Now, we’ll get on with an actual installation utilizing the alternate installer. At this point, you’ll boot your server with the bootable media (flash drive, CD/DVD, and so on) and we’ll be off to the races. Go through the following steps to complete the process:

1. First, you’ll be asked to select your language, which defaults to English. Choose your language here and press Enter:

2. Next, the main menu for the installer will appear. You can simply press Enter as the default selection is what we want,  Install Ubuntu Server.

There are other options that are useful here, especially the memory test. If your server is a physical server, it’s a good idea to check the RAM every once in a while for defects. The  Rescue a broken system option is useful for troubleshooting.

3. Next, you’ll select the language that will be used for the remainder of the installer, defaulting to English. If your language is something different, choose that here.

4. Next, you’ll select your location. When you’ve highlighted the appropriate selection, press  Enter:

5. Next, you’ll be given an option to have the system detect your keyboard layout. I think it’s faster to decline this and say  No. At the screen following this, we can select this ourselves:

6. On the next screen, select the country of origin for your keyboard:

7. Next, select your actual keyboard layout:

8. After a few progress bars scroll by, the installer will ask you to name your server. This name will appear on your network if you share files from the server, as well as your command prompt. After you type a name, press  Enter :

9. Now, you’ll enter a name for your user account. This is the display name, not the name that will be used at login. When you’ve finished typing your name, press  Enter:

10. Create a login name for your user. This is the user that will be given access to sudo by default. After you’ve typed your desired username, press  Enter:

11. Next, create a super-secure password for your user and press  Enter:

12. Verify the password by entering it again, then press  Enter:

13. Next, we’ll set the time zone. The default time should work be correct, but we can always change this later. Press  Tab key to select  Yes, and then press  Enter:

14. At this point, we have a choice. We can select  Guided – use entire disk, which is the desired choice for most as it gives you a basic install. If you would like to set up RAID, choose  Manual. If you do choose Manual to set up RAID, take a detour to the next section where I will walk you through the process. Once done, come back here and follow along with the remaining steps.

15. Next, we’ll select the disk that we want to install Ubuntu onto. If you have only one disk, you’ll see only one entry here. Otherwise, select the entry that corresponds to the disk you’ll be installing Ubuntu onto. Then, press Enter:

16. Next, we’ll confirm our changes. Press Tab to highlight Yes, and press Enter:

18. Next, we’ll be asked if we want to enable automatic updates. This is optional, and you may want to select No automatic updates for now. If you desire a more secure system, it’s probably a good idea to enable automatic updates, but the choice is yours:

19. On the next screen, we’ll have a selection for some useful package sets. Here, we can install the required packages for setting up a DNS server, LAMP server, and so on. The one option I definitely recommend you enable is OpenSSH server. This is, of course, optional. However, most administrators use SSH to configure their servers. Choose Continue to move on:

20. Next, we’ll choose whether or not to install GRUB on the master boot record. You should definitely say yes to this. Press Tab key to highlight Yes, and then press Enter to move on:

21. We did it! That concludes all of the steps. On the final screen, we’ll press Enter to end the installation process and reboot the server: