Formatting Disks

In this example we will be working with a single 80 GB volume. Most likely in a production environment you will be storing your database on mirrored storage and/or a SAN. Ideally, it is best to store the OS and the data files on separate physical disks. However, in this example we will simply separate them by creating partitions.

Below are the partitions that will be used in this build. These sizes are for illustration purposes. The actual sizes will vary depending on the intended use of the database.

• C – Windows – 14 GB
  
• G – Data – 16 GB
  
• H – Backups – 32 GB
  
• L – Logs – 12 GB
  
• Z – Apps – 6 GB
  

Enter 14000 and press Enter

We will leave the rest of the disk unformatted for now, and use disk manager to create the rest of the partitions after the OS is installed. Press Enter to instal Windows on this partition.

After Windows is installed Right Click on My Computer and select Manage. Then click on Disk Management.

Right click on the available part of the disk to create the first partition.

For the first drive (G drive) we will create a primary partition

Enter the size for the g drive

Select drive letter

Leave defaults, enter drive label

Since we only have one disk in this example, and Windows only allows up to 4 primary partitions per disk, we will need to use an extended partition and create logical drives for the H and the L.

Right click on the available disk space and select New partition. This time choose extended partition

Assign enough space to cover the H (backups) and the L (logs) drives. In this case 44 GB.

After the extended partition is created, right click on it and create the two logical partitions on top of it.

Use the remaining space for the Z (apps) drive.

When finished you should have the following drives in My Computer

After formatting the drives, we will run windows update to make sure we have all the latest patches. Open the browser and goto windowsupdate.microsoft.com and follow prompts to update system.

This build will be broken up into 3 parts:

Part 1: Installing Ubuntu Operating System
Part 2: Basic Server Configuration
Part 3: Working with Ubuntu LAMP

In this build we will be using ubuntu-9.04-server-amd64.iso, which can be downloaded via BitTorrent or from the Ubuntu website.

After downloading the iso file, you must either burn it to a CD or if this is a virtual machine you may mount the iso file to your VM’s CD-rom drive.

To begin installation, insert CD and boot server. When installer boots, select English.

At Ubuntu welcome screen, select Install Ubuntu Server and press Enter

Select English and press Enter

Select Country and press Enter

Select No to skip keyboard detection

Select Country / keyboard layout

Install begins and runs for a few minutes

Enter a hostname for your server

Select Timezone

Choose disk partition method. In this build we will select guided – use entire disk and setup LVM (Logical Volume Manager). If you wish to setup a custom partitioning scheme choose Manual.

Select your hard drive / disk

Select Yes to write changes to the disk

Verify you want to use the entire disk, press Enter to continue

Select Yes to write changes

Install continues

Enter your username

Enter your password (and once again to confirm)

When asked to encrypt home directory select No

Enter proxy server if any (in this build we leave blank)

Install continues

Select install security updates automatically

Select Software to install. Use up/down arrows and space bar to select. Select LAMP server, mail server and openssh server. Press Enter

Enter root password for MySQL database (and type again to confirm)

For mail configuration, select Internet Site and press Enter

Enter hostname/domain name for mail server

Last of install files get installed

When done, press Enter to finish. System will reboot. Make sure to remove CD-rom

Next Section: Ubuntu Server Configuration

If you have questions or problems with this build please leave a comment below.