This page describes the installation of CentOS 7 on HP hardware. I will be using this server for virtualization (KVM).

• Brand, model: HP, Proliant DL320e Gen8 v2
• CPU: E3-1240 v3 @ 3.40GHz (4 cores, 8 threads)
• Memory: 32GB ECC
• Storage: HP Smart Array P222 Controller with 4x 2,5“ SAS 10k disks (RAID 1+0)
• iLO 4

• System Options
  • Serial Port Options
    • Virtual serial port: COM 2
  • Processor Options
    • No-Execute Mem. protection: Enabled
    • Intel(R) Virtualization Technology: Enabled
    • Intel(R) Hyperthreading options: Enabled
    • Intel(R) Turbo Boost Technology: Enabled
    • Intel(R) VT-d: Enabled
• Power Management Options
  • HP Power Profile: Balanced
  • HP Power Regulator: HP Dynamic Power Savings mode
• PCI Device Enable/Disable
  • Disable embedded Smart Array B120i RAID controller.
• Server Availability
  • ASR Status: Enabled
  • Automatic Power-on: Restore Last Power State
• BIOS Serial Console & EMS
  • Console port: Auto
  • Baud rate: 115200
• Advanced Options
  • Advanced System ROM options
    • Power-On Logo: disabled
• Thermal Configuration: Optimal Cooling

• Connect to the server via iLO (remote console) and connect the minimal installation ISO.
• Boot the server, press F11 and boot from virtual CDROM / image.
• Start CentOS 7 installation.
  • Date & Time: Europe/Amsterdam
  • Keyboard: English (US)
  • Language support: English (United States)
  • Installation source: Local media
  • Software selection: minimal install
  • Installation destination: /boot, swap, /, /var. XFS filesystems with LVM.

    Filesystem               Size Mounted on
    swap                       4G
    /dev/mapper/centos-root    8G /
    /dev/sda1                512M /boot
    /dev/mapper/centos-home    4G /home
    /dev/mapper/centos-var    16G /var
    /dev/mapper/data-images  250G /var/lib/libvirt/images

• Edit grub settings /etc/default/grub

  ## Serial console settings
  GRUB_TERMINAL="serial console"
  GRUB_TERMINAL_OUTPUT="serial console"
  GRUB_SERIAL_COMMAND="serial --speed=115200 --unit=1 --word=8 --parity=no --stop=1"
  
  GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX:
  ## Remove: "rhgb quiet"
  ## Add: console=tty0 console=ttyS1,115200n8 vga=normal nomodeset 3

• Rebuild the grub.cfg file with following command:

  grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg

• Reboot.

• SSH to iLO address.
• Open SOL:

  textcons

• To exit, press: <esc> <(>.

• Set hostname:

  hostnamectl set-hostname <enter fqdn>

• At the time of writing, there are some bugs in NetworkManager (nmcli) when enslaving VLAN devices into a bridge. So this configuration will not use NM.
• Disable NM, enable network service:

  systemctl stop NetworkManager.service
  systemctl disable NetworkManager.service
  systemctl enable network.service
  systemctl start network.service

• Create bond0 device:

  vi /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-bond0
  DEVICE=bond0
  BOOTPROTO=none
  ONBOOT=yes
  USERCTL=no
  BONDING_OPTS="mode=4 miimon=100"
  NM_CONTROLLED=no

• Add bond slaves:

  vi /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eno1
  DEVICE=eno1
  MASTER=bond0
  SLAVE=yes
  USERCTL=no
  ONBOOT=yes
  BOOTPROTO=none
  NM_CONTROLLED=no
  
  vi /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-enp2s0f0
  DEVICE=enp2s0f0
  MASTER=bond0
  SLAVE=yes
  USERCTL=no
  ONBOOT=yes
  BOOTPROTO=none
  NM_CONTROLLED=no
  
  vi /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-enp2s0f1
  DEVICE=enp2s0f1
  MASTER=bond0
  SLAVE=yes
  USERCTL=no
  ONBOOT=yes
  BOOTPROTO=none
  NM_CONTROLLED=no
  
  vi /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-enp4s0
  DEVICE=enp4s0
  MASTER=bond0
  SLAVE=yes
  USERCTL=no
  ONBOOT=yes
  BOOTPROTO=none
  NM_CONTROLLED=no

• Create VLAN and bridge devices, do this for every VLAN you have:

  vi /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-br50
  DEVICE=br50
  ONBOOT=yes
  SLAVE=bond0.50
  TYPE=Bridge
  VLAN=yes
  NM_CONTROLLED=no
  
  vi /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-bond0.50
  DEVICE=bond0.50
  VLAN=yes
  ONBOOT=yes
  USERCTL=no
  NM_CONTROLLED=no
  BRIDGE=br50

• If needed, configure IP-addresses on bridge devices.
• Restart networking:

  service network restart

• Install tools:

  yum install bridge-utils tcpdump

• Test:

  brctl show
  cat /proc/net/bonding/bond0

• Configure DNS, edit networkscripts (DNS1, DNS2)

• If virbr0 isn't in zone internal, configure it so:

  firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=internal --change-interface=virbr0

• Add local (sources) subnets to trusted zone:

  firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=trusted --add-source=192.168.2.0/24

• Reload firewall:

  firewall-cmd --reload

• Install and configure chrony
• Install and configure apcupsd
• Set tuned profile:

  tuned-adm profile virtual-host

• Configure postfix

• Download add_repo script:

  curl -O http://downloads.linux.hp.com/add_repo.sh

• Install wget:

  yum install wget

• Run the script as root:

  sh ./add_repo.sh spp -d RHEL -r 7 -a x86_64

• Install tools you need, e.g.:

  yum install hpssacli hp-health

• Install libvirt etc:

  yum groupinstall "Virtualization Host"

• Enable guest service so that guests are suspended before reboot/shutdown and auto started after boot:

  systemctl enable libvirt-guests.service