Setup your own server with Ubuntu 7.10 server edition

In this article we will guide you through the Ubuntu 7.10 server edition installation process. If you have an old piece of hardware and would like to make it a server or you need a LAMP server where you can host your website you can easily setup the Ubuntu server edition and take advantage of one of the most popular Linux distributions.

You can download the Server edition from http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download. Please make sure that you have selected the correct version and select the correct type of your system from the menus. As soon as you have the Ubuntu image downloaded burn it on a CD and you can begin the installation procedure. Put the Ubuntu 7.10 server CD into your CD-Rom and boot from it.

From the main screen select Install to the hard disk and press Enter. First you will be asked to choose your language. By default it is English and for this article we will use this option. So, select English and press Enter again. Then you will be asked for your location. Depending on the language that you have selected in the previous step a country is selected for you. We will use United States for this tutorial. Press Enter once again when you have your country selected. Next you will be asked if you would like to have your keyboard layout detected by the Ubuntu. It would be a good idea to perform this in order to have your keyboard properly set. Select “Yes” and you will be asked several questions. Based on your answers Ubuntu will suggest a keyboard layout for you. Most probably you will have US keyboard layout. However, you can always go back and manually configure your keyboard.

After the keyboard layout configuration Ubuntu will check your hardware and load some additional components required for the installation process. Please allow Ubuntu some time to complete the process. Then it will try to detect your network automatically. If you have your server connected to a network with DHCP most probably Ubuntu will be able to connect to the network. If you have not set your network to DHCP or you don`t have your server connected to Internet yet you can configure your settings latter.

Let`s say that your server is already connected to a DHCP network. You will be asked for Hostname. For this tutorial we will leave it as it is by default: Ubuntu. Of course we can always change it latter. The next menu that will require your attention is The Partition disks menu. Here you can create your custom partitions where you would like to have your Ubuntu installed. Due to the fact that you are installing the server edition we will suppose that this will be the only operation system on this server, thus, we will simply proceed with the “Guided – Use entire disk” option. Press enter and select your hard disk. You will be informed about the different partitions that will be created such as ext3 and swap — You can select “Yes” and press the Enter button.

The next step is to select your time zone. This can be changed latter, however, it might be a good idea to set it correctly now. Select your time zone and press Enter. Then you will be asked to configure your clock. We will use the UTC for this tutorial.

Due to the fact that it is not recommended to perform basic tasks logged as root the Ubuntu will ask you to create a user. Write down your nickname or real name. After pressing the Enter button you will be asked for the Usernam. Write down your username and press Enter. Enter your password on the new screen that you would like to be set for this user.

As soon as you have the information above filled in the installation will begin. You can grab a cup of coffee and relax as the guys from Microsoft suggest during their Windows Installation process :D.

As soon as the core of the system is installed the software installation menu will be displayed. You are able to install the following collections of software:

1. DNS server
2. LAMP server
3. Mail server
4. OpenSSH server
5. PostgreSQL server
6. Print server
7. Samba server

• Domain Name Service (DNS) is an Internet service that maps IP addresses and fully qualified domain names (FQDN) to one another.
• LAMP is an abbreviation for Linux Apache MySQL PHP
• OpenSSH is a freely available version of the Secure Shell (SSH) protocol family of tools for remotely controlling a computer or transferring files between computers. It provides a server daemon and client tools to facilitate secure, encrypted remote control and file transfer operations, effectively replacing the legacy tools.
• PostgreSQL server – Support for PostgreSQL. It is an object-relational database system that has the features of traditional commercial database systems with enhancements to be found in next-generation DBMS systems.
• Print server – The primary mechanism for Ubuntu printing and print services is the Common UNIX Printing System (CUPS). This printing system is a freely available, portable printing layer which has become the new standard for printing in most Linux distributions.
• Samba server – One of the principle pieces of software your Ubuntu system includes for Windows networking is the SAMBA suite of SMB server applications and tools. It is commonly used for sharing directories with computers with Windows OS.

For this tutorial we will not install the Print server, however, if you need this service you can include it in your list. If you are going to create a web server we highly recommend to include the LAMP package.

On the next menu you will be asked for the root password of the MySQL user. This password can be used with the root user to connect to any mysql database that you create latter. The next menu is the Postfix configuration settings (if you have selected the mail server to be installed). Depending on your needs you can configure your mail server as Internet site or for local use only. Then you will need to enter a name for your mail system.

As soon as the installation process is completed you will be asked to remove the Ubuntu server edition CD from your drive and reboot your system. The system will be restarted and you will be asked for your login details.