I (after some trial and error) managed to get a demo bokeh server (as part of a web server) up and running on a CentOS 7 VM in VirtualBox.
The set up goes from fresh CentOS install to a fully working LNMP stack serving bokeh as well as other web applications.
I wrote up some instructions - popher.github.io/CentOS-VM-Bokeh.md at master · popher/popher.github.io · GitHub - though they are rough, and theres a few things which I know aren’t done properly. However it works.
May be of interest to others who are struggling like I did.