1 00:00:00,510 --> 00:00:01,440 In this lesson, 2 00:00:01,440 --> 00:00:03,510 we're going to lay out the basic system requirements 3 00:00:03,510 --> 00:00:04,680 that you might need to meet 4 00:00:04,680 --> 00:00:07,290 in order to install Linux on a given system. 5 00:00:07,290 --> 00:00:09,960 In many cases, the Linux systems you're going to work with 6 00:00:09,960 --> 00:00:12,390 are already going to be installed and built for you. 7 00:00:12,390 --> 00:00:14,550 But sometimes, you're going to need to build a system 8 00:00:14,550 --> 00:00:17,130 from scratch like you're going to do in this course. 9 00:00:17,130 --> 00:00:19,620 In those cases, you must be able to install Linux 10 00:00:19,620 --> 00:00:21,990 in a way that meets your organization's business needs 11 00:00:21,990 --> 00:00:23,460 whatever those may be. 12 00:00:23,460 --> 00:00:25,620 It could be for a public facing web server 13 00:00:25,620 --> 00:00:28,290 that's going to receive tens of thousands of page views a day. 14 00:00:28,290 --> 00:00:29,820 A desktop Linux implementation 15 00:00:29,820 --> 00:00:31,800 for the graphic designer in your workplace. 16 00:00:31,800 --> 00:00:33,930 Or you're going to have something that somebody's going to use 17 00:00:33,930 --> 00:00:36,960 for testing webpages or a system used for testing software 18 00:00:36,960 --> 00:00:39,840 before it's deployed throughout the entire organization. 19 00:00:39,840 --> 00:00:41,700 Whatever that goal is, it's important 20 00:00:41,700 --> 00:00:43,620 for you to learn the appropriate information 21 00:00:43,620 --> 00:00:45,900 to guide you during the installation process, 22 00:00:45,900 --> 00:00:47,700 to meet those requirements. 23 00:00:47,700 --> 00:00:49,740 It's important for you to think of system requirements 24 00:00:49,740 --> 00:00:51,630 as more than just what hardware components 25 00:00:51,630 --> 00:00:54,390 are necessary to get a system up and running. 26 00:00:54,390 --> 00:00:56,520 These hardware requirements will also specify 27 00:00:56,520 --> 00:00:59,340 what is necessary to keep that system operational 28 00:00:59,340 --> 00:01:02,250 and able to perform its assigned function over time. 29 00:01:02,250 --> 00:01:04,319 So, you may be able to install Linux 30 00:01:04,319 --> 00:01:06,570 on a computer with minimal system requirements 31 00:01:06,570 --> 00:01:08,880 but that doesn't mean it's going to perform optimally 32 00:01:08,880 --> 00:01:10,470 over the long term. 33 00:01:10,470 --> 00:01:12,270 The system requirements for a Linux system 34 00:01:12,270 --> 00:01:13,350 are going to vary greatly 35 00:01:13,350 --> 00:01:15,540 based upon a number of different factors 36 00:01:15,540 --> 00:01:18,810 including which Linux distribution you're going to be using. 37 00:01:18,810 --> 00:01:19,890 This is important to remember 38 00:01:19,890 --> 00:01:21,420 because different distributions 39 00:01:21,420 --> 00:01:24,060 have different recommendations and baseline requirements 40 00:01:24,060 --> 00:01:27,420 for things like hardware, CPU speed, RAM, 41 00:01:27,420 --> 00:01:29,400 storage space and more. 42 00:01:29,400 --> 00:01:32,040 Additionally, hardware compatibility can be an issue 43 00:01:32,040 --> 00:01:34,290 depending on which distribution you're going to choose, 44 00:01:34,290 --> 00:01:36,450 as well as the general category of the system 45 00:01:36,450 --> 00:01:37,710 that you're going to be building. 46 00:01:37,710 --> 00:01:39,660 Because different systems need to be built 47 00:01:39,660 --> 00:01:43,080 with different components to meet your operational needs. 48 00:01:43,080 --> 00:01:44,490 Finally, you have to consider 49 00:01:44,490 --> 00:01:46,740 what the intended function of that system is 50 00:01:46,740 --> 00:01:48,720 because if you have a more demanding application, 51 00:01:48,720 --> 00:01:51,210 like serving 100,000 page views per day, 52 00:01:51,210 --> 00:01:53,400 that's going to need more resources than something 53 00:01:53,400 --> 00:01:55,800 that's only going to serve 10 page views per day. 54 00:01:55,800 --> 00:01:57,570 And therefore, you need to make sure 55 00:01:57,570 --> 00:01:59,610 that you're running adequate networking infrastructure, 56 00:01:59,610 --> 00:02:03,660 enough storage space, enough processing to meet those needs. 57 00:02:03,660 --> 00:02:05,610 All of this is important and you have to prioritize 58 00:02:05,610 --> 00:02:08,250 these resources based on what your costs are 59 00:02:08,250 --> 00:02:09,960 and what your needs are to be able to reach 60 00:02:09,960 --> 00:02:12,600 that optimal system performance at the same time 61 00:02:12,600 --> 00:02:15,180 that balances both of these competing priorities. 62 00:02:15,180 --> 00:02:18,000 Now, prior to the installation process, you must be careful 63 00:02:18,000 --> 00:02:20,340 to plan the appropriate partitioning strategy 64 00:02:20,340 --> 00:02:21,840 for your hard drive. 65 00:02:21,840 --> 00:02:23,790 Servers are going to have different storage needs 66 00:02:23,790 --> 00:02:25,350 than individual workstations. 67 00:02:25,350 --> 00:02:27,300 So, you have to take that into account. 68 00:02:27,300 --> 00:02:29,340 If the partition where the root of the file system 69 00:02:29,340 --> 00:02:30,750 is going to be mounted fills up, 70 00:02:30,750 --> 00:02:33,450 that system can simply crash on you. 71 00:02:33,450 --> 00:02:35,340 User home directories and log files 72 00:02:35,340 --> 00:02:37,761 are both examples of directories that can unexpectedly 73 00:02:37,761 --> 00:02:40,830 increase in size very rapidly when a system 74 00:02:40,830 --> 00:02:42,930 is being used by your end users. 75 00:02:42,930 --> 00:02:45,000 So, if you isolate these directories 76 00:02:45,000 --> 00:02:46,380 to their own partitions, 77 00:02:46,380 --> 00:02:48,900 you can prevent a server crash in the long haul 78 00:02:48,900 --> 00:02:50,370 by making sure you have enough space 79 00:02:50,370 --> 00:02:53,220 for those dedicated things on that partition. 80 00:02:53,220 --> 00:02:55,470 Linux usually uses a dedicated partition 81 00:02:55,470 --> 00:02:58,740 for virtual memory storage as well called the swap space. 82 00:02:58,740 --> 00:03:00,960 It's important to plan for that swap partition 83 00:03:00,960 --> 00:03:03,300 at the same time as you're planning for your data storage 84 00:03:03,300 --> 00:03:05,730 of your partitions for the home, the users 85 00:03:05,730 --> 00:03:07,830 and other areas of the hard drive. 86 00:03:07,830 --> 00:03:09,270 A good general guideline 87 00:03:09,270 --> 00:03:11,130 is that the size of the swap partition 88 00:03:11,130 --> 00:03:13,140 should be two times the quantity of RAM. 89 00:03:13,140 --> 00:03:14,700 Though, this number is going to vary. 90 00:03:14,700 --> 00:03:17,370 So, if you have a server that has 16 gigabytes of RAM, 91 00:03:17,370 --> 00:03:20,640 your swap partition should be about 32 gigabytes. 92 00:03:20,640 --> 00:03:22,050 Now, before you install Linux, 93 00:03:22,050 --> 00:03:23,790 you're going to need to prepare the file system 94 00:03:23,790 --> 00:03:25,740 for storing the Linux software. 95 00:03:25,740 --> 00:03:27,750 You have to have at least one file system, 96 00:03:27,750 --> 00:03:29,700 which is known as the root file system, 97 00:03:29,700 --> 00:03:31,800 and that is at least one partition. 98 00:03:31,800 --> 00:03:35,400 But you can have a lot more partitions too, if you want to. 99 00:03:35,400 --> 00:03:38,430 Now, some new Linux users like to store all their files 100 00:03:38,430 --> 00:03:40,950 on the root file system because that way they only have 101 00:03:40,950 --> 00:03:43,830 one partition and one file system to deal with. 102 00:03:43,830 --> 00:03:46,590 Personally, though, I like to create multiple file systems 103 00:03:46,590 --> 00:03:48,150 for my Linux systems. 104 00:03:48,150 --> 00:03:50,160 This way, I can have a single partition 105 00:03:50,160 --> 00:03:52,170 as the /route file system 106 00:03:52,170 --> 00:03:54,720 and I can have another partition as the /home 107 00:03:54,720 --> 00:03:56,760 to isolate all of my home user directories 108 00:03:56,760 --> 00:03:58,410 from the rest of the storage space. 109 00:03:58,410 --> 00:04:00,900 I might have another partition for /VaR 110 00:04:00,900 --> 00:04:03,930 to put all my log files there in that storage space. 111 00:04:03,930 --> 00:04:06,330 I might have another one dedicated to the swap space. 112 00:04:06,330 --> 00:04:08,370 And I might have another one that's dedicated 113 00:04:08,370 --> 00:04:11,550 to all of the binaries that I'm going to have on that system. 114 00:04:11,550 --> 00:04:14,160 By being able to allocate more than one file system 115 00:04:14,160 --> 00:04:16,680 in partitions to each of these different functions, 116 00:04:16,680 --> 00:04:18,750 even if one file system gets damaged, 117 00:04:18,750 --> 00:04:20,160 the others will be unharmed 118 00:04:20,160 --> 00:04:22,890 and I can get back up and running a lot quicker. 119 00:04:22,890 --> 00:04:24,750 However, if you store all of your files 120 00:04:24,750 --> 00:04:27,270 on the root file system under one partition, 121 00:04:27,270 --> 00:04:29,160 and that file system becomes damaged, 122 00:04:29,160 --> 00:04:31,920 you're going to lose all of your files in one fell swoop. 123 00:04:31,920 --> 00:04:34,800 And so, this is a good reason for partitioning out things 124 00:04:34,800 --> 00:04:37,860 into multiple file systems and multiple partitions. 125 00:04:37,860 --> 00:04:39,562 You also want to make sure you're always backing up 126 00:04:39,562 --> 00:04:42,840 all of your file systems and partitions on a regular basis 127 00:04:42,840 --> 00:04:44,730 to ensure they're always backed up and protected 128 00:04:44,730 --> 00:04:46,950 in case you need to restore from them. 129 00:04:46,950 --> 00:04:48,270 Now, the first thing you should do 130 00:04:48,270 --> 00:04:50,460 before you purchase any hardware component 131 00:04:50,460 --> 00:04:52,470 is to check whether or not it is compatible 132 00:04:52,470 --> 00:04:54,360 with the relevant Linux distribution 133 00:04:54,360 --> 00:04:57,870 because not all hardware will work on every Linux system. 134 00:04:57,870 --> 00:04:59,760 Some distros will maintain what's known 135 00:04:59,760 --> 00:05:02,700 as a hardware compatibility list or HCL 136 00:05:02,700 --> 00:05:04,110 that'll help you with figuring out 137 00:05:04,110 --> 00:05:06,030 what hardware is compatible. 138 00:05:06,030 --> 00:05:09,360 An HCL is simply a database that stores all the vendors 139 00:05:09,360 --> 00:05:11,340 and models of all the hardware devices 140 00:05:11,340 --> 00:05:13,950 that distro supports with some capability. 141 00:05:13,950 --> 00:05:16,830 Each distribution can maintain its own HCL 142 00:05:16,830 --> 00:05:19,590 which is usually going to be published online at their website. 143 00:05:19,590 --> 00:05:21,120 So, before you install Linux, 144 00:05:21,120 --> 00:05:22,980 you should always gather your hardware information 145 00:05:22,980 --> 00:05:26,190 about your system and check it against the HCL. 146 00:05:26,190 --> 00:05:28,110 Much of that information is going to be available 147 00:05:28,110 --> 00:05:29,640 in your system documentation 148 00:05:29,640 --> 00:05:32,220 or online in your current operating system 149 00:05:32,220 --> 00:05:35,580 such as under the My Computer tab inside of Windows. 150 00:05:35,580 --> 00:05:37,020 This way you can gather information 151 00:05:37,020 --> 00:05:38,820 about all your current pieces of hardware 152 00:05:38,820 --> 00:05:40,410 and verify they're going to work in Linux 153 00:05:40,410 --> 00:05:42,090 before you install it. 154 00:05:42,090 --> 00:05:44,160 Also, remember there may be lots of questions 155 00:05:44,160 --> 00:05:45,390 that you feel you should address 156 00:05:45,390 --> 00:05:47,640 before purchasing a hardware component. 157 00:05:47,640 --> 00:05:50,040 For example, if you look at a storage drive, 158 00:05:50,040 --> 00:05:52,410 you need to check how many devices can be installed 159 00:05:52,410 --> 00:05:53,940 in that particular system. 160 00:05:53,940 --> 00:05:56,340 What technology the interface controller uses? 161 00:05:56,340 --> 00:05:58,230 Is it IDE? Is it SATA? 162 00:05:58,230 --> 00:05:59,280 Is it USB? 163 00:05:59,280 --> 00:06:00,600 What are you going to use? 164 00:06:00,600 --> 00:06:01,433 As you might know, 165 00:06:01,433 --> 00:06:03,630 all the different hardware components are going to interact 166 00:06:03,630 --> 00:06:06,510 in your computer and be controlled by the operating system. 167 00:06:06,510 --> 00:06:08,130 So, we need to make sure that Linux 168 00:06:08,130 --> 00:06:10,650 can read and write to each of these devices. 169 00:06:10,650 --> 00:06:14,070 Also, you want to check your CPU or central processing unit 170 00:06:14,070 --> 00:06:15,660 and make sure that it's going to work 171 00:06:15,660 --> 00:06:17,730 for your particular Linux distribution. 172 00:06:17,730 --> 00:06:20,610 Some distributions rely on an ARM processor set. 173 00:06:20,610 --> 00:06:24,480 Others rely on an X86 or X64 processor set. 174 00:06:24,480 --> 00:06:26,640 Depending on which one you have in your system, 175 00:06:26,640 --> 00:06:28,650 you're going to have to download the right version of Linux 176 00:06:28,650 --> 00:06:30,030 that can support it. 177 00:06:30,030 --> 00:06:32,280 In addition to that, you want to make sure the processor 178 00:06:32,280 --> 00:06:34,620 has a supportable clock rate and cache size 179 00:06:34,620 --> 00:06:36,990 and supports hyper threading for best support 180 00:06:36,990 --> 00:06:39,240 inside of most Linux distributions. 181 00:06:39,240 --> 00:06:41,100 When it comes to memory, you also need to think 182 00:06:41,100 --> 00:06:43,440 about how much memory is installed in a system. 183 00:06:43,440 --> 00:06:46,470 If you only have eight gigs of memory or two gigs of memory, 184 00:06:46,470 --> 00:06:47,700 that might be very limiting 185 00:06:47,700 --> 00:06:49,800 depending on which distribution you're going to pick. 186 00:06:49,800 --> 00:06:51,870 If you have 16 or 32 gigs, 187 00:06:51,870 --> 00:06:54,300 you could probably install any Linux distribution you want 188 00:06:54,300 --> 00:06:56,850 because you'll have plenty of memory to support it. 189 00:06:56,850 --> 00:06:58,530 When you're dealing with a network card. 190 00:06:58,530 --> 00:07:00,960 This is one of the areas I see a lot of problems with 191 00:07:00,960 --> 00:07:03,900 inside of people trying to use a machine for Linux. 192 00:07:03,900 --> 00:07:05,610 This is because a lot of network cards 193 00:07:05,610 --> 00:07:08,310 rely on the Windows operating system drivers to function. 194 00:07:08,310 --> 00:07:10,380 And these network cards are not going to be supported 195 00:07:10,380 --> 00:07:13,230 inside of Linux for some cases. 196 00:07:13,230 --> 00:07:14,760 So, you always want to check 197 00:07:14,760 --> 00:07:16,500 against the hardware compatibility list 198 00:07:16,500 --> 00:07:18,000 for your specific network card, 199 00:07:18,000 --> 00:07:20,370 especially WiFi-based network cards 200 00:07:20,370 --> 00:07:23,430 to ensure it's going to work inside of that Linux distribution 201 00:07:23,430 --> 00:07:24,750 that you're going to use. 202 00:07:24,750 --> 00:07:26,370 When it comes to input devices, 203 00:07:26,370 --> 00:07:28,170 things like your mouse and keyboard. 204 00:07:28,170 --> 00:07:30,540 Most of the time, they're going to be well supported 205 00:07:30,540 --> 00:07:33,480 because it is using a hot pluggable USB interface. 206 00:07:33,480 --> 00:07:36,090 But it is important to know what kind of keyboard you have 207 00:07:36,090 --> 00:07:38,670 so you can select that when installing inside of Linux 208 00:07:38,670 --> 00:07:41,700 and be able to support whether it's a US or a UK keyboard 209 00:07:41,700 --> 00:07:43,320 or something else. 210 00:07:43,320 --> 00:07:45,120 Also, when it comes to monitors, 211 00:07:45,120 --> 00:07:46,500 you want to make sure that your monitor 212 00:07:46,500 --> 00:07:47,880 has the right refresh range 213 00:07:47,880 --> 00:07:50,070 and the maximal supported pixel resolution 214 00:07:50,070 --> 00:07:52,020 for your particular Linux system. 215 00:07:52,020 --> 00:07:53,070 If you don't have a driver 216 00:07:53,070 --> 00:07:55,170 that's going to be supported for that monitor, 217 00:07:55,170 --> 00:07:57,000 you can have a much lower resolution 218 00:07:57,000 --> 00:07:58,890 and it'll be hard to use that system. 219 00:07:58,890 --> 00:08:01,380 Finally, when it comes to your display adapter, 220 00:08:01,380 --> 00:08:04,230 you need to determine are you using an integrated chip set 221 00:08:04,230 --> 00:08:06,300 or a discrete video card? 222 00:08:06,300 --> 00:08:07,500 Depending on which one it is, 223 00:08:07,500 --> 00:08:10,080 you need to make sure you find the right graphical drivers 224 00:08:10,080 --> 00:08:12,180 to be able to run that inside of Linux. 225 00:08:12,180 --> 00:08:14,550 If you don't, you may be limited to only using 226 00:08:14,550 --> 00:08:17,400 the integrated CPU and not the discrete video card 227 00:08:17,400 --> 00:08:19,980 which is going to give you a lot worse performance. 228 00:08:19,980 --> 00:08:22,470 Now, when it comes time to install the operating system, 229 00:08:22,470 --> 00:08:23,460 you're going to have to boot into 230 00:08:23,460 --> 00:08:25,260 a special installation environment 231 00:08:25,260 --> 00:08:26,910 and then select the options you want 232 00:08:26,910 --> 00:08:29,370 and copy all the files to the hard drive. 233 00:08:29,370 --> 00:08:31,680 This is going to be done using different boot methods 234 00:08:31,680 --> 00:08:34,470 depending on how you're going to install this operating system. 235 00:08:34,470 --> 00:08:35,309 For example, 236 00:08:35,309 --> 00:08:37,679 you can boot from a removable installation media 237 00:08:37,679 --> 00:08:41,159 like a DVD, CD or USB thumb drive. 238 00:08:41,159 --> 00:08:43,200 This will require you to burn the installation files 239 00:08:43,200 --> 00:08:46,350 onto a DVD, or copy them over to a USB drive 240 00:08:46,350 --> 00:08:47,610 and make it bootable. 241 00:08:47,610 --> 00:08:49,830 Another method of booting up might be to install it 242 00:08:49,830 --> 00:08:52,350 from a local drive where you download an ISO 243 00:08:52,350 --> 00:08:54,510 and this is especially popular if you're using 244 00:08:54,510 --> 00:08:56,310 a virtual machine environment. 245 00:08:56,310 --> 00:08:58,710 That's actually what we're going to do in this course. 246 00:08:58,710 --> 00:09:01,140 We're going to download an ISO of CentOS 247 00:09:01,140 --> 00:09:04,680 and install it into VirtualBox as a virtual machine. 248 00:09:04,680 --> 00:09:06,960 Another way you can do this is you can actually boot up 249 00:09:06,960 --> 00:09:08,820 from media over the network. 250 00:09:08,820 --> 00:09:10,710 This is known as PXE. 251 00:09:10,710 --> 00:09:12,660 And this requires you to have a file server 252 00:09:12,660 --> 00:09:13,740 that's on the network. 253 00:09:13,740 --> 00:09:15,210 And when you boot up that machine, 254 00:09:15,210 --> 00:09:16,770 it's going to grab the installation files 255 00:09:16,770 --> 00:09:17,940 from that file server 256 00:09:17,940 --> 00:09:20,460 and then install it to the local workstation. 257 00:09:20,460 --> 00:09:22,110 When you prepare to install Linux, 258 00:09:22,110 --> 00:09:23,820 you need to consider these different factors 259 00:09:23,820 --> 00:09:26,040 that go into identifying the system requirements. 260 00:09:26,040 --> 00:09:27,990 Things like the cost, the system role 261 00:09:27,990 --> 00:09:30,330 and the Linux distribution you plan to install. 262 00:09:30,330 --> 00:09:32,430 As well as considering your partition strategies 263 00:09:32,430 --> 00:09:34,230 based on the role of the Linux system 264 00:09:34,230 --> 00:09:37,320 and verifying that all your hardware is going to be supported 265 00:09:37,320 --> 00:09:39,750 because it's on the hardware compatibility list. 266 00:09:39,750 --> 00:09:41,790 By doing this, you're going to be able to prevent 267 00:09:41,790 --> 00:09:44,130 a lot of issues for yourself down the road 268 00:09:44,130 --> 00:09:45,810 and minimize a lot of the troubleshooting 269 00:09:45,810 --> 00:09:47,010 you may come across. 270 00:09:47,010 --> 00:09:48,420 So, always make sure you're prepared 271 00:09:48,420 --> 00:09:51,120 for your installation first and get all your ducks in a row 272 00:09:51,120 --> 00:09:53,720 because it'll make things go a lot smoother for you.