Category Archives: Installing and Configuration

Test Networking Lab Ubuntu On 16.04

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Test Networking Lab Ubuntu on 16.04

Overview

I wanted to create a test networking lab Ubuntu on 16.04 for trying out configurations without having to hack my real LAN about. I decided to use VirtualBox virtual machines as they are freely available and work with Linux and you can also use MS Windows guests. The network in the test networking lab Ubuntu on 16.04 will need to separate from our own normal LAN. VirtualBox provides this out of the box. We simply set the network interfaces to us “Internal Network”. This way only VM’s on the host can see each other.

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Ubuntu 16.04 Minimal Server Install.

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This post will, quickly, run through how to create a Minimal Server Install using Ubuntu 16.04. It also only takes a short time, taking between 7 to 20 minutes to install depending on your hardware and the number of times you have run through it. I find it an ideal way to try out and learn how to install Ubuntu in various configurations. I also use a virtual machine running on Virtualbox as this allows me to throw it away without messing about with real hardware.

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DNS and DHCP on Synology NAS

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Synology documentation sucks big time! It usually only states the blindingly obvious missing off any useful or helpful information.

This post will run through the harder parts of setting up DNS and DHCP on Synology NAS. It is a little tricky the first time you do this especially if you have not come across bind or bind9 before. It seems a little over the top or just plain weird. You will only really need this if you have some local servers, computers or other devices that need to be accessed.

Updated for DSM 6.0, because Synology buggered about with stuff! 
This may not work on earlier versions.

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Installing LDAP on Ubuntu 18.04

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This post will run through Installing LDAP on Ubuntu 18.04. Allowing you to authenticate users via LDAP. As well as setting up thier Linux groups. You will need a server or desktop install to begin with. Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) is a network protocol for accessing and manipulating information stored in a directory. 

This HOWTO also works on a Raspberry PI 3 running the Ubuntu MATE image!

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OpenVPN Server on Ubuntu 14.04

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This tutorial will be installing an OpenVPN Server on Ubuntu 14.04 using routing and giving the external client full access to your LAN.

Installing an OpenVPN Server on Ubuntu 14.04 is not that difficult when you have already gained the necessary skills and knowledge for, IP addresses, netmasks, subnets, DNS names, IP routing, routers, network interfaces, LANs, gateways, and firewall rules.

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Changing the SWAP file Swapiness on Ubuntu 14.04

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I have been asked several times about reducing the “swapiness” on a Linux machine to make the machine more responsive. So here is a post on how to do that. Remember just because you can does not make it a good thing to do.

If the machine has 8GB or more RAM turn down the swapiness. That is, if you do not want the system using swap until only 10-15% of RAM is left unused. Then this is the post for you.

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Setting up NTP on Ubuntu 14.04

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This is a really quick post, as most Linux (or M$ Windows) installations will use/need an NTP server to keep the time in sync with other machines on the LAN.

Update and Install

As always, start with an up to date install. Installing the software is just two packages the server, ntp, and some utilities, ntpdate.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
sudo apt-get install ntp ntpdate

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Installing Ubuntu 14.04 on RAID 1 and LVM

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So you want an Ubuntu server machine running with RAID1 for reliability and LVM for flexibility. 

TIP: Play around with this on a virtual machine. 
     It only takes 10 minutes for a new install.

I used a virtualbox guest. I created a test machine: 2CPUs, 2048MB RAM, 2 x 25Gb Hard disk.

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Joining an Ubuntu Machine to Samba with Winbind

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This is the third part of a series of howtos showing how to setup and use Samba4 as a drop in for MS Active Directory Server. The first part Samba4 AD DC on Ubuntu 14.04 is here. The second part in this series take a look at Administering AD DC via Windows.

In this part we will connect an Ubuntu 14.04 machine to the domain and then login with users configured with Active Directory.

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