• before installing Ubuntu, power on the workstation, enter the BIOS setting, and update the boot setting. CD/DVD-ROM should be listed as the 1st choice, following by the hard drive for Ubuntu installation

• Use the latest long-term support (LTS) version
• Install the system on the smaller/faster SSD; use the larger/slower HDD for '/backup' and/or '/scratch'

• Install the OpenSSH server
  • The OpenSSH client is installed by default (so you can ssh into other computers). The OpenSSH server is required for connection into this machine (e.g., auto backup from the lab server). Use sudo apt-get install openssh-server to install.
• SSH security
  • Once the OpenSSH server is installed, it is important to increase the security
  • see more info here: SSH security
  • Minimally, update the /etc/hosts.deny and /etc/hosts.allow files to allow only the IPs that should have access
  • Install Fail2ban: sudo apt-get install fail2ban

• The system administrator requires the HWaddr of the Network Interface Controller (NIC) to add the new machine to the DHCP server.
• In Terminal, type “ifconfig” to get the HWaddr of eth0 (format = XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX). Write down this string and send it to the administrator.
• After the DHCP server setting has been updated, restart the computer to obtain the correct intranet IP.
• Note: this only has to be done once (no need for re-installation unless the Network Interface Controller has been changed)

• official drivers of nvidia graphic card (gnu) is required for better performance.
• check nvidia graphic card information

$ lspci -vnn | grep -i VGA -A 12

• nvidia: find driver version
• Take Quadro 600 for example, the driver version is 340.65

Remove old version

• For example, remove version 331

$ sudo apt-get remove nvidia-331 && sudo apt-get autoremove

Install driver

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:xorg-edgers/ppa -y
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install nvidia-340

Change nvidia settings

• nvidia-xconfig
• nvidia-settings

$ sudo apt-get install icedtea-7-plugin openjdk-7-jre

Optional

$ sudo apt-get install openjdk-7-jdk

For Oracle Java

Java 7
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/java
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install oracle-java7-installer
Java 8
$ sudo apt-get install oracle-java8-installer

Check version

$ java -version

Check installed java

$ update-java-alternatives -l

Switch between Oracle Java 8 and Java 7

$ sudo update-java-alternatives -s java-7-oracle
$ sudo update-java-alternatives -s java-8-oracle

To mount a disk manually

# Find path to disk
$ sudo fdisk -l
   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb2   *      501758   976771071   488134657    5  Extended
/dev/sdb5          501760   976771071   488134656   8e  Linux LVM
$ sudo mkdir -p /backup
$ sudo mount /dev/sdb5 /backup/
# check disk info
$ df -h

if necessary, format the new disk

$ mkfs -t ext4 /dev/device_name

To mount a disk automatically during start-up, find the UUID using blkid and add the disk to /etc/fstab

$ blkid -s UUID
/dev/sda1: UUID="2cf0b317-a030-4cb4-a78a-4f4893ac16d1" 
/dev/sdb1: UUID="f5d3494d-2d43-485f-97e8-2f9b1b967d90" 
/dev/sdb2: UUID="ce1496b4-bb74-4861-b2bb-ef8e6405a905" 
$ cat /etc/fstab
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
# / was on /dev/sdb2 during installation
UUID=ce1496b4-bb74-4861-b2bb-ef8e6405a905 /               ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1
# /backup was on /dev/sda1 during installation
UUID=2cf0b317-a030-4cb4-a78a-4f4893ac16d1 /backup         ext4    defaults        0       2
# swap was on /dev/sdb1 during installation
UUID=f5d3494d-2d43-485f-97e8-2f9b1b967d90 none            swap    sw              0       0