CentOS is a free source code compatible fork of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), with only certain branding and other minor differences. 

Unlike RHEL, there is no official support, however the open source community provides extensive online documentation for installing, configuring, and managing CentOS. 

CentOS Stream
rickatech 2020-01

As of 2021 a new variant called CentOS Stream is emerging that has a slightly different relationship with RHEL.  Whereas each CentOS version has been a repackaging of RHEL release, CentOS Stream will be a distribution that is just upstream of its RHEL counterpart.  Some have suggested that this may lessen the stability of CentOS Stream, while others have suggested more timely updates and package support than notoriously glacial pace RHEL updates.

Extra Packages
rickatech 2017-01

Core Node.js functionality has not yet been mainlined into the base RHEL repositories, however the venerable and stable EPEL repository provides a viable workaround.  The node community has its own captive package management system called npm not surprisingly.  Though npm is not mandatory to be able to run service side javascript, odds are there will be something one needs that is best obtained/updated through that service.

# yum install epel-release  

CentOS 7, VMware Instance Setup
2015-08 rickatech edit

VM Version 8
  - latest virtual machine features
    version 9+ require vSphere Web Client
  - RHEL 6 (64-bit)
  - 512 MBytes
  - SCSI paravirtual
  - Disk, 12 GBytes
  - Thin Provision
  - remove floppy drive
  - connect CD-rom to install iso
  - manual partition
    Centos 7 now defaults to XFS, fine
  - hostname
    c7x0ip77.local.zaptech.org
    (can't config static IP with minimal iso)

AFTER BOOT

# ip addr 

  ...

# pwd

  /etc/sysconfig

# diff RCS/network network

  1c1,2
  < # Created by anaconda
  ---
  > NETWORKING=yes
  > GATEWAY=10.10.10.1

# diff RCS/ifcfg-ens192 network-scripts/ifcfg-ens192 

  1,2c1,4
  < TYPE="Ethernet"
  < BOOTPROTO="dhcp"
  ---
  > TYPE=Ethernet
  > BOOTPROTO=static
  > IPADDR=10.10.10.77
  > IPMASK=255.255.255.0
  4,8c6
  < IPV4_FAILURE_FATAL="no"
  < IPV6INIT="yes"
  < IPV6_AUTOCONF="yes"
  < IPV6_DEFROUTE="yes"
  < IPV6_FAILURE_FATAL="no"
  ---
  > IPV6INIT="no"
  13,17d10
  < PEERDNS="yes"
  < PEERROUTES="yes"
  < IPV6_PEERDNS="yes"
  < IPV6_PEERROUTES="yes"
  < IPV6_PRIVACY="no"