upgrading ubuntu 8.10 desktop to server how

Hi Mohammed, good morning from Spain.
You don't need to upgrade to any Ubuntu Server version. All Ubuntu editions are quite the same, only default package selection is different, and you can install any package you want. The main difference between "regular" Ubuntu and the server edition, is that the server edition comes with no GUI (ie. no desktop environment, only command line interface) and installs server packages by default.

What kind of "network operations" (server) would you like to use?
You can read some oficial documentation: http://doc.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/serverguide/C/

You can run any service from your alredy installed Ubutu 8.10. If you want to run any service, for testing purpouses, like for example Apache webserver, MySQL database, ProFTPD ftpserver, etc. just have to ...
Open Synaptic
Then, Edit .... Mark packages by task ---- Check "LAMP Server", then Ok and "Apply Changes"

You have a more graphical and detailled explanation here: http://www.blazingmoon.org/guides/k3-on-u810-3.html

Feel free to ask. Reply with more specific question about "network operations" (servers) you would like to use, and you will get detailled answers.

Greetings from Pablo.

Pablo

Hi,

Thank you for the quick response and thank you again for the provided
guidelines .

For network operation
I have nearly 60 computers with windows 2003 server standard edition with
only 10 users which do not give match space and makes me vendor locked. I
am asking for the servfer version becuase I need to migrate to linux and
need ubuntu server to give me the regular roles of server like DHCP.Dns and
so on in GUI environment.

Is that possibel ?

Regards

Mohammed

That

On Sun, Jul 5, 2009 at 10:39 AM, pablitofuerte <
<email address hidden>> wrote:

> Your question #76139 on Ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/76139
>
> Status: Open => Needs information
>
> pablitofuerte requested for more information:
> Hi Mohammed, good morning from Spain.
> You don't need to upgrade to any Ubuntu Server version. All Ubuntu editions
> are quite the same, only default package selection is different, and you can
> install any package you want. The main difference between "regular" Ubuntu
> and the server edition, is that the server edition comes with no GUI (ie. no
> desktop environment, only command line interface) and installs server
> packages by default.
>
> What kind of "network operations" (server) would you like to use?
> You can read some oficial documentation:
> http://doc.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/serverguide/C/
>
> You can run any service from your alredy installed Ubutu 8.10. If you want
> to run any service, for testing purpouses, like for example Apache
> webserver, MySQL database, ProFTPD ftpserver, etc. just have to ...
> Open Synaptic
> Then, Edit .... Mark packages by task ---- Check "LAMP Server", then Ok and
> "Apply Changes"
>
> You have a more graphical and detailled explanation here:
> http://www.blazingmoon.org/guides/k3-on-u810-3.html
>
> Feel free to ask. Reply with more specific question about "network
> operations" (servers) you would like to use, and you will get detailled
> answers.
>
> Greetings from Pablo.
>
> --
> To answer this request for more information, you can either reply to
> this email or enter your reply at the following page:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/76139
>
> You received this question notification because you are a direct
> subscriber of the question.
>

You don't need to install server release of Ubuntu, the server release of Ubuntu don't come with any gui.
You can install tipycal server packages to a standard Ubuntu installation to get server services.

So to have a dhcp server you can install, setup and start the dhcp3-server.

http://www.ubuntugeek.com/how-to-install-and-configure-dhcp-server-in-ubuntu-server.html

Hope this helps

If you want to have a desktop enviroment, of course it is posible. However it is not the most recommended solution, have in mind that you will use more resources than really needed).
Networking: http://doc.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/serverguide/C/networking.html
DNS: http://doc.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/serverguide/C/dns.html
http://doc.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/serverguide/C/dhcp.html

In a productive enviroment (60 computers) a better approuch would be to have a dedicated server machine. The typical and recomended situation is to admin servers remotely (without desktop packages, even without any display Monitor).
You can do this Remote Administration via:
   - Commandline - OpenSSH Server
   - Web-interface - eBox, Webim, etc.

I assume that you dont feel confortable with commandline, but Just for your information, have a look to ebox:
http://trac.ebox-platform.com/
HOWTO install: http://doc.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/serverguide/C/ebox.html

You will admin that server with your browser, just typing your webserver page or ip "https://yourserver/ebox" then you can manage all those services, settings and parameters with a simple web-interface:
http://trac.ebox-platform.com/screenshots/13
Network Interfaces: http://trac.ebox-platform.com/screenshots?index=0
Network DNS: http://trac.ebox-platform.com/screenshots/7
etc

You can do this also with Webmin: http://www.webmin.com/index.html
DHCP Server: http://www.webmin.com/screenshots/chapter32/figure2.png
Managing records in the DNS domain: http://www.webmin.com/screenshots/chapter30/figure4.png

Check the different chances, analyze pros and cons, and choose the one's that suits you.

Yes, to summarise it seems best to 1 machine as dedicated server and all 59-60 remaining machines to be running desktop versions of whichever OS.

An Ubuntu server can serve to client machines running either Windows, Mac or Linux OS's, or to mixed networks containing some machines using each, or even to machines using a dual-boot or multi-boot.

Given that your existing system works i would recommend reducing down-time during the proposed switch-over by installing Ubuntu Server as a dual-boot on another machine
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WindowsDualBoot
and use that machine as the server while you install ubuntu server on the real main server machine, again as a dual-boot. With that sorted out the machine used as temporary server could have a desktop edition installed hopefully leaving it with a multi-boot; windows, ubuntu server & ubuntu desktop. Handy as a backup server but quite usable for normal use until needed for that :)

Hopefully once all that is sorted out you can then follow by installing Ubuntu desktops as dual-boots for the client machines, but this could be done in batches of machines rather than doing all at the same time. Any machine with less than 700MHz cpu, 512Mb ram and 15Gb free hard-drive space is better off with a different version (distro) of linux, so i would leave those until last in order to have time to hunt around for a good one that fits them all. The client machines dual-boot into Ubuntu allows users to gradually get used to Ubuntu but provides them with access to the familiar tools until they get used to Ubuntu, no need to force the issue :)

While sorting out the Servers this strategy would ensure the network is always working or at worst is only down for as long as it takes to boot up one machine. In the event of a complete disaster the entire network might be down for as long as it takes to reboot back into what you are currently using as server, ie 2 reboots worth of time-lost at the very very worst :)

It is worth noting that 8.04 has Long Term Support and gets all the bug-fixes first as a priority. The bug-fixes go to other releases (9.04, 8.10 and possibly even 7.10) later. Many corporate, mid-large network and business users are therefore staying with 8.04 until the next LTS release in 2010. It's also worth noting that traditional support is available for ubuntu
http://www.ubuntu.com/support/paid
and buying into that does not prevent you from also using this much less formal support. The professional support offers you guarantees of getting good answers within a certain time-frame, something we can't guarantee in this forum.

I hope something here helps!
Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

To add to my last posting a list of my preferred distros for machines near or under the 700MHz, 512Mb and 15Gb hard-drive & note that there are more similarities than differences between different distros even though they may initially look very different in terms of background wallpaper and icon sets

For tiny machines i think sliTaz is better than Puppy for your job as network administrator but they might prefer the way Puppy looks at first. SliTaz is a mainly french distro but has good translations for almost everything into english.
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=slitaz
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=puppy

For less extremely tiny machines, right up to quite near the minimum specifications i suggested above
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=wolvix
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=kongoni
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=vector
although i haven't used vector i have heard good reports from people in a similar position to you & i haven't tried kongoni at all either but it's developed in africa so it's perhaps possible that some users might find it more comfortable?

For machines very close to the mark or only short by 1 or 2 criteria
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=xubuntu
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=wolvix
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=vector
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=kongoni
The same list but just with Xubuntu added because it's practically identical to Ubuntu and is meant to be a light-weight alternative but somehow it's grown to be a lot larger than original concept, still it's excellent on machines just under the mark or very close to it.

Those are the ones i would consider but there are many others. Although i couldn't find a specifically Egyptian one there are many Arabic distros & some developed by/for specific countries. Just as Linux-Mint was developed from Ubuntu aiming at multi-media apps working "out of the box" there is also a moslem edition that i've always been interested in trying out.

I hope this helps!
Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

Ooops, sorry i got muddled up and somehow thought you were in Egypt rather than Somalia! My very humble apologies for that but i think my advice is perhaps even more relevant, especially with regards to perhaps trying kongoni out on 1 machine, just to see if it's ok.

Good luck, regards and apologies from
Tom :)