Chapter 1: Installing a Linux Server In This Chapter ✓ Getting ready to install Linux ✓ Installing Linux ✓ Adding additional packages after installation his chapter presents the procedures that you need to follow to install TLinux on a server computer. The details provided are specifically for Fedora 17, a free Linux distribution sponsored by Red Hat. However, the procedures for installing other distributions of Linux are similar, so you won’t have any trouble adapting these procedures if you’re using a different distribution. Planning a Linux Server Installation Before you begin the installation program, you need to make a number of preliminary decisions. The following sections describe the decisions that you need to make before you install Linux. Checking system requirements Before you install Linux, make sure that the computer meets the minimum requirements. Although the minimum requirements for Linux are consider- ably less than those for the latest version of Windows Server, you can’t run Linux on an abacus. The following paragraphs summarize the minimum capabilitiesCOPYRIGHTED you need: MATERIAL ✦ A Pentium-based computer: Even an ancient and slow Pentium 3 system will run some builds of Linux although performance will be slow. The minimum recommended for Fedora 17 is a Pentium 4. ✦ 768MB of RAM or more: Of course, the more the better, but Linux can make do with much less RAM than Windows. ✦ A hard drive with enough free space to hold the packages that you need to install: A suitable minimum is 10GB. ✦ A DVD-ROM drive from which to install the operating system 664_9781118380987-bk09ch01.indd4_9781118380987-bk09ch01.indd 679679 110/29/120/29/12 110:320:32 PPMM 680 Planning a Linux Server Installation ✦ Just about any video card and monitor combination: You don’t need anything fancy for a server. In fact, fancy video cards often lead to hard- ware compatibility issues. Stick to a basic video card. ✦ An extra mouse: If you’re converting an old junker computer to a Linux server and you’ve lost the mouse (that seems to happen a lot), pick one up at your local office supply store. A cheap one costs only about $15. ✦ A network interface card (NIC) Choosing a distribution Because the kernel (that is, the core operating functions) of the Linux oper- ating system is free, several companies have created their own distributions of Linux, which include the Linux OS along with a bundle of packages, such as administration tools, web servers, and other useful utilities, as well as printed documentation. The following are some of the more popular Linux distributions: ✦ Fedora: One of the popular Linux distributions. You can download Fedora free from http://fedoraproject.org. You can also obtain it by purchasing any of several books on Fedora that include the Fedora distribution on DVD or CD-ROM. All the examples in this book are based on Fedora 17. ✦ Mandriva Linux: Another popular Linux distribution, one that is often recommended as the easiest for first-time Linux users to install. This distribution was formerly known as Mandrake Linux. Go to www. mandriva.com for more information. ✦ Ubuntu: A Linux distribution that has gained popularity in recent years. It focuses on ease of use. For more information, go to www.ubuntu.com. ✦ SUSE: Pronounced SOO-zuh, like the name of the famous composer of marches; a popular Linux distribution sponsored by Novell. You can find more information at www.suse.com. ✦ Slackware: One of the oldest Linux distributions and still popular, espe- cially among Linux old-timers. A full installation of Slackware gives you all the tools that you need to set up a network or Internet server. See www.slackware.com for more information. All distributions of Linux include the same core components: the Linux kernel, an X Server, popular windows managers such as GNOME and KDE, compilers, Internet programs such as Apache, Sendmail, and so on. However, not all Linux distributions are created equal. In particular, the manufacturer of each distribution creates its own installation and configura- tion programs to install and configure Linux. 664_9781118380987-bk09ch01.indd4_9781118380987-bk09ch01.indd 680680 110/29/120/29/12 110:320:32 PPMM Planning a Linux Server Installation 681 Book IX I can’t see my C: drive! Chapter 1 Installing a Linux Linux and Windows have a completely differ- partition as /var. Then, any files stored in ent method of referring to your computer’s hard the /user directory would actually be stored Server drives and partitions. The differences can take in the second partition, and files stored in the some getting used to for experienced Windows /var directory would be stored in the third users. partition. Windows uses a separate letter for each drive The directory to which a drive mounts is called and partition on your system. For example, if the drive’s mount point. you have a single drive formatted into three Notice that Linux uses regular forward slash partitions, Windows identifies the partitions as characters (/) to separate directory names drives C:, D:, and E:. Each of these drives has its rather than the backward slash characters (\) own root directory, which can, in turn, contain used by Windows. Typing backslashes instead additional directories used to organize your of regular slashes is one of the most common files. As far as Windows is concerned, drives mistakes made by new Linux users. C:, D:, and E: are completely separate drives even though the drives are actually just parti- While I’m on the subject, Linux uses a different tions on a single drive. convention for naming files, too. In Windows, filenames end in a three- or four-letter exten- Linux doesn’t use drive letters. Instead, Linux sion that’s separated from the rest of the file- combines all the drives and partitions into a name by a period. The extension is used to single directory hierarchy. In Linux, one of the indicate the file type. For example, files that end partitions is designated as the root partition. in .exe are program files, but files that end in The root partition is roughly analogous to the .doc are word-processing documents. root directory of the C: drive on a Windows system. Then, the other partitions can be Linux doesn’t use file extensions, but periods mounted on the root partition and treated are often used in Linux filenames to separate as if they were directories on the root parti- different parts of the name — and the last tion. For example, you may designate the first part often indicates the file type. For example, partition as the root partition and then mount ldap.conf and pine.conf are both the second partition as /user and the third configuration files. The installation program is what makes or breaks a Linux distribution. All the distributions I list in this section have easy-to-use installation programs that automatically detect the hardware that’s present on your computer and configure Linux to work with that hardware, thus eliminating most — if not all — manual configuration chores. The installation programs also let you select the Linux packages that you want to install and let you set up one or more user accounts besides the root account. 664_9781118380987-bk09ch01.indd4_9781118380987-bk09ch01.indd 681681 110/29/120/29/12 110:330:33 PPMM 682 Planning a Linux Server Installation Thinking about multiboot Linux comes with a boot loader program called GRUB that lets you choose from several installed operating systems when you start your computer. GRUB makes it possible to keep your existing Windows system on a com- puter and install Linux into a separate partition. Then, each time you start the computer, you can decide whether to start Windows or Linux. If you’re new to Linux and want to experiment with it a bit before you commit to it, multiboot is a good way to go. But if you’re setting up a produc- tion server on a machine that will be devoted to Linux, there’s no reason to mess around with multiboot. Going virtual Another common way to install Linux is in a virtual machine running within the Windows operating system. In fact, all the examples in this minibook were tested using Oracle VM VirtualBox, a free virtualization platform you can download from www.virtualbox.org. For more information, see Chapter 8 of Book II. Deciding on your TCP/IP configuration Before you install the OS, you should have a plan for how you will implement TCP/IP on the network. Here are some of the things you need to decide or find out: ✦ The public IP subnet address and mask for your network ✦ The domain name for the network ✦ The host name for the server? ✦ Whether the server obtain its address from DHCP ✦ Whether the server have a static IP address — and if so, what? ✦ Whether the server be a DHCP server ✦ The default gateway for the server — that the IP address of the net- work’s Internet router ✦ Whether the server be a DNS server If the server will host TCP/IP servers (such as DHCP or DNS), you’ll probably want to assign the server a static IP address. For more information about planning your TCP/IP configuration, see Book IV. 664_9781118380987-bk09ch01.indd4_9781118380987-bk09ch01.indd 682682 110/29/120/29/12 110:330:33 PPMM Installing Fedora 17 683 Book IX Installing Fedora 17 Chapter 1 After you plan your installation and prepare the computer, you’re ready Installing a Linux to actually install Linux. The following procedure describes the steps you must follow to install Fedora 17 on a computer that has a bootable DVD- Server ROM drive: 1.