UBUNTU Linux
LINUX – Super-fast and great-looking
Ubuntu is a secure, intuitive operating system that powers desktops, servers, netbooks and laptops. Ubuntu is, and always will be, absolutely free. Edition
Lean, fast and powerful, Ubuntu Server delivers services reliably, predictably and economically – and it easily integrates with your existing infrastructure.
Why use Ubuntu Server?
- Easy integration
Ubuntu Server mixes effortlessly with Ubuntu, Windows or Mac OS environments. All clients can share authentication, swap files and access services, while Open LDAP, Likewise-Open and PAM authentication come as standard.
- Virtualise everything
Virtualise your servers with Ubuntu Server and KVM. Use a secure, lean version of Ubuntu as a guest operating system for your application and create virtual machine images in minutes. KVM, Xen, VMWare and LXC are all supported.
- EC2 or UEC
Build flexible computing environments in your own infrastructure with Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud (UEC) or deploy to Amazon EC2 using Ubuntu Server Edition images.
- Built-in security
Tighten security by defining access to specific users and programs. Uncomplicated firewall technology makes access secure yet simple, while a home and private directory encryption service adds another layer of security.
- Minimise administration
Simplify operations like start-up, shut-down and package management with single commands. Deploy services in seconds or set up industry-standard mail, virtualisation, Java applications or database servers in minutes.
Why use Ubuntu Server?
- Lower the costs of your data centre
Ubuntu Server Edition is an opportunity for businesses to achieve real savings within their IT infrastructure. Ubuntu Server includes what is needed to provide a service, nothing more. This lean, efficient architecture sees more services delivered with less computing power and less resources required. Ubuntu Server’s streamlined, built-for-purpose technology means there is less to go wrong.
- Easy server maintenance
For skilled administrators Ubuntu Server also offers fewer components to maintain, making administration a refreshingly simple process. Many standard services can take just 15-30 minutes to configure.
- Automatic updates
After the initial configuration, maintenance and security updates are automatic so the system can simply run and run, providing vital services without the need for intervention. Even upgrades are managed seamlessly, with Ubuntu’s twin path of short and long-term support periods offering a choice between the latest technologies and the stability of five-year support.
- Packaged applications
Applications are often referred to as packages in Ubuntu because, unlike other Linux systems, the application and the dependencies required to run it are ‘packaged’ together. This means administrators can start, stop, shut down and manage applications running on Ubuntu with a single command. Canonical’s Landscape makes it even easier to extend this management to a farm of servers, optimising the administrator’s time and maximising your data centre’s uptime.
- Reduce power consumption
Ubuntu Server reduces your power consumption with technologies like Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud, Power Capping and PowerNap. Provide better services while reducing your data centre’s energy use. Ubuntu brings the experience of maximising notebook and netbook battery life to the server environment, creating an operating system that is efficient at its core.
Licence-free
Ubuntu Server is provided free of licensing and subscription fees. The Ubuntu security team provides vital maintenance and security updates for free. So subscription and licence fees can be reassigned to pay for services such as Landscape, consulting and technical support that add significant value to your organisation.
- Integrate with your existing systems
Ubuntu Server Edition fits easily into your existing client and server architecture, integrating with commonly-used tools for authentication and service access. We understand the importance of technologies that you can easily integrate, which is why we spend a lot of time making sure Ubuntu blends easily with your infrastructure.
- Easy authentication
Authentication is vital so that computers on a network recognise one another and allow information to be shared. All versions of Ubuntu Server come with Open LDAP ensuring you can build a shared directory service if one is required. New editions of Ubuntu Server can also become an integral part of an existing LDAP network, through simple-to-configure settings presented at installation.
Microsoft Active Directory integration
To integrate with systems using Microsoft Active Directory, all supported versions of Ubuntu Server come with Likewise-Open. Likewise-Open helps Ubuntu machines to recognise, share credentials and access resources with machines on Active Directory. So Ubuntu servers can easily provide resources for Windows clients without any additional security burden and a common sign-on.
- Share print services
Print services can be shared through SAMBA (an open-source implementation of SMB/CIFS) or CUPS (Apple’s Common Unix Printing System, also used by Mac OSX). These support all major platforms’ automatic discovery of printing resources and under CUPS, the configuration of Macs is instant. Windows machines require limited additional configuration work at install but Ubuntu Server Edition is a rock-solid print service provider from then on.
- File sharing with SAMBA
File sharing is also handled by SAMBA and, like print sharing, can integrate with a Microsoft Active Directory. Compatibility with mixed environments is a popular feature with Ubuntu users. Integrating with existing UNIX and Linux systems is also supported with protocols such as NFS, Kerberos, SSH and many others.
Virtualisation made easy
Ubuntu Server Edition is an extremely popular platform for virtualising data centres. Ubuntu Server provides KVM as the core option for both host and guest virtualisation. A wide variety of open-source and proprietary technologies are also used in conjunction with Ubuntu Server.
- Open-source virtualisation
With each release Ubuntu Server offers more options for building and managing a virtualised environment. Open-source technologies are at the forefront of the modern virtualised environment, and the licence-free model of Ubuntu is ideally suited to the dynamic expansion and reduction of physical and virtual machines that are typical in these environments.
- A low foot-print operating system
Ubuntu Server can also be configured with a low-footprint, creating the ideal base on which to build virtual machines. Ubuntu includes a Virtual Machine Builder which makes this process simple and replicable allowing multiple pre-configured machines to be deployed instantly. Users of Canonical’s Landscape management tool will also find it an easy environment to manage as it makes no distinction between virtual and physical machines, allowing them to be managed through the same interface and in the same manner.
- Ubuntu Server: ready for virtualisation
Our built-in hypervisor KVM, libvirt and our virtual host profile can get you ready to virtualise x86 workloads. To simplify hardware maintenance and to enable dynamic capacity balancing, live migration of guests between servers only requires that they share a common storage system. Memory aggregation can maximise the number of virtual machines when hosting the same operating systems and applications on the same server.
- Improve performance with VirtIO drivers
VirtIO drivers provide virtual machines direct access to hardware which speeds performance and eases maintenance. If you need more throughput, you can dedicate specific hardware to virtual machines. The libvirt interface is becoming an open-source standard and part of the core Linux kernel with multiple third-party interfaces available.
- The best guest OS
Ubuntu Server runs smoothly as a guest operating system on popular virtualisation technologies including Amazon EC2, VMware, Xen, Parallels, LXC, VirtualBox, and KVM. With one of the smallest footprints as a minimal install, you can easily base your virtual machines on Ubuntu Server and only add what you really need. We even provide you with tools to automate the build process of virtual machines that can be created, or recreated, in a matter of minutes.
- Cloud computing
Ubuntu Server Edition provides everything you need to build your infrastructure on the leading public cloud (Amazon EC2) or your own private cloud. You can use the same images and tools to control them both. Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud brings you the elasticity and immediacy of cloud computing from behind the security of your firewall and it makes it easy to migrate between public and private clouds.
- Private cloud: Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud
Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud (UEC) provides the tools you need to create a private cloud within your own IT infrastructure. So you can enjoy the benefits of cloud computing in your own secure environment.
Deploy workloads and have them running immediately. Grow or shrink computing capacity to meet the needs of your applications. Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud is an integral part of Ubuntu Server that is easy to install. UEC integrates with a number of open-source projects, including KVM, libvirt and Eucalyptus.
- Public cloud: Ubuntu on Amazon EC2
Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) allows you to build on-demand virtual systems with minimal in-house hardware requirements. Amazon EC2 fits perfectly with Ubuntu Server Edition’s modularity, virtualisation capabilities, range of applications and optimised performance. Amazon EC2 with Ubuntu Server Edition enables businesses to build flexible, on-demand virtual systems on almost any scale. reated, in a matter of minutes.
- Built-in security
Ubuntu Server Edition is secure to the core, built upon the renowned security of the Debian operating system. Ubuntu’s security team works closely with their Debian and Linux counterparts to make sure that any vulnerabilities that emerge are recognised and dealt with swiftly. Ubuntu’s free and fair ethos means that patches are made available to all users, not just enterprise clients or subscribers.
- Uncomplicated firewall
Ubuntu Server also includes easy-to-use security features – a valuable aspect of security technology because it reduces the element of ‘user error’ in security management. For example, Uncomplicated Firewall asks you to nominate the sole protocol that you want to grant access to your network (SMTP, HTTP etc) – and that’s all. Ubuntu Server has no open ports by default, so there is no danger of services being initiated at install without an administrator’s knowledge. So simple, and so secure.
- Access control with AppArmor
AppArmor is rapidly becoming the default open-source service for mandatory access control. It allows the systems administrator to associate each program with a security profile which restricts the authority and access rights of that program. AppArmor supplements the traditional UNIX discretionary access control with additional rules that control what programs are allowed to be accessed. It can even ‘learn’ the typical set of rules and turn them into an enforcement standard that can be applied widely.
Another feature that helps you remain secure is the ability to easily create an encrypted private directory on your home server where you can store critical passwords, user names and logins. This is something designed by systems administrators for systems administrators and is something only someone working every day with the hassles of secure access provision would think to dedicate time to building. And it’s really easy to us
- Easy administration
Ubuntu Server is designed to make systems administration easy and efficient. At the heart of Ubuntu Server is Debian, the Linux distribution famous for being written by systems administrators for systems administrators. So many of the routine tasks that consume a great deal of a systems administrators’ time are simplified and automated.
- Save time with automated deployment
Automated deployment is a key feature of an Ubuntu infrastructure. Building out farms of servers to do the same or similar tasks is a common requirement when adding capacity to a system but configuring each machine can take many hours. With Ubuntu Server you can configure the installer to build reproducible, hardware-independent deployment scenarios that include the applications you need. These can be deployed to machines in minutes. Ubuntu Server supports a host of deployment scenarios.
- Applications packaged for ease
Ubuntu users save time with Debian’s packaging scheme. With every release, Ubuntu automates the deployment of more services as standard, from the expected LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP/Python) stack to Java containers and cloud computing. Additional application packages can be sourced from the open-source ‘universe’ repository, the expanding Ubuntu ecosystem, the ever-growing list of personal package archives on Launchpad (PPA), or a company can package their own applications and deploy with equal ease.
- Effortless management with Landscape
For managing, monitoring and maintaining your IT environment, Canonical’s Landscape makes the administration of multiple machines as easy as managing one. Users can manage both physical and virtual machines on your network from a single web-based interface – either as a subscription service or deployed behind a firewall.