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Install the Debian Linux Operating System
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Prerequisites
- A new virtual machine has been created or a physical machine is ready for fresh operating system installation
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Download
Go to the Installing Debian via the Internet page.
Under the section labeled Small CDs or USB sticks, click the architecture your server uses. If you're not sure, it's probably amd64.
The ISO image will start downloading. Make a note of where this ISO image is stored on your computer.
The next steps will depend on whether you are installing the operating system to physical hardware or to a virtual machine. Please choose the tab below that corresponds to your installation.
If you're setting up a physical machine, you'll need to follow the steps in this section to create a bootable flash drive with the ISO loaded.
Go to rufus.ie.
Under the Download section, click Rufus 3.22 (the version number might be different, depending on when you are reading this).
Once the download completes, run the installer and follow its instructions to install Rufus.
Plug a USB flash drive into your machine.
The contents of this flash drive will be erased in the next few steps. Make a copy if you don't want to lose anything.
Click Start and look for Rufus. Click it to launch Rufus.
Under Device, select the flash drive you want to use.
Under Boot selection, click SELECT.
Navigate to where the ISO image you downloaded earlier is stored. Click to highlight it, then click Open.
Click START.
Once Rufus is finished creating the installation media, remove the flash drive from your workstation.
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Boot Up the Server
Make sure your server machine is powered off.
Plug the flash drive into the server.
Press the power button to boot it up.
Access the boot menu. You may need to press a specific key on the keyboard. Watch your screen for instructions. If you miss it, you can restart the machine and try again. The goal is to get to the boot menu and boot from the inserted USB drive that has the Debian installation ISO loaded.
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Attaching the ISO
If you're setting up a virtual machine, you'll need to follow the steps in this section to attach the ISO image you downloaded earlier as an optical disk.
Open Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager.
Look for the list of virtual machines on the left. Click to highlight the virtual machine to which you want to install the operating system.
Click the Settings button.
Click Storage from the pane on the left.
Under Storage Devices, click to highlight Controller: SATA
Click the Adds optical drive. button 
. It
is next to the text "Controller: SATA".
The Optical Disk Selector window appears. Click the Add button.
Navigate to where the ISO image you downloaded earlier is stored. Click to highlight it, then click Open.
Click Choose.
Click OK.
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Boot Up the Virtual Machine
Click the Start button in Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager. Shortly, a window will appear containing your virtual machine.
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Install the Operating System
Once the Debian installater is booted, you will see a screen with some installation options.
Make sure Graphical install is selected and press Enter. If you don't make a selection within a few seconds, Graphical install will be automatically chosen.
Choose your language and click Continue.
Choose your location and click Continue.
Choose the keymap your keyboard uses and click Continue.
Under Hostname, enter a descriptive hostname. Example: "myserver".
If you're using a virtual machine, making the virtual machine's name in VirtualBox and the hostname here match is a good idea.
Click Continue.
Under Domain name, enter the domain name for this machine. Make sure it matches other machines on your network. If you don't have any other machines on the network configured for a specific domain, you can choose any domain name here. Example: "localdomain".
Click Continue.
Under Root password, choose and enter a strong, unique password for the root user.
Under Re-enter password to verify, enter the same password again.
Do not forget this password. You may want to record it in some password management software.
Click Continue.
Under Full name for the new user, enter your name. First and last name is good enough. It's just something to identify you on the system.
Click Continue.
Under Username for your account, enter the username you want to log in with. Your first name, all-lowercase is a good option. Another option is your first initial and your last name, all-lowercase.
Click Continue.
Under Choose a password for the new user, enter a strong, unique password that you will log in with.
Under Re-enter password to verify, enter the same password again.
Do not forget this password. You may want to record it in some password management software.
Click Continue.
Under Select your time zone, click to highlight the timezone in use where the server is located.
Click Continue.
Under Partitioning method, click to highlight Guided - use entire disk and set up LVM.
Click Continue.
Under Select disk to partition, make sure the correct hard disk is selected. There may only be one option. The size should match the actual hard drive in the machine (or whatever size you entered for the Disk Size when creating the virtual machine.)
Click Continue.
Under Partitioning scheme, leave All files in one partition (recommended for new users) selected.
Click Continue.
Under Write the changes to disks and configure LVM?, choose Yes.
Click Continue.
Under Amount of volume group to use for guided partitioning, leave the default ("max") entered.
Click Continue.
If you see a message about "UEFI" and the installer asks you if you want to Force UEFI installation?, choose Yes and click Continue.
Under Write the changes to disks?, choose Yes.
Click Continue.
Under Scan extra installation media?, leave No selected.
Click Continue.
Under Debian archive mirror country, choose your country or the closest country to you.
Click Continue.
Under Debian archive mirror, leave the default selected.
Click Continue.
Leave the textbox for HTTP proxy information blank and click Continue.
Under Participate in the package usage survey?, leave No selected and click Continue.
Under Choose softare to install, uncheck everything and then check SSH server and standard system utilities.
Click Continue.
After a few moments, a message will appear stating that the installation is complete. Click Continue.
The machine will reboot and the login screen will appear.
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Set up sudo
Logging in and doing things as the root user is not recommended. Instead, you
should log in and do things with your user account, and only do things as root
when necessary using sudo. We have to install and configure sudo first.
Log in as root with the password you chose during installation.
Install sudo.
apt install -y sudoAdd your user account to the sudo group.
usermod -aG sudo [your username]Make sure to replace [your username] with the username you chose during
installation. All members of the sudo group can execute commands as root
when necessary using sudo.
You are now ready to use your new server.
Next, you will probably want to configure port forwarding so you can enable remote connections to the server.