CentOS

I'm a novice with what I think is a very novice problem. I've inherited a server (Dell PowerEdge R720xd with Intel Xenon E-26XX Processors, 13 TB) from a retiring colleague, and I'm trying to get it back up and running. It needs an OS re-install (all usernames and passwords expired/unrecognized), and I've landed on CentOS 7 as a no-cost option compatible with the software I'll need to run. (I know the re-install will erase any existing data on the server.) I know my way around a command line enough to make a bootable USB (https://docs.centos.org/en-US/centos/in ... a_USB_Mac/), but I don't know which version of CentOS 7 I should install. Can anyone advise me which of the available versions of CentOS 7 ( https://www.centos.org/download/ ) is the correct one for my system? My system details are below:

Dell PowerEdge R720XD
Intel Xenon e_26XX Processors

Sincere gratitude for any advice.
-A

Given that CentOS 7 only has just over a year to go before it reaches EOL and will then not receive any more security (or anything else) updates, the best version of CentOS 7 to install is probably 8 or 9! And since CentOS Linux no longer exists after CentOS 7, you'll be better off still looking at Rocky/Alma/OEL or even RHEL 8 or 9.

You could install CentOS 7 but in just over a year you will be reinstalling it all over again when you need a newer version to continue to work. For that reason it's probably not the best choice.

An R720 ought to be new enough to have the "x86_64-v2" instruction set so should be able to run 9. One of the other clones of RHEL 9 would probably be your best choice.

TrevorH wrote: ↑

2023/04/11 08:29:15

An R720 ought to be new enough to have the "x86_64-v2" instruction set so should be able to run 9. One of the other clones of RHEL 9 would probably be your best choice.

This indeed.


A potential hurdle can be the disk controller; Red Hat has tendency to drop support far older/rare hardware.
All is not lost though; the ELRepo has drivers for many devices; installation and use of Alma/Rocky is possible with those.

I have Rocky 9 installed on an R620 which would be the same gen as this. It's got an "PERC H710 Mini" that works out of the box with el9. That would have been the standard RAID controller for this gen of machines.

Thank you Trevor H and jlehtone for your replies--I am very grateful for the guidance. I will give the x86_64 version of CentOS 9 a try.
I've found out that the server has the following RAID controller: PERC H710P integrated RAID controller.
Is this the same thing / do you know if this would this be close enough to the PERC H710 Mini?

Sorry, there's no "CentOS 9".
There's CentOS 9 Stream which is a rolling pre-release (aka. beta) of the next Red Hat point release.
As suggested above, look at some of the clones/rebuilds of RHEL 9, like Rocky, Alma, OEL etc.

I really appreciate this clarification, tunk--thank you.

ajschoef wrote: ↑

2023/04/11 04:10:57

It needs an OS re-install (all usernames and passwords expired/unrecognized)

If you have physical access to the server, you could reset the root password (and all other passwords afterwards):
https://wiki.centos.org/TipsAndTricks/ResetRootPassword