1. Enable Automatic Software Updates
One of the most important things to keep your relay secure is to install security updates timely and ideally automatically so you can not forget about it.
Follow the instructions to enable automatic software updates for your operating system.
2. Install epel-release
To install tor
package on CentOS/RHEL, you need to install the EPEL repository first:
# yum install epel-release
Recent versions of CentOS/RHEL are using dnf
instead of yum
:
# dnf install epel-release
If you are on a recent version that uses dnf
, please keep using it for the following steps where yum
is called on this setup guide.
3. Configure Tor Project's Repository
Configuring the Tor Project's Repository for CentOS/RHEL consists basically on setting up /etc/yum.repos.d/Tor.repo
with the following content:
[tor]
name=Tor for Enterprise Linux $releasever - $basearch
baseurl=https://rpm.torproject.org/centos/$releasever/$basearch
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=https://rpm.torproject.org/centos/public_gpg.key
cost=100
More information about it can be found here.
4. Package installation
Once you are set with EPEL and the Tor repositories, you are now able to install the package:
# yum install tor
Please note that when you are installing the first package from the EPEL repository you will be asked about verifying the EPEL's GPG signing key. Please ensure the key matches with the one available on the Fedora Project website. This will also happens when installing packages from Tor's repository for the first time - again you must ensure the key matches.
5. Configuration file
Put the configuration file /etc/tor/torrc
in place:
Nickname myNiceRelay # Change "myNiceRelay" to something you like
ContactInfo your@e-mail # Write your e-mail and be aware it will be published
ORPort 443 # You might use a different port, should you want to
ExitRelay 0
SocksPort 0
6. Enable and Start tor
Recent versions os CentOS/RHEL which ship with systemd:
# systemctl enable --now tor
Should you use an older release like CentOS/RHEL 6, that will be:
# service tor enable
# service tor start
7. Final Notes
If you are having trouble setting up your relay, have a look at our help section.
If your relay is now running, check out the post-install notes.