How to Install CentOS 8 on VPS in VNC Mode

This tutorial is going to show you how to install CentOS 8 on a VPS (virtual private server) in VNC mode. This is useful when your hosting provider doesn’t offer CentOS 8 in one-click install, or you want to customize the installation, such as encrypting the disk.

VNC (Virtual Network Computing) allows you to manage a VPS like you are sitting in front of the monitor and keyboard. You can insert a custom ISO image to the virtual optical disk and install the custom operating system.

Step 1: Get the Gateway IP Address

In VNC mode, you need to manually configure Internet access for your VPS, so you have to know the gateway IP address. The gateway is on the same logical network as your VPS and its IP address usually ends with the number 1 like 192.168.0.1. For example, if my VPS IP address is 23.254.225.226, then the IP address of the gateway is almost always 23.254.225.1.

If you want to be sure about it, you can first install Ubuntu or Debian on your VPS via the one-click install function in the VPS control panel, then boot it up and issue the following command:

ip route show

Output:

default via 23.254.225.1 dev ens3 proto static metric 100 
23.254.225.0/24 dev ens3 proto kernel scope link src 23.254.225.226 metric 100

The IP address after “default via” is the IP address of your gateway.

Step 2: Boot Your VPS From CentOS 8 ISO

In your VPS control panel, find the virtual optical disk drive and mount CentOS 8 ISO. Sometimes you may need to give the direct download link of CentOS 8 ISO file to your hosting provider and ask them to mount it for you. You can find the CentOS 8 ISO download links here. Note that I recommend using the net-install ISO image (534MB in size), instead of the DVD ISO image because your hosting provider might not be able to mount a 7G size ISO image.

Then establish a VNC connection to your VPS. You can get VNC login info from your hosting provider. Normally you can use a web-based VNC client in the VPS control panel.

Next, configure the boot order of your VPS. Set it to boot from optical disk first. After that, click boot button in the control panel to boot up your VPS.

Step 3: Install CentOS 8

Now you should see the following screen in the VNC client. Press Enter to Install CentOS Linux 8.

Then choose your language. I selected English.

In the next screen, you need to complete 4 items:

• Set up disk partition
• Configure Internet access
• Configure software repository
• Select what software to install on your server

First, click Installation Destination to set up disk partition. By default, Automatic partitioning is selected, so I simply click the Done button. If you want to encrypt the disk, you can do it on this step.

Next, click Network & Host Name to configure Internet access. Turn on the Ethernet and click the configure button. Go to IPv4 Settings tab and change the method from Automatic DHCP to Manual. Then click the Add button. Enter the IP address of your VPS, the netmask, the IP address of the gateway and the IP address of DNS servers such as 8.8.8.8.

If your VPS doesn’t have public IPv6 address, click the IPv6 Setting tab and set the method to Ignore.

Click the Save button to save your network settings. Then click the Done button.

After that, click installation source to configure software repository. By default, closest mirror is selected, but it won’t work. You can use the following settings instead.

• The URL is:   http://mirror.centos.org/centos-8/8/BaseOS/x86_64/os/
• The URL type is repository URL.

Click the Done button and wait for it to set up the base repository.

Finally, click software selection to select what software to install on your server. By default, server with GUI is selected, but I select minimal install and not any add-ons for my VPS.

After completing the 4 items, click the Begin Installation button. Set a password for root user while installing the OS.

When the installation is finished, go back to your VPS control panel and set the VPS to boot from hard disk first. Then restart your VPS. You should be able to SSH into your CentOS 8 VPS now.

Wrapping Up

I hope this tutorial helped you install CentOS 8 on VPS in VNC mode. As always, if you found this post useful, then subscribe to our free newsletter to get more tips and tricks. Take care 🙂