CentOS is a Linux distribution that provides a free and open-source community-supported computing platform, functionally compatible with its upstream source, Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

After installing Centos 8, there are a few things you might want to do to get the most out of the system. These will increase the security and usability of your server and will give you a solid foundation for subsequent actions.

# Update the system

Ensure the system and all the packages are up to date:

sudo dnf -y update
sudo dnf -y upgrade

# Install epel-release

dnf install -y epel-release

# Install common packages

sudo dnf install -y \
    vim \
    telnet \
    htop \
    wget \
    unzip \
    make 

# Set hostname

sudo hostnamectl set-hostname ${HOSTNAME}

# Disable SELinux (Security-Enhanced Linux) if you don’t need it

Single command to do that

sed -i 's/(^SELINUX=).*/SELINUX=permisive/' /etc/selinux/config

For the changes to apply, you will need to apply, you will need to reboot. If you want the changes to apply without rebooting please type the following:

sudo setenforce 0

To get status

getenforce
sestatus

# Configure firewall

If you do not want to use firewall, disabl it with this command:

systemctl disable --now firewalld

# Configure timezone

Set up the server timezone

Get a list of timezones with this:

timedatectl list-timezones

Set your timezone with this command replacing Asia/Dubai with your timezone

timedatectl set-timezone Asia/Dubai

Typing this command timedatectl will display timezone display timezone details

# timedatectl
               Local time: Thu 2021-08-05 06:58:44 UTC
           Universal time: Thu 2021-08-05 06:58:44 UTC
                 RTC time: Thu 2021-08-05 06:58:44
                Time zone: UTC (UTC, +0000)
System clock synchronized: yes
              NTP service: active
          RTC in local TZ: no

# Set up user

Create a new user

sudo useradd user

Set password for the user

sudo passwd user

Add user to wheel so they can do sudo

sudo usermod -aG wheel user