New Server!

I spent most of yesterday afternoon getting my brand-spanking-new virtual Ubuntu server online and so far I'm thrilled with it! If you've ever wished you could try out a new operating system (like Ubuntu) and didn't want to risk your current setup, let me recommend Virtual Box by Sun Microsystems.

Getting your new, virtual server up and running is pretty straight forward, but it can take a while if you have to download your new OS (Ubuntu in this example). Here's the short version of how to get serving:

1. Download and install Virtual Box.
2. Download Ubuntu (I'd recommend a .torrent download if you can).
3. Start Virtual Box and set up a new virtual machine. The wizard does a good job of handling most of the configuration, but here are the customizations I made:
   • Memory = 600MB
   • HardDisk = 8GB
   • Network = Host interface
     
   Setting the network adapter to the host interface will allow my virtual box to access my network just like any physical computer would. Once my new box is up and running, I can configure it with a static IP on the same subnet as my physical computers.
4. Be sure to attach your downloaded Ubuntu ISO to the virtual machine so that when you start the box it will load up the boot disc.
5. Start the Ubuntu installation - this is MUCH easier than you might think. The trickiest question is how much of the hard drive you want to use. I selected "Guided - All" to use the whole 8GB. Everything else was pretty straight-forward.

Once I got my virtual server online, I enabled SSHd and Remote Desktop so that I could manage it remotely. Slowly over the course of the day (as work allows), I've been setting up XAMPP and have been able to swing my website (http://www.bradleyit.com) to my new, virtual server!

Fun stuff!