CentOS Product Specifications
This page contains an overview on the capabilities and limits of CentOS.
End of Lifetime (EOL) Dates |
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CentOS41 |
CentOS5 |
CentOS6 |
Full Updates2 |
February 29th, 2009 |
Q1 2014 |
Q2 2017 |
Maintenance Updates3 |
February 29th, 2012 |
March 31st, 2017 |
November 30th, 2020 |
Architecture |
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CentOS4 |
CentOS5 |
CentOS6 |
Latest Release |
4.9 |
5.9 |
6.4 |
Supports x86 Systems (32-bit Pentium, AMD, Via) |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes4 |
Supports x86_64 systems (AMD64/EM64T) |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Supports ia64 systems5 (Itanium2) |
Yes |
No6 |
No |
Supports s390/s390x systems (IBM zSeries & IBM S/390) |
Yes |
No |
No |
Supports ppc/ppc64 systems (IBM Power, Mac) |
Yes |
No |
No7 |
Supports SPARC systems (Sun SPARC processors) |
Yes |
No |
No |
Supports Alpha systems (DEC Alpha processors) |
Yes |
No |
No |
CPU / Memory / Filesystem limits (Tested/possible)8 |
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CentOS4 |
CentOS5 |
CentOS6 |
Maximum logical CPUs9 |
|
|
|
x86 |
32 |
32 |
32 |
ia64 |
64/512 |
n/a |
n/a |
x86_64 |
64/64 |
160/255 |
160/4096 |
PPC |
64/128 |
n/a |
n/a |
s390/S390x |
8 |
n/a |
n/a |
SPARC |
8/64 |
n/a |
n/a |
Alpha |
8/64 |
n/a |
n/a |
Maximum memory |
|
|
|
x8610 |
64GB |
16GB11 |
16GB12 |
ia64 |
256GB/1024TB |
n/a |
n/a |
x86_64 |
128GB/1TB |
1TB |
2TB/64TB |
PPC |
128GB/1TB |
n/a |
n/a |
s390/S390x |
64GB |
n/a |
n/a |
SPARC |
64GB |
n/a |
n/a |
Alpha |
64GB |
n/a |
n/a |
Filesystem |
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|
|
Maximum filesize (ext3) |
2TB |
2TB |
2TB |
Maximum file system size (ext3) |
8TB |
16TB |
16TB |
Maximum filesize (ext4) |
n/a |
16TB |
16TB |
Maximum file system size (ext4) 13 |
n/a |
1EB |
1EB |
Maximum boot LUN size (BIOS) |
n/a |
<2TB |
<2TB |
Maximum boot LUN size (EFI) |
n/a |
n/a |
Any14 |
Maximum x86 per-process virtual address space |
Approx 4GB |
Approx 3GB15 |
Approx 3GB16 |
Maximum x86_64 per-process virtual address space |
512GB |
2TB |
128TB |
Recommended minimum requirements |
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CentOS4 |
CentOS5 |
CentOS6 |
x86 |
128M CLI/256M GUI |
128M CLI/512M GUI per logical CPU |
392M CLI/512M GUI per logical CPU 17 |
other architectures |
512M |
512M |
1GB |
Minimum disk space |
800M |
1.2G |
2GB |
KVM-Virtualization |
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|
CentOS4 |
CentOS5 |
CentOS618 |
Maximum number of cores on host |
N/A |
160 |
160 |
Maximum memory on host |
N/A |
1TB |
2TB |
Maximum number of vCPUs in fully virtualized guest (x86/x86_64) |
N/A |
16/16 |
160/160 |
Maximum memory in fully virtualized guest (x86/x86_64) |
N/A |
512GB/512GB |
2TB/2TB |
Minimum memory in fully virtualized guest (x86/x86_64) |
N/A |
512MB/512MB |
512MB/512MB19 |
OS features (Kernel, Server, Client, etc.) |
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CentOS4 |
CentOS5 |
CentOS6 |
Kernel foundation |
Linux 2.6.9 |
Linux 2.6.18 |
Linux 2.6.32 |
Compiler/toolchain |
GCC 3.4 |
GCC 4.120 |
GCC 4.4 |
Languages supported |
15 |
19 |
22 |
SELinux |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Ext3 Performance Enhancements |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Bluetooth support |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Native POSIX Threading Library (NPTL) |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Hyperthreading scheduler |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
IPv6 support |
n/a |
Ready Logo Phase 221 |
Ready Logo Phase 2 |
Autofs V4 |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Logical Volume Manager (LVM) |
Yes - LVM2 |
Yes - LVM2 |
Yes - LVM2 |
Auditing |
Yes - audit |
Yes - audit |
Yes - audit |
Compatibility libraries (toolchain) |
Yes - CentOS 2 & CentOS 3 |
Yes - CentOS 3 & CentOS 4 |
Yes - CentOS 4 & CentOS 5 |
LSB support |
Yes - 3 |
Yes - 4.0 22 |
Yes - 4.0 |
NFS |
Yes - V3&V4 |
Yes - V3&V4 |
Yes |
Web Server |
httpd 2.0.52 (apache) |
httpd 2.2.3 (apache) |
httpd 2.2.15 (apache) |
Server Message Block (SMB) |
Samba-3.0.x |
Samba-3.0.x (opt. 3.5.x) |
Samba-3.5.x (opt. 4.0.x) |
Database |
MySQL 4.1.x, PostgreSQL 7.4.x |
MySQL 5.0.x, PostgreSQL 8.1.x (opt. 8.4.x with postgresql84) |
MySQL 5.1.x, PostgreSQL 8.4.x |
Programming Languages |
php 4.3.9, python 2.3, perl 5.8.5 |
php 5.1.6 (opt. 5.3.x since C5.6), python 2.4, perl 5.8.8 |
php 5.3.3, python 2.6.6, perl 5.10.1 |
Desktop GUI |
Gnome 2.8, KDE 3.3 |
Gnome 2.16, KDE 3.5 |
Gnome 2.28, KDE 4.3 |
Graphics |
X.org 6.8.2 |
X.org 7.1.1 |
X.org 7.4 |
Office Suite23 |
Openoffice - 1.1.5 (opt. 2.0.4) |
Openoffice - 3.1.1 since C5.8 |
Libreoffice24 3.4.5 starting with C6.3 |
Gnome Evolution |
Yes - 2.0 (opt. 2.8) |
Yes - 2.8.0 |
Yes - 2.28 |
Default browser25 |
Firefox 1.5.x |
Firefox 3.x.x / Firefox 10 / Firefox 17 |
Firefox 3.6.x / Firefox 10 / Firefox 17 |
Multimedia capabilities |
Yes (mp3 with add. repos) |
Yes (mp3 with add. repos) |
Yes (mp3 with add. repos) |
Plug and Play |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Other items (available seperately from CentOS) |
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CentOS4 |
CentOS5 |
CentOS6 |
Cluster Suite |
Yes - 4 |
n/a (now included in base OS) |
n/a (now included in base OS) |
Global File System |
Yes - 6.1 |
n/a (GFS2 now included in base OS) |
n/a (GFS2 now included in base OS) |
This page is created and maintained by ChristophGaluschka. Other Wiki contributors are invited to make corrections, additions, or modifications.
1 CentOS4 has reached end-of-life. It is highly recommended to use CentOS5 or 6.
2 During the Full Updates phase, new hardware support will be provided at the discretion of CentOS via Update Sets. Additionally, all available and qualified errata will be provided via Update Sets (or individually {and immediately} for Security level errata.) Update Sets normally will be released 2-3 times per year, with new ISOs released as part of each Update Set. In the x.y numbering scheme, the .y is the number of the Update Set.
3 During the Maintenance updates phase, only Security errata and select mission critical bug fixes will be released. There will be few, if any, Update Sets released.
4 Only PAE-capable CPUs are supported, see http://wiki.centos.org/FAQ/CentOS6#head-d31388203ee81d3a47cb97bfc1c8206c3de85095
5 Itanium2 only; the original Intel Itanium processor is not supported.
6 Support is expected, development currently in progress.
7 Beta expected for 6.3.
8 Please note that limits for CentOS-4 are for CentOS-4.3 and later. CentOS-4.3 was released in April 2006. CPU counts over 8 (x86_64) or 64 (other architectures) require use of the largesmp kernel.
9 Logical CPUs are equivalent to cores/virtualCPUs, so a dual-core (non-hyperthreading) CPU is counted as 2 logical CPUs and a single hyperthreading CPU is counted as 2 logical CPUs for purposes of calculating total CPUs.
10 The "SMP" kernel supports a maximum of 16GB of main memory. Systems with more than 16GB of main memory use the "Hugemem" kernel. In certain workload scenarios it may be advantageous to use the "Hugemem" kernel on systems with more than 12GB of main memory.
11 The x86 "Hugemem" kernel is not provided in CentOS 5.
12 The x86 "Hugemem" kernel is not provided in CentOS 6.
13 While 1EB is nominally supported under ext4, CentOS' upstream has not backported a needed patch to the ext4 tools permitting manipulating such partitions as of the update at CentOS 6.3. It is possible to use partitions created using third-party distributions' later e4fsprogs tools. General information upstream
14 UEFI and GPT support required for more that 2TB boot LUN support. See this upstream information
15 The x86 "Hugemem" kernel is not provided in CentOS 5.
16 The x86 "Hugemem" kernel is not provided in CentOS 6.
17 The initial 6.0 low end of a nominal 128M minimum is probably overly optimistic, even for a TUI install. Starting with the 6.1 point update of CentOS 6, dependency solving is a massive ram hog
18 bootable p2v- and v2v-ISO-images are provided starting with 6.3, see also http://wiki.centos.org/Manuals/ReleaseNotes/CentOS6.3#head-2e2994dcc0edf71ebb47daa0b808b9d83f91f7b2
19 Recommended for text mode only; graphical modes require 1GB
20 GCC 4.4 is optionally available
21 starting with CentOS 5.3
22 Initially from CentOS 5.0 through 5.5, LSB version was 3.1. Upgraded to LSB 4.0 in CentOS 5.6
23 Suite will be updated during lifecycle
24 Openoffice is discontinued in 6.3
25 Suite will be updated during lifecycle
