Introduction

The operating system (OS) is a special kind of software that controls your server’s hardware and provides various services to the applications/software running on it. When you install an OS, you need to make some important decisions that will affect how well your computer runs and how you manage your files.

• Choosing the Drive: Choose the drive wisely for the OS. It's better to use the smallest drive available. If all are equal, select the first drive from the list.

• Partitioning: Decide whether to use the entire drive for the OS or divide it into smaller sections called partitions. Partitions help you manage space efficiently by not using the whole disk for the operating system. You can divide the drive into required sizes for different purposes.

• File System: Decide how your data will be organized on the drive. This is called the file system. Different operating systems use different file systems (e.g., Windows uses NTFS, Linux often uses ext4/Xfs). The file system helps the OS track where your files are stored.

Hardware

The following server/system configurations are for demonstration purposes only:

After the operating system installation, the final drive partition arrangement will appear similar to the arrangement given below:

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We have used the system's/server's IPMI console interface for the OS installation. Your server's IPMI might look different due to the different manufacturers, but they all provide similar functionality.

Accessing the IPMI Console and Booting the Server from a Downloaded DVD Image (ISO image)

1. Open your web browser, enter the IP address or hostname of the server’s IPMI, and log in to the server's IPMI using your credentials.

    

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2. Load the DVD/ISO image into the virtual drive using the 'Remote Control' option from the left side menu of the IPMI dashboard.

    

    

3. Click 'Launch Console' to launch the IPMI remote console.

    

    

   A similar warning message may appear regarding the certificate. If so, click Continue, then Run.

    

    

    

5. Now, you will see the console screen. Click Virtual Media → Virtual Storage to load the DVD ISO image.
   
   

    

6. Select the logical drive type as 'ISO image'. Click Open Image to provide the path to the DVD ISO image.

    

    

7. From the file explorer browse, select the downloaded ISO file and click Open.
   
   

    

8. After selecting the DVD ISO image, click OK.

    

    

9. Once the DVD ISO image is loaded into the virtual drive, the next step is to select the boot medium in the BIOS menu. Choose the virtual drive as the boot device. This ensures that when the server starts, it will boot from the DVD ISO image.

    

    

10. In the BIOS menu, change the boot order or priorities. Ensure that the Virtual Media is set as the first choice by moving the Virtual CDROM option to the top of the list. Upon rebooting, the system will quickly pick the virtual CDROM as the booting device.
    
    

     

11. After selecting the booting device, save the BIOS changes and reboot the system.

     

Installing the Operating System from ISO image

After rebooting, the server screen will appear as shown below. This is the OS menu; select the Ubuntu Server with the HE kernel and press the Enter key. Follow the steps for the complete installation.

Refer to the following steps for installation:

1. Please wait while the system prepares for installation and checks the hardware.

    

    

2. Select your preferred language. In this example, we are using English.

    

    

3. Choose the keyboard layout and variant according to your preferred language. After making your selection, press 'Done'. Use the up-down arrows or, in some cases, the 'Tab' key for selection, and then press 'Enter.

    

    

4. Choose the installation type as Ubuntu Server and then choose Done.

    

    

5. Select a network interface or network card for configuration. The operating system will use this interface to communicate. The default configuration is set to DHCP, but you can change it to a static IP address by configuring it manually. Once selected, press ‘Done’. If you wish to use network bonding, you can do so by selecting the 'active-backup' option.

    

    

6. Ignore this step. We do not use a proxy. Select 'Done' and move to the next step.

    

    

7. The archive mirror is a server on the internet that hosts the Ubuntu OS, software packages, and updates. The default address of the mirror server is provided below. Leave it as it is, select 'Done', and move to the next step.

    

Storage Configuration

Choose a disk to create logical partitions for installing the operating system and other purposes. We need to select the drive carefully to avoid wasting space. Typically, the OS does not take much space - 300 to 500 GB is sufficient. Other partitions may require a few hundred GBs, so it's recommended to select the smallest or most adequate-sized disk. By default, the Ubuntu installer chooses the largest disk, but we do not need that. If all disks are of the same size, choose the first disk. We are going to create 5 logical partitions: 4 from the first disk and 1 from the second disk.

1. Press the down key, and a drive list will appear. Choose a disk with a size between 500 GB and 1 TB. This is required to create 4 logical disk partitions. The first 3 partitions will be automatically created by the installer (/, /boot, /boot/efi), and the fourth one (/var) we will create manually in the same volume group.
   
   

    

2. Select a drive with the required size (between 500 GB to 1TB) and select ‘Done’; 3 partitions will be created.

    

    

3. Three partitions have been created: /, /boot, and /boot/efi. The / partition is very small, so let's increase its size to 300 GB.

    

    

4. To change the size of the / partition, go down to the menu. Under 'DEVICE', select “new, to be formatted as ext4, mounted at /” and then Edit. Use the right arrow key to navigate to 'Edit' and press 'Enter'.

    

    

5. A volume resize screen will appear. Change the size from 100 GB to 300 GB and select Save.
   
   

    

6. Now, create the 4th partition /var from the remaining space on the drive (ubuntu-vg). We will not use the complete remaining space for the /var volume; leave some space for future growth in case we need to expand the / or /var volume. To create the new volume, select and create Logical volume from free space under 'DEVICE' and ubuntu-vg (new).
   
   

    

7. To create the 4th partition, enter the volume size, select the format type as ext4, set the mount point/type to /var, and then select 'Done'.
   
   

    

8. Now, create the 5th partition using another disk. Swarm Containers will use this partition. The partition needs to be quite large. Before creating the logical partition, Create the volume group vg0. To create the volume group, go down and select Create volume group.
   
   

9. A pop-up window will appear. Assign a name to the volume group (VG), such as "vg0", select a sufficiently large disk to create the volume group, then go to the Create button and press Enter.
   
   

10. Now, a new volume group, "vg0", has been created which displays the available free space to create a logical partition.
    
    

     

11. Let's create the 5th logical partition using the entire available free space.
    
    

     

12. A pop-up window will appear. Select xfs from the Format menu option and /var/lib from the Mount menu option. This will dedicate all the available free space to "/var/lib," where the containers reside. Enter the maximum size displayed on the screen.
    
    

     

13. A warning appears stating that the disk will be formatted for OS installation. Click Continue to proceed.
    
    

User Creation

Please provide the following information to set up a user profile and select Done.

• Name - Name of the user

• Server name - Specify the server name (hostname)

• Username - Choose a unique username for logging into the system

• Password - Create a strong password to enhance security

Final Package Selection and Installation

1. Select the Enable Ubuntu Pro to ensure that your system stays up-to-date and secure.

2. Select the "Continue" to proceed.

    

    

3. Select Install OpenSSH Server, set “Import SSH Identity” to No, and select Done to proceed.

    

    

4. If the following screen appears during installation, ignore it and select Done to proceed.

5. Sit back and relax while the operating system is being installed.
   
   

    

6. After a successful installation, the system will attempt to eject the virtual CD-ROM. If it fails, you can safely ignore it.
   
   

    

7. Reboot the server using the IPMI console. Within a few minutes, the server will reboot completely and the login screen will display. You can now log in to the system and start using it.