CentOS 9 image

This is a minimal ready to use ProComputers packaged CentOS 9 image, mainly used as a common base system on top of which other appliances could be built and tested. It contains just enough packages to run within Azure, bring up an SSH Server and allow users to login.

CentOS 9 – Rolling-Release, Stable, and RHEL-adjacent Linux for Cloud Workloads

CentOS 9 is a continuously delivered Linux distribution that sits between Fedora and RHEL, offering a preview of the next minor release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). It is a stable, open-source, and community-driven distribution ideal for development, testing, and modern cloud-native applications. Backed by the CentOS community and maintained by Red Hat Inc., CentOS 9 serves as the upstream for RHEL 9 and provides early access to features and updates.

This CentOS 9 image is fully optimized for Microsoft Azure, supporting cloud-init for provisioning, fast boot times, and secure-by-default configurations for enterprise deployments.

Key Features of CentOS 9

• Rolling-release model delivering updates slightly ahead of RHEL 9.
• Cloud-init enabled for seamless provisioning in Azure.
• Quick boot times and optimized defaults for Azure VMs.
• Secure by default: SELinux in enforcing mode, SSH hardened, minimal package footprint.
• Supports accelerated networking for low-latency, high-throughput applications.

Benefits of Using CentOS 9

• Ideal for developing and validating workloads targeting RHEL 9.
• Maintained by Red Hat with strong upstream alignment to RHEL.
• Stability suitable for dev/test and pre-production environments.
• Lightweight and efficient image for CI/CD, DevOps, and cloud-native workloads.

Use Cases for CentOS 9

• Build and test applications with visibility into upcoming RHEL 9 changes.
• Host scalable web apps using Nginx, Apache, PHP, or Python.
• Run containerized workloads using Podman and systemd integration.
• Launch CI/CD pipelines using Jenkins, Ansible, GitLab CI, or Terraform.
• Deploy relational and NoSQL databases like PostgreSQL, MariaDB, or MongoDB.
• Power LAMP/LEMP stacks or custom backend services in the Azure cloud.

Conclusion

This CentOS 9 Azure image offers a future-facing, stable environment for developers, system integrators, and IT operations teams. Whether you're building cutting-edge applications, testing RHEL-compatible workloads, or automating infrastructure, CentOS 9 provides the flexibility and insight into RHEL's direction—delivered with enterprise-grade performance and security optimizations for Azure.

Other minimal ready-to-use images:

If this CentOS 9 image does not suit your needs, please choose another one from our popular image list below:

• Oracle Linux 8 image on Azure
• Oracle Linux 9 image on Azure
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8 image on Azure
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 9 image on Azure
• AlmaLinux 8 image on Azure
• AlmaLinux 9 image on Azure
• Rocky Linux 8 image on Azure
• Rocky Linux 9 image on Azure
• CentOS Stream 9 image on Azure

Why choose ProComputers?

With over 10 years of experience working with Microsoft Azure, ProComputers provides open-source software bundled together into solutions ready to be launched on-demand in the cloud.

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