Preface

Welcome to Ubuntu Server Cookbook, a step-by-step guide to your own Ubuntu server.

Ubuntu is an open source operating system, or rather, I should say that Ubuntu is a mission to provide quality software to everybody without any cost. As mentioned on the official site, the meaning of the word Ubuntu is I am, cause we are and Ubuntu is working hard towards their mission by being more than just a free operating system.

Ubuntu is based on Debian, a well-established Linux distribution. However, Debian is kind of limited to geeks. Ubuntu added an easy user interface named Unity that made it popular with various desktop users. One answer on Ask Ubuntu compares Ubuntu and Debian to a local restaurant and a farmer, respectively. Ubuntu carefully selects the best things from Debian and adds its own flavors to make it easy and more enjoyable for the end users. It's still Debian at base, but it more easier to use and more stable with frequent updates and a definite release cycle.

Users can choose an Ubuntu operating system from nine different flavors, starting with lightweight desktop to a fully loaded multimedia editing system. In addition to desktop systems, Ubuntu provides separate editions for various server platforms, cloud systems, mobile devices, and tablets. The new versions are released every six months with a major release in April and updates in October. All security updates are released throughout the year, as and when necessary. Every new version released in an even year (2014, 2016, and so on) are tagged for Long Term Support (LTS). These versions receive extended support period of five years and are generally used in production environments.

At the time of writing, Ubuntu has already taken a major share in the server market and has already become a default choice of millions of cloud users. According to an article by Dustin Kirkland, a member of the product team at Canonical, "November 2015 has seen over 2 million cloud instances being launched with Ubuntu Server. That's nearly one instance per second" and these are just the numbers from cloud services. Ubuntu is being used in Desktop systems, laptops, mobiles, routers, and even to control your cars, drones, and countless Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Docker hub, a popular container repository reports more than 40 million pulls of official Ubuntu image.

The purpose of this book is to provide step-by-step solutions using the Ubuntu server. We will focus on common, server-related tasks such as user management, installing various packages for web servers, database, some low hanging fruits in performance and security, and many more. The book also covers the latest development in the container world with LXD and Docker. All recipes are based on the Ubuntu server, Xenial Xerus (version 16.04), the latest LTS release of Ubuntu.