Debian GNU/Linux 3.1 (a.k.a. sarge) was released on 6th of June, 2005. The new release includes a bunch of major changes to it's predecesor Debian GNU/Linux 3.0 (a.k.a. woody). You can check out the press release, review the release notes, or simply click yourself off to the Debian website to read more about it.
Now, while an official installation manual exists, and Google will help you find thousands of people who may be able to answer more technical questions, this page (or pages - depending on how much I end up caring about the documentation) will record my installation experience on my soon to be main server for the house. It's mainly for my future reference, but you may find it useful too! I have based the instructions on the experience after booting to a CD burnt with the debian-31r0a-i386-netinst.iso file.

This section is a little unnecessary as the Debian 3.1 install is actually pretty good at finding everything, but - for the sake of completeness - my hardware configuration for this server is as follows:

1.0 Choose Language
    English

2.0 Choose Region
    New Zealand

3.0 Choose Keymap
    American English

4.0 Detection Phase

5.0 Configure the Network
    5.1 Enter Hostname
        [Enter a name for your machine]
    5.2 Domain Name
        [Selected Default]

6.0 Partition Disks
    I have 3 Disks in this system:
        40GB Maxtor (6E040L0)
        120 GB Western Digital (WD1200BB-00DW)
        200GB Seagate (ST3200822A)

    Since there is nothing I want on the box I'm happy to have the install wipe out everything.
    6.1 Partitioning Method
        6.1.1 Erase entire disk: IDE1 Master (hda)
        6.1.2 All files in one partition
        This created 2 partitions,
            #1    primary    39.5GB    ext3    /
            #5    logical      1.6GB     swap   swap
        I don't plan to setup the other 2 disks yet as I want to span them into a very large drive which I can add more space to later - that will take a bit of learning I imagine so for now we just:
    6.2 Finish partitioning and write changes to disk
        Answer yes to confirm writing the partition tables.

7.0 Write partitions / Installing Debian base system

8.0 Install GRUB boot loader
    8.1 Install GRUB as default boot loader

9.0 Completing Installation
    9.1 Remove the CD from the drive

10.0 Debian Configuration

11.0 Time Zone Configuration
    11.1 Clock is NOT set to GMT
    11.2 Pacific/Auckland
    11.3 Root password
    11.4 Users Full Name
    11.5 Username
    11.6 User Password
        English

12.0 APT configuration
    12.1 Chose edit by hand
        Enter the sources as listed further down in this section - some may not resolve at this point so commenting them out with a # at the start of the line will allow you to continue through the installation.

13.0 Software Selection

Note: I would not choose to install applications during the initial setup as, until this guide is complete and I can understand everything which is happenning, I want to be able to install all the packages I need via the apt-get method. To do this, it pays to use local sources where it makes sense see below for my sources list which can be copy/pasted into /etc/apt/sources.list

    13.1 Unpacks a bunch of files

    13.2 Configuring Exim v4 (exim4-config)
        13.2.1 Local delivery only; not on a network
        13.2.2 Plan to configure things later to grab mail from various POP sources and deliver locally to allow for spam/virus blocking at the network level.
        13.2.3 Root & postmaster mail recipient
            13.2.3.1 [default user]
    13.3 Debian configuration complete
        13.5.1 Note that we can run this again via base-config program.
            13.5.1.1 OK
    13.4 Tries to start X & fails
        13.6.1 Disables X Server until X can be configured correctly
    13.5 Login Prompt

That's it - the system is setup, now obviously there is some tidy up to do - but at least the system is running. Now, while we still have a local keyboard and monitor plugged in, we need to set the system to use a static IP address so we can find it later once it's running headless (without a local keyboard/mouse/display).

You may find it easier to finish off via a SSH connection, first off we need to know the IP address that DHCP has assigned to this machine.
ifconfig
You are interested in the value of inet addr: for the eth0 card as this is the IP for the machine (and you'll need to use it to connect your SSH client remotely.
inet addr:10.1.1.xxx

Once you're remotely connected, you can carry on to the next step, or go it alone and install any packages you so desire. The only package I needed at this point was vim, a text editor.

1. As the root/su user, do an apt-get update and an apt-get upgrade first, to ensure you have the latest packages and package list.
2. Use the command apt-get install vim to install the vim text editor
3. Edit your /etc/apt/sources.list to restore the lines we commented out during the installation.
   vim /etc/apt/sources.list
   Your file should look something like this:

   
   ----------------------------------------------------------------------
   deb ftp://ftp.jetstreamgames.co.nz/debian stable main
   deb ftp://debian.ihug.co.nz/debian/ stable main
   deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian stable main contrib non-free
   # The non-US source listed below is not loving me at the moment - I need to find
   # another non-US apt source.
   #deb http://non-us.debian.org/debian-non-US stable/non-US main contrib non-free
   
   deb http://security.debian.org stable/updates main contrib non-free
   ----------------------------------------------------------------------

4. Do another apt-get update to test your sources and ensure you have the latest package lists.
5. Once all your sources are working, do a apt-get upgrade to update your system with the latest packages

To set a static IP address, you will need to edit the /etc/network/interfaces file:

vim /etc/network/interfaces

Change the line:
iface eth0 inet dhcp
to:
iface eth0 inet static
    address [a valid IP address] (e.g. 10.1.1.xxx)
    netmask [your netmask] (e.g. 255.255.255.xxx)
    network [your network] (e.g. 10.1.1.0)
    broadcast [your network] (e.g. 10.1.1.0)
    gateway [your gateway] (e.g. 10.1.1.xxx)
and save/exit the file (<esc> :wq <enter>)

To apply this configuration type:
/etc/init.d/networking restart or reboot the system with shutdown -r now

So, the theroy is like this: I have a couple of largish hard drives (okay, as large as I could afford - and had lying around) and had previously spanned these within Windows XP to store a buttload of files and stuff. Since this server we're building is going to be up all (most?) of the the time, it goes to reason that the large disk should sit here rather than on a windows box which goes up and down like a whitehouse intern.
On with the section...

1. Start with unpartitioned disks
2. Install LVM packages
   apt-get install lvm-common lvm2
3. Initialize the disk(s) (or partition(s)) for use by LVM
   pvcreate /dev/[device name]
   e.g. pvcreate -ff /dev/hdc
   e.g. pvcreate -ff /dev/hdd
   The -ff option forces an initialisation
4. Create a Volume Group
   vgcreate [volume group name] [device to include] [device to include]
   e.g. vgcreate volume_group /dev/hdc /dev/hdd
5. Create a Logical Volume
   lvcreate -l [the size] [your volume group]
   e.g. lvcreate -l 76313 volume_group
   To determine [the size] you can run the command vgdisplay [volume group name] and take the 'Total PE' value (or fraction of). See below for an example of this on my system.
6. Make the File System
   mkfs -t ext3 /dev/[your_volume_group]/[your_volume_name]
   eg mkfs -t ext3 /dev/volume_group/LargeDiskVolume
7. Mount the Drive
   mount /dev/[Volume Group Name]/[Logical Volume Name] /mnt
   eg mount /dev/volume_group/LargeDiskVolume /mnt
8. Check the Mount
   df
   

   Filesystem	1K-blocks	Used	Available	Use%	Mounted on
   /dev/hda1	xxxxxx	xxxxxx	xxxxxx	xx%	/
   tmpfs	xxxxxx	xxxxxx	xxxxxx	xx%	/dev/shm
   /dev/mapper/large_disk_volume-LargeDiskVolume	307673208	32828	292011480	1%	/mnt

9. Set the mount to load at boot
   vim /etc/fstab
   Add the line:
   /dev/disk_span/lvol0 /mnt       ext3    defaults        0       0
   Save the file
   Test with mount -a

Right - the mount appears, it's all done! The next step is to install Samba and create a share that windows machines can see and write to.

Displaying the Volume Group Information
vgdisplay volume_group

Displaying the Logical Volume Information
lvdisplay

If you're following through this in the order that it's written, it'd probably a good time to take a snapshot of your raw system before we go installing anything (clever) which might cause problems further down the track. This is a good idea as it give you a clean build of your system after all the initial setup has completed - and saves the setup bandwidth should you need to start again :)

I've chosen dd as the tool to create the backup as it's reletivly well documented so googling will pretty much sort out most issues you're likely to run into (very important when you're talking about your digital assets!). The dd command will do a bit for bit backup of a Hard Disk. I'm using this to give myself an image that I can always come back to as I try changing and installing new 'stuff' on my system (given my tendency to haphazardly experiment as I go).

1. Create a directory to store the backup
   mkdir /[device to store the backup on]/[backup directory name]
   e.g. mkdir /mnt/backup
2. Copy the HDD to an image file
   dd if=/dev/[hard drive name] of=/mnt/[backup directory name]/[backup name].iso bs=65535
   e.g. # dd if=/dev/hda of=/mnt/backup/mydisk.iso bs=65535
   BE ROOT FOR THIS! Actually I don't know for sure, but it stands to reason that if you don't have the access of root, then you won't be able to back up files owned by root.
3. Be patient. THIS WILL TAKE QUITE AWHILE (You are after all copying an entire disk) when it completes, you will see something similar to the following (just with numbers not xxxs ;) )
   
   xxxxxx+1 records in
   xxxxxx+1 records out
   xxxxxxxxxxx bytes transferred in xxx.xxxxxxx seconds (xxxxxxxx bytes/sec)
    
4. Compress the Image
   If you have a large amount of free space on the disk you were copying, compressing it will shrink it's size.
   gzip /[device to store the backup on]/[backup directory name]/[backup name].iso
   e.g. gzip =/mnt/backup/mydisk.iso
   Again, this will take a fair while to complete so I'd recommend taking the dd and the gzip command lines and pasting them to the command line together so your system runs them one after the other - you could of course automate this with a script and run it via cron too. As an indication, I was able to turn my 41,110,142,976 byte .iso into a 32,757,683,474 byte .gz file - that's about a 20% space saving!

1. From some kind of command line (you could use a Knoppix CD or similar CD based distro) you need to run:
   dd if=/[device the backup is stored on]/[backup directory name]/[backup name].iso of=/dev/hda bs=65535
   e.g. dd if=/mnt/restore/mydisk.iso of=/dev/hda bs=65535
2. Reboot
   shutdown -r now
   Note - I haven't tried a restore at the time of writing this, so I'd recommend testing your backup before you need it.

So, by this point you should have a machine setup on your network and you may even have a spanned disk with a heap of space which you can make avalible to your other network machines.
I'm going to use Samba to create the shared drive and control its access so that my Windows machines can also make use of the space.

1. Install the Samba packages
   apt-get install samba smbfs smbclient
   How do you want to run Samba: [daemons]
   Create samba password database, /var/lib/samba/passdb.tdb? [Yes]
2. Add a Linux user for linking to the Samba share
   adduser
   Enter a username to add: [Share Username]
   Adding user `[Share Username]'...
   Adding new group `[Share Username]' (1001).
   Adding new user `[Share Username]' (1001) with group `[Share Username]'.
   Creating home directory `/home/[Share Username]'.
   Copying files from `/etc/skel'
   Enter new UNIX password:
   Retype new UNIX password:
   passwd: password updated successfully
   Changing the user information for [Share Username]
   Enter the new value, or press ENTER for the default
   Full Name []: [Share Username]
   Room Number []:
   Work Phone []:
   Home Phone []:
   Other []:
   Is the information correct? [y/N] [y]
3. Add users to the Samba server
   smbpasswd -a [Share Username]
   New SMB password:
   Retype new SMB password:
   Added user [Share Username]
4. Create a directory to share
   I'm assuming that your LVM is already mounted, if not check the LVM section for the correct syntax
   mkdir /mnt/[Share Directory Name]
   e.g. mkdir /mnt/MediaStore
5. Allow others to reand and write to the directory
   chmod 777 /mnt/[Share Directory Name]
   e.g. chmod 777 /mnt/MediaStore

At this point, you need to decide if you're GUI or CLI, for me a Graphical User Interface is quicker and suits my impatient nature quite nicely, others may wish to do all their config from the Command Line Interface - either choice is fine, but for the sake of swift sharing, and given that this server will sit on the inside of my network, I've chosen to use a package called SWAT (Samba Web Administration Tool) to help me setup my Samba shares

1. Install the SWAT package
   apt-get install swat
   As the package configures, you will recieve a warning that your smb.conf file is about to get overwritten. Choose [Ok]
2. Enable SWAT by allowing the service
   vim /etc/inetd.conf
   Find and uncomment the line:
   #<off># swat            stream  tcp     nowait.400      root    /usr/sbin/tcpd  /usr/sbin/swat
   The line should now read:
   swat            stream  tcp     nowait.400      root    /usr/sbin/tcpd  /usr/sbin/swat
   Save the file
3. Enable SWAT by allowing the port
   vim /etc/services
   Add the line:
   swat 901/tcp
   Save the file
4. Reboot the server (or figure out how to reload the affected configuration files - and let me know)
   To REBOOT use shutdown -r now
   To RELOAD without a full reboot, use /etc/init.d/inetd reload (thanks for the tip Brent)

Right, now you should be able to point a browser on your LAN to http://[Server Hostname or IP Address]:901/
You should be presented with an authentication dialogue (which you'll need to use your root credentials for - don't worry, you can setup other users once you're in)

1. Click the shares link
2. Create a Share by entering your [Sharename] and clicking the 'Create Share' button
3. In the 'Base Options' section, enter the path that you created above '/mnt/[Share Directory Name]'
4. In the 'Security Options' section, add the users you want to have access to the relevant list (valid users, read list, write list) e.g. I will have a user who can read and write from my windows machines, but the media devices which also connect to this share will be write only.
   In the 'hosts allow' line, you may want to add you whole network with 10.1.1.0/255.255.255.0 or just specific IP addresses
5. Click 'Commit Changes' when done setting options

Reference:There is a pretty good article over on Linux Questions on SAMBA, click here to view

This section covers a number of aspects of monitoring which I feel are necessary, but then - I do have a soft spot for numbers and graphs!

This is a great tool used to graph pretty much anything, seriously! One of the features I like the best about it is how the databases it creates never get any bigger than they are when you create them.
I've decided to store all my databases in /var/lib/rrd/ since a number of others out there seem to use this location and it just makes using other peoples scripts a lot easier.

1. Install the RRDTool package
   apt-get update && apt-get install rrdtool

Read the documentation on the web for how it all works - it's explained better there than I can do in this guide.

SmartMon tools is a package which allows you to interrogate your SMART enabled hard drives for problems. There is a pretty good article over at the Linux Journal here which details the what's and how's of the package.

To monitor the hard drive(s) on this system I followed these steps:

1. Edit /etc/apt/sources.list to add the location of the SmartMon tools package
   vim /etc/apt/sources.list
2. Add the lines:
   # Location of SmartMon Monitoring Package
   deb http://honk.physik.uni-konstanz.de/~agx/linux-i386/debian smartmontools/
3. Update your sources and install the package
   apt-get update && apt-get install smartmontools
4. smartd was disabled and to enable I needed to edit /etc/default/smartmontools
   vim /etc/default/smartmontools
5. Uncomment the smartd line
6. Start smartd
   smartd
7. Check your disks
   /usr/sbin/smartctl -a [disk name]
   e.g. /usr/sbin/smartctlsmartctl -a /dev/had
   I got output which looks like this:

smartctl version 5.32 Copyright (C) 2002-4 Bruce Allen
Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/