Getting a fully fledged presence on the internet has never been easier or cheaper. I chose Linode as a provider of a virtual machine for this purpose. Ubuntu is probably the most popular and user friendly flavour of Linux. These two work together very well.

In this part, we will create an account on Linode, and roll out a bare bones virtual machine.

Get a Linode:

First up, go to www.linode.com and find the “sign up” button. You’ll go through the normal credit card details and sign-on credentials. Buy the size package you like, the Linode 512 package is a good start. You may chose to add the backup package as well later on. Once you’re done, you should be at the Linode Manager, and there will be an IP address just for you and your new machine. Make a note of the IP address.

Get a Domain Name:

You will probably want to obtain a domain name to use on the internet. One way is to go to www.dyndns.com and create an account. With a free account you can have a couple of host names, but better yet sign up for DynDNS Pro for $15 per year and you won’t have to worry about it again. Once you have an account (free or pro) – “Add a Hostname”. Pick a name you like, and assign the IP address you noted earlier. Then accept that and you’re done there.

Edit your DNS Settings:

Back over at the Linode Manager, you should see an option “DNS Manager” – click it. Then click “Add a Domain Zone”. Enter the new domain name you claimed at DynDNS into the “Domain” field. Enter a reasonable email address for you into the “SOA Email”. Select “Insert a few records…” and your IP address from the drop down. Click “Add Master Zone”. You should see a bunch of reasonable looking DNS settings, including a www.YourDomainName and mail.YourDomainName.

Rolling Out The Linode:

At the Linode Manager, select the “Linodes” link. There should be a linode name against your linode. Click on the “Settings” tab and enter a nice name in the Linode Label field, then click on “Save Changes”. Click back on the “DashBoard” link, and then on the “Deploy A Linux Distribution”. Select your distribution, I’d reccommend 10.4 LTS as you won’t need to worry about major updates for a few years.

Now the question of Disk Size. I like to have a separate “storage” partition for all my files, away from the operating system, just in case they grow too big, or I need to rebuild. Also if you need to get files from a backup you need room to extract the backed up volume. If you agree with me, enter a smaller size like 10240 MB, otherwise go with the default maximum size. You’ll need a swap drive, but it’s already there. Enter your “root” password, and make sure you make a note of it – very important. Press “Deploy”. After a little while, you’ll see the job queue settle.

Adding the “Storage” volume: (optional extra)

On the Linode Dashboard, click on “Create a new disc image”. Give it a good name, like “storage”, set the type to “ext3″ and give it a reasonable size, like 2048 MB. Click “Save Changes” and you’ll see on the job queue it being created. Click on “edit” beside the “My Ubuntu …. profile” to add the storage. You’ll see a section called “Block Device Assignment”. See the third device – /dev/xvdc – select from the drop down your storage partition and click “Save Changes”.

End of Optional storage section.

Press the “Boot” button and watch as your Linode boots up.

Job done – you have a domain name and a virtual machine – it’s running and connected to the Internet!