Linux Ubuntu 16 Server Installation

<- Install

Prerequisites

• You have downloaded the install ISO from ubuntu.com.
• You have determined the core system configuration items:
  • Hostname and FQDNS
  • IP\Netmask\Gateway or DHCP
  • Name Servers (AKA DNS Servers)
• You have allocated the minimum resources or better for enterprise environment:
  • CPUs\Cores (2)
  • RAM: 2gb
  • Disk Space: 50gb
  • Interface (1gb)

Installation Cheat Sheet

 Select Language: English
 Select Install Ubuntu Server

Language & Keyboard

 Select a language: English
 Select your location: United States
 Detect Keyboard: No
 Configure Keyboard: English (US)
 Configure Keyboard layout: English (US)

Network

 Select the Primary network interface:
 eth0: Intel Corporation 8254OEM Gigabit Ethernet Controller
 eth1: Intel Corporation 8254OEM Gigabit Ethernet Controller

 If not using DHCP (or it is not detected) select: Configure network manually:
 - IP Address:          192.168.56.71
 - Netmask:             255.255.255.0
 - Gateway:             192.168.0.1
 - Name Server Address: <Space Separated DNS Server IPs [3 Max]>

 Enter Hostname: ubuntu1
 Domain name:    mycompany.local

User Account

 Full name for user:          lnxuser
   Username for your account: lnxuser
   Password:                  ********

 Encrypt Home Directory: No
 Process runs...

 Select\confirm your time zone: Eastern or America/New_York

Disks

 Partition Disks: [Guided - use entire disk and set up LVM]
 Select disk partition: SCSI3 (0,0,0) (sda) - nnnn GB ATA VBOX HARDISK
   Write the changes to disk and configure LVM? Yes
 Amount of volume group to use for guided partitioning (use all available): Continue
   Write the changes to disk? Yes
   Process runs...

Misc

 Enter http proxy info if needed (leave blank): Continue
 Process runs...

 How do you want to manage upgrades on this system? [No automatic updates]

 Software selection: (Arrow to move - space bar to select), then: Continue
   The default is fine with just [*] standard system utilities selected.
   Process runs...

 Install the GRUB boot loader on a hard disk: Yes

 Finish the installation: Continue
 System reboots...

Post Install Tasks

Updating

 sudo chmod 666 /etc/apt/sources.list
 sudo apt-get update
 sudo apt-get upgrade
 sudo -i shutdown -r now

lubuntu-desktop

Installs GUI Desktop Lite

 sudo tasksel install lubuntu-desktop
 sudo -i shutdown -r now

Full Ubuntu 14 Desktop install requires access to FaceBook! The above lite version does not.

openssh-server

This enables putty access.

 sudo apt-get install openssh-server

timesyncd & NTP

Ubuntu’s default install now uses timesyncd instead of ntpd. timesyncd connects to the same time servers and works in roughly the same way, but is more lightweight and more integrated with systemd and the low level workings of Ubuntu.

Controlling timesyncd with timedatectl

 timedatectl
 ...
 Network time on: yes
 NTP synchronized: yes

 If timesyncd isn’t enabled, turn it on with timedatectl:
 sudo timedatectl set-ntp on

Switching to ntpd
Though timesyncd is fine for most purposes, some applications that are very sensitive to even the slightest perturbations in time may be better served by ntpd, as it uses more sophisticated techniques to constantly and gradually keep the system time on track.

Before installing ntpd, we should turn off timesyncd:

 sudo timedatectl set-ntp no

Verify that timesyncd is off:

  timedatectl

Look for Network time on: no in the output. This means timesyncd has been stopped.

We can now install the ntp package with apt-get:

 sudo apt-get install ntp

ntpd will be started automatically after install.

You can query ntpd for status information to verify that everything is working:

 sudo ntpq -p

To Use Your Local NTP Server

 1. sudo vi /etc/ntp.conf
 2. Comment out pool 0-n entries.
 3. Add entry to your ntp server as so:
    pool 10.2.0.10 iburst
 4. Enable & Test
    sudo systemctl restart ntp
    sudo systemctl status ntp
    sudo ntpq -p

timesyncd Reference

Virtual Box (if used)

Install perl

   sudo apt-get install perl
   sudo apt-get install build-essential gcc make perl dkms

Install Guest Additions

 VM Menu: Devices -> Optical Drives -> Install Guest Additions 

 mkdir -p /media/cdrom
 sudo mount /dev/sr0 /media/cdrom
 sudo sh /media/cdrom/VBoxLinuxAdditions.run
 Process runs...

 sudo -i shutdown -r now

Notes

GUI Apps (running from putty)

 cd /usr/share/applications
 pcmanfm -> System Settings -> Network

Open a Terminal

 Ctrl - Alt - T

Reboot\Shutdown

 sudo -i shutdown -r now 🠈 reboots
 sudo -i shutdown -h now 🠈 halts

root Password, Setting

 sudo passwd root