Chapter 1, Deploying Ubuntu Server, covers the installation process for Ubuntu Server. This chapter will walk you through creating bootable media on various operating systems, planning the partition layout, and going through the installation process. Installation on the Raspberry Pi is also covered.

Chapter 2, Managing Users, covers user management in full. Topics here include creating and removing users, password policies, the sudo command, group management, and switching from one user to another.

Chapter 3, Managing Storage Volumes, takes a look at storage volumes. You'll be shown how to view disk usage, format volumes, manage the /etc/fstab file, utilize LVM, and more. In addition, we'll look at managing swap and creating links.

Chapter 4, Connecting to Networks, takes a look at networking in Ubuntu, specifically how to connect to resources from other nodes. We'll look at assigning IP addresses, connecting to other nodes via OpenSSH, using Network Manager, and name resolution.

Chapter 5, Managing Software Packages, takes you through the process of searching for, installing, and managing packages. This will include a look at managing apt repositories, installing packages, and keeping your server up to date. This will even include a look at Snappy packages, which is a promising new package format for Ubuntu systems.

Chapter 6, Controlling and Monitoring Processes, teaches you how to understand what is running on the server, as well as how to stop misbehaving processes. This will include a look at htop, systemd, managing jobs, and understanding load average.

Chapter 7, Managing Your Ubuntu Server Network, revisits networking with more advanced concepts. In this chapter, you will learn more about the technologies that glue your network together, such as DHCP and DNS. In this chapter, you will set up your own DHCP and DNS server and install NTP.

Chapter 8, Accessing and Sharing Files, is all about sharing files with others. Concepts will include the setting up of Samba and NFS network shares and will even go over transferring files manually with rsync and scp.

Chapter 9, Managing Databases, takes you on a journey through setting up and managing databases via MariaDB. You will learn to install MariaDB, set up databases, and create a slave database server.

Chapter 10, Serving Web Content, takes a look at serving content with Apache. In addition, you will be shown how to secure Apache with an SSL certificate, manage modules, and set up keepalived. Setting up OwnCloud is also covered.

Chapter 11, Virtualizing Hosts and Applications, is all about virtualization. You will be walked through setting up your very own KVM installation, as well as utilizing Docker for containing individual applications.

Chapter 12, Securing Your Server, takes a look at various things you can do in order to strengthen security on Ubuntu servers. Topics will include concepts such as lowering the attack surface, securing OpenSSH, and setting up a firewall, among others.

Chapter 13, Troubleshooting Ubuntu Servers, consists of topics relating to things we can do when our deployments don't go exactly according to plan. You will also investigate the problem space, view system logs, and trace network issues.

Chapter 14, Preventing and Recovering from Disasters, informs you of various strategies that can be used to prevent and recover from disasters. This will include a look at utilizing Git for configuration management, implementing a backup plan, creating hard disk images with Clonezilla, and more.

This book covers Ubuntu Server in depth, and in order to follow along, you'll need to download Ubuntu Server 16.04 and have a machine or two to practice on. It really doesn't matter if you use virtual or physical machines, as the nature of the machine is irrelevant so long as it can run Ubuntu. Virtual machines have the added benefit of snapshots, which you can use to test and roll back modifications to the server.

In the case of virtual machines, it's recommended to use bridged mode for networking so that each VM can see each other easily over the network. It's a good idea to use multiple machines if you can, since several chapters will include networking concepts, such as connecting to other hosts via SSH, setting up a website, and accessing databases.

You'll need to create bootable media in order to install Ubuntu Server. On physical servers, this will require either a blank CD or empty flash drive. In the first chapter, the installation process will be covered and will include a walkthrough on creating bootable media. Ubuntu Server is available online at http://www.ubuntu.com/server.

Since Ubuntu Server doesn't include a graphical user interface by default, it can run on relatively modest hardware. As long as you have 512 MB of RAM and 8 GB of hard disk space available, you should be in good shape. Raspberry Pi users will need an available SD card, preferably 8 GB or larger. Raspberry Pi models 2 and 3 are supported by Ubuntu Server.

This book is for readers who already have some experience with Linux, though it doesn't necessarily have to be with Ubuntu. Preferably, you have basic Linux command line skills, such as changing directories, listing contents, and issuing commands as regular users or with root. Even if you don't have these skills, you should read this book—the opening chapters will cover many of these concepts.

In this book, we'll take a look at real-world situations in which we can deploy Ubuntu Server. This will include the installation process, serving web pages, setting up databases, and much more. Specifically, the goal here is to be productive. Each chapter will teach you a new and valuable concept, using practical examples that are relative to real organizations. Basically, we focus on getting things done, not primarily on theory. Although the theory that goes into Linux and its many distributions is certainly interesting, the goal here is to get you to the point where if a work colleague or client asks you to perform work on an Ubuntu-based server, you'll be in a good position to get the task done. Therefore, if your goal is to get up and running with Ubuntu Server and learn the concepts that really matter, this book is definitely for you.

In this book, you will find a number of text styles that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles and an explanation of their meaning.

Code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles are shown as follows: "MySQL and MariaDB create their log files in the /var/log/mysql directory."

A block of code is set as follows:

subnet 192.168.1.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
       range 192.168.1.100 192.168.1.240; 
       option routers 192.168.1.1; 
       option domain-name-servers 192.168.1.1;

When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items are set in bold:

[Documents]  
        path = /share/documents
        force user = myuser
        force group = users
        public = yes
        writable = no

New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, for example, in menus or dialog boxes, appear in the text like this: "Clicking the Next button moves you to the next screen."

Any command line input or output is written as follows:

dpkg --get-selections > installed_packages.txt

Some commands need to be executed as the root user or with sudo. I'll mark these commands with the hash symbol (#) such as in the following example:

# apt-get install openssh-server

If you don't see a hash symbol preceding a command, then sudo or root privileges aren't necessary for you to run it. But if you do see this symbol, take note that you'll need root privileges. I won't always remind you of this beforehand. In most cases, it usually doesn't matter if you use sudo or switch to the root user, I'll leave that up to you. But if it does matter in a particular example, I will let you know.

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