Client Configuration
Follow these step-by-step instructions to configure a new client system on the NPG network. These are the basic instructions and probably don't include absolutely every step you need to take to configure a client in every situation, but they should get you most of the way there.
Pre-Install Preparation
Here are some things you should know before you start installing Linux on a system.
Choose a Partition Layout
For most general purpose workstations it's safe to accept the default partition layout from the installer. For special cases (especially servers) you'll probably have to spend some time thinking about how the system will be used to determine the best partitioning layout. Look here for a fairly comprehensive introduction to the Linux filesystem. Generally it's a good idea to put /boot on a separate partition, which only needs to be about 500 MB.
Networking
Before you set up a machine it's a good idea to collect the IP addresses and other information you'll need and have them on hand before you start. As a general rule NPG machines should have a static IP address and hostname reserved for them by UNH. If this is a brand new machine and there aren't any spare hostnames lying around you'll have to register a new one before you start. Make sure to add any new hostnames to the DNS and LDAP netgroup configurations in order for them to be able to access necessary network services (the firewall is configured to block connections to things like LDAP and NFS from machines it doesn't know about).
If you're using an existing NPG hostname, run this command on an NPG system to find its IP address:
nslookup <hostname>
IP Addresses you should know
UNH
- Netmask: 255.255.252.0
- Default Gateway: 132.177.88.1
- Primary DNS: 132.177.88.37
- Secondary DNS: 132.177.88.76
Farm
- Netmask: 255.255.252.0
- Primary DNS: 10.0.0.253
- Secondary DNS: 10.0.0.251
Note: Farm Connections do not use a default gateway.
Downloading Install Disks
The Research Computing Center in Morse Hall hosts repository mirrors for CentOS and Fedora, so if you're looking to Download a DVD or CD iso to install one of these operating systems it's probably fastest to download from there. The URL is
Here are some quick links for various ISO images you might want to use:
CentOS
64 Bit
32 Bit
Fedora
64 Bit
32 Bit
CentOS 5
This guide assumes you're using the CentOS 5 DVD install image. See here for notes on using the netinstall disk.
- Download a CentOS CD or DVD image and burn it to a disk.
- Boot from the CD. You may need to change the system's boot device settings in the BIOS to get this to work. Often pressing F12 during startup will bring up a menu of devices you can choose from.
- Select the language and keyboard layout. Unless you have a really good reason not to, just pick U.S. English.
- Partition the hard drive. Generally it's safe to accept the default layout for most workstations. This will make /boot the first partition, LVM the second, and / and swap on the LVM partition. In any case, make sure you know what you're doing and that everything is configured the way it should be before you commit the changes to the disk.
- Configure the Network
