Build an Ubuntu virtual server

Oftentimes I find myself creating server-based virtual appliances, that is virtual machines with a server-oriented operating system as the guest OS. Most of the time I have a good reason -or at least a reasonable excuse- for doing so. For example, I may want a flexible testbed to learn about and/or experiment with a technology which is new to me, like I’ve done in the past with Linux’s logical volume manager and Oracle’s ZFS filesystem. Or maybe I just want to try out a new network service before I actually use it within my home network. Whatever the case may be, I end up installing either Ubuntu Server or FreeBSD.

This post serves as a short but comprehensive guide to all those who haven’t considered Ubuntu Server for their needs yet, but would like to try it out without much hustle.