Your guide for creating and running a server with the Ubuntu OS
In Unix/Linux the root account is the account which has absolute control over everything, a more detailed description of it can be found at wikipedia. By default you can access root priviledges by prefixing the command you wish to execute with “sudo“. This will allow you to perform the command you wish by then entering the password for the account you setup when installing Ubuntu. A problem with this is that it uses the same password as your user account, therefore potentially decreasing the level of security. An alternative to the “sudo” command is “su“, although you cannot use this command by default. To overcome this you need to change the root user’s password by using the following command:
sudo passwd root
This will then prompt for you to enter the password which you wish to use, although nothing appears on the screen please remember that it is still being inputted. Below is a screeenshot of what will appear on screen.
Activating the root account now gives you three options for performing “root”/administrative tasks.
Now that you have the ability to root access in the server, you are able to have much more control and are able to install and modify software & settings.
When you login you will see a lot of text appear, basically explaining where you can find things, and that there is no gaurantee. Below is an annotated explanation of what everything is.
From there you can see whats happened, and what everything means, so it’s no longer meaningless jargon.
The first thing that you will need to do is install the Operating System. This tutorial will guide you through all the steps necessary to have a working install of Ubuntu, all posts made further to this will be demonstrated on a computer using the setup process shown below.This example will be performed using the latest available version of Ubuntu Server at the time of writing, 6.10, although should apply for most previous versions.
This will be installed on a “Virtual Machine” using VMware, with the following specifications:
Although installation will be the same on real hardware, installing it on a virtual computer makes it easier to create screenshot’s.
You will need to start by downloading an ISO from http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download. Select Ubuntu 6.10 from under the Server Edition header, then below choose the architecture which you want it for, and finally choose a mirror to download it from. The total size of the CD image is approximately 500Mb. Once downloaded you will need to burn the ISO image to a CD using software such as CDBurnerXP from http://cdburnerxp.se/. Then insert the disc you have just created into the computer you wish to install Ubuntu Server onto (It would be a good idea to label it first, just so you don’t loose it). Since Ubuntu is open source the disc can be used for every computer you wish to install onto, and since it is free there are no Serial Numbers, or annoying product activation steps to go through. When you start up the computer it may or may not boot from the CD, if it does then a boot screen will appear (Figure 1 - below), if not then you will need to configure the computer’s BIOS to boot from the CD, refer to your motherboard’s manual for instructions on how to do this.
1) The first thing that you will see is a boot options menu, giving you a variety of tasks to choose from
Ubuntu Server 6.06 offers an additional option to this, to install a LAMP server. You should ignore this, unless you specifically want this option.
2) You should select the default option, “Install to the hard disk” by pressing the Enter key, checking the CD for defects should not be necessary, as it is unlikely that the disk you are using will be damaged.
3) Your computer will then bring an option menu, as displayed below (Figure 2), from here you should select the language you wish to use. Prior to this your screen may go blank for a few seconds, or display some messages on the screen, you can ignore these since it is just the computer working in the background.
4) You will now need to enter your location into the computer (Figure 3), selecting your language above will have narrowed down the choices.
5) You will then need to setup your keyboard layout, the following screen will appear (Figure 4), asking your whether you want to “Detect Keyboard Layout?”, select yes and then follow the on screen instructions.
6) The computer will then go some steps to automatically configure itself.
7) The next step is to configure the network setup, you will need to enter a Hostname (Figure 7). This should be unique to every other computer on your network, and is what your computer will be identified as.
8) The next step is to setup the Hard Drive partitions, before this Ubuntu will detect any hard drives and additional hardware, which will appear on the screen for a few second’s. The Install CD has a built in partitioner which will give you 2 default options (Figure 8), along with the ability to manually edit the partition sizes. In this example I will use the first option, “Erase entire disk” (Figure 8), as this will automatically setup the disks in the best setup, a main partition for storage, and a “swap” partition which will act like virtual memory.
9) The next step is an important one, it will confirm the arrangement of the partitions and erase the entire disk. Read this carefully (Figure 9), after confirmation all data on your hard drive will be deleted, it will not be impossible to get back, but it would be difficult. So at this point make sure that all of your data is backed up to a safe place.
10) The computer will now format the hard drive(s) and setup the partitions, no user input should be required at this step so you can sit back (don’t go away though, it doesn’t take long).
11) Now you are getting to the important stages, the main configuration, firstly you will need to setup your system clock, read the instructions on the screen and answer accordingly, I’d recommend selecting yes.
12) You will now need to setup your own user account, which you will use to login with. The computer will ask you to enter your name(Not your username)(Figure 12), your username (Figure 13), your password (Figure 14), and finally to confirm your password by repeating it (Figure 15). Please read all of these steps carefully, and remember your username and password, you won’t get very far without it.
13) Now the computer will install the base system (Figure 16), this stage shouldn’t take too long either (you can have a break in a minute).
14) This is the last time you will need to be at your computer for a short time, you will be asked if you wish to choose to install any software automatically, by selecting a role for your server. I would reccomend you choose none, as that way you will have more control over what packages you have running, and I’ll explain how to setup most software for the specific roles in later tutorials.
15) That’s it, at last you can have a break (it wasn’t that long was it?). Go have a drink, get something to eat. Just Don’t turn off the computer else thats all your work gone, kaboom, time to start over again. You should have a screen looking something like this (Figure 18). This part is the longest, but still shouldn’t take any longer than 10-15 minutes.
16) You’ll now have a nice message telling you that everything is done, and asking you to remove any media from the drives. Do as it says else you may find yourself starting all over again (Figure 19).
17) That’s it, you’re finished now, and will be able to login using the credentials you entered earlier. At the moment there won’t really be much for you to do, other than to play around with some standard Linux Command’s.
So, there you go, a nice clean Ubuntu Server install. There’ll be more tutorials coming up, so that your server can have a role rather than just sitting there looking good.
Thanks for reading, and check back soon for more tutorials.
