the new anaconda is a bit cumbersome. I like the Fedora one a tab better. so here are a few bits to note that might help others down the road.
1. you must manually configure the network device (wired or wireless) before you can select a netinstall repo. this is not typical for anaconda installers as they typically will automatically configure any network device it detects with DHCP then prompt if you wish to make adjustments, etc... had to find that on google
2. once you have configured the NIC (i went with static as i run all fixed computers in my home via static) i was then able to tell the installer what URL to look for and poof it connected and away that section went. cheers there.
3. the drive configuration. as its been ages since I last did a software RAID configuration I can not say if it is any better or not then the older vs. last time i did a software RAID was with RH9, no that is not a typo. The key to setting up the software RAID with the new anaconda installer is as follows:
3a. configure your standard partitions as is required for the OS and your BIOS. I had to install a biosboot 1M partition in order to continue, thankfully anaconda informed me of that issue.
3b. after /boot and for me /biosboot are created then start creating /swap / /home etc... while creating those you will be given the chance to change the partition type. This is were you can select LVM and a few other options, but i was after RAID. then you are given a new selection bar to choose the type of RAID again for me this was RAID6. wash/repeat for all partitions you wish to be in the RAID.
I chose the following partitions:
Code:
# df -Th
Filesystem Type Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/md127 xfs 49G 2.2G 47G 5% /
devtmpfs devtmpfs 7.7G 0 7.7G 0% /dev
tmpfs tmpfs 7.8G 0 7.8G 0% /dev/shm
tmpfs tmpfs 7.8G 8.8M 7.7G 1% /run
tmpfs tmpfs 7.8G 0 7.8G 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/sda2 xfs 506M 160M 347M 32% /boot
/dev/md124 xfs 11T 34M 11T 1% /exports
/dev/dm-1 xfs 500G 33M 500G 1% /home
encrypting both /swap and /home I did not encrypt /exports. maybe later Ill think about it, but for now no.
4. select the install type, i sadly chose the file server option, should of just chosen basic no frills setup as im installing all of the tools/services/etc... that I would need anyways.
5. tell system to go and set root password and create 1 user only. you are unable at this point in time to create additional users. i do miss that from the older anaconda installers.
6. in about 15min the install was complete and I was able to reboot into a brand new CentOS v7.x system running as I had desired. There is a ton of major changes in CentOS v7 vs 6 and older specifically the introduction of systemd as a replacement for initV. the old initV is still there, but it is aliased to systemctl (command for systemd) also firewalld is replacing IPTables.
I am liking the systemd much better then the older initV, but im not as thrilled with firewalld vs IPTables. as of yet I have not found a any threads, wiki's, howto's on direct editing of firewalld unlike you had with IPTables. This is causing an issue with NFS as the firewall even though it states the ports are open, are most defiantly NOT open. so currently im running with zero firewall. that does not give me warm fuzzies.
thanks again for the feedback.