Welcome to our guide on how to install FreeIPA Server on Ubuntu 20.04|18.04|16.04 Linux system. FreeIPA is a free and open source identity management system for centrally managing users and computers in your network. In this article, we’ll cover both the installation and configuration of FreeIPA Server on Ubuntu 20.04|18.04|16.04 Linux.
There are few pre-requisites to the installation of FreeIPA Server on Ubuntu 20.04|18.04|16.04 Linux server.
Setup Pre-requisites
Before you can install FreeIPA server, ensure that the following minimum requirements are met;
- A fully-qualified domain name – e.g ipa.computingforgeeks.com.
- The hostname must be resolvable. If you don’t a DNS server, you can define your hostname in the hosts file.
- 4GB of RAM
- 10GB disk space
- 2 vCPUs
If you’re on Ubuntu 20.04 use Run FreeIPA Server in Docker / Podman Containers
Install FreeIPA Server on Ubuntu 20.04|18.04|16.04
Well, before we start the installation of FreeIPA Server on Ubuntu 20.04|18.04|16.04, let’s do a little bit of in-house preparation.
For Ubuntu 20.04 users we recommend you run FreeIPA Server in Docker or Podman as covered in the guide below:
Step 1: Set Proper hostname and FQDN
Set proper hostname for your server
$ hostname -f
ipaThis doesn’t look good. Let us make it fully qualified.
sudo hostnamectl set-hostname ipa.example.comConfirm your new hostname.
$ hostname -f
ipa.example.comAdd your FQDN in the /etc/hosts file to make it resolvable from anywhere:
$ sudo vim /etc/hosts
192.168.58.121 ipa.example.com ipaStep 2: Update your Ubuntu server
Ensure your system us updated.
sudo apt -y update
sudo apt -y upgradeIt is always recommended to do a reboot after the server is upgraded.
sudo rebootStep 3: Install rng-tools
FreeIPA server performs a lot of cryptographic operations while running and thus your VM must have enough entropy to ensure FreeIPA cryptographic operations doesn’t stall. To achieve high entropy, install and configure rng-tools.