Book Image

Mastering Ubuntu Server - Second Edition

By : Jay LaCroix
Book Image

Mastering Ubuntu Server - Second Edition

By: Jay LaCroix

Overview of this book

Ubuntu Server has taken the data centers by storm. Whether you're deploying Ubuntu for a large-scale project or for a small office, it is a stable, customizable, and powerful Linux distribution that leads the way with innovative and cutting-edge features. For both simple and complex server deployments, Ubuntu's flexible nature can be easily adapted to meet to the needs of your organization. With this book as your guide, you will learn all about Ubuntu Server, from initial deployment to creating production-ready resources for your network. The book begins with the concept of user management, group management, and filesystem permissions. Continuing into managing storage volumes, you will learn how to format storage devices, utilize logical volume management, and monitor disk usage. Later, you will learn how to virtualize hosts and applications, which will cover setting up KVM/QEMU, as well as containerization with both Docker and LXD. As the book continues, you will learn how to automate configuration with Ansible, as well as take a look at writing scripts. Lastly, you will explore best practices and troubleshooting techniques when working with Ubuntu Server that are applicable to real-world scenarios. By the end of the book, you will be an expert Ubuntu Server administrator who is well-versed in its advanced concepts.
Table of Contents (21 chapters)

Automatically installing patches with the Canonical Livepatch service

Since the publication of the first edition of this book, Canonical has released a new Livepatch service for Ubuntu, which allows it to receive updates and have them applied without rebooting. This is a game changer, as it takes care of keeping your running systems patched, without you having to do anything, not even reboot. This is a massive benefit to security as it gives you the benefits of the latest security patches without the inconvenience of scheduling a restart of your servers right away.

However, the service is not free or included with Ubuntu by default. You can, however, install the Livepatch service on three of your servers without paying, so it's still something you may want to consider. In my case, I simply have this applied to the three most critical servers under my jurisdiction, and the...