When I write Linux Servers I am mostly thinking of Ubuntu Server. This was my choice when I got my hand on an old Dell GX260 Desktop. It’s not the most powerful machine, and it is highly in need of an upgrade. But it does what I need it for: Being a server so that I can learn stuff related to server administration.
Now having written that. Being an administrator of a server that is behind a firewall with two users (wife and me), isn’t really that big of a deal.
That’s why I decided to setup up a Virtual Machine on it. My choice of VM is – at the moment – the VirtualBox 3.1.
But let’s step back a bit. Let’s start talking about the Ubuntu Server (9.10). The Ubuntu Server is a GUI-less server, which mean that you have to administer it through the commando line (cli). There are pros and cons regarding this.
The pros are:
- You have more control.
You know which commands you have to type or which files you need to change in order to achieve what you want. Like for instance setting up a samba server. - It’s more stable
Not having a GUI to run as well, means that the server is super stable. - It does not require much from the hardware
This is also quite important when you have old metal you’re using.
The cons are:
- Things tend to go by trial and error
When you use the commando line and at the same are a noob like me on that area, you tend to spend more time trying and failing. But then again, this is how you learn to play the tools. And when you learn them, you become faster. - Using a GUI is more intuitive
Since I am currently at a client running only Windows servers, there are more GUI-tools to do what you need to do. There are less room for errors and so all you learn is how to start/stop/insert/update the current role (as they are called in the World of Windows). But I like that too. This means that you can’t really break anything (well, you can…). - Sometimes using the commando line is annoying
Setting up/installing Virtualbox is quite easy. Installing different guest OS is more of a hassle. And this is where I wish that GUI-development on Linux (Ubuntu/Gnome) was up to par on the Windows side when it comes to administering Virtualbox. I would very much like to see a GUI! and not just a web administration tool that is not yet up to par.
Things that I miss:
I would very much like to see a GUI on the Ubuntu Linux Server, but I don’t want to see Gnome or KDE. What I would like to see is some light GUI – like the one in Xubuntu (just can’t seem to remember the name), and maybe theme it so that it is either “like” Gnome or KDE.
Søren Hansen wrote a blog last year where he lifted some thoughts on how the Ubuntu Server should be like. I second his thoughts.
As I wrote in his comments, I to would like to see the installation being simpler. As I suggested in my comment: Why not create different setup schemes.
Let’s say you want to set up a VM server. Well, then you choose from a menu and this does all the tricks. It should even check if your hardware is suited for such tasks. Or if you want to run it as a file server (samba), or a web server (LAMP-stack/LAMR-stack or any other stack).
Ok. So back to installing the Ubuntu Server. I followed some other peoples suggestions when I installed the server. I believe I did install it twice since i made a mistake here and there.
When it came to choice of Virtual Machine software I did browse and watch a few tutorial videos.
Xen seems very exiting, but I didn’t go for that – this time. Reason was that the installation locked the VM closely to the host OS. Which is OK I guess. This means that the vendor has secured it self from some incompatibility problems related to other Linux Versions.
Then I looked at VMWare Server. As I didn’t want to spend money – this time around – the Workstation option was out of the question (maybe in the future). I have tried VMWare Server earlier and liked it. But since I am on the ‘I want to learn something new’-trail, I decided to go for Suns VirtualBox. And it seems OK.
It does what you expect from such a software.
What I don’t like is that there is a lack of GUI software for it. I don’t know if I can install a VirtualBox GUI administration tool on my laptop and control the host/guest on the server. If I can, great. If I can’t, well, then I have officially suggested a feature for the VirtualBox Team at Sun (soon Oracle?).
The VB community does provide a web administration tool written in Python, but this one is far from ready. You can create new VMs and start/stop, but that’s also it. No snapshop options or such things. Hopefully this tool will have a steep development curve in 2010.
In my VM I am running a Windows 2003 server (standard). Again just to learn. But I must say that is quite different to work on a GUI server than on a CLI-server. The W2K3-server doesn’t do much yet, but I hope that I can put it to some sort of use. I’m also going to install a W2K8-server on the machine, but the lack of disk space and RAM is halting this process. Hopefully in the near future the machine will be running a 500gb disk (ide!) and 2gb ram.
Well. I think I stop there. Please do suggest things that I can do to learn more on having a server. I might set up a domain at home – but I’m not sure as this house only has two computers in full use and some others just as guests. Having a domain for two computers seems a bit over the top… but then again, why not!
