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DevOps devops linux 6 min read

Installing Ubuntu

Before you can practice DevOps, you need a Linux machine to practice on. Ubuntu is the most popular choice for servers, so it is the best place to start. This page walks you through getting Ubuntu — both the easy way (a cloud server you rent by the hour) and the traditional way (installing it yourself onto a machine). By the end you will have a running Ubuntu system you can log into and start using.

Choose your Ubuntu release: always pick LTS

Ubuntu publishes two kinds of releases. A regular release comes out every six months and is supported for only nine months. An LTS release — short for Long Term Support — comes out every two years and is supported with security updates for five years (or up to twelve years with an extended subscription). The version number is just the year and month it was released, so 24.04 LTS means “released April 2024.”

Always use an LTS release on servers. Regular (non-LTS) releases stop getting security patches after nine months, which means an unpatched server you forgot about becomes an easy target. For learning DevOps, Ubuntu 24.04 LTS is the right choice in 2026.

When to use which:

ReleaseReleasedSupported untilWhen to use
24.04 LTSApr 2024Apr 2029 (free)Default for servers and learning — use this
22.04 LTSApr 2022Apr 2027 (free)Existing systems already on it
Non-LTS (e.g. 25.10)every 6 months9 monthsOnly for testing brand-new features

Server vs Desktop

Ubuntu ships in two flavours. Ubuntu Server has no graphical desktop — you control it entirely through the terminal (a text-based window where you type commands). Ubuntu Desktop includes a full point-and-click graphical interface like Windows or macOS.

For DevOps you want Server. Real servers in the cloud have no screen or mouse, so learning to do everything from the command line is the whole skill. Desktop is fine only if this is your everyday laptop and you also want to dabble.

The easiest path: a cloud VPS

A VPS (Virtual Private Server) is a small Linux server you rent from a hosting company. It runs in their data centre, and you connect to it over the internet using SSH (Secure Shell — an encrypted way to log into a remote machine’s terminal). This is by far the easiest way to practice DevOps because there is nothing to install: you click a button, wait a minute, and Ubuntu is ready.

When to use this: almost always, when you are learning. It costs only a few dollars a month, it mirrors how real production servers work, and you cannot break your own laptop. Providers like DigitalOcean, Hetzner, Linode, AWS Lightsail, and Vultr all offer Ubuntu 24.04 LTS in a dropdown.

The steps are the same everywhere:

  1. Create an account with a VPS provider.
  2. Click “Create server” (sometimes called a Droplet, Instance, or VM).
  3. Choose Ubuntu 24.04 (LTS) x64 as the operating system.
  4. Pick the smallest plan (1 CPU, 1 GB RAM is plenty for learning).
  5. Add your SSH key if you have one (more secure), or set a root password.
  6. Click create, then copy the server’s public IP address.

Once it is running, connect from your own terminal:

ssh [email protected]

Output:

Welcome to Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS (GNU/Linux 6.8.0-41-generic x86_64)

  System information as of Mon Jun 15 10:22:04 UTC 2026

  System load:  0.0   Processes:       96
  Usage of /:   3.1%  Users logged in: 0
  Memory usage: 22%   IPv4 address:    203.0.113.10

root@ubuntu-server:~#

You are now inside Ubuntu. That last line is the shell prompt, waiting for you to type commands.

Installing Ubuntu Server yourself

If you want Ubuntu on a physical machine (an old laptop, a spare PC) or inside a virtual machine on your own computer, you install it from an image file.

Step 1 — Download the ISO

An ISO is a single file containing the entire installer. Download the Ubuntu Server LTS ISO from the official site, ubuntu.com/download/server. The file is named like ubuntu-24.04.1-live-server-amd64.iso (amd64 means a standard 64-bit Intel or AMD chip; choose arm64 for Apple Silicon or Raspberry Pi).

Always download from ubuntu.com directly and verify the checksum before installing. A tampered ISO from a random mirror can hide malware. The download page lists a SHA256 hash — compare it against your file:

sha256sum ubuntu-24.04.1-live-server-amd64.iso

Output:

e5d...c91  ubuntu-24.04.1-live-server-amd64.iso

The string before the filename must match the one published on the download page.

Step 2 — Create bootable media (for a physical machine)

To install onto a real computer you write the ISO to a USB stick. The free tool balenaEtcher works on Windows, macOS, and Linux: open it, pick the ISO, pick the USB drive, and click Flash. On Linux you can also do it from the terminal (replace /dev/sdX with your USB device — check carefully with lsblk first, as this erases the drive):

sudo dd if=ubuntu-24.04.1-live-server-amd64.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=4M status=progress && sync

Then plug the USB into the target machine and boot from it (usually by pressing F12, F2, or Del at startup to open the boot menu).

Step 3 — Run the installer

The Ubuntu Server installer is text-based; you move with the arrow keys and Enter. It walks you through:

  1. Language and keyboard — pick yours.
  2. Network — it usually auto-detects via DHCP; leave it as is.
  3. Storage — choose “Use an entire disk” for the simplest setup.
  4. Profile — set your name, a server name, a username, and a password.
  5. SSH — tick “Install OpenSSH server” so you can log in remotely afterwards.
  6. Snaps — skip the optional extra software for now.

The install takes a few minutes. When it finishes, remove the USB and reboot. Log in with the username and password you just created.

First login: update everything

The very first thing to do on any new Ubuntu system is install the latest security patches with apt (Ubuntu’s package manager — the tool that installs and updates software):

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

Output:

Hit:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble InRelease
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
The following packages will be upgraded:
  base-files libc6 openssl tzdata
4 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove.
...

sudo means “run this as the administrator,” and apt update refreshes the list of available packages while apt upgrade actually installs the newer versions.

Best Practices

  • Always choose the latest LTS release (24.04 in 2026) for anything you will keep running.
  • For learning, prefer a cheap cloud VPS over a local install — it matches real production and costs little.
  • Pick Ubuntu Server, not Desktop, so you learn the command line that real servers require.
  • Verify the SHA256 checksum of any ISO before writing it to a USB.
  • Run sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade immediately after the first login.
  • Use SSH keys instead of passwords when your provider offers them — they are far harder to brute-force.
  • Give your server a clear hostname so you can tell machines apart later.
Last updated June 15, 2026
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