CentOS 8 Essentials

CentOS 8 administration touches far more than installation and command-line basics. Neil Smyth’s CentOS 8 Essentials follows the work of setting up a system through the practical decisions that keep it configured, connected, and useful—from managing storage and network access to running virtual machines and services.

Start with installation, then build your footing

The opening material covers installing CentOS 8, preparing disks and partitions, setting up a dual-boot system with Windows, and finding your way around the GNOME desktop. Readers then move into the Bash shell, command-line tools, user and group administration, software repositories, and systemd. This gives newcomers a route from first setup into the everyday mechanics of Linux system management.

Understand the tools that keep a system running

NetworkManager, firewalld, and Cockpit feature in the administration chapters, alongside SSH key-based authentication. The book also explains remote desktop access through VNC and X11 forwarding. Taken together, these topics show how CentOS 8 systems can be configured and accessed locally or remotely, using both graphical interfaces and command-line tools.

Share resources and host services

For systems that need to work with other machines, Smyth covers file sharing through NFS and Samba, including Windows interoperability. Separate chapters introduce Apache web-server setup and Postfix email-server configuration, connecting system administration with common hosting tasks.

Explore virtualization, containers, and storage

The later chapters turn to KVM virtualization, virtual-machine creation and management, bridge networking, and Linux containers. The book also works through adding disks, using logical volume management, and configuring swap space—useful areas to consult when a system’s storage needs change.

For CentOS 8 learners and working Linux users

With its coverage ranging from installation fundamentals to virtualization and server configuration, this book suits readers studying CentOS 8 and experienced Linux users seeking a broad, task-oriented reference. Its instructions are tied to CentOS 8, so keep the version-specific focus in mind when applying them to other releases or distributions.