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Installing Ubuntu 16.04

In this article we provide a guide for the installation process of Ubuntu 16.04. Do you want to know how to reinstall your VPS? Then, take a look at our article '(Re)Installing an OS on your VPS'


 

Step 1 

After ordering / reinstalling your Ubuntu 16.04 VPS you will be greeted in the VPS console by the screen below, asking for the language for the installation and the OS.

Ubuntu16 installation language selection


 

Step 2 

Select the country / region where you come from. Location dependent settings (time, etc.) use this. For the Netherlands click 'other'> 'Europe'> 'Netherlands'

ubuntu16 installation select locale

There is no local defined for the Netherlands (and many other countries) and you are asked to choose one. The en_US.UTF-8 option is the most commonly used and is selected by default. Click 'Enter' to continue.

ubuntu16 installation locale settings


 

Step 3

Ubuntu can automatically detect your keyboard. You will then be asked to press several keys / whether a few keys are/aren’t present so Ubuntu can determine which keyboard layout you are using. 

If you choose manual, please note that if you use a Dutch keyboard, you choose the layout English (US) and not Dutch. 

ubuntu 16 installation detect keyboard


 

Step 4

Ubuntu now automatically executes the necessary configurations (network etc.) and then asks you for your hostname. Use a syntax such as server.yourdomain.com for example, and do not forget to create a DNS record for the hostname in the DNS settings of your domain.

ubuntu16 installation set hostname


 

Step 5

Optionally, you can now set a proxy. Unless you plan to use one, leave the field blank and click 'Continue'.

ubuntu16 installation proxy


 

Step 6

Ubuntu retrieves additional components that are required for the installation. Once this is finished you create a new account. Choose a name for this account and press 'Enter'.

ubuntu16 installation create account


 

Step 7

You then create the username to use with the account you created in the previous step. The username and account name may match.

ubuntu16 installation create user

tip: You can also use this user when you use SSH, for example, to connect to your VPS and to disable SSH root access.

This user also has root rights on your VPS, see this article for more information about root users.


 

Step 8

Enter a strong password for the newly created user and press 'Enter'. You will be asked to confirm the password.

ubuntu16 installation new user password


 

Step 9

Ubuntu will now ask you if you want to encrypt your home directory. You are free in this choice and if you choose encryption, you will get an option to set up a passphrase. You will always have to enter the passphrase first when you start (re)start VPS. If you lose the passphrase, you will never be able to access your VPS again and a reinstallation is the only option.

ubuntu16 installation encryption


 

Step 10

You now choose the partitioning method of your installation. Some options that you can use are, for example, LVM, EXT4, XFS.

We choose 'Guided - use entire disk and set up LVM'. This is usually preferable because your partitions are then created within a 'Logical Volume' and can later be properly adjusted in terms of size. This is useful if you decide to upgrade your VPS / SSD later.

ubuntu16 installation partition method

If you choose 'Encrypted LVM', you get an option to set a passphrase. In that case, what applies to your home directory in step 9 applies to your entire SSD.


 

Step 11

You will be asked which disk you want to use to write the installation to. You always have only one disk on your VPS (unless you use Big Storage, but never install an OS on it).

ubuntu16 installation partition select disk


 

Step 12

Ubuntu asks you if you are sure that you want to install Ubuntu on your SSD (with LVM). Select 'Yes' here.

ubuntu16 installation write changes


 

Step 13

You can adjust the part of your hard disk used by Ubuntu for your partition. This can be compared to, for example, formatting a hard disk of 500GB in Windows and splitting it into a C:\ partition of 100GB and a D:\ partition of 400GB.

By default, all SSD space is used here for the installation. Press 'Enter' to continue, or first adjust the allocated space as desired.

ubuntu16 installation partitioning disk select size


 

Step 14

You will now see which changes are going to be made to your SSD. Choose 'Yes' to write the changes to your SSD.

ubuntu16 installation partitioning confirm changes


 

Step 15

The base of Ubuntu is now installing, after which you will be asked if you want to automatically install updates.

For the security of your VPS, it is of course very safe to do this, but if you host very important applications it may be desirable to install updates manually:

Some updates change things on your VPS and if something goes wrong, you do not notice that an automatic update is installed, and you start your VPS at a later time and it does not work properly anymore, there may be no automatic backup anymore to recover from.

ubuntu16 installation upgrade options


 

Step 16

You now get the option to install additional software. We recommend installing as little as possible, so you avoid installing software that you will never use, and you can always easily install software from command-line afterward. After changing your selection, click 'Enter' to continue.

ubuntu16 installation software selection

If you do want to install extra software, we recommend installing OpenSSH. With OpenSSH you can connect to your VPS using SSH instead of using the VPS console in the control panel (SSH allows you to use full screen for example). The 'standard system utilities' (for example, to use tcpdump or the help pages) are automatically installed. Below is an overview of these installed system utilities

default system utilities
  • manpages (help pages)
  • dnsutils
  • bsdmainutils
  • psmisc
  • python3-gdbm
  • ufw (uncomplicated firewall)
  • dosfstools
  • ed
  • telnet
  • powermgmt-base
  • ntfs-3g
  • ubuntu-release-upgrader-core
  • iputils-tracepath
  • python3-update-manager
  • groff-base
  • python3-distupgrade
  • bind9-host
  • mtr-tiny
  • bash-completion
  • mlocate
  • tcpdump
  • geoip-database
  • install-info
  • irqbalance
  • language-selector-common
  • friendly-recovery
  • command-not-found
  • info
  • hdparm
  • man-db
  • lshw
  • update-manager-core
  • apt-transport-https
  • accountsservice
  • command-not-found-data
  • python3-commandnotfound
  • time
  • ltrace
  • parted
  • popularity-contest
  • strace
  • ftp
  • ubuntu-standard
  • lsof

We do not recommend installing a desktop environment / GUI because the performance of a desktop environment on a virtual server will never be the same as a physical computer. For the use cases for which VPSs are usually used (e.g., website, database, application, and/or email hosting), a GUI within Linux is also not required.


 

Step 17

In this last step, Ubuntu asks whether the GRUB boot loader can be installed on your hard drive. Press 'Enter' to give permission.

ubuntu16 installation install grub


 

The installation is now complete! Press 'Enter' to restart your VPS. You can then immediately get started with the further configuration of your VPS.

Should you have any questions left regarding this article, do not hesitate to contact our support department. You can reach them via the ‘ContactUs’ button at the bottom of this page.

If you want to discuss this article with other users, please leave a message under 'Comments'.

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