source chooses Server with GUI and Development Tools, but a full development group and every optional package are not mandatory. Source-built drivers need their documented compiler, matching kernel development files and other prerequisites; supported precompiled drivers may not. Do not assume an older right-click package menu exists on the actual RHEL 7 Software Selection screen.
Official RHEL 7.0 Software Selection example selects Server with GUI and PostgreSQL Database Server. The OEM source selects Development Tools; choose only actual required add-ons rather than copying either selection blindly.
4. Partition Settings
Legacy and UEFI installations need their respective supported boot layouts. UEFI uses a suitable EFI System Partition mounted at /boot/efi; a BIOS/GPT layout can also require a BIOS boot partition. Verify firmware mode, partition table and bootloader requirements instead of treating the layouts as differing only by one optional partition.
1. Manual Partitioning in Legacy Mode
9) Select System - Installation Destination to enter the disk partitioning interface.
Official RHEL 7.3 destination example selects a 9216 MiB Virtio vda and Automatic. The OEM example selects a 20 GiB VMware sda with 9279.97 MiB free and uses I will configure partitioning. Select that manual option for the next steps and verify the actual disk.
Select Other Storage Options - Partition - I will configure partitioning to enter the following interface:
Official RHEL 7.0 empty manual editor illustrates the partition-scheme selector and + control: LVM is selected and 20.48 GB total is shown. The OEM RHEL 7.1 picture expands a menu containing Standard Partition, Btrfs, LVM and LVM Thin Provisioning. Select the intended supported scheme; do not assume the example selects Standard Partition.
Use + to create required mount points. The source’s Legacy example shows /boot 500 MiB, swap 2048 MiB and / 10 GiB on a 20 GiB VMware disk; these are example sizes. Its prose says Standard Partition/ext4, but the shown /boot is Standard Partition/XFS and root/swap use LVM. A root filesystem and swap alone are not a universal complete boot layout.
Create the /boot partition, set the mount point to /boot, and input 500M for size.
Select the supported device type and filesystem for the intended mount point. The original /boot figure actually shows Standard Partition and XFS although the prose recommends ext4; do not silently treat those as the same selection.
Official RHEL 7.1 editor shows fields for the selected root filesystem: LVM/XFS / at 4743.34 MiB, /boot 476 MiB and swap 1020 MiB, on a separate small virtual-disk example. The OEM boot-editor figure instead shows /boot 500 MiB on standard sda1 with XFS. Its prose says ext4, which differs from the pictured XFS selection.
Create swap according to actual RAM, workload, crash/suspend requirements and OS guidance. The source form uses 2048M; its 1.5–2 times RAM rule and 32/64 GB examples are not universal requirements.
Create the / partition, type ext4, and select size as needed or use all remaining space.
Partition creation completed, click button
Official RHEL 7.1 manual editor overview uses / 4743.34 MiB, /boot 476 MiB and swap 1020 MiB. The OEM final Legacy layout uses / 10 GiB, /boot 500 MiB and swap 2048 MiB on a 20 GiB VMware disk. Both illustrate editing fields; neither fixes sizes for other systems.
Read the Summary of Changes before accepting the plan. The source lists deletion of existing swap/ext4 partitions and an MSDOS table followed by creation of new partition/LVM objects. These are destructive changes; protect required data and verify every target. Accept Changes returns to the summary; Begin Installation starts applying the plan.
2. Manual Partitioning in UEFI Mode
The separate UEFI example is a CentOS 7 installation on a 2 TB-class disk, not the preceding RHEL 7.1 20 GiB VM. It shows /home 1796.25 GiB, /boot 1024 MiB, /boot/efi 200 MiB, / 50 GiB and swap 15.56 GiB, with LVM/XFS for the data layout. Plan actual sizes and other mount points as needed; the five shown entries are not a universal fixed recipe.
After partitioning is complete, click Done.
5. Network Settings
10) Select the actual connected NIC and configure its hostname/addressing. Enabling Ethernet obtains an address only with a working link and reachable DHCP service. The OEM connected example uses eno16777736 and 192.168.1.117; the official replacement uses a separate eth0 network. Choose Configure for manual addressing.
Official RHEL 7.3 connected eth0 example uses 192.168.122.185/255.255.255.0, gateway/DNS 192.168.122.1 and server.example.com. The OEM RHEL 7.1 example uses eno16777736, 192.168.1.117, gateway 192.168.1.1, different DNS and localhost.localdomain. These are separate example networks.
For manual IPv4, choose Manual and enter the network-assigned values. The OEM form shows 192.168.1.182, netmask 255.255.255.0, gateway 192.168.1.1 and DNS 8.8.8.8. The official English replacement shows the same settings controls with DHCP selected and blank static fields; it is an alternative state, not the filled OEM configuration.
Official English connection-editor example shows Automatic (DHCP) for IPv4 with blank static-address fields, alongside IPv6 settings. For the OEM manual-address procedure choose Manual; its example is 192.168.1.182/255.255.255.0, gateway 192.168.1.1 and DNS 8.8.8.8 on eno16777736. Use addresses assigned for the actual network.
6. Start Installation
11) After all configurations are complete as shown below, click Begin Installation to start the system installation.
Official RHEL 7.3 ready summary has English/US, New York, Minimal Install, automatic partitioning and connected eth0. The OEM RHEL 7.1 ready summary has Chinese plus English keyboard, Shanghai, Server with GUI, custom partitioning and connected eno16777736. Review actual settings before Begin Installation; these are different ready-state examples.
12) Enter the following installation interface. Here you need to configure the user password.
Official RHEL 7.3 installation progress shows glibc-common 10/331, root password not set and no user to be created. The OEM 7.1 figure shows the package installation process starting. Both require actual account configuration; neither is completion.
Configure a suitable strong root secret according to the actual policy. The OEM under-eight-character warning describes a Done-twice override on that historical image; it is not a recommendation to bypass policy. The official replacement has masked input rated Good.
Official RHEL 7.3 root-password form retains masked input rated Good. The OEM 7.1 source instead displays an under-eight-character weak-password warning and Done-twice confirmation. The official example is not a reusable password or proof of any actual account setting.
Create the intended non-root account with a compliant secret and appropriate privileges. The OEM example uses xuegod_rm/rm and shows a weak-password warning; the official replacement uses a different illustrative name and a Good-rated masked password. Do not copy either account or password state as a required default.
Official RHEL 7.3 Create User example uses Firstname Lastname/firstname with a masked password rated Good, administrator unchecked and password required. The OEM uses xuegod_rm/rm with a weak-password warning. Choose the actual account and privileges locally.
Official RHEL 7.3 progress example still says root not set/no user and glibc-common 10/331. The OEM later 7.1 progress figure says root set, user rm will be created and redhat-logos 435/1268. These are different progress/account states, not one unchanged installation.
7. Complete Installation
13) Post-installation configuration
Enter the boot interface
First-time startup configuration, license authentication
Read the applicable license agreement and accept only if the responsible user agrees. The source’s checked box and accepted tile are historical interface states; no consent was performed while preparing this guide.
Complete configuration
Choose registration according to the actual update/entitlement plan. The source selects register later. These archived screens do not establish current registration-service availability.
Log in using the intended non-root account for ordinary work. The source demonstrates entering root through Not listed? and retains a root desktop session; it is an example of the login controls, not a recommendation for routine privileged desktop use.
Language selection
Create an online account?
Done!
English reference and scope
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Installation Guide. This supplies applicable terminology and English illustrations; it does not certify the OEM’s controller/driver combinations or make every RHEL minor version and CentOS example equivalent. The GNOME language chooser retains language autonyms (including Japanese) as actual interface data. The NTP screen shows network time off and warns that networking is required; it is not successful time synchronization.