CentOS 7.2 Minimal

Overview

CentOS Linux is a free, open source community rebuild of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, binary compatible with RHEL. This image combines two properties: it is CentOS Linux 7.2.1511, the point release published in December 2015 that corresponds to RHEL 7.2, pinned there so updating the machine cannot quietly walk it forward to a later point release; and it carries a reduced package set, with the packages an Azure guest cannot use removed.

Both halves are the reason it exists as its own listing. The pin matters because plenty of software is certified, supported or simply known to work against one specific CentOS 7 point release rather than the CentOS 7 line as a whole, and a machine that drifts off it is no longer the platform that was signed off. Pinning trades currency for reproducibility: these repositories carry 11,960 packages against 16,771 in the terminal 7.9 tree.

The trim is measured, not asserted. Against cloudimg's own standard CentOS 7.2 image that this one is cut from, on the same kernel and the same day: 274 installed packages instead of 306, and 626 MB of package payload instead of 754 MB, a 17 percent reduction. The bulk is firmware for hardware a Hyper V guest does not have, and removing the local mail transport also closes its two loopback listeners. The saving is smaller than on the later minors because the firmware package itself was far smaller in 2015.

One disclosure specific to this point release: CentOS 7.2.1511 predates the Azure Linux Agent, which first appeared in CentOS 7.3, and no Azure machine can start without a provisioning agent to receive your SSH key. Every package on this image comes from the frozen 7.2.1511 vault except that one agent, which is taken from the CentOS 7.3.1611 vault and pinned by checksum. The image records this on disk, at /usr/share/doc/cloudimg/out-of-pin-packages.txt, so you can confirm it yourself.

CentOS Linux 7 reached end of life on 30 June 2024 and receives no further upstream security updates, so this image is patched only to its capture date from the frozen CentOS 7.2 vault and is provided for legacy migration workloads. A smaller package set means fewer components that can carry a vulnerability, but it is not a substitute for migrating.

Common uses

• Running software whose support statement names CentOS or RHEL 7.2 specifically, on the smallest defensible footprint
• Reproducing a build or a defect against exactly the package set that shipped in 7.2.1511
• Compatibility and RPM validation against the RHEL 7.2 ABI, where fewer installed components means less to review